Author, artist, designer and neo-Renaissance Hermeticist. I like to consider that creative activity should aspire to the condition of talismanic magic. Other methods are possibly equally as effective, although perhaps not as cool.
When in the 16th century the philosopher Giordano Bruno suggested that space was infinite, it was added to the charges of heresy brought against him in Rome by the Inquisition. Heresies have a way of casting shadows of doubt across the comfortable worlds which we create for ourselves. This weblog is about those shadows, and about the ways in which the heresies of one age can become the self-evident truths of the next (clicking on the image will take you to him). ~ Hawkwood (David Bergen)
From our distant past to mysterious futures, from sirens of the seas to contemporary sorcery: ancient myths, prophesies and oracles can all be found on What The Fire Said, the online portal which features my own art and writing (right click opens a new tab).
What The Fire Said: Featured Painting
Sappho Plato called her the Tenth Muse, and she was widely regarded as the greatest poet of her age. Only a few of her writings have survived, but even if all that we had of the writings of Shakespeare were a few scattered passages from Hamlet or The Tempest we still would recognize his greatness, and so it is with Sappho. (right click opens a new tab)
So, why do I write this blog? Click on the image and you can read about what drives me and what my own attitudes to these subjects are. For new visitors, this post will serve as a general introduction to these subjects, and my regular visitors can see an overview of some of the posts which typify what this blog is about.
Did you know that the word ‘heresy’ simply means ‘choice’? From God to magic, from death to doctrine: my short Pocket Guides offer brief surveys of these and other subjects. Just click on the above image or page link – and I’ll be adding new Guides periodically.
This image has now spread over the Internet, but who is this mysterious female alleged to be an alien, and where did this image come from? If you have come across this picture elsewhere on the Web, the answer may surprise you..
In the remote woods of northern California a film shot over fifty years ago captured what appeared to be an unknown biped. The creature, known widely as Bigfoot because of the huge size of its tracks, has drawn both fascination from those who believe in its existence and skepticism from those who call ‘hoax’. But the truth, as always, is less than clear-cut, and reveals as much about our attitudes to the Unknown as it does about the creature’s possible existence.
Matthew, Mark, Luke ...and Mary?
It has become an established tradition to assume that the unnamed ‘beloved disciple’ of John’s gospel is John himself. But the gospel’s author is unknown, and unresolved discrepancies in its text can only be made sense of by presuming another identity for the ‘beloved disciple’.
An Idea
An idea, once it has taken root, can be more resilient and more powerful than the truth.
David Bergen
21st century
The Woman in the Wall
Why would a woman allow herself to voluntarily be walled up in a small cell with no way out, not for a fixed period of time, but for the rest of her life? In the 15th-century Sister Bertken of Utrecht did exactly this. What became of her, and what can we learn from her remarkable story?
Mary of Egypt: A Heart in the Wilderness
What would drive a woman to live a life of extreme privations in the unforgiving Jordanian wilderness, not for months, nor even for years, but for almost five decades? The life of the recluse known as Mary of Egypt is as much a story of radical survival as it is of faith.
The Truth
THE TRUTH IS SCARY
Anonymous roadside graffito
21st century
On Being the Opposite of a Moth
There's a dark knight, swooning heroines, and sea monsters aplenty on my other weblog. Clicking on the image will take you there (right click opens a new tab).
Sophia's Mirror
Sophia’s Mirror reflects all creation, is the source of all things. Emma's weblog is about the discoveries which can be made when we look into this mirror, and the encounters through art, writing and poetry which allow us to glimpse the oneness behind the many forms reflected there.
Sophia's Mirror: featured post
INVOCATION Written by Emma Bergen both as a prayer and a blessing for all women who are oppressed, in whatever form that oppression might take, my new video is set to the haunting music of the 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen. (Right click opens a new tab.)
Faith
Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.
Miguel de Unamuno
20th century
The Mystic Marriage
Jesus is arguably the most influential person in recorded history. How might Jesus himself regard the religion which has been founded and practiced in his name, and what might he now wish to say to us about the true reasons for his earthly ministry?
It's Real! It's Fake!
A small fragment of papyrus appears to indicate, not only that Jesus was married, but that his wife Mary was also his disciple. Is it a fake? We might prefer to think so, but what if the line between what is fake and what is authentic turns out to be rather less defined than we had imagined?
Approaching the Light
The closer we approach to the light, the larger the shadow that we cast behind us. David Bergen
21st century
The Mermaid of Haarlem
In the 15th-century in the north of Holland a woman was found in flooded farmlands. Naked, unkempt, and lacking human speech, she was taken to the city of Haarlem to begin a new life as a good Christian citizen. But what were her true origins, and what does the way in which she was treated say about her good-intentioned rescuers?
Jesus in India
Except for the last two years we know almost nothing about the life of Jesus, what he did, or where he was: some eighteen years of his life are a complete unknown. How likely is it that in these many missing years he might have journeyed beyond Galilee to follow the Silk Road eastward?
Readers who are return visitors here will have noticed my new blog header, which portrays Eve with the apple. But is it really Eve? And if...
The list above is generated by the posts which visitors are currently reading.
Isis in Paris
Can a goddess endure in a city in which her temple once stood? An archbishop had a statue of her likeness destroyed, but signs of the presence of the goddess Isis continue to surface in Paris. Could there be a connection between the goddess and the terrorist events of our own time?
Empires of Sand, Empires of Dust
The beautiful and cosmopolitan city of Palmyra once stood at the crossroads of empires, and Zenobia was its queen who dared to defy the might of Rome. The Roman Empire is no more, and recent events might yet reduce Palmyra to rubble. But can any empire or belief outlast its fate?
The Most Erroneous Stories
The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question. Stephen Jay Gould
20th century
Eve's Story
The serpent, the Tree, the temptation: we might think that we know the story of the Fall. But supposing that things in Eden were not quite as they seem? Supposing that the story as we read it in Genesis turns out to be the thinnest of surface layers covering a meaning far deeper?
Lilith: Spirit of the Night
The first two chapters of Genesis tell two different versions of the creation of the Man and the Woman. In the first chapter the woman is unnamed. Was there a first woman before Eve was created? If so, who was she, and what became of her?
Lies sometimes become true if they are told well. The huntsman Grégoire de Fronsac in Stéphane Cabel's screenplay of Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. André Gide
20th century
Adam: The God who Failed
What if we were to find a version of the story of Eden that was radically different from the Genesis version? And what if that story were much older, and therefore closer to the original source?
The Enlightened Insight of the Woman
Supposing that in the story of the Fall in Eden no blame is laid at the feet of the Woman? And supposing that version of events has actually been written, but has been suppressed for centuries?
In Arcadia
'And I also am in Arcadia'.
A Latin phrase encountered in various works of art and as an inscription found engraved upon tombs. The meaning is disputed, but it is generally taken to imply that death is encountered even in the most idyllic of places.
REVELATIONS: The End of Time
The Book of Revelation by John of Patmos is a book of visions. By turns wondrous, nightmarish and bizarre, it describes the destructive end of the world and a new beginning. John's visions read like reports from other realities, and have inspired artists from Dürer to Turner. My own interpretation features the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Number of the Beast and the Whore of Babylon, set to the music of Nagual Art. Clicking on the image takes you to my video on Youtube. (Right click opens a new tab.)
A Sighting
'Aye, we all see it, but that don't mean it's real...' Deckhand, on first sighting the white whale in Ray Bradbury's screenplay for John Huston's film version of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
20th century
The Fall
Albrecht Dürer: 'The Fall of Man'
16th century
Clicking on the image will take you to the post about this engraving on my other blog (right click opens a new tab).
Power
All things which are similar, and therefore connected, are drawn to each other's power.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
16th century
A Second Apple, a Second Eve
Limbourg Brothers: 'Eve in the Garden'
Eve willingly accepts a second apple from a very feminine serpent who, intriguingly, appears to be an identical twin of Eve herself. A painting from Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 15th century
All Things Must Pass
If the mythologies of today were once living religions, then the religions of today must be the mythologies of the future.
God, Single, Seeks Consort
Was God always a lone omnipotent deity, or is there somewhere a missing goddess who once ruled at his side as his equal?
From Bronze to Wood
Auguste Lepère: 'Eve - woodcut in two blocks after the statue by Auguste Rodin'. In this masterful print, one colour block is the dark lines of the statue, the second block is the background tint, with the highlight on Eve's shoulders being the white untouched paper on which the print is made. I recently spotted this print on offer on the Internet for $156. I bought my copy in a 2nd-hand bookshop for $15!
19th-20th centuries
Not All True Things
Not all true things are the truth.
Clement of Alexandria
2nd-3rd centuries
Anthony of the Desert: Life as Fiction
Is it possible to write a fictional version of someone’s life and then pass it off as a factual biography to serve one’s own agenda? It happened to the renowned hermit Anthony of the Desert, and the deception went unnoticed for centuries. But who would do such a thing, and why?
"Behold This Woman"
Strident anti-feminine passages from the letters of Paul urging a woman to be submissive have been taken as a nod of scriptural approval to keep women in a subservient role throughout Church history. But supposing that these particular letters turn out to be forgeries added later by an unknown hand?
Tertullian addresses all Women
Do you not know that you are Eve? You are the gateway of the devil; you are the one who unseals the curse of that tree, and you are the first one to turn your back on the divine law.
Tertullian, propounder of church doctrine
2nd-3rd centuries
Of what use is a Woman?
What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman... I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children.
Augustine, propounder of church doctrine
5th century
The Spiritual Power of Eve
And whereas the orthodox often blamed Eve for the Fall and pointed to women's submission as appropriate punishment, gnostics often depicted Eve - or the feminine spiritual power she represented - as the source of spiritual awakening. Elaine Pagels, professor of religion 20th century
The Essence of Resurrection
For the average gene it seems that males do the damage and females reverse it. The conventional image of females as the source of defilement is wrong. Instead, they are the essence of resurrection.
Steve Jones, professor of genetics
21st century
John Calvin's Tough Love
For the founder of Calvinism the peace of God is, it turns out, only for the Chosen.
Martin Luther's Final Solution
The founder of Protestantism's plans for social reform were considerably more disturbing than you might have realized.
Be Patient
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not now seek for the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke
19th century
The Birth of Eve
Solomon J. Solomon: 'The Birth of Eve'
Caressed by two supporting angels, the newly-emerged Eve rises from the flesh of a comatose Adam. We are left to guess whether her swooning pose indicates either the cathartic ecstasy of her creation, or the painful trauma of her emergence into the world. Perhaps these extremes of emotion lie close enough together for her to be experiencing both.
early 20th century
Clicking on the image takes you to a post about this and similar paintings on my other blog. Right click opens a new tab.
A Compassionate Existence
How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
Barry Lopez
21st century
Abraham, Isaac... and a Stressed-Out Ram
This particular ram is already having a really bad day. Enter Isaac and his father Abraham, carrying a knife..
Lot and his Daughters: The Inside Story
Faced with either selling out two guests or offering his own daughters up to be mob-raped, which option does Lot choose?
Magic
I wouldn't mess with magic, Son. Go and do something less dangerous, like playing with your dad's chainsaw.
Source unknown
21st century
Renaissance Snuff
A group of actors performs for their eager Renaissance audience a stage version of the Biblical story of courageous Judith and her beheading of the mighty Assyrian general Holofernes. But why was the principal actor bribed before the performance began? And if it was only a play, why was the stage covered in blood?
Forbidden Fruit
That the forbidden fruit in Eden was an apple has become an entrenched tradition. But the fruit in Genesis is not named. Centuries of artists have blurred the line between mythology and scripture, and Helen of Troy is closer to Eve than we might have thought. But if the fruit of Eden was not an apple, can we discover its true identity?
A Harvesting of Souls
It is entirely likely that one of your ancestors has recently converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons. But how could this be possible? Deep inside a mountain in Utah are the Mormon secret archives where millions of names are kept on file. But is it plausible or even moral to convert the souls of the dead?
The Secret Tongues of Angels
The entire basis of Mormon belief rests upon the claim that a single partial transcript made by the church’s founder is truly the language of angels. Purported originals written on gold plates have never been produced, and a photograph of the lost transcript is the only evidence for the claim. How well does this alleged language of angels stand up to scrutiny?
The Light of Angels
In angels, therefore, light is a shining intelligence diffused, an abundant joy beyond all bounds of reason, yet received in diverse degrees according to the nature of the intelligence that receives it. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
16th century
A Pensive Eve
Julia Bekhova: 'Eve'
The artist has posed her model, and arranged her composition, in the style of a Renaissance portrait, which gives this Eve an air of calm passivity. This in turn suggests a paradoxical indifference to the momentous act which is about to follow. Can we even imagine the fruit being raised to this pensive Eve's mouth?
20th century
The Only True Paradise
The only true paradise is the paradise which has been lost.
Marcel Proust
19th century
A Dark Crusade
Alarmed by the ever-growing popularity of the Cathar beliefs which side-lined his authority, the Pope launched a Christian against Christian crusade. The Pope’s intention was not to convert, not to win hearts and minds, but to exterminate. How successful was he?
A Fragment of Love
Where is the Church of Love? Is it a place that we can visit, and what is its doctrine? The idea that all are equal before God, and that our neighbour truly is our sister or our brother, did once exist as an actuality. But if this church is no longer, what happened to it, and what became of its congregation?
The Odyssey and the Book of Exodus are by tradition written by Homer and Moses. The first is a long sea voyage; the second is a journey through the wilderness. What at first might seem like two very different narratives turn out to have common themes. But why should this be so?
Coming of Age in Sparta
The story of the 300 Spartans who gave their lives to repulse the Persian invaders is the stuff of enduring legend. The military training which every Spartan warrior received was brutal in the extreme, but there was one aspect of Spartan society that Hollywood evidently could not handle.
The Nature of Victory
If you think only of winning, your victory will be more wretched than a defeat.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai.
18th century
The Butcher of Canaan
Joshua led his people into the Promised Land. But to those who already occupied that land, the Israelites were agents of chaos whose invasion had to be resisted. Did the bloody conquest make Joshua a man of honor or a butcher who gloried in slaughter? But did the Israelites actually conquer Canaan at all?
Joshua, Jericho, the Trumpets... and the Wall
The trumpets sounded, the wall came crashing down, and the key city of Jericho fell to Joshua’s victorious Israelite forces. Or did it? Supposing that the archaeology on the ground establishes that the wall had already fallen centuries before Joshua was supposed to have arrived there?
What Hurts You
What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.
Rumi
13th century
The Words of Jesus
Scripture is confident in giving us the actual words spoken by Jesus. But often enough the setting describes a situation when no one else was present to record what was said. How confident can we be of their accuracy, even of their authenticity?
Leaving the Cult
Sixteen hundred years after the purges by Christian orthodoxy, Gnosticism continues to be demonized by the Church. But supposing that it is orthodox Christianity that turns out to be the distortion, and that Christianity was itself originally Gnostic?
Eve Tempted
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: 'Eve Tempted'
How this fragile porcelain Eve struggles with her emotions! Her left leg apparently prevents her from reaching the fruit which she holds, as if her own anatomy is aiding her in her battle to resist temptation.
19th century
The Amarna Heresies
His wife Nefertiti was the most beautiful woman of her age, his son Tutankhamen would achieve immortality by a chance of modern history, and his reign would see an astonishing flowering of the arts. But the heretic king Akhenaten had made the priests of the former gods redundant. Could he survive to make things stick?
The Emperor and the Eye of Horus
In his drive to make his whole empire Christian, the Holy Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the closure of the last temple in the land where the gods of Egypt were still actively worshipped. But could the emperor really close the eye of Horus forever? Can humans really decide the fate of gods?
The Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
Voltaire
18th century
A Visionary Eve
Frank Wesley: 'Eve and the Serpent'
Here the artist provides us at last with a non-Caucasian Eve. Wesley's art conveys a strong sense of calm vision, apparent even in this modestly sized work. Eve's extended hand reaches for the fruit with calm acceptance, conveying the feeling that 'this was meant to be'. The Indian-born artist also designed the urn for the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi.
20th century
Victoriana
Jean Agélou: 'Eve Tempted'
The Fall portrayed as mild Victorian titillation, with Eve being tempted by a distinctly less than terrifying serpent.
19th century
In Heaven
In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
Friedrich Nietzsche
19th century
The Good Satanist
Satan famously tempted Jesus in the wilderness. But if no one else was present, how do we know what was said between these two ultimate adversaries? And can we be sure what was really on offer? More to the point: supposing Jesus had taken Satan up on his offer, how might things have worked out?
The Stone from Satan's Crown
As Cortez’ conquistadores swept through the New World, countless priceless artifacts were melted down as bullion or consigned to huge bonfires by the priests whose business was conversion of the heathen. But why did one fabulous stone strike such dread in the priest who was present? And what happened to this treasure?
A Fallen Ape
Ludwig Krug: 'Adam and Eve'
This sculpted plaque scores in its unusual inclusion of the ape in the scene, who also is clearly eating the forbidden fruit. The artist leaves us to speculate whether this simian therefore also fell from grace along with the transgressing Eden couple, and whether this in turn implied an unintended prefiguring of Darwin almost three and a half centuries before the theory of evolution was propounded.
early 16th century
The Harder You Fight
The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there's gold in letting go of them.
John Seely Brown
21st century
Eve's Mirror
Max Klinger: 'Eve and the Future'
The artist gives a uniquely original twist to the story by having the serpent present to Eve her own reflection in a mirror. One senses that with an awakening awareness of vanity, the apples on the tree are already ripe for the plucking, and the persuasive words of the silver-tongued serpent will barely be needed.
19th century
Later..
Artist unknown: 'It's God!'
A frame from a 'Stories from the Bible' comic, 1943, reflecting White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America to itself. The wavery words of God suggest a suitably deific grand echo. Eve, as we all know, is somewhat rash in presuming that one can hide from the Almighty...
20th century
In the Beginning
In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' and there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better..
Ellen DeGeneres
20th century
Eve and the Apple
George T. Tobin: 'Eve and the Apple'
An etching, classical in its simplicity, by a noted American illustrator.
early 20th century
Eve Repentant
Imogen Cunningham: 'Eve Repentant'
A sensitive photographic portrayal of the scene in Eden by an artist who was one of the pioneers in establishing photography as an art form.
early 20th century
More Fruit Than Before
'More Fruit Than Before'
The power of the Eden story is here reduced to the banality of a breakfast cereal advertisement. The message remains effective, and is demonstration enough of the way in which the story has become embedded into our culture.
21st century
What Is Within You
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.
The Gospel of Thomas
2nd century
A Veiled Eve
Frank Eugene: 'Adam and Eve'
A powerful study by another master of early photographic art. Eugene has here veiled the faces of his two protagonists, and so allows us to project our own thoughts about the likenesses of the Eden couple onto his two models.
late 19th century
The Greatest Tragedy
The greatest tragedy in life is not death; the greatest tragedy takes place when our talents and capabilities are underutilized and allowed to rust while we are living.
Amma
21st century
Dreaming Eve
Gustave Moreau: 'Eve'
In a deeply-wooded Eden a blue and ruby-winged serpent whispers sweet deception into Eve's ear. Eve is graciously framed by the golden arras of her long hair, and all around is dreaming silence. It is as if Eve has this still world completely to herself, and Adam, if indeed he exists, has become inconsequential to Moreau's intimate drama.
19th century
A Laptop Eve
IvyBee on Etsy: 'Eve and the Serpent'
A predictable visual pun as a decal for an Apple laptop. Charming and elegant of line, it nevertheless indicates a seeming contemporary underlying unease about committing seriously to the Eden story.
21st century
A Theme Park Adam and Eve
Installed as an animatronic exhibit in Kentucky's Creation Museum, the most astonishing thing about this particular Eden couple is that they were created by sincerely believing minds. How is it possible, then, that such motivated hands could produce an Adam and Eve whose appearance veers towards mere maudlin theme park-style sentiment? Adam's niftily-trimmed Beegees hairdo and Eve's 'one-size-covers-all' long hair nevertheless confirm that this scene was created by embarrassed post-Fall hands anxious to keep anything too revealing tastefully out of sight. 21st century
Against Logic
Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.
Laurence J. Peter 20th century
A Lofty Eve
John Coates: 'Eve and the Sin'
This decorative Eve has managed the unique feat of ascending higher into the tree than the sinuous accompanying serpent. From her lofty vantage point, Eve can now pluck the fruit at her leisure, and make her studied choice from the ripest available.
early 20th century
Losing Your Religion
If you follow your religion to the point where you lose your humanity, then by default you also have lost your religion.
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