What Is Black? Or White?

This DoD post is just to get something quickly out there – and briefly – as I am still in major Wise El drawing mode and don’t want to lose the flow since it has been on hold for so very long. The images in this post were hurriedly done years (literally) ago and are being re-drawn today. The general theme of them is black and white (dark night of the soul, black thoughts, dark night).

NDE

It’s been a very long time since I truly thought about my NDE. Not just recalling what happened – which clearly, I have done.

It’s the reason for *not* dying that has been buried for a while. So that is the first of the ‘black’ thoughts this morning. (Not covering that here though.)

The second refers back to something I’ve written about in Wise El on God and Wise El’s Big Thoughts.

(Ebooks available via Amazon and print books taking forever to create!)

That second is that ‘black’ is not a negative association, metaphysically. It is potentiality. Raw, unfocused, half the time – but potential, powerful, energy.

It, in my version of spiritual metaphysics, is something hidden, something not yet fully formed, something needing light. (Yes, I aware that will be taken the wrong way by those so inclined.)

Black Potentiality

A lot of the current divisions are, from a dark-skinned observer, about inferiority.

Group think – through BLM – gives perceived strength in numbers. A mistake in my mystical opinion as individuals can be swept along by the loudest, not necessarily right, voices.

Clearly that is now changing as many excellent black men and women are speaking out and following through with decisive actions.

Grouping by skin colour is something I have always disliked since ‘black’ is not a race per se. Being dark-skinned, some semi-educateds have assumed – and even told me – I was African or West Indian (ie black).

I am NOT. My mother was Tamil and my father from Mangalore. Both South Indian. And yes, it does annoy – for mixed reasons.

Africans and Asians never get my race wrong. Or haven’t to date. I guess there is always a first time. Will keep you (the reader) posted.

Equally, some practically ‘white’ people have self-designated or been designated ‘black’ because of mixed parentage or ancestry. Not a term I like or enjoy using but I have done, because it is expected.

There is more – pro and con – but the words and ideas are jumbled in my head at the moment.

What Then Is White?

White in human terms is simply reduced need for melanin protection in less sunny countries. In mystical terms, let there be light. But there is also a cultural reference.

I read a post on Facebook where Jews were being referred to as ‘white’. I have been called ‘Karen’ a few times – an insult (doled out by some young black women) meaning middle-class white. Or something like that, but ‘white’ and ‘female’ being the key elements.

To be ‘white’ is a cultural mindset – which I can agree with. I prefer to call it English or British but it seems ‘white’ is now catching on as the go-to term.

Do I think whites are superior?

Categorically not.

Just different. Different spiritual purpose – and at heart that is all I ever base my posts and comments on.

 More too on this to come!

And Brown Is Earth

Figures really. For me, spiritually – not generally. On Earth as it is in Heaven. Or something. (Still pondering this.)

Trivial – Or Possibly Not – Aside

I’ve been on a lot of dates in my life, but I’ve never been asked on a date by a black man – or an Indian one, come to think of it. There was a date with Parvez, an exceptionally handsome Pakistani.

There have been some marriage proposals from a few via a dating site. (Not going to use any of those again!) They didn’t even bother to get to know me, just first contact was about marriage.

In the post which prompted this, the writer said (about Jews)  “you can be completely integrated and settled, but that the tide can turn in an instant. You are still a guest.”

I have never felt unwelcome or a guest in the UK – ever. However, I have, on a few occasions, felt different. But then I am and always have been – even with family and friends. 

Currently Re-Drawing All These

  

Related Images:

Faith and purpose have been

tasking my mind yet again. It’s partly because I have been working so hard on Wise El’s Big Thoughts, and the usual Gethsemane theme has been popping into my head: “I’m not as sure/ As when we started/ Then, I was inspired/ Now I’m sad and tired/… / Would the things I’ve said and done matter any more?”

Meaning, of course, my art and books and all the sacrifices I’ve made to get to this point – rather more than three years!

no images were found

I doubt anyone is going to do more than crucify me verbally should I enjoy a high public profile. But I – all mystics – have this ongoing argument with our God. It’s the nature of the spiritual struggle. We want to know if this ‘blood, sweat and tears’ is going to bear the right fruit. However, we are told to ‘let go and let God’; to surrender; to allow. But, most of all, to accept whatever happens as the will of God.

Yet, we are of God; we each are aspects of God – the Wakan Tanka, the Great Everything, the Source. What vibrates within us is of God, it is our divine message. If that message becomes confused or misunderstood, it is because we have ceased to hear correctly. We have spent too much time with the mass mind and not enough with the still small voice within.

Sadly, for some of us, this often creates a spiritual aloneness. As I have mentioned before, many mystics write of their divine love deserting them, not speaking to them. Mystical parlance for God not responding for days, months and even years.

It is absolutely nothing to do with manifesting more art or book sales or perfect health or someone to love or whatever other earthly things we would like to make the human experience more palatable.

I do not know why God, the God within each and every one of us, sometimes responds promptly and frequently, and at other times seems completely deaf for the longest time. Yet we are not separate from our God. It is the spark which gives us life thus we cannot be apart.

(Yes, I know atheists disagree. Tough. This is my blog and it’s what I believe!)

All this is something which only a more mystically-inclined soul could understand. It makes it difficult to talk of fear (ie the fear of not hearing one’s God; of not fulfilling one’s spiritual purpose; of wondering – paraphrasing the words of Gethsemane – would what I have written and painted matter any more) without being misunderstood on a different level. It’s like going round and round in circles and arriving exactly where one started out.

No wonder I feel ‘Gethsemane fear’ that all my work will not matter. If so, then why bother? And once you go down that road, it becomes why bother with the process of living as well.

One of the qualities I like about myself just so happens to be one that manages to irritate or upset those of a more sensitive nature: that of being to the point – or, as Dad used to say, being ‘blunt’.

Talking round the houses only causes more confusion or people choose to interpret inaccurately. Or just see and hear what they want to see and hear – even if it is patently not correct. I had that with the NandDs and it used to drive me to distraction. That is why I am quite forceful when I correct a wrong. Cause and effect means I then have yet more fallout to deal with – which is preferable to being misinterpreted, I suppose.

Tomorrow is my Diamond and a Half anniversary. And how has the year gone so far?

Well the last week of July is about par for the course – so far: “What a week it’s been! Car being pranged (neck sore for two days, having to get estimate from garage in Goring), kitchen taps being replaced, bathroom sink plug conking out (a kind of plunger-thing which stopped staying plunged – now fixed), then the pipe under the bathroom sink leaking (washer now replaced), getting a humongous tax bill but speaking to the lovely Linda at HMRC and having it equally massively reduced (phew), learning how to backup and upgrade my WordPress site then getting a new NextGen upgrade which sent everything art-related totally haywire, while all the time it rained or was a grey as an MP’s soul.

In the entire week, I inked about five Wise El cartoons and am again horribly behind schedule. My soul yearns to paint something but hours can go by on just one tiny piece so I’m not picking up a paint brush until I have Wise El’s Big Thoughts done and dusted.

Any plans I had for marketing them individually (as opposed to all within a book) have veered off-course again. Not because of the website hiccups, but because of what would be effective in the longer term….”

Perhaps the next six months will show a bit more promise?

[Just seen in my Twitter feed: “Solitary mystics are the most connected individuals.”- Jon Mundy]

Art is informed by the life we lead, by our thoughts, experiences and desires. My blog posts are either streams of consciousness, wrestling with spiritual concepts or other experiences on this particular spiritual journey. For examples of how this translates into my art, please visit my gallery.

Profit From Unlimited Thinking is a five-part course in creative thinking and managing change.

All my books are available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com or to order from all good booksellers. Euphrosene Labon Mind Body Spirit Artist Author Writer

Related Images: