What can I say? The ineffable Maria Popova has done it again. Thru a random encounter with a kindred spirit to, again, finding ‘divinations’ in what she reads – in this case, science papers.
The power of poetry
As I said before, I regularly read Popova’s Marginalian newsletter. Her writing has an almost mystical, spiritual quality for me. She brings together all the different ways writers and musicians have struggled and articulated what it means to be human, weaving together a touching and thoughtful narrative.
She’s also has some books, and urns to make you think, and, related to this post, a whole book on bird divinations.
She’s particularly enamored with the Blue Heron, to me, her spirit animal. And, if I recall, she took Audubon’s bird descriptions to build poems overlaid on the bird’s illustrations.
Sublime in the ordinary
Popova’s lastest, is a chance meeting with Willow Defebaugh leading to another string of divinations, this time based on scientific papers. They now have a Substack where they are sharing their divinations (of course, I signed up!). See two divinations on this page, to whet your appetite for more.
Each weekend since the day we met, we have been taking one science news article and letting the words in it come loose, come alive, arrange themselves into whatever the unconscious wants to say to the mind, then exchanging what emerges: poems, koans, subterranean currents of thought and feeling that over and over surprise us, invite us into deeper conversation with each other and with ourselves, delight us with what staggeringly different things two minds can make of the same material, yet how kindred in underlying spirit. – From: Reweaving the Rainbow: Divinations for Living from the Science of Life – The Marginalian
Sublime realism
I too have a fascination with objects triggering a connection to the sublime. As a scientist at heart, the world around me is a constant invitation to delve deeper and connect with the sublime. Many of my maker projects are physical objects to connect with the sublime. My view of so many religious or mystical texts or objects are as ‘cognitive technologies‘ to elevate our mind to the wonder and awe of the sublime (for a mind-bending example, see Harry Potter and the Sacred Text).
I’ve been meaning to explore this thread more, but other threads have gotten in the way.
For now, sign up to get these new divinations, subscribe to Marginalian to expand your soul, and start practicing your own divinations.
