Images of the Gnostic Centre & Ruben's Adventure - Toronto
Hello All,
This is a two-part blog:
1) Images of the Centre
2) Ruben's Adventure
Pictures with explanations are below... if the picture show bores you, stay tuned all the way to the end, because Ruben's adventure is quite a sight to see!
Enjoy,
Jordan
1) Images of the Gnostic Centre
Flight of the Feathered Serpent - printed and laminated by Michael (from Berkeley), mounted and put up by us. Being looked at by me...
Adam putting up a little St. Francis statue in the café
There's St. Francis with the birds. Has anyone seen 'Brother Sun, Sister Moon'?
A Da Vinci painting
Peter and Mary on top of the lightswitch box at the front of the Centre
The back corner in the main room of the Centre - we stored some chairs here while we were finishing up installing the trim in the back hallway, but usually there are cushions out here, because we just put up these shelves which will transform into a library. We put out whatever books we had already at the Centre there, but there will be plenty more to come in the coming days...
Close-up of The Last Supper from that back corner
The other painting back there. It is the scene from the Garden of Gethsemane
Our triptic of paintings on the brick wall...
Ascending the Ladder
The birth
The Transfiguration
Michael (not from Berkeley), waiting to go up somewhere
St. George & the Dragon on a decorative piece of wood.
And of course no Centre is complete without the Esoteric Pentagram, but I don't have a picture of it here to show you unfortunately...
2) Ruben's Adventure
After the Self-Discovery Course last week, a student came back to the Centre after having left, asking if we had a shovel or something with which to scoop out his keys, which he had dropped into a puddle. At first I thought that's strange (i.e. why would you need a shovel), but then when I came outside to look myself, I saw that because the temperature had dropped and much of the snow had melted, there was literally an endless puddle of dark flowing ice water and snow under the cars on the street, deep enough that it was up to just above the ankles when you mistakenly stepped in! All of us jumped into the mix to help find those keys which were dropped right in there. I had a feeling that they were in this particular spot under a big 4x4 car, but no matter how much we scrapped away with brooms, shovels, etc. (note that because of the ice the water was actually freezing), we just couldn't find it. So we called in Ruben...
Everyone helping out in vain... Interestingly, every time someone new ventured out to help, they were sure they could get the keys - but no one could do it.
So here we have Ruben who through his own initiative had Jenny and Dara tape recycling bags with painter's tape onto Ruben's legs, so that he could better brave the cold and actually walk around in there to see if he could feel the keys.
After about half an hour with everyone out there, it was time to give up. Marco called his landlord (at a really late hour!) to see if there was an extra key, and we arranged to give him a lift home.
But wait...
It's a bird.. .it's a plane ... it's
Ruben Caballero! Here he is double-bagged and this time, with the arms too so that he can feel around with hands and legs.
And within minutes, there he is with the keys! Turns out they were exactly where we thought, but we just needed that extra effort on behalf of Ruben to actually retrieve them...
The hero gets a coffee, tea, or hot chocolate with which to warm up...
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Lookin' good Toronto... and
Lookin' good Toronto...
and Ruben...
Sadly, I don't think you'll still be wearing your super hero costume when we visit next... hmm, but I do have an extra set of keys...
Way to go Ruben :) Jordan,
Way to go Ruben :)
Jordan, those are great choices of paintings.
There's a funny story about the esoteric pentagram you mention, a while back when I was first taking up the AP course, I was going to visit my biological mother. I entered her apartment (she always makes sure I have a key to her place), and woke her up from a nap, she was stunned when I awoke her and looked relieved. She explained she had dozed off and dreamt she saw a flash of light outside the window, like lightning, then she said there was a dark figures stretching out her legs. Then she looked over to the other side of the room (across from the window), and she said there was this "thing," like a being, hunched up in the space between the top of the closet and the ceiling. She said it had features, but mostly just was like all "light." I asked her to draw it, and she drew basically a stick pentagram with a little loop for a head. Looked like maybe a stick version of DaVinci's man stretched out to the five points, you know? But she insisted that it was made of "light" and that she couldn't really describe how it had shape even though it was just pure light. That was long before I had ever heard of the solar man, or the pentagram, and my biological mother is the world's greatest unbeliever in such things.
Anyways, I swear I'm not trying to steal your blog here, just came to mind and wanted to share with you.
Best wishes
Just realized what the story
Just realized what the story about the keys reminded me of, this Monty Python skit.
Wondeful center decoration
Wondeful center decoration guys. So persistence is the key to find keys, thank you for this leson Ruben.
Awesome decorations guys!
Awesome decorations guys! You need to give us tips or where you find those. Is anyone doing up a list? I'm off to Spain soon and plan to bring lots of nice decorations for our center, so hopefully we can share some images too.
Ruben reminds me of papagino in the magic flute with his feathers...funny story...thanks for sharing.
Innovation and Persistance
Innovation and Persistance seem to be the key ingredients to success. Well done Ruben.
Thanks for showiing us the pictures of the pictures Jordan.
Jordan, It's amazing to see
Jordan, It's amazing to see how fast the transformation is going. Beautiful decorations you guys have!
Ruben, your picture gave me an excellent opportunity for a reality check, I coudn't beleive it's real!
Great job with the keys.
Persistence and innovativeness!
I didn't know there was
I didn't know there was going to be a blog about it when I put on those bags, lol.
It was very interesting everyone tried so hard to help find those keys, each person would come back in thinking of new ideas and plans to get the keys, here is a list of some things I saw people come up with: shovels, brooms, crow bars, hangers (to hook the key chain), buckets (to take out the water), magnets taped to the end of brooms (wasn't strong enough), Jenny stepped in, but got soaked. It really was a group effort when you think about it, everyone trying so hard together to help find his keys, there was lots of momentum, I just had to jump on it.
Please, nobody lose your keys in freezing cold ice-water, because I don't plan on dressing up like that again, in the near future. (Andy) lol.
Ruben
Interesting story Jim, and I
Interesting story Jim, and I used to love that skit which is very funny and insightful :-)
As for the prints - most of the images are just that, prints. If you find a picture in a good quality art book that you like (visit your library to get some if you don't already have them) you can take it to a print/copy shop like Kinko's and have them enlarge and photocopy to the maximum size possible without losing any quality. Then put it up in a frame and depending on how you cut it out and make a makeshift mat around it, it often looks like a professional print...
Then there's also always allposters.com, which tends to have good stuff at good prices every once in a while.
Jordan
Jim, thank you so much for
Jim, thank you so much for posting that skit, it make me crack up with laughter before my last stressful exam at school this semester, just what I needed,
Noah