On the subject of clouds, and trees and songs on the radio…all of these interpretations are based on a primary belief that the world is alive and moves in codes and signals and vastly beautiful geometries. Within this belief (we=human beings) – are a part of the world, a part of the earth and a part of the space around us.
Yes, we are a part of space. Space is touching us, right now…all over our bodies. Pretty sexy to be an armchair astronaut, isn’t it?
What is space made of? Air?
Did you know that there is electricity in air? It’s true! And water! Isn’t that SHOCKING?
I grew up by a river. I know how currents work, how there are layers and patterns. I used to work at an academic library where I’d occasionally read IEEE journals for the singular purpose that I had no idea what most of the language event meant, and yet it was English. A lot of the words were about electricity. We don’t know much about electricity, do we? It’s for turning on the lights? We don’t think about what it is or where it comes from. We don’t even consider our own heartbeats, unless they begin to falter. Do we think of our thoughts as lightning? Perhaps we should. It’s all electric.
Those are the beliefs that inspire me to think, “Hmmm, what if there were some specific currents that carried some specific combination and what if those currents were as old as old, ever cycling, a big and evolving culminate force of everything that ever was, constantly contributing to everything that will be?” Really. That’s what I think. I just thought it, didn’t I?
That makes sense to me. There could be – and in fact is, just ask any physicist – a broadly beautiful interplay of electricity and magnetism and exchange and transference and conductivity. It probably looks something like the screensaver on Ubuntu.
However, because this is not a mechanical and free-wheeling fractal, but a vital and responsive/creative component of our world, these currents actually have a measurable effect on the world. Oh, this is where it starts to get a little peculiar…
Are the shapes made by my perception or do I perceive the shapes? Are there any shapes at all? If so ~ why? Do they exist only because I see them? Why do they look so old?
Do you have any idea what it is like to look up and see something that you are fairly certain would have been seen (by an ancient farmer who had never even considered the possibility of something like television) as a sign from “the heavens” and to see this sort of stuff every time you go outside…for over two years now. Yeah, I didn’t handle it well for a while. I tried (under professional advice) to think ~ “they’re only clouds.” ~ but that made the world feel like a cold, dead place.* I have watched the sky and I have loved the sky since I was a child. The flood of clarity that it inspires, the profound love for the timelessness of sky and distance and wind and shapes…all of it is vital. The elements.
I love how sometimes the clouds look like dolphins and birds, also foxes and faces. I get to believe, just for a minute, that they were made just for me, because I notice them.
To see a fish in the sky makes me feel deeply wonderful and close to the heart of the world, where I can see the ocean in the sky over the mountains.*
You know, I always wanted to live in a magical world. Fortunately, I do. For example, in the negative space amidst the trees below, I see some sort of wildebeest creature complete with well-curved tail, something that looks like part of a lizard, perhaps an S shape and various other squiggly geometries, along with the ubiquitous triangle, zigzagging in the lower left quadrant.
In the trees themselves, formed of leaf and branch, I see all sorts of things that may be obvious branch and leaf patterns or could be…a primitive alien creature holding some sort of implement and a maybe a heart, as well. It just depends on how strange and magical you want the world to be.
Note and Disclaimer: Cloud-watching and interpretive divination is not harmful or corrupt in any way. In fact, it is the most human thing in the world to do…to play, to study, to love, to see a thing as something else* and to find meaning where there wasn’t meaning before.
People have been watching clouds for thousands of years. Trees. Rivers. Animals. Plants. Insects. They watch ~ as in this song* which somewhat captures experience of navigating transformative psychosis ~ for the thing that doesn’t fit…what seems out of place.
Look for the pattern breaks and pay attention to the flow and composition, the relation of shape to shape and form to form. It is like art, basically. The world becomes a story. I’ve always been a reader.
I know a good story when I see one.
*It is all a bit concerning, given the implications. I mean, this song played on the radio at 7:30 in the morning in Western North Carolina. That’s absolutely mind-blowing.
Apologies for visually disruptive, scattered formatting. That happens no matter how clean the draft post is. It ends up over-spaced and broke-sentence after “Publish” ~ going back to fix it is pointless, as it just gets scattered again. Sisyphusian. Sissy Fortune.
PROOF OF GOD! ...and other tragedies. 