JOURNAL 2006 - 2013
narrative writing & arts
COMING SUMMER 2013
LOVE AS MYTH
The Montefeltro altarpiece also known as Virgin with child, saints, angels and Federigo II da Montefeltro [detail of Christ child wearing coral beads], Piero della Francesca, 1465. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. The coral beads have two purposes in this painting, functional and symbolic. Renaissance infants sometimes used coral beads for teething. In the visual vocabulary of the Renaissance painter, they were also a symbol of resurrection and rebirth.
In Eat Pray Love, Gilbert divides her book into 109 chapters. This division mirrors the number of beads in a japa mala. The japa mala is a garland of beads (108 mala beads + 1 guru bead) used in Buddhist and Hindu meditation practice.
Among modern memoirs Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s recounting of her one year odyssey for self-knowledge, is a cultural phenomenon. It is also a book which I did not finish the first time I picked it up, choosing to abandon Gilbert somewhere in Indonesia. The movie of the same name and starring Julia Roberts followed to wildly lukewarm reviews. I didn’t go to see it. I probably never will. However, about two years later, I happened to watch a TED talk by Gilbert. With humor, charm and easy grace, she explored the nature of creativity and the onus of having hit the metaphorical ball out of the metaphorical memoir park when she penned Eat Pray Love. She even provided her construct for overcoming the “maddening capriciousness of the creative process”. Quite simply, she urged us to place a premium on the discipline of daily work and to welcome the brief fleeting moments of sublime inspiration. After that talk, I circled back around to Eat Pray Love and this time the humanized Gilbert and I made it all the way through Indonesia and every one of her 109 japa mala chapters.
My journey with Gilbert, however, was not over.
Shortly thereafter, Eat Pray Love was the monthly selection of my book club. It is a
diverse group, my book club, representing different cultures, different backgrounds, different life stages. Once a month we gather, bridged by good food, good wine and good literature. After dinner, we began discussing the book. One of the members remarked that she would dearly love to go to an ashram for three months as Gilbert did. But how, she wondered, could she do something like that with small children at home? It was out of the question.
Was it out of the question? Some group members came up with alternatives. One offered to take our ashram-longing member to a Buddhist retreat in upstate New York for a weekend of meditation. Another suggested that every member of the group help with the children while our ashram-longing member went on a three month retreat in India. Still another observed that he thought that women belonged at home with the children and not on an ashram without the children."What if going to the ashram would make her a better mother?" This question came from a group member seated next to me.
I don't think she was heard over the competing voices. It's too bad. It was a valid way to view the longing of our friend because it considered the value of both her inner life and her outerworld and how they are so intimately linked. How our ashram-longing member should choose is hers alone to discover but I believe the unacknowledged question was the one that might provide an authentic answer. It identifies a possibility for women’s lives that is still unimaginable in many parts of the world. It is also the kind of desire which drove Gilbert to leave her marriage and embark on a pilgrimage across Italy, India, and Indonesia.
The fiercer critics of Eat Pray Love condemn the work for the inherent privilege which
underlies its premise, the privilege which enables Gilbert to spend a year in three different countries on the path to enlightenment, a journey out of the reach of most readers no matter how much they might be willing to sacrifice to make it happen. More moderate critics, such as Jennifer Eagan of The New York Times, note that Gilbert has chosen to omit any thoughtful exploration of her story’s darker aspects, her depression and suicidality. For myself, it was Gilbert’s predictable path toward romance as resolution which prompted my initial departure around prayer bead 90.I cannot recall ever returning to a book which I found too unsatisfactory to complete on the first read. However, Gilbert’s appealing humanity in her TED talk persuaded me to look again and I am glad that I did. She writes as she speaks, with wit and grace. Even her critics allow for that. It is true that this work is not the kind of frank piece of literary introspection one might expect from Mary Karr or Joan Didion. By choosing not to explore the darker aspects of her journey, Gilbert tells a different kind of tale and one, I believe, which contributes to a larger understanding of feminine narrative.
Conventional storytelling structure, the classic monomyth which focuses on male
individuation and conquest, identifies women as trophies, the ultimate reward of the hero. Our culture reflects the biases of that narrative paradigm. In Eat Pray Love Gilbert confronts three of the relational dilemmas that western women, perhaps the majority of the world’s women, face. These are relationship with body, relationship to the spirit, and relationship to one’s own power or agency. Each is the focus of a different country; Italy with Gilbert’s embrace of the pleasure of food, India with her search for a more immediate connection to the divine, Indonesia with her growing sense of her own agency as she joins a community, falls in love, and affects change.This reclaiming of body, soul and life is the thread which runs through this decidedly
feminine memoir. It is how Eat Pray Love links the internal and external landscape of one woman and, by doing so, tells a story of feminine transformation from the inside out. By choosing to bypass her darker psychological struggles, Gilbert has created more of a true tale than a true account, but profoundly true it is nonetheless.
SPRING 2013
A SONG OF HOPE
(above) The dance of Miriam from The Golden Haggadah, artist unknown. ca 14th century. The British Library, London. This panel is an interpretation of Exodus 15:20. (below) The madonna and child, Filippo Lippi. 1446. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Inscribed on original wood frame: AVE GRATIA PLENA DOMINVS TECVM; [Translation] Hail Mary full of grace our lord is with thee.
I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.
An excerpt from "The song of Miriam", Miriam (384-22 BC), poet, prophet, Exodus 15My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
... He hath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
An excerpt from "The song of Mary", Luke 1
SPRING 2013
THE BIRTH OF HOPE
(above) Spring, Odilon Redon. c. 1914. Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, MA. In Greek mythology, Hope was the daimon Elpis. Traditional depictions show her as a young girl holding flowers. (left) Pandora, Odilon Redon. 1912. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Pandora, meaning all-gifted, was the first woman. According to the Greek myth, she is the punishment that Zeus devised for the theft of fire by Prometheus. When the gods and goddesses formed her, Pandora received various gifts: beauty, healing, charm, cunning, boldness and creativity. To this mix Zeus added mischievousness and a deep curiosity. He then presented her to the mortal ruler Epimetheus, with a beautiful golden box as her dowry. The golden box held dangerous contents, unknown to Pandora and Epimetheus.
Prometheus warned Epimetheus about Zeus's plan for revenge, about Pandora, about the dangerous golden box. It was to no avail. When Epimetheus saw Pandora he fell in love with her and married her despite the warning.
After they married, Epimetheus told Pandora to never open the golden box. Eventually she could not contain her curiosity. She opened the box and when she did, everything changed. Up to that day, humanity had lived in a paradise free from worry and affliction but when Pandora lifted the lid, the daimones of disease, despair and suffering flooded out into the world. Realizing what she had done, Pandora quickly lowered the lid but it was too late.
Some time afterward Pandora's curiosity sent her back to the golden box. One more daimon remained inside. It was Elpis, the daimon of hope, and when Pandora lifted the lid for the final time, hope came into the world to help comfort humanity through its suffering.
SPRING 2013
THE COLOR OF HOPE
(from top) A portrait of Violette Heymann, 1910. Cleveland Museum of Art; Photograph of Odilon Redon, ca. early twentieth century; Portrait of Ari Redon with a sailor collar, 1897. Musee d'Orsay, Paris; An underwater vision, 1910. Private collection.
I forsake the black more and more. Between us, it exhausted me a lot.
Odilon Redon (1840-1916) in a letter to Emile Bernard (1895)Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was one of the outstanding artists of the Symbolism movement. Symbolism was a multi-disciplinary arts movement, most active in the late nineteenth century, which rejected naturalism and realism in favor of spirituality, the imagination and dreams.
Odilon Redon was the second son of a successful French businessman who lived in the United States. His mother, also of French descent, was from New Orleans. Because he was a sickly child (possibly with epilepsy), his parents sent him to live with a caretaker on the family estate in Peyrelebade. His childhood was spent apart from his parents and, as a result, in his later life he struggled with issues of parental abandonment.
From an early age, Redon showed a facility for drawing and began formal training in 1855. His father directed him away from the pursuit of art and into the study of architecture. However, when Redon failed his examinations, any chance of a career in architecture ended. He then returned to his art, studying sculpture, etching and lithography.
The canon of his work presents in two distinctly different forms. The first half, until roughly the mid-1890's, is comprised of charcoals and lithographs. These pieces explored unusual and often grotesque subjects, including floating eyes, decapitated heads and shackled angels. Since Redon was an intensely private man, his work remained relatively unknown until the publishing of J. K. Huysmans's novel À rebours (Against Nature) in 1884. The book's decadent hero collected Redon drawings and this mention brought considerable the artist recognition and attention.
From 1886-1895, events in Redon's life laid the groundwork for the transformation of both the artist and his art. He and Camille Falte, his wife, had their first child, Jean, in May 1886. When Jean died the following November, the acutely sensitive and artistic Redon entered a prolonged period of depression and spiritual crisis. His melancholy further deepened during a serious illness in the mid-1890's.
His artwork during this ten year period provides an intimate window into his healing, as he moves from macabre-themed charcoal sketches to mythological and floral works bathed in luminous color. His previously morose view of life, anchored in some way perhaps to his solitary childhood, transformed into a more joyful one and this happier maturity translated on to the canvas. Some art historians credit the birth of his second son Ari in 1889 as being an important factor in Redon's eventual recovery.
SYMBOLISM ART MOVEMENT
It is by art that the moral and thinking life of humanity can be felt again and recovered.
Odilon Redon (1840-1916), French symbolist painterThe work of both Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) was particularly influential to the development of Symbolism. During this period, they provided ground-breaking insights into the interpretation of imaginative, symbolic and dream material. Freud believed that repressed aggression and sexuality are at the root of human behavior. In his clinical practice, he explored dream material for insights into these unconscious drives and their effect on human behavior. He noted that some patients repeatedly relived past traumas in their dreams. According to Freud, over the course of repetitive dreaming, the dreamer often added details about the nature of the original injury. The function of this process was to help the patient obtain mastery over the traumatic event.
Jung, a protege of Freud, disputed his mentor's premise of aggression and sexuality as the sole motivating forces behind human behavior. His areas of research included not only dream material, but art, mythology, religion and philosophy. His major professional contributions are the Jungian archetypes and the concepts of synchronicity and the collective unconscious.
SPRING 2013
PRAYING FOR RAIN
Travelers surprised by sudden rain. Hiroshige. 19th Century. If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud.
(With thanks for the kitchen wisdom of Mary Engelbreit.)A rather odd way to begin writing a reflection on peaches and the process of rebirth. But they are both a very messy business. And that (along with a related childhood story) seems likes a good place to start.
Though Georgia is the self-proclaimed "peach state" I heard once that they actually grow more peaches in South Carolina. That feels right to me because when I was a little girl that is where we always went to buy them. During the summer months (usually starting in June) we would pile into my mother's blue and white Plymouth station wagon, cross over the Talmadge Bridge and head in the general direction of Hardeeville, South Carolina. That's where they had roadside stands which sold fresh fruits and vegetables, fruits and vegetables so fresh, in fact, that they had been picked that very morning. Yellow corn with silk tasseled tips, vine ripened tomatoes, pole beans, yellow squash, swollen snake-skinned watermelons. And, of course, peaches, fuzzy skinned and honey ripe.
During the ride home, over potholed back roads, with summer swelter blowing in through open car windows, we silently ate peaches. My brother and sister and I ate peaches while peach nectar ran down our chins, and through our fingers, and on to our bare sunburned legs. We ate peaches down to the peach stone. Afterward we sucked on the pit to get the last bit of flesh and then licked our fingers and hands, now sticky sweet with the memory of a summer peach.
Surely that is what J. Alfred Prufrock had in mind when he queried, Do I dare to eat a peach? He wondered, surely, whether he was willing to dare the kind of fat, sweet, dangerous encounter with a peach one has while riding with the windows down in the back of a Plymouth station wagon. That -- or something rather like that.
And something rather like that might be found in the mythology surrounding Hsi Wang Mu, ruler of the western paradise and keeper of the Peaches of Immortality.
The jade palace of Hsi Wang Mu is on the peaks of the snowy mountain range of K'un-lun and is the home of the Immortals. Every six thousand years Hsi Wang Mu has a birthday celebration which is called P’an-t’ao Hui, ‘the Feast of Peaches.’ The date for the festival exactly coincides with the ripening of the immortal peaches.
According to Taoist myth, the peach orchards of Hsi Wang Mu leaf out once every three thousand years but it is only after an additional three thousand years that the trees bear a season of fruit. The banquet to celebrate this event takes place on the shores of the Yao Ch’ih (Lake of Gems) and is attended by all of the Immortals. The feast includes such delicacies as dragon liver and phoenix marrow. However, the highlight of the banquet is the, rarest of rare, Immortal Peach, which has the magical property of bestowing immortality on all who taste it.
Two stories with two peaches. The first peach linked to South Carolina summers and station wagons and the pleasures of a roadside fruit. The second linked to a jade palace and a Chinese goddess and the gift of immortality. But is there any connection between the two? Yes, it has to do with our mortality. And when the stories are viewed through that mythic lens, a somewhat larger question emerges -- which is -- how do I bridge the gap (inside myself) between mortal living and immortal Life?
Dare to eat a peach.
With midlife comes the specter of our own mortality. And the more palpable presence of Death can bring chaos, disruption, depression, withdrawal, or any other number of psychological demons. However, our mortality is, in fact, a gift -- because it is only by awakening to our own mortality that we create the possibility of receiving the gift of our immortality.
But what does that mean exactly? It is about crafting a life which lies somewhere between the back seat of a Plymouth station wagon and the shores of the Lake of Gems. And what lies in between is -- who you are, the essence of who you really are, your particular spark of the divine fire. Not what you have always been told you are or who you ought to be. But who you really are and the life that expresses that divine spark.
The challenge is what happens on the way to the Lake of Gems. So even though you are proceeding toward immortal life, there will be obstacles, setbacks, self-doubt, suffering. That would be why I began this entry with, If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud. To which I might add, If you pray for rain, you just might get a category 5 hurricane. Now consider the question again.
Do I dare to eat a peach? Or to put it another way, Do I dare to Live?
Over the years I have watched many times the PBS series, The Power of Myth. The program is a six hour documentary which features conversations between Joseph Campbell, noted mythological scholar, and television journalist Bill Moyers. Taped in 1988 shortly before Campbell's death, The Power of Myth explores the transformative potential of myth for the individual and the society as a whole.
Last night as I struggled with writer's block on how to finish this piece, I turned again to Campbell and Moyers. When I placed the DVD into the player it continued where I had apparently left the program from the last time. And with that section, I now conclude.
Moyers: What is the adventure that I have to take, you have to take? You talk of something called a soul's high adventure.
Campbell: My general formula for my students is "follow your bliss." Find where it is and don't be afraid to follow it.
Moyers: Can my bliss be my life's love or my life's work? Is it my work or my life?
Campbell: Well, if the work you are doing is the work you chose to do because you enjoy it, then that's it. But if you think, "Oh, gee, I couldn't do that." That's your dragon, locking you in.
Moyers: Unlike the classical heroes, we're not going on the journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
Campbell: And in doing that you save the world. I mean you do. The influence of a vital person vitalizes. There's no doubt about it. The world is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting it around and changing the rules and so forth. No. Any world is a living world if it is alive. And the thing is to bring it to life. And the way to bring it to life is to find where it is in your own life and be alive yourself.
Moyers: You say I have to take that journey and slay those dragons. Do I have to go alone?
Campbell: If you have someone who can help you, that's fine, too. But ultimately the last trick has to be done by you.
SPRING 2013
MYTHOLOGY OF WATER
The Great Wave, from the woodcut series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, Hokusai, 1829-32.
SPRING 2013
NOAH AND THE GREAT FLOOD
The Egerton Genesis, The debarking from the ark, 1350. British Library, London.
SPRING 2013
MANU AND THE GREAT FLOOD
Scene from a Matsya Purana: Manu with Seven Rishis in a boat tied by Vasuki to Vishnu; Indra and Brahma show deference to Vishnu as Matsya avatara. Mewar, circa 1840.
One of the king's ministers was a man named Manu. While Manu was washing in a river, a little fish swam into his hands and asked him to save his life. Manu rescued the fish by placing it in a jar but the fish grew too large for the jar. Manu moved the fish to a tank but the tank was soon too small as well. Manu then moved the fish to a river and when that was not large enough, he moved the fish to the ocean.
This fish, which Manu saved so many times was actually an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu. Vishnu warned Manu of a great deluge which would soon cover the earth. So Manu build a large boat and took his family and the seeds of life on board. When the flood waters came, the divine fish towed the boat to a mountaintop and there it rested until the flood waters receded.
SPRING 2013
THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE WELL
SPRING 2013
WATER RITUALS
(above) The baptism of Christ, Piero della Francesca. 1440-50. National Gallery, London. (left) a view from the chapel of Saint Ansgar, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine (New York City), into the adjacent baptistry.
SPRING 2013
RIVERS OF LIFE
The Liffey River, meaning river of life, Dublin. 2012.
Benares (No. 1), a view of the Ganges, Charles W. Bartlett, 1927. Honolulu Museum of Art.
WINTER 2013
A LIVING FAITH
Pentecost (the descent of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire). Giotto di Bondone. 1310-18. The National Gallery. London.
It is required you do awake your faith.
Act V scene iii, The Winter's Tale (1610-11), William ShakespeareOn a Friday in March I read two things in the news.
The first report was on a study on the power of intercessory prayer to heal. The study, soon to be released by the American Heart Journal, was done with cardiac patients who were undergoing bypass surgery. Christian volunteers from three different groups were recruited to pray on behalf of some of the participants. It was the largest study of its kind to date and according to the review, it was also the most meticulous to date, attempting to address the flaws in previous studies.
The bottom line? Prayer made no statistical difference. In fact, cardiac patients who knew others were praying for them experienced more complications post-operatively.
The second was an article in Time on the state of the environment. The cover of the magazine read: Be worried. Be VERY worried. The article was on climate change and global warming. It addressed the tipping point for environmental collapse and noted that once set in motion the change is not necessarily gradual, as we expected. That we actually seem to be seeing a feedback loop rather than a gradual decline, destruction that is fueling further destruction, an accelerating reordering of the environmental system.
The bottom line? Left unchecked we could begin seeing widespread disease, species extinction, environmental collapse. To some extent, the process has already been set in motion and the ground that we have lost may not be regained. Well, not for millennia.
Personally I have wondered more and more about the power of prayer in recent years. The idea that prayer might not affect a change in the world seemed possible. But to live in a world of unheard prayer is a very scary notion. Consequently, early Saturday morning found me rebuking my god for not taking better care of things.
Are You even listening to us? Is this what You want? Tell me what to do. Just tell me -- what kind of world do You want?
I don't think I expected a response. But then a voice asked,
What kind of world do you want?What kind of world do you want? It sounds more like a challenge than a question. A kind of un-answer to prayer for it returns to me the responsibility for change. It presents the possibility that faith, or a relationship with the divine, is not meant to be passive and fixed but evolving and active. In other words, faith is not a noun; faith is a verb.
Environmental damage, war, violence, human suffering. Can one person really make a difference in a world facing such enormous challenges? Quite simply, yes. I believe so. However, it requires that we not only dream about change, talk about change, pray about change. It requires that we become agents of the change we seek. It requires that we awake our faith.
WINTER 2013
THE WINTER'S TALE
The nature preserve in Inwood Hill Park, New York, New York. Winter 2013.
To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.
Act IV scene iv, The Winter's Tale (1610-11), William ShakespeareWhen William Shakespeare authored The Winter's Tale he was close to completing one of the most significant artistic canons in the English language. Having addressed the dramatic forms of comedy and tragedy in his early and middle years, he then developed an approach in four of his last plays (Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, Pericles and The Tempest) that has alternately been called romance or tragicomedy. All four plays share certain characteristics and themes. In each play Shakespeare has included magical or mythological elements. In each story he explores the contrast between the world of court and the world of nature. Each story moves from tragedy to comedy, from sin and loss to redemption and reunion. Finally, Shakespeare uses the father-daughter relationship to explore these themes.
As Shakespeare aged, his work changed and matured as well. His later works, according to some scholars, represent a Shakespeare who continues to explore new artistic possibilities which are shaped and colored by his age and life experience. It has even been suggested that the last works are the most profound of the entire canon with themes that fall within the parameters of alterswerk. Alterswerk, literally latter works, refers to the final output of an artist just prior to their death. The three characteristics of alterswerk (interest in death, recapitulation, and prophetic visions) not only occur toward the end of an oeuvre but they also accompany the final psychological stages of life.
WINTER 2013
A LIVING CATHEDRAL
(from top to bottom) a contemporary exterior view of the cathedral with Peace Fountain (sculpture by Greg Wyatt, 1985) in the foreground; a stone sculptor works on a capital with an angel in 1909; an interior view of the consecration service on April 19, 1911.
The cathedral’s greatness lies in its commitment to the belief that faith expressed through engagement with the world is the only way faith is truly expressed.
The Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, remarks made at the cathedral reopening, November 2008, seven years after a "devastating fire" on December 18, 2001The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is the largest cathedral and fourth largest Christian church in the world. Construction remains incomplete, earning it the nickname of St. John the Unfinished. Church stewards have historically refused to accrue debt to finance new construction which is the primary reason for the delay. Additionally, as the facility has aged, the cathedral has earmarked monies for maintenance rather than completion of the structure.
In December 2001, the cathedral experienced a massive fire that destroyed the gift shop and heavily damaged several valuable tapestries and portions of the church interior. A major renovation began in 2005 to restore and repair the organ, the tapestries and the church as a whole. This work ended with a rededication ceremony in 2008.
The cathedral has an active social service mission which includes The Sunday Soup Kitchen, health and wellness programming and advocacy as well as The Nutrition, Health and Clothing Center. The cathedral's longstanding support and sponsorship of the arts includes many public offerings centered around music, choral events, literature and the visual arts.
WINTER 2013
THE VISIONARY MESSENGER
(left) A sculptural depiction of Saint John as a scribe with pen and paper. Entrance doors to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, New York. 2013. (above) The ascension of Saint John, The life of Saint John the Evangelist series. Giotto di Bondone. 1320. Santa Croce, Florence, Italy. The word evangelist is from the Greek euangelos, meaning to bring good news. It often refers specifically to the writers of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. THe meaning has expanded to include those who seek to convert others to Christianity through public speaking or those who are engaged in Christian missionary work.
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine derives its name from John, known as "the beloved apostle" and one of the twelve disciples of Christ. According to church tradition, Saint John is the author of several New Testament writings: the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John and The Book of Revelation. However, there is disagreement among modern scholars on the authorship of Revelation. In this debate, there is a distinction drawn between the Apostle John and the John of Patmos, who is the author of Revelation.
John, also known as the beloved disciple, was a fisherman and a disciple of John the Baptist before joining the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament portrays him as a favorite of Christ, the only disciple who stayed with him during the crucifixion, and the one who promised to honor Christ's request to care for his mother Mary. John was the only disciple to survive into old age, dying of natural causes at the age of 94.
Saint John is the patron saint of writers and his feast day is December 27.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPELS OF THE SEVEN TONGUES
(from top to bottom) Pentecost, Giotto di Bondone. 1303-05. The Scrovegni Chapel. Padua, Italy; Weltchronik in Versen, Szene: Der Turmbau zu Babel, Meister der Weltenchronik. 1370. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
You speak a language that I understand not ...
Act III scene ii, The Winter's Tale (1610-11), William ShakespeareOne of the foremost gods in the Hindu pantheon is the ancient fire god Agni, also known as Saptajihva, meaning "having seven tongues". This fire god is referenced, whether intentionally or not, in the naming of The chapels of the seven tongues. Agni possesses two heads, three legs, seven arms and seven tongues of fire. He rides a celestial ram. With his seven tongues of fire he consumes the celestial butter. Agni is quite extraordinary to the western eye. Yet this eastern icon is not necessarily incompatible with the mythos of western Christians.
In Hindu mythology, the celestial butter is the byproduct of a mythic event in which all the hidden gifts of creation are brought into being. The link between divine gifts and divine fire is a motif found in the Christian tradition surrounding Pentecost. It is Pentecost that provides a bridge between east and west, between Agni and the Holy Spirit, between Old Testament and New Testament, all linking back to The chapels of the seven tongues. In the story of Pentecost disciples experience the descent of tongues of fire that bestow them with "gifts of the spirit". Among these is the ability to speak in tongues and the ability to understand them.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-4, KJV
The story of Pentecost can serve as the redemptive myth of an earlier story, The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). In the Genesis narrative, Nimrod orders the building of the tower as an act of hubris and God punishes all of humanity with the confusion of tongues (emergence of languages). The division of voice is healed in the Pentecost narrative when the disciples receive the gifts of fire. This complex series of fire myths and symbols lies at the heart of The chapels of the seven tongues. Here the cathedral recognized the needs of immigrant and native alike, divided by their languages, but united in a shared redemptive myth.
WINTER 2013
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FIRE
Beginning with the earliest mythologies, fire has represented spirit, soul, transformation and emerging consciousness. There are many ways that fire as a symbol manifests in world mythology, including fire-based creatures, gods, myths and rituals.
There is the well known phoenix, the mythological creature that resurrects every 500 years out of its own ashes. The roots of the western phoenix can be found in its Egyptian counterpart, the Bennu, a crane-like bird believed to be the soul of the sun-god Ra. Egyptian myth says that the Bennu burst into being from the heart of Osiris, god of life, death and fertility.
There are many examples of the role fire plays in cultural practice. For example, in Celtic tradition, May 1 is Beltane (meaning bright fire) and marks the beginning of summer. On Beltane, the Celts believed that the veil between worlds grew thin and the Otherworld was particularly accessible. Beltane celebrations traditionally centered around the creation of a huge bon-fire and might also include storytelling, fire-leaping and fertility rites. Another fire-based celebration is the festival of lanterns, a holiday observed on the fifteenth and final day of Chinese New Years (February 10-25, 2013). Each new year celebration concludes with the lighting of multiple lanterns, an annual ritual which represents the bringing of light into the new year.
Prayer candles, 2013.
There are many different world myths which describe how we first received the gift of fire. Usually the gift of fire is the result of trickery or theft from the gods, and in these myths, the fire thief often suffers hardship or life-altering injury during the crime.
In Greek mythology, the fire thief was Prometheus, the Titan god of forethought. In this version of the myth, Zeus, chief god of all the gods, had tired of the human race. He decided to deny humanity all blessings so that he could extinguish the human race.
Prometheus, god of forethought, felt compassion for humanity. He stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to humanity so that they might have perpetual warmth and light. On the night following the fire theft Zeus looked down from Mount Olympus and saw the glow of many fires. He knew that he could not retrieve the gift, once given. He was so outraged that he devised a two-fold punishment: one for Prometheus and one for all of the world. Zeus could not kill Prometheus because he was a god so he chained him to a mountain and arranged for a giant eagle to feed unceasingly on the lesser god's ever-regenerating liver.
Prometheus was an immortal and would have suffered his punishment for eternity had Hercules not rescued him several generations later.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT ANSGAR
(above) The chapel of Saint Ansgar, The chapels of the seven tongues, New York, New York. 2013; (left) a view from the chapel of Saint Ansgar into the adjacent baptistry.
You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) monk, priest, member of the Protestant ReformationHenry Vaughan, noted designer of the Washington Cathedral, designed three chapels at the cathedral: Saint Ansgar (1918), Saint Boniface (1916), and Saint James (1916). His architectural style and detailing is a fusion of fourteenth century English and thirteenth century French, with the resulting effect being twentieth century American.
This chapel contains a section of the columbarium, a room with niches for the storage of funeral urns. Immediately adjacent to the chapel and the columbarium is the baptistry, a room used for baptism. This is a profoundly symbolic use of sacred space with rooms devoted to first and last rites situated side by side.
The chapel is dedicated to people of Scandinavian descent and much of the iconography represents individuals important in Scandinavian history. This includes a series of intricately carved figures of St. Ansgar, Guastavus Adolphus, St. Olaf and Martin Luther found on the wall at the back of the altar.
Saint Ansgar was known as "The Apostle of Scandinavia" and "The Apostle of the North" and he is remembered as a true visionary. Throughout his life, Ansgar experienced waking visions and used those experiences to guide his life choices. He was a very little boy when he reported his first vision, shortly after his mother's death. Ansgar reported seeing his mother in the company of Mary, the mother of Christ. The feast day of Saint Ansgar is February 3.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT BONIFACE
(above) The chapel of Saint Boniface, The chapels of the seven tongues, New York, New York. 2013; (left) Saint Michael the archangel, Eleanor Mellon. 1963. (below) Yggdrasil: the world ash, Oluf Olufsen Bagge, 1847.
And it came to pass ... when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming. . . and suddenly I understood the meaning of expositions of the books.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) German mystic, abbess, composer, writer, polymath, recounting a visionHenry Vaughan, noted designer of the Washington Cathedral, designed three chapels at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine: Saint Boniface (1916), along with Saint Ansgar (1918) and Saint James (1916). His architectural style and detailing is a fusion of fourteenth century English and thirteenth century French. The stained glass windows are by Kempe, a British glass-maker, who also designed the windows in the Chapel of Saint Ansgar. Their focus of these works is British saints and missionaries.
One of the most striking additions to this chapel is a twentieth century bronze statue of Saint Michael the archangel (1963), made and donated by American sculptor Eleanor Mary Mellon.
This chapel is dedicated to people of German descent and bears the name of "The Apostle of the Germans", or St. Boniface, who was born Winfrid in the area near Devon, England during the 7th century. There is much material available on Boniface, including several vitae, a few sermons, numerous legal documents as well as his personal correspondence. He served primarily as a missionary to the Frankish Empire and is the patron saint of Germany as well as tailors, brewers and file-cutters. Symbols associated with this saint include the oak, axe, book, fox, scourge, fountain, raven and the sword. His feast day is June 5.
THE OAK OF JUPITER
Saint Boniface and the felling of Jupiter's oak (also known as Donar's oak, Thor's oak, and Jove's oak) is a legend from the Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibald. Germans worshipped groves and trees as part of their rich nature-based mythology. This tradition links back to the sacred world tree, Yggdrasil, found in Norse mythology. During the spread of western Christianity, missionaries targeted these trees for destruction. According to legend, Saint Boniface struck the oak of Jupiter with an ax. A strong wind then felled the tree to the ground, even though Saint Boniface had only managed to create a notch in the tree's trunk. German villagers who watched the tree fall expected Boniface to be struck dead by their gods. When that did not happen, all of the spectators converted to Christianity and they then used the wood from the oak of Jupiter to build a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT COLUMBA
(left) The chapel of Saint Columba, The chapels of the seven tongues, New York, New York. 2013; (above) a detail from a stained glass window; (below) A carpet page. The Book of Kells. Trinity College, Dublin. ca. 800 AD. Carpet pages are one of the distinctive traits of insular illuminated manuscripts. Traditionally placed at the beginning of each Gospel, these designs feature vibrant color and complex geometric patterns. Their primary inspiration is the oriental carpets from the period, hence the name 'carpet page'. The earliest surviving example is the Bobbio Orosius which dates from the 7th Century.
Examine it carefully, and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out intricacies so delicate and subtle, so concise and compact, so full of knots and links, with colors so fresh and vivid, that you might think all this was the work of an angel, not a man.
12th C. commentary on The Book of Columba also known as The Book of KellsThe chapel of Saint Columba bears the name of the Irish mystic and saint noted for his extensive missionary work throughout Ireland, Scotland and England. History credits him with the founding of the famous monastery on Iona and the original founding of The Abbey of Kells. Much of what is known about the saint comes from Vita Columbae by ninth century abbot Adomnan. Vita Columbae spans three different books, covering Columba's prophecies, miracles and apparitions. Saint Columba is the patron saint of Ireland and Scotland as well as bookbinders and poets. His feast day is June 9.
Completed in 1911, the architects for The chapel of Saint Columba were Heins and LaFarge, the original design partnership for the cathedral proper. The chapel is Norman/Romanesque in style with echoes of architectural features found in Durham Cathedral (United Kingdom). The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine has dedicated this space to peoples of Celtic and English descent.
THE BOOK OF COLUMBA
The Book of Kells, also known as The Book of Columba, is an illuminated manuscript containing the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in Latin. It is a masterwork of western calligraphy and insular illustration. Insular art (island) was a style unique to Britain and Ireland, originating out of Irish monasticism.
The famous manuscript derives its name from the Abbey of Kells. First founded by Saint Columba in 554 AD, the abbey became a refuge for monks fleeing the Viking raids of Iona. It is possible that the monks began the transcription in Iona and completed it at the Abbey of Kells several generations later. Viking raids continued at the abbey and in 1006 The Book of Kells was stolen. Two months later the abbey recovered the book, now missing its front and back covers and the first and last illustrations.
Since 1953 The Book of Kells has been bound in four volumes. It is on permanent display at the Trinity College Library of Dublin and one of Ireland's finest national treasure.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT SAVIOUR
Thou met'st with things dying, I with things new-born.
Act III scene iii, The Winter's Tale (1610-11), William ShakespeareThe chapel of Saint Saviour, or chapel of the Holy Savior, is the design of the cathedral's original architects, Heins and LaFarge. It was the first of the chapels of the seven tongues to be completed (1904) and the first completed worship space within the cathedral as a whole.
The chapel occupies the central point of the chevet, immediately behind the high altar. This is the easternmost point in the cathedral and a fitting location for the chapel of the Holy Saviour which is dedicated to communities of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Though the overall design is western and Gothic, the iconography throughout the space is decidedly eastern.
One example of Eastern Orthodox influence is the stained glass window which serves as the focal point for the chapel. Designed by Hardman of Birmingham, England, the glasswork depicts the transfiguration of Christ. This emphasis on transfiguration reflects the differing theological foci of the Eastern and Western churches, with the western tradition centering on crucifixion and the eastern tradition on transfiguration. This distinction manifests in the depictions of the saints. For example, Saint Francis (western tradition) bears the stigmata while Saint Seraphim (eastern tradition) wears white robes and has a nimbus.
SERAPHIM OF SAROV
Seraphim of Sarov, born Prockhor Moshnin (1754-1833), is one of the most revered saints and mystics of the eastern tradition. After his recovery from a serious childhood illness, Seraphim reported that he had received visions of the Virgin Mary. These first visionary experiences continued throughout his life as did his devotion to the Madonna.
There are numerous legends about the saint. Many occur during the period when he retreated to a hermitage in the woods. During this time, Seraphim intensified his practice of poverty, asceticism and isolation as paths to higher spiritual consciousness. This included praying for one thousand days and nights while kneeling on a rock. Another one of the better known legends describes an instance when the saint subdued a bear and fed it from his hand, a metaphor for the self mastery that Seraphim prized.
Saint Seraphim is the patron saint of spiritual help, consolation and compunction. His name derives from the highest of the nine classes of angels and means "burning ones". His feast day is January 2.
(top to bottom) stained glass window (detail), The chapel of Saint Saviour, The chapels of the seven tongues, The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, New York. 2013; the altar; credited as "la vida de san Serafin of Sarov" (counterclockwise: Seraphim entering the hermitage in the woods, in prayer on a rock, feeding a bear, vision of the Virgin Mary, in prayer before the Theotokos, portrait of the saint.) Artist unknown. nd.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT MARTIN
(above) The Saint Martin of Tours Chapel, The chapels of the seven tongues. The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. New York, New York. 2013. (left) Joan of Arc. Anna V. Hyatt Huntington. The Saint Martin of Tours Chapel, The chapels of the seven tongues. The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. New York, New York. 2013.
Designed and completed by Cram and Ferguson in 1918, the chapel of Saint Martin of Tours is also known as the "French Chapel" and functions as the chapel of reservation. The space is a designated sanctuary within the cathedral itself, reserved for prayer and meditation. One special feature of this chapel is an aumbrey, a locked cupboard which holds reserved sacrament.
A sculpture of Joan of Arc, by Anna V. Hyatt Huntington, graces the left side of the chapel. The large stone at the foot of the sculpture is from the cell in Rouen where the maid of Orleans was imprisoned. There is another stone chip directly above the altar cross. This one is from Rheims Cathedral. During the Hundred Years' War, the English placed the cathedral under siege between 1359-60. They held possession of it until Joan of Arc liberated the cathedral in 1429. The following July, the Dauphin Charles was crowned there. During the First World War German bombardment heavily damaged the cathedral and the particular piece of stone in the chapel altar was the byproduct of that shelling.
The chapel is dedicated to all French people and named for the Italian soldier who became the fourth century bishop of Gaul. Saint Martin of Tours is one of the patron saints of France as well as alcoholics, beggars, cavalry, equestrians, France, horses, innkeepers, soldiers, tailors, wine growers and wine makers. His feast day is November 11.
SAINT JOAN OF ARC
Children say that people are sometimes hung for speaking the truth.
Joan of Arc (1412-1431), patron saint of France, shepherdess, mystic, soldierIn her early teens, Joan of Arc claimed to have had visions from God which instructed her to recover her country (France) from English control. A few years later when she was in her mid-teens, King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans. Just nine days after she arrived, the siege was lifted. It was her first major military victory. By the time she was seventeen, Joan was a national heroine. However, she became embroiled in the political intrigue of court and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned and sentenced as a witch and a heretic. She was burned at the stake in 1431. She was nineteen years old. In 1546, her case was retried and she was acquitted.
Joan of Arc is the patron saint of captives, prisoners, martyrs, people who oppose church authority, people ridiculed for piety, victims of sexual assault, and women in military or volunteer emergency service. Her feast day is May 30.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT AMBROSE
(top to bottom) the altar of The chapel of Saint Ambrose, The chapels of the seven tongues. The cathedral of Saint John the Divine. New York, New York. 2013; a window detail (Psalm 47); a window detail (Psalm 46).
In some causes silence is dangerous.
Aurelius Ambrosius, also known as Saint Ambrose, (330-397), patron saint of Milan, one of the four original doctors of the churchThe Cathedral of Saint John the Divine dedicated the Saint Ambrose Chapel to people of Italian lineage. Carrere and Hastings, architects of the New York City Library, designed the space. Of the seven chapels, this one is the only one executed in the Renaissance style.
The chapel is named in honor of Saint Ambrose, patron saint of bee keepers, bees, students, school children, learning, candle makers, chandlers, wax melters, and domestic animals. Ambrose was a noted scholar and orator. According to an early legend a bee lit on the lips of the infant Ambrose, leaving behind a drop of honey. Ambrose's father interpreted it as a sign that his child would have a gift for oration or "honeyed speech".
Ambrose was also famous for writings and teachings on Christian philosophy and theology. In another legend, a scribe reported that a halo or bright light (like a candle burning) surrounded Ambrose while writing commentary on Psalm 43. This report is the basis for Ambrose's association with candle makers and wax melters. In addition to a reputation for learning and the expressive arts, Ambrose had a flexible approach to church liturgy, instructing priests to follow the liturgical practices of the local church rather than be drawn into a disagreement over which church had the right form. To that end, history credits Ambrose with the expression, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
The scholarship of Saint Ambrose influenced many later theologians, including the influential theology and writing of Saint Augustine. His feast day is December 7.
WINTER 2013
THE CHAPEL OF SAINT JAMES
(above) Saint Teresa of Avila (left) The chapel of Saint James, The chapels of the seven tongues, The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. 2013.
About the injunction of the Apostle Paul that women should keep silent in church? Don't go by one text only.
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Spanish writer, nun, mysticHenry Vaughan, noted designer of the Washington Cathedral, designed three chapels at the cathedral: Saint Ansgar (1918), Saint Boniface (1916), and the last chapel of the seven tongues, Saint James (1916). His architectural style and detailing is a fusion of fourteenth century English and thirteenth century French. The stained glass windows are pictorial and feature portraits of Spanish writers, artists and mystics, including Cervantes, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and El Greco.
This chapel is one of the larger in the cathedral, seating 250, and containing an Aeolian-Skinner organ with 857 pipes. Due to these special features, this chapel often serves as a space for weddings, funerals, worship services and musical concerts.
This chapel is dedicated to all Spanish immigrants and is named for Saint James, one of the twelve apostles and patron saint of Spain. Saint James is also the patron saint of sufferers of arthritis and rheumatism, apothecaries, blacksmiths, equestrians, furriers, knights, laborers, pharmacists, pilgrims, soldiers, tanners, and veterinarians. King Herod Agrippa ordered his beheading, making him the first saint to be martyred. His feast day is July 25.
