Billy and Diana - Philly Mascots

Something strange happened to me last week. I had been looking though some old research and I came across one of my favorite art objects in a photo.

There is the Augustus Saint Gaudens statue of the Roman goddess Diana that decorates the main hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I am of course aware of all the trials and triumphs of this statue as art and its ability to survive. It started out as a weathervane on the second of four Madison Square Gardens. The second Garden was actually right off Madison Square in Manhattan.

To make a long story short, this one time symbol and “goddess of Manhattan” got ditched when they tore the building down and it survived to become art in Philly. There is even an O. Henry short story, rather dated in language and understanding, The Lady Higher Up, in conversation between “Miss Diana” and “Aunt Liberty” in the New York harbor.

More boring details I will not talk about. But the strange thing is that when I looked at this statue, this work of art, and its setting in a treasure house of human culture, a museum I have many times visited, I slipped into the transcendent and felt spiritual and close to the Divine.

Art, and not pagan idol, touched something in me. The feminine road to the Divine was more pronounced in ancient, primitive, obsolete pagan cultures. Maybe that pathway should consider being reopened in the traffic jam of today’s uncertain global common culture.

I have to wonder how the world progresses that if some art might be a true pathway to the divine.

Speaking of superstition, there is the local Philly myth of the Curse of Billy Penn.

Curse of Billy Penn

The Curse of Billy Penn was an alleged curse used to explain the failure of major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall.

The curse was supposedly overturned by placing a small statue of William Penn on the top of the tallest building in Philly, the Comcast center at 975 feet, in 2007 just in time for the World Series Title in 2008.

Superstition, myth, religion – many times wishful thinking and self fulfilling prophesy.

In any case, in an ancient sense and in honorable titles, Statues, Art, are mascots, honorary gods, in a vaguely pagan parameter, at Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, the Quaker City.

God Bless Obama and America Too!

Forgive me – the above image has appeared overnight with a strange mixed message as to what it really means. The image has come out of and is being used in the Birther/Deather (Know Nothing) political movement currently in vogue in the nation’s thought flow. The image in any case does not represent love or respect. In the political arena there are no rules.

It is strange but I follow a troubled soul meter regarding the state of the nation.

Whether it be coincidence or the heat in the political atmosphere, the number of people who seek out and read my Number of the Beast Article goes up in days of political unrest.

My article I wrote in a sort of religious stupor over ten years ago in quest of a more personal and perfect spirituality over and above the mere religions and the attempts by men to touch the Deity, in spirit or in words.

Revelation 13:18 - DCLXVI - The Number of the Beast

The Beast is indeed in Town Hall Meetings these days!

When people are searching for absolutes they look for absolutes in the Bible. I long ago concluded that the Bible is a man made book, sometimes inspired by the Deity. The revelation of God through the message of Jesus is something over and above the rest where that divine message is so crudely recorded in that faulty history book of the Bible.

Over and above it being a very poorly written history book, the only other function I can see in the Bible is one of a road map. It may lead you to points on the map literally or points in your individual journey where you may be closest to a spiritual awakening or even come close to step into the presence of God – transcendent – as in a Transfiguration of your life, spirit and spiritual direction toward eternity.

The bible does not predict anything. The bible only holds the predictions of men.

In times of political unrest, the bible will not tell you anything about the vetting process of a nation that at times seems to be half angel and half demon. We lived for centuries as half slave and half free. I knew that the vetting process of this Presidency might be difficult, I could not predict the weird ways, and particularly for people in the traditional South to accept reality in a real life setting after the 2008 election.

The shouts of anger in the crowds in town hall meetings are becoming more openly racist and evil in its content. Time cures everything. The young are more flexible. The old and much of their ingrained hatred is a decade or two away from the grave.

I pray for my nation to be the best it can be. Should be. I rarely get what I pray for.

God bless the nation. God bless the people right or wrong. God inspire and protect.