The Lifting of the Veil

"Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children."

—

Pablo Picasso 

Portrait of Maya with her Doll painted by Pablo Picasso, 1938

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(Source: beautemillesimee)

Solitary Figure in Theatre, Edward Hopper, 1904

cystallineambermoments:

"There is something odd in the fact that when we reproduce the Middle Ages it is always some such rough and half-grotesque part of them that we reproduce … Why is it that we mainly remember the Middle Ages by absurd things? … Few modern people know what a mass of illuminating philosophy, delicate metaphysics, clear and dignified social morality exists in the serious scholastic writers of mediaeval times. But we seem to have grasped somehow that the ruder and more clownish elements in the Middle Ages have a human and poetical interest. We are delighted to know about the ignorance of mediaevalism; we are contented to be ignorant about its knowledge. When we talk of something mediaeval, we mean something quaint. We remember that alchemy was mediaeval, or that heraldry was mediaeval. We forget that Parliaments are mediaeval, that all our Universities are mediaeval, that city corporations are mediaeval, that gunpowder and printing are mediaeval, that half the things by which we now live, and to which we look for progress, are mediaeval."

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“The True Middle Ages,” The Illustrated London News, 14 July 1906 – G. K. Chesterton

Absolutely true.  The Renaissance was built on knowledge gleaned in the Middle ages. the Dark age is an awful misnomer.

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(Source: ahknight)

If you can see, look. If you can look, observe. — Barbara Abate

cystallineambermoments:

"She’s turning her life into something sacred: Each breath, a new BIRTH. Each moment a new chance. She bows her head, gathers her dreams from a pure, deep stream and stretches her arms towards the sky."

—

Monique Duval 

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(Source: theglasschild)

My Mother’s Hats painted by Lois Mailou Jones, 1943

A hat is a flag, a shield, a bit of armor, and the badge of femininity. A hat is the difference between wearing clothes and wearing a costume; it’s the difference between being dressed and being dressed up; it’s the difference between looking adequate and looking your best. A hat is to be stylish in, to glow under, to flirt beneath, to make all others seem jealous over, and to make all men feel masculine about. A piece of magic is a hat. — Martha Sliter

cystallineambermoments:

"Whatever life you lead you must put your soul in it—to make any sort of success in it; and from the moment you do that it ceases to be romance, I assure you: it becomes grim reality! And you can’t always please yourself; you must sometimes please other people. That, I admit, you’re very ready to do; but there’s another thing that’s still more important—you must often displease others. You must always be ready for that—you must never shrink from it. That doesn’t suit you at all—you’re too fond of admiration, you like to be thought well of. You think we can escape disagreeable duties by taking romantic views—that’s your great illusion, my dear. But we can’t. You must be prepared on many occasions in life to please no one at all—not even yourself."

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Henry James 

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(Source: atomos)

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses →

Note: Digital Read

URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?st27k8r2b2gy9sn

Excerpt:

Women have always been healers. They were the unlicensed doctors and anatomists of western history. They were abortionists, nurses and counsellors. They were pharmacists, cultivating healing herbs and exchanging…

fuckyeahradicalliterature:

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"There is much unexplored potential in each human being. We are not just flesh and bone or an amalgamation of conditionings. If this were so, our future on this planet would not be very bright. But there is infinitely more to life, and each passionate being who dares to explore beyond the fragmentary and superficial into the mystery of totality helps all humanity perceive what it is to be fully human. Revolution, total revolution, implies experimenting with the impossible. And when an individual takes a step in the direction of the new, the impossible, the whole human race travels through that individual."

—

Vimala Thakar 

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In the Woods painted by Annie French

The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody’s fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind. — Katherine Mansfield

cystallineambermoments: