“According to Aboriginal legend, emus were creator spirits that used to fly and look over the land. To spot the emu, look south to the Southern Cross; the dark cloud between the stars is the head, while the neck, body and legs are formed from dust lanes stretching across the Milky Way”. – ABC-Net Australia.
Last month we posted the Birthday Card we send to ‘likers’ (and dear friends) on our Facebook pages. I just made a new Birthday imaginary with elements from pictures I recently made in our garden added with one of the angels of the Stanford Hotel (left). The background is the sky of 6 AM this morning.
Sometime ago I posted an item about the Angels of the Stanford Hotel in our village. Just reflecting; that’s all. Sometimes memories fade away a little bit.
Last week I re-read the book ‘Doors of Perception’ of Aldous Huxley who experimented with hallucinating substances of the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) and later LSD. We do have peyote in our garden but never tried it but in 1970 somebody dropped LSD in my drink at a pop festival in Wychen in The Netherlands of all places and that experience I can still recall. There is no limit to your perceptions anymore; in my sub-conciousness doors kept opening to a world beyond the world we normally see, hear and feel.
After my photo-session with the angels last week it came all back to me and I also remember the angels I imagined 42 years ago while Ozzy Osbourne and The Dream (than a known Dutch pop group) were on stage.
I don’t know what you make of it but I made this imaginary:
Both imaginaries are inspired by this recent blog posting. The first, ‘Watching Angels’ is the pre-amble of the second ‘Guardian Angels’ and does not need any comment. On first sight I’m very fond of ‘Guardian Angels’, partly because of the symbols here and there in this imaginary, i.e. the dove as symbol for ‘peace’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ and the stork for new life to mention a few. On my way to the photo session with the angels I passed a fully neglected cemetery. Fully, not entirely for only one ‘poor man’s grave’ is regularly foreseen with fresh flowers… Respect for burial places is something I’m born with and to honour the past what else could I do than passing the message to the angels?
Both imaginaries are inspired by this recent blog posting. The first, ‘Watching Angels’ is the pre-amble of the second ‘Guardian Angels’ and does not need any comment. On first sight I’m very fond of ‘Guardian Angels’, partly because of the symbols here and there in this imaginary, i.e. the dove as symbol for ‘peace’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ and the stork for new life to mention a few. On my way to the photo session with the angels I passed a fully neglected cemetery. Fully, not entirely for only one ‘poor man’s grave’ is regularly foreseen with fresh flowers… Respect for burial places is something I’m born with and to honour the past what else could I do than passing the message to the angels?
Not mentioned in any known travel itinerary is the shop window in Stanford, South Africa. It’s in the main Victoria Street at the Stanford Hotel. It’s there where The Angel of Stanford resides. Every now and than ‘shebeen owner’ Penny van den Berg redecorates the windows with her ‘girls’. And that is quite a process of meticulous fitting the right dresses, the right wigs and the right gadgets for the right occasion. This week Penny is in heavenly spheres and all her thoughts are with angels. Her installations are a true art. She does not only use the windows but also the space behind thus also using the old shopping counter and the cupboard behind. From her childhood onwards Penny has been collecting dolls in all sizes; from a tiny Swedish ‘Pippie Langkous’ to life-size fashion dolls. And there is something more to it as well; every time when a known villager passes away Penny adds a candle behind the window and this candle, accompanied by a picture of the deceased, will burn until after the funeral. For all on a road trip in South Africa and co-incidentally in the area it’s worthwhile to take a turn into Stanford. After about 1 kilometer the window is on the right.
Herman van Bon Photography 