Lucerna corpus

Lucerna corpus est oculos...

Ev. s Matt. 6,22

Ecstasy Ecology Etymology

Ecstasy

Two mornings ago, the Torah lection of Mass was Father Abraham's stern banishing Hagar with her infant son to certain death in the wilderness. He provided some bread, and a skin of water, and placed these, with the infant, on its mother's shoulder.

And they set off, neither pleading, nor protesting.

With the skin of water consumed, and, perish as they both must, the mother set the infant in the bushes to die, while she sat down a good distance away - a bowshot, to be exact - but out of sight, for she could not bear to watch the infant's last moments.

The child cried out and wept.

Who can describe, or imagine, the mother's anguish?

The Angel of the Lord heard the infant's cry, and roused its mother from benumbed delirium: wake, see, here is a skin, and there, a well; give the infant to drink.

And now, who can express the ecstasy of this mother..

quæ videns puteum aquæ..

Genesis 21,19

Ecology

Here is a fascinating thought; an integral personal ecology, proposed in HH Pope Francis' Encyclical Laudato sì: a deeply interwoven fabric of environmental, economic, social, cultural, and daily life concerns.

A buoyant sexuality, and its essential sexual health (WHO 1974 Declaration), cannot but have an inspiring part here.

In a cheerful anthology of erotica, I Colori del Sesso (iBooks), perhaps the narratives might have been enriched by an awareness of this integral ecology, which can be an insurance against predictable imagery unable to probe a deeper reality.

Who can say?

Etymology

I enjoyed a rich study of the root κλει.. in the Greek Lexicon of Liddell and Scott:

• a kind of astringent pill, or suppository
• boom of an harbour
• of silence
• rowing bench
• of promontories
• clausula, cadence (poetry)
• door opening in the street
• street-door
• inner-door
• sluice gates
• brothel
• shrine
• that can be shut
• part of a ship
• clitoris
• a gem
• a pearl
• renowned
• famous
• splendid
• slope
• hillside
• celebrate

Ecstasy, Ecology, Etymology bring food for thought with great mystery of seeing, and touching:

palpando.. in fide solidatur

Liturgia Horarum III:1331

as Saint Gregory the Great expresses for today's Feast of the Apostle of India, Saint Thomas.

La revanche du clitoris

Le clitoris doit trouver son propre sens. Celui du plaisir partagé..

La revanche du Clitoris
par Damien Mascret et Maïa Mazaurette

In their little text (French) Damien Mascret and Maïa Mazaurette offer a fascinating promotion of the clitoris.

The authors rehearse the obligatory quantitative research that rides high above intimate pragmatism after the dust has cleared.

The contribution of social studies to help elucidate female sexual pleasure, (Richter, J 2009) has yet to materialise.

Defining female sexual pleasure almost entirely by the penetrative model and its cultural accretions is insufficient.

Texts by these authors, and others, such as Dunel, G, offer quiet accounts, in vivo, which might elucidate qualitatively, in ways the mighty quantitative studies cannot.

For males, these intimate revelations can suggest a personal integral ecology not unlike that conceived in the encyclical Laudato sì promulgated by HH Pope Francis June 18.

The clitoris and its mysterious contribution to sexual pleasure are far from exhaustively explained.

Clitoral portrayal in film, art, erotica, fantasy, that shared pleasure may well reside to a greater extent outside penetrative exchange, emancipating the naked male image for more than an homoerotic audience, the authors suggest might go in the right direction for realising their aspiration:

Le clitoris doit trouver son propre sens. Celui du plaisir partagé..

The Fig Tree

Leaving Bethany

where he wept, and raised a friend

in the distant

a fig tree in leaf

si quid forte invenerit in ea

Ev s Marc 11,13

Though rich in foliage

there was no fruit

His sentiment

may none eat from you

The cleansing of The Temple

The fig had withered

but

with faith

a mountain

might be translocated

to

the midst of the sea

What can this mean?

Dunel, G

Men should appreciate their sexe

it confers pleasure

How do I communicate nudity?

How do I receive nudity?

Relaxed communicative

fruitful nakedness

disentangled

from the nudity

illustrated

for well-defined genres

of taste

and demand

foliage without fruit

Monsignor T

conveying The Holy See's

aspiration for

The World Summit

on 

The Information Society

promote human communication

sharing words and images

good communication is

always an

human achievement

in technical emvironments

that are safe

and human-enriching

be attentive to

what you create

promote

and share

the art of listening

to appreciate

human richness

engagement with others

alerts one to basic desires:

to love

to be loved

protection

security

meaning

purpose

shared-concern

for the well being of all

rather than

unbridled competition

But what does

the account of The Fig Tree

signify to me?

The cycle of bearing fruit

had not been violated

The opportunity of a fruitiful persona

in season

and out of season

The flamboyant foliage

was conventional

Fruit out of season

would have symbolised

an

unique fecundity

a

coherent persona

And the withering Fig?

Transmit pleasure

appreciate

deeper attributes

fruitfullness

of personality

in

all situations

of opportunity

Based on

The Gospel in today's Liturgy Nova Vulgata

Dunel, G

Vatican News

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary

Influences of Mei-Rong and Hsieh 2007

To Explore

Dominica Pentecostes

Today's reflection for the solemnity

prout Spiritus dabit eloqui..

Acta Apostolorum 2,4

as the Spirit gave utterance..

To explore

..To explore misconception and myth..

Mr Stef de Klerk, 2003.

Mr Stef de Kelrk's remark is related to my recent study of Mei-Rong and Hsieh 2007 on gender differences of emotional literacy, taking some fourteen points for closer personal encounter to enlarge my expressive repertoire.

One idea for this exercise: I sketch abstracts from Mr Stef de Klerk's photographs.

Today, Pentecost, eloquence in all expressing, is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Un perroquet gigantesque

M Gustave FLAUBERT (Un Cœur Simple) paints Félicité's demise

Tous s'agenouillièrent. Il se fit un grand silence. Et les encensoirs allant à pleine volée glissaient sur leurs chaînettes.

Une vapeur d'azur monta dans le chambre de Félicité.. et, quand elle exhala son dernier souffle, elle crut voir, dans les cieux entr'ouverts, un perroquet gigantesque, planant au-dessus de sa tête.

Professeur Jacques BRÉHANT (1907 - 2000) remarked

..la mort est materiéllement la fin de toute communication..

Thanatos. Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris 1976

..death makes material end of all communication..

Professeur BRÉHANT reminds me of the teachers of the Hôtel Dieu de Rouen at the time M FLAUBERT's father M Achille-Cléophas was Chief Surgeon.

To an Adminstrator whose archives of a thousand years I went to view along with selected graves recently, I remarked

..death makes material end of all communication.. In substance, this is quite so, but Archives can bring new life to death and document, to enrich our present.

Google +

I had a notice that JK in the Ivory Coast region had added me to Google+. Thank you.

To explore misconception and myth (Mr Stef de Klerk ut supra); so too, the close of Paschal Time and

..prout Spiritus dabit eloqui..

Acta Apost. ut supra

Siva Icon and My Boyhood

Five Texts

During the past week, five texts have given me enjoyable study

• A text by Mme Gracia Dunel 
• The Erotic Mind by Doctor J Morin
• Professor C Ram-Prasad's review of an Indologist and Sanskrit Scholar's book
• The US Military Health Notice Mercury on the welfare of women staff
• Mme Julie Clarini's review in Le Monde des Livres 8 mai

Mme Gracia Dunel

This is an enchanting récit. The original French is rendered by the author herself in English, and for all that, she has afforded readers of English the intimate observations of a French Woman in ways that are positively enriching (WHO Declaration 1974).

Doctor J Morin

On the resources of The Erotic Mind Doctor Morin suggests practical approaches to engaging, more purposefully, the rich osmosis with which individual personal scripts endow life.

Professor C Ram-Das

In the past week's Times Literary Supplement the Professor crafted a measured review of an Indologist and Sanskrit Scholar's opus.

Where does the iconography of Lord Siva settle in the WHO 1974 Declaration?

What is the cultural heritage of an integrated Hindu eroticism à la UNESCO?

Enrich. Enhance. Communicate.

The icon of Lord Shiva in my boyhood was communicated by osmosis.

On the border town, Tibetan, Lepcha, Nepali, Hindu were the principal religious customs. A mélange of smell, sound, taste, colour, squalor, dereliction, neglect, admixed with boyhood sexuality cf Doctor Morin ut supra.

The icon was diffuse, and composed, as the fascia of the over sixty-year old classic Omega Seamaster of my late Mother. As a child, I have gazed on the comforting watchface of this elegant timepiece, that eleoquence cf Mme Dunel ut supra.

The icon was raging in ferocity.

There was a Lord Shiva devotee marked with deep-cadmiun and vermilion symbols, who wandered the main street of the town. He wore a voluminous turmeric raw cotton turban. His stocky neck was begarlanded with enormous tulsi beads.

Pinned to his tunic were framed images of Lord Siva and his cohort of lesser, but equally terrifying deities, and rupee notes of various denominations.

He was well-nourished. His skin was riven from exposure to ultraviolet radiation at high altitudes. His physiognomy was Lepcha, but his demeanour was quite Hindu, presenting an animistic shaman sadhu patina.

This devotee was in a perpetual state of devotional hysteria, as he brandished a trident tipped with scarlet pigment and fabric ribbon fluttering hypnotically. He spat continously, as he rang a bell of Benares brass in counterpoint with the frenetic throb of the damaru, and, to passers-by, especially those in Western dress, he would mutter his expectations: four annas, one rupee, five rupees, hundred rupees, repeating this chant in ever-increasing tempo till it became an undifferentiated purr. The sheer amounts paralaysed a schoolboy's thoughts. The coda of his mutterings, and spitting was the refrain Ootimaha, Ootimaha, as he stamped the menacing trident into the ground clashing its bells and religious tassels, and, to schoolboys, this was his name, which instantly conjured up the terror of his visage.

As we approached the town, once spotted, the schoolboy would alert us all with the cry Ootimaha, la! and, like a pack of jackals, the alarm would be broadcast in full chorus, muddling apprehension even more.

This terrifying personality positioned himself where three main roads converged and led, passing mountains of sale-roti, singhara, peeyajoo, and sweeatmeat in a shop, where a man in a dhoti ladelled the contents of a six-foot diameter cauldron of boiling cooking oil, and on into the lower town and car-stand, and the mela-ground. You could not avoid him.

Heaven help us. Some schoolboys, intoxicated by the lure of terror, would call out a taunt and speed away, leaving others, some blissfully unaware, to face the aroused Lord Shiva devotee, who would fly demented, pirouetting, trident flailing all and sundry, vehemently protesting his Lord Shiva incantations, and spitting in volcanic jets, unchallenged even by the ferocious Tibetan mastifs lurking about the bazar, who skulked away to refuge beneath the tarpaulins of muleteer traders, displacing enormous black pigs who protested with grunts and snorts, adding to the chaos.

For all this, the devotee possessed elegant conviction, however madly expressed. For all his terror and noise, he never uttered an obscenity, at least not an audible one. His sexual probity was unimpeachable, certainly in public.

Like the Indologist and Sanskrit Scholar of Professor Ram-Prasad's review, the Lord Shiva devotee was a trained dancer, and he drew upon his kinæsthetic registers to intensify hysteria and communicate shivaism in its brand, particular, to the trading-route town.

Lord Siva phallo-lingam, and theologico-lingam in psychosexual cultural paradox sat innocuously in my schoolboy mind as I relished a repast of curry, rice, dhal, bhaji, garnishes of pickle and salad, lassi, mango, and vibrant polychrome sweetmeats. A digestif  paan was out of the question because the boarding school staff would spot the evidence, with disciplinary consequences.

No tensions here. Just appetite and icon.

Mercury

It is not irreverent to mention my last but one text, the US Military Health Notice Mercury, which devotes its current issue to the Reproductive, Psychological, and Physical Welfare of Women staff, with special concern for women deployed in unfavourable environments.

The whole report gives me a great appreciation for the philosophy, public health, and operational health to promote the welfare of women, and families in their total life of deployment and civilian setting.

I recalled Mme Dunel's récit ut supra.

Mme Julie Clarini

Mme Clarini concluded her Le Monde des Livres review with this citation 

..comme une signature érotique sur son propre corps..

The icon of Lord Siva has its poly-registers in bustling India, and certainly, colourfully, in my schoolboyhood.

What then is the cultural heritage of an integrated Hindu eroticism for my persona?

Eroticisation of Words

Fais-moi Jouir

..montrer doux, attentif, attentionné. Egalement sauvage et fougeux, mais toujours avec respect.

Éditions Salaria

Kindle eBooks

Undated

Words

I was struck by the unforced eroticisation of the words in this passage. Every word is charged with sensual appeal. What economy of diction here. How amply secured its purpose.

My grateful acknowledgements

Éditions Salaria

Kindle eBooks

Le Petit Robert 

Édition 2015

My Journal A Pedagogy of Desire

CFUR81 folios 92-94

Khajuravahataka

Reading

His Excellency Shri Pranab Mukherjee, in his Republic Day address to the Nation, extolled the culture of reading; reading to expand one's mind, and creativity; a quest of learning from the rich heritage the Nation has to offer.

The President often includes quotations from the classical texts in his addresses.

The City of Date Palms

Khajuravahataka holds out a mysterious enigma of silence. Almost nothing is known about the intellectual exchange that attracted Faiths with their scholars and ascetics, to this early mediæval city, and bequeathed such a portrayal of corporeal effervescence.

My Sketch

I executed a quick sketch in terracotta air-drying modelling clay, shown in my photograph, for this is one of the best ways of studying the idiom of the stone carvings, in the hope of coming closer to the hermeneutic of these artists and the cultural climate of their day.

A Bather's Sari

Those who know the rich text of Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC and Shri Ragu Rai, will at once recall the image of the bather, freshly emerged from the nulla in which she has bathed with her gold-violet sari, the wet fabric clinging mysteriously, crinkling and defining a fascinating physique, an ephemeral vision soon to be dissipated by the sun which dries the veils in a few minutes.. as Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC describes poetically, an evanescence imitating the mysterious fading away of the intellectual foment of The City of Date Palms.

A UNESCO Heritage Site

The City of Date Palms, in its modern name Khajuraho, stands as a world heritage site, the patrimony of its intellectual and artistic flourishing belong to all, but, importantly, what does it mean to give the cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community.. according to the UNESCO Convention of 1972?

Le Ramayan de Tulsi-Das

Madamme Charlotte VAUDEVILLE in the 1977 UNESCO Series on India translated and introduced the version of the Ramayana by Tulsi-Das, and a lovely line from The Hospitality of the People of the Forest (II. 249-251) is rendered

Les gens de bien acceptent les dons faits avec amour!

How did the hospitality of the forest communities stimulate scholars, travellers, ascetics, artisans, scribes, and whoever else, to give us the wonders of Khajuravahataka?

The Hymn of Vespers

Two evenings ago, when I was studying this subject and making my notes, the office hymn of vespers was

Plasmator hominus, Deus..

LHIII:699

My grateful acknowledgement to

The President of India's Notices

Khajuraho

Monsieur Loius FRÉDÉRIC Shri Ragu Rai

Éditions Didier 1991,

Laurence King Publishing 1992

UNESCO Convention 1972

Le Ramayan de Tulsi Das

Madame Charlotte VAUDEVILLE

Paris Société d'Éditions Les Belles Lettres

Collection UNESCO D'Œuvres Représentatives Série Indienne 1977

Liturgia Horarum Vol. III

Vera devotio

Vera Devotio

Vera devotio..exornet ac condecoret..

LH III:1149

True fidelity adorns and beautifies.

I love Saint Francis of Sales imagery of the honey bee that collects, harvests, without harm to the flower. The honey bee, a symbol of communication, doesn't call attention to itself so much as to the elegance of its industry.

HH Pope Francis proposed the Family as the model for Social Communications. World Social Communications Day was observed January 24.

The Family

Monsieur le Président François HOLLANDE recently suggested three elements of the Family

• solidarité de la famille
  
• le respect
  
• la transmission

School

Related to the notion of Family, Monsieur François HOLLANDE pointed to a belief in what a school signifies

• le progrès
  
• le savoir (Ensemble de connaissances..)
  
• la connaissance (Fait, Manière de connaître..)

and, further, in another allocution, he attributed the assets of Francophony to

• la formation
  
• l'éducation

Allocutions

The allocutiions of Monsieur François HOLLANDE are distinguished for their research, and are part of the European Patrimony. They carry the stamp of a cultured depth associated with France.

Masculinities

In my study of Masculinities, I came across a fine work by Abdessamad Dialmy 2009 Vers une nouvelle masculinité au Maroc.

Father

Today, the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, HH Pope Francis in the General Audience presented a catechesis on The Family.

The Holy Father focused on the rôle of Father.

Sadly, it is a mark of the times this important rôle is eroded, or entirely absent, and the consequence for human development, in particular, of boys, is unfavourable.

We are encouraged to protect, and promote the rôle of Father in our Global society.

Vera devotio..exornet ac condecoret..

LH III:1149

True fidelity adorns and beautifies.

My grateful acknowledgent to

Liturgia Horarum Vol. III

Vatican News

Elysée Notices

Vers une nouvelle masculinité au Maroc. Dialmy, A 2009

Le Petit Robert Éditon 2015

Mortal Flesh

Sileat omnis caro

Prophetiæ Zachariæ 2,17

silere, be still, be silent; cease, say nothing about..

The Liturgy of Saint James expresses

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

Translated G. Moultrie

The English Hymnal 1933, 1970 H.318

This was the Liturgy Reflection for the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin November 20, a day of prayer and support for the Consecrated Life.

At the close of November, the first Sunday of Advent, The Year of Consecrated Life opens.

Yesterday Saint Augstine remarked in the Liturgy of the Readings

Cantet canticum novum,

non lingua sed vita

LHIV:1370

Mission et du Témoignage

HE Monseigneur Cardinale André Vingt-Trois, that trusted Pastor of the recent Synod, encouraged

L'alliance de la mission et du témoignage s'addresse á la liberté des hommes, et de cela nous ne sommes pas maîtres.

Nous annonçons que l'amour est un don définitif..

Le Figaro lundi 20 octobre 2014

Monastic Ideals

..it is the essential monastic ideals of asceticism and otherwordliness and fidelity to the Rule that are important matters, for it was these that gave it [monasticism] its spiritual independence, its powers to resist the pressure of its environment and to initiate movements of religious reform.

Mediæval Essays

Dawson, C (1889-1970)

1954, 2002

Irrigans Terram

Today, the Solemnity of Christ the King, in the psalmody of Lauds

..et sicut imber irrigans terram.

LHIV:476

Psalmus 71,6

Greatful Acknowledgement

The texts cited in this post

Vatican News

Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio

Blogger

Geisha

Gei

Gei, the term for the arts should be here understood in the Far Eastern sense: the arts cover everything that is of value for the development of a person's character, for bringing the inner self nearer to perfection, for developing craft skills alike, and thus in helping the person attain full maturity.

Professor Horst Hammitzsch Zen in der Kunst der Tee-Zeremonie 1958

English translation Lemesurier, P 1979

Gei Sha

Gei art, Sha person

In her book The Japanese Art of Sex Jina Baccar suggests this interpretation of the term geisha.

In the discovery of what is sensual around me, this authoress offers these pointers

Form

Speech

Texture

Colour

Ritual

Ceremony

Playfulness

Seduction

Creating the exquisite.

The Japanese Art of Sex

Boccar, J 2004

Exploring

My acrylic assembles an oblique exploration of these Japanese treasures.

Grateful Acknowledgement

The two texts cited in this post.

Geschmackssache

Context

Since getting my Macbook Pro Retina 13”, and installing a library of iBooks, four texts, in particular, have inspired me to reflect on the delicate topic of masturbation.

The four texts are

Mach’s Dir!

Niederwieser, S

Translated Miller, D

2012

Osez .. la Masturbation

Dole, A

2012

Diario Erotico di un Ragazzo

Dialoghetto sul Sesso Solitario

With two graphics by Lorenzo Ridolfi 2008

Aretino, A

2012

Sexual Health

Forty years ago the WHO articulated this definition of sexual health

The integration of the somatic, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of sexual being, in ways that are positively enriching and enhance personality, communication, and  love.

WHO 1974

Psychological Cock Care

With this graphic concept, Herr Niederwieser rehearses the spirit of the WHO Declaration. Here, before going on, I must pay tribute to Mr David Miller’s masterly translation of this lively text.

Never be bored again by the basics, encourages the author. He asks, What feels limiting?

This candid, yet manful text offers a sense of boldness in self-gratification (the preferred synonym of the author), and this in turn points to psychological satisfaction.

Un Rapport Personel

M Antoine Dole encourages

..développer un rapport personnel et singulier avec la masturbation, au rythme de nos envies, et désirs..

He offers the sexual practice displays four basic elements

Le rythme

Le Contact

Le Dynamique

La pression

Three of the four elements, though important in M Dole’s model, are unremarkable, or obvious.

The notable element le dynamique, is intriguing

rapport, écart  entre les niveaux extrêmes (du plus fort au plus faible) d’une grandeur physique

Le Petit Robert

Edition 2015

Perhaps one ought not to take unremarkable to insinuate expendable, thus, I appreciate

Rythme, caractère élément harmonique essentiel; mouvement général (de la phrase..), mouvement régulier, allure, vitesse..

Contact, latin racine tangere, toucher, position, état relatif de corps qui se touchent

Pression, du latin pression, famille de premere  ‘presser’ force qui agit sur une surface donnée; action de presser; (Abstrait) influence

op cit

The Aretino Texts

Signore Aretino’s texts, in traditional Tuscan meter, have kaleidoscopic imagery of this passage to manhood.

His topic, he says, is the most liberal and most widely indulged of sexual practices, yet attracts distinct public shyness.

The evolving neuro-circuitry of adolescence is quite unready to reflect or to philosophise over so imperative a sexual practice.

It is not meant to.

The craft of Signore Aretino’s canvas affords an adult reflection over a past boyhood, redeeming, in a delicate way, suggestion and explanation for hastily consumed sensation.

Geschmakssache

In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung den 12 september 2014, Herr Jürgen Dolasse presented an absorbing account of a cuisine of authentic taste; appreciating terroir of produce, unalloyed

..de terre considérée du point de vue de ses aptitudes agricoles

Le Petit Robert

Edition 2015

A related point: M Alain Ducasse Plaza Athénée Restaurant Paris will offer simpler cuisine with an emphasis on naturalness, less meat, cream, sugar with the philosophy: the humbler the product,  the greater attention it merits. Saturday Telegraph September 6.

I looked at a French page, and noted a subtle difference in emphasis of M Ducasse's announcement from that presented in the English paper.

Beati Mites

Mites, ripe, mellow, soft, mild, gentle.

In the context

Beati mites.. quoniam ipsi heriditate possidebunt terram.

LH IV:174

Is self-gratification the handmaid of ripeness, mildness, gentleness?

Psychological Satisfaction

..the integration of the somatic, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of sexual being..

WHO 1974 Declaration on Sexual Health

Metaphorically, then, the models for self-gratification, of the four iBooks’ Library texts; the sense of appreciating the Geschmakssache, the terroir; and the handmaid of ripeness, in the imagery, augment my grasp of this sexual activity, and its psychosexual inspiration for my persona.

More Intimately

Herr Niederwieser asks why do males not invite candid sharing of masturbatory technique, as they might with modern digital gadgets? Eerhh.. well.. surely males can pay for a sexual coach to get this?

Why shouldn’t there be a relaxed exchange?

Of course, there is no real reason why not.

In my case, those who want to help me enjoy such an uncomplicated mode of sexual pleasure, are most welcome to offer me their findings and research. Perhaps these potential sharers need to appreciate one intimate physical characteristic: I am circumcised, and was so in infancy.

Circumcised males employ techniques which differ from their uncircumcised fellows.

There is nothing competitive between the two groups. The net pursuit is uncomplicated pleasure, and bonus for psychosexual nourishment in the spirit of the WHO Declaration.

Grateful Acknowledgement

To the Texts mentioned in my post.

The images are my own.