Many years ago I was interested in German books about "power places". These books all start from the same hypothesis. They assume that in older times, there was a class of powerful people and organisations who knew the places with optimal landscape energy. That's where they built their castles and churches. So by exploring churches, castles, holy shrines and places of pilgrimage you can map the most energetic places in the landscape. This might look like this:
One of my favourite books from that period describes a project - nicknamed by the authors: the Rally Santa Maria - where two German researchers travel around churches all over Germany and locate the most powerful energy spots by using pendulums and dowsing rods. They document their findings in huge detail.
On a smaller scale, the same mechanism applies inside buildings. The placement of altars and holy relics inside churches is also governed by energy, ley-lines and directions of energy radiation. This might look like this:
Personally I don't believe in this mysterious landscape energy, but I'm a big fan of churches as places of contemplation and healing. So I have sympathy for this endeavour even though I'm not supposed to believe in pendulums and dowsing rods.
Irish webcam churches interpreted as the focus of the landscape
Since my discovery of the Irish church webcams I've been inspired to look at these churches from two viewpoints.
The first one is the traditional Catholic viewpoint of the the Real Presence of Christ, which I tend to feel most intensely in the empty church at night, when the only light in the church shines from the altar lamp. For me this is a deeply significant, almost mystical experience. And I feel it even through the medium of the webcam, in the night.
The second one is inspired by an experience during an Irish bus ride. When we drove past a church one of the older men on the bus made the sign of the Cross. This made me aware that the Real Presence was not only felt and acknowledged in the vicinity of the Tabernacle, but maybe from all places where the church was visible.
So, in the investigations below, I present the view of the church at night, and then I explore the visibility of the in the surrounding landscape. I try try to find the furthest places that are influenced by the presence of the church as their focal point. I hope you enjoy this exploration as much as I do.
"One moment of worship is worth more and spiritually more fruitful than the most busy work." - Pope John Paul II
During the winter holidays of 2020 I discovered the Irish church webcams. It was late at night after a long evening of browsing. I was immediately captivated by the spiritual atmosphere of these silent and calming pictures. Dark spaces lighted only by the altar lamp. The visible presence of Christ. Here I invite you to visit these places, especially at night.
In Catholic churches, the lamp of God is an oil lamp near the tabernacle that stays on as long as the Holy Sacrament is present in the tabernacle. The lamp of God bears witness to Christ's True Presence. Most God lamps have a red glass, to distinguish the lamp from other votive lights in the church.
The beauty of Eucharistic Worship is the atmosphere of a secret that is approached not with reason, but only with the heart, which is addressed by symbolic language. The atmosphere around eucharistic worship is one of benevolent silence and warm intense security. We are invited to bask in the sun of God's love. Remember the word of Jesus: "the Father in heaven who raises his sun over the wicked and the good, and makes it rain over the righteous and the unjust" (Mt 5).
Note: I (uair01) only have one CD of this artist (45 minutes from underneath the beds) so I have no idea how his other works sound. But the descriptions are exciting to read, even without the sounds. They stimulate the imagination. It would be a pity to let them evaporate on Facebook. That's why I saved a private list of the descriptions on this weblog (with permission of the author). My favorite is nr.41, the most recent one, because there are so many complex layers in this artwork: performance, urban exploration, etching, recording, object-making etc.
For the past few weeks I've written a piece a day on a work by King Leif. So far 25 works... have been detailed. And there's much more on the way. You ain't seen nothing yet as the Museum Elggren Collection is massive.
26 - Part Twenty-Six: The New Immortality #2 https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/973763282664836
27 - Part Twenty-Seven: In Sleep the Knives are Sharpened https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/974259545948543
28 - Part Twenty-Eight: If Other People Exist (they are totally sealed secrets https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/975472185827279
29 - Part Twenty-Nine: The Internationale https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/975900125784485
30 - Part Thirty: Jean-Philippe Antoine / Marcel Broodthaers & King Leif's 'Objet Métal Esprit' https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/976415599066271
Part Thirty: Jean-Philippe Antoine / Marcel Broodthaers & King Leif's 'Objet Métal Esprit' https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/976415599066271
31 - Part Thirty-One: Physiological Frequencies, Drawings from 2004 – 2009 at Gallery Niklas Belenius, 03.12.2009 - 07.01.2010 https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/976890889018742
32 - Part Thirty-Two: Experiment with Dreams by King Leif and Thomas Liljenberg https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/977318418975989
34 - Part Thirty-Four: The Codfish Suit by King Leif and Thomas Liljenberg https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/979266388781192
35 - Part Thirty-Five: 9.11 by King Leif and Thomas Liljenberg https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/979757802065384
36 - Part Thirty-Six: Ebola & Swedish Dreamers by King Leif and Thomas Liljenberg https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/980128972028267
37 - Part Thirty-Seven: Two Thin Eating One Fat by King Leif and Thomas Liljenberg https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/981933585181139
38 - Part Thirty-Eight: UGN / MAT by King Leif, Per Jonsson & Kent Tankred https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/982384418469389
39 - Part Thirty-Nine: The Sudarium of St Veronica by King Leif & Claude Mellan https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/982817078426123
40 - Part Forty: Tre Verksamma på 27 Plan [Three at Work on 27 Areas] https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/983271461714018
41 - Part Forty-One: Cu (Framförande XIX) – The light room / The dark room; can you hear it? https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/983825591658605
52 - 53 - 54 - Isola de San Michele (including Table of the Dead), The North is Protected II (Death in Venice) and Toteninsel (works by King Leif and King Carl-Michael with (a.o.) Jan Håfström, Marja-Leena Sillanpää, Tommi Grönlund, Petteri Nisunen, Anders Tomrén) https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/993677677340063
70 - 71 - 72 - 73 - Un Peu Comme Voir dans la Nuit // Movements in the Dust exhibition // LUFF Live Performance (w/ Emanuel Swedenborg) // RTS Emission Spéciale Radio show (all October 2013, Lausanne, Switzerland) https://www.facebook.com/sven.schlijper/posts/1006884662686031
Yesterday I found this booklet at the Rotterdam second-hand book market. It was a difficult decision because I knew it would be a disturbing read. It's about Catholic orthodoxy clashing with Nazi ideology. That's much food for thought for just two euros. Almost too much.
Summary
Irresistible force meets immovable object. Immovable object wins but leaves behind a knot that's hard to untangle.
Content
The book contains the Dutch translation of the Advent sermons cardinal Faulhaber gave in 1933:
The sermons were given in St. Michael's, the largest church in Munich, though crowds were so great that both the neighboring churches, the Studienkirche and Bürgersaal, had to be connected by loudspeakers. In the sermons cardinal Faulhaber declared that he could not remain silent against attacks on, "the sacred books of the Old Testament ... When racial research, in itself not a religious matter, attacks the foundations of Christianity."
A sample of contents
I have not read the book in its entirety but I scanned the contents and read about the historical context. There are clear, brave and (unintentionally humoristic) statements against Nazi ideology:
There is no reason for us to turn our back on Christianity and to start a Nordic-German religion for fear we cannot demonstrate our national identity in any other way. But we should never forget that: We have not been saved through German blood! We have been saved through the precious Blood of our Lord (1 Peter 1,9).
The sermons are moderately anti-anti-Semitic but that does not make them pro-Jewish. There are some quite disturbing statements based on Roman-Catholic orthodoxy:
After the death of Christ Israel was dismissed from the service of Revelation. They did not recognize the hour of temptation. They had repudiated and rejected the Lord's Anointed, had driven Him out of the city and nailed Him to the Cross.
And some statements could be read as prudish and slightly hypocritical, but entirely in-line with Roman-Catholic practice. But also slightly disturbing if read in historical context:
In recent months an iron broom has swept much immorality from our national public life and let's thank God for that. But still it would be Jewish phariseeism to want to thank God that we should be better than other races and that our big cities should be examples of virtue when compared with Sodom and Gomorrah. One thing is certain: The complete bible has no place in the hands of unripe school-youth. The S. Scriptures have been written for morally ripe people.
Opinions
As is to be expected opinions are mixed about cardinal Faulhaber. He took considerable personal risks by speaking out publicly against Nazi policies. But some historians argue that he did not speak clearly enough. He certainly took a stance against anti-Semitism, but some historians argue that he was held back by his Bavarian background, Roman-Catholic orthodoxy and "Realpolitik". That feels like a knot of history that will always resist untangling. For example, how should one interpret this fact:
Faulhaber supported ... the work of Amici Israël. He supported the group by ... admonishing preachers to steer clear of any statements that "might sound in any way anti-Semitic" ... its special aim was to seek changes to the Good Friday prayer and some of its Latin phrases like pro perfidis Judaeis ...
[Amici Israël] was dissolved in March 1928 on the decree of the Vatican's Congregation of the Holy Office on the grounds that its perspectives were not in keeping with the spirit of the Church.
Interesting connections
There is also an interesting link with other German resistance figures. Cardinal Faulhaber was a supporter of the orthodox anti-Nazi publication Der Gerade Weg (The straight path) published by Dr. Fritz Gerlich, who was arrested and later executed in a concentration camp. The history of this anti-Nazi newspaper is beautifully described in the book Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil by Ron Rosenbaum.
Recently I found this quote by Catherine Malabou. It echoes the inscrutable poetics of Jacques Derrida. The message is simple:
You travel to encounter the unexpected.
But the unexpected cannot be programmed, it can only arrive by chance, by its own volition.
So you have to make yourself available to the chance ecounter with the unexpected.
The corollary is that you don't need travel to find the unexpected. You can find it in your everyday surroundings. But you have to make yourself accessible. And that takes a lot of hard work, especially in the places you know best.
I interlace the quote with observations from my own daily surroundings at Rotterdam Central Station. Some small encounters with the unexpected while waiting for an appointment.
Note: If you replace "the unexpected" with "God" you are suddenly in line with Ignatian spirituality. But it is much more difficult to take photographs of an encounter with God.
A voyage ordinarily implies that one leaves a familiar shoreto confront the unknown.
The traveler derives or even drifts from a fixed and assignable origin in order to arrive somewhere, always maintaining the possibility of returning home, of again reaching the shore of departure. Travelers drift as far as their arrival, thus completing the circle of destination.
Within that circle there can and must be produced what confers on the voyage its sense and allows it to be distinguished from a simple movement or displacement, namely the event of the foreigner. In fact, the very thing one always expects of a voyage is that it will deliver "the other"-the unexpected, a type of defamiliarization if not adventure or exoticism.
One can always travel afar, but if there is not this sudden emergence of otherness, whatever form it may take, the voyage isn't accomplished, it doesn't really take place, it doesn't happen or arrive. The event that abducts the traveler's identity and allows an opening to alterity to become experience of the world in general must occur by surprise and remain incalculable.
But since this event is the condition of possibility of any authentic voyage, it obeys a type of programmed chance.
There is no true voyage without an event, no arrival without arrival. What must happen or arrive is the drift or deviation that allows the other to appear in the flesh. Every surprise, every digression, every errance comes thus to be inscribed, in truth, on the horizon.
Sources:
COUNTERPATH, Traveling with Jacques Derrida, Catherine Malabou and Jacques Derrida, Translated by David Wills, STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2004
I love jackdaws. They're smart (1), acrobatic (9) and funny (2). They look at you actively and it's obvious they have intelligence and personality (7). I like the way the stick together in pairs (2,3,6).
They operate in flocks but they're shy. That's why I have no good close-up pictures of them, they like to keep their distance. Sometimes they can be cute (4,5) and they don't seem to mind the rain (3). They talk a lot and I would want to know what they say. They know when you look at them and they don't like it.
I totally agree with Montaigne that they have a personality, and I think their intelligence is at least comparable to the intelligence of cats:
Montaigne tries to establish arguments in favour of the reason of animals. And he does so in order to counterbalance the arrogant human assumption of being, among living creatures, the only creature provided with a rational soul.
In this way, Montaigne lessens the distance of animal to man. He does so by allowing the animal a stance, a perspective of its own in the world. This is best captured in Montaigne’s famous saying: “When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her? We entertain ourselves with mutual monkey-tricks. If I have times when I want to begin or to say no, so does she.”
The jackdaws of my neighborhood are ever present but difficult to trace. When I cycle through my neighborhood they're everywhere, scavenging, flying, digging for earthworms in the lawns. But there is so much I don't know about them.
At dusk I see flocks of jackdaws flying southward. I see them congregating on the roofs of high-rise buildings. They seem to gather from all over the city, and then they fly off to some central spot. In winter this seems to be the Kralingen city park (Kralingse Bos). But where do they go in the other seasons? I once followed a flock on my bicycle and they seemed to gather on the roof of the Erasmus University. But is this always the case?
It seems that Descartes and Newton (?) very much disliked the idea of animal personality. And still today the Catholic Church formally maintains that animals do not have souls:
Unlike humans, who have spiritual souls, we know that animals have material
souls that cease to exist when they die.
But in recent times this stance seems to change, although (as always) much too slowly and much too little:
Biblical texts state that animals have the breath of life and were given it by God. In this respect, man, created by the hand of God, is identical with all other living creatures.
For example in Psalm 104 there is no distinction between man and animals when it reads, addressing God: " … Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth."
The existence therefore,' the Holy Father reminds us, 'of all living creatures depends on the living spirit/breath of God that not only creates but also sustains and renews the face of the earth.'
All animals are 'fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect' and they are 'as near to God as men are'. The animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.
I have a lot of respect for my local jackdaws. They are independent and self supporting. They acknowledge our existence, but they watch us with skepticism. They are not afraid, but they don't trust us. They live in their own world. Often our worlds meet, but they never coalesce. For us humans it's an exercise in humility.
The Caesar clothing store in the Karel Doormanstraat is modern, luxurious and surprisingly expensive. It is not unusual to see sneakers priced at 300 euros and t-shirts priced at 100 euros. Like the store says:
Caesar Donna is one of the leading stores in luxury fashion. A visit to Caesar Donna can be compared with a treat in superior service and a qualified shopping experience in a luxurious atmosphere.
Looking in their store window is a heady mix of curiosity, amiration, envy, and disgust. Some designs are sleek and elegant, others are pompous and overdone. All are expensive and all are optimized for conspicuous consumption.
Last April I looked in the store and saw this elegant combination. An interesting mix of cultural memes. Especially the t-shirt with black lace and the 19th-century engraving of some saint. A remix of modern club-culture with bourgeois religiosity. How had the designer arrived at this result? Possibly influenced by Latino gang-culture with their Roman Catholic symbolism? Or an echo of the modern popularity of the rosary? Would the owner of this t-shirt ever realize this cultural incongruity?
At that moment I was only thinking about the iconography. I never realized that the story was even more complex. But somehow the name of the saint stuck in my memory.
Later that month I was in Prague for private business. I also visited the bell-tower of the St. Nicholas church in Mala Strana. And there I met Saint Agatha again. But in a very different context.
Saint Agatha (+225 in Sicily). Patron saint of bell-founders. She was cruelly tortured for her Christian faith. Among the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts. The shape of her amputated breasts gave rise to her attribution as the patron-saint of bell-founders.
Now this is weird!
The picture of a martyr is put on a t-shirt designed for partying.
The picture of a saint whose breasts were cut off, is placed on top of the breasts of the wearer.
But it gets even weirder!
The saint on the t-shirt is not carrying breasts on a platter, like St. Agatha most often does. The saint on the t-shirt is carrying pliers and a palm branch.
St. Agatha is rarely depicted with pliers, as an indication of an even more gruesome torture (and even less suitable for a woman's t-shirt).
The saint most often depicted with pliers is St. Apollonia, the patron saint of dentists (obviously).
It is possible that the designer simply mixed up the saints. Or he didn't dare to put breasts on a platter on the t-shirt. Or he knew what he (she?) was doing and made a conscious ironic joke. We will never know.
This says something interesting about our culture. But I'm not able to put it into words yet.
