Tag Archives: Art

Home in the Midst of War

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I am thrilled and honored to have a personal essay included in the recent publication of Coordinates, a digital multi-media magazine jointly published by World BEYOND War and The Sahira Collective. This beautiful magazine is full of powerful poems, artwork and essays by writers and artists from around the world, each reflecting on the notion of home and how it can become mangled and transformed, both physically and emotionally, during and after violent conflict.

My story entitled “A Glassful of Peace” describes my disorientation and loss of American identity soon after 911, my return to Egypt afterwards where I and my husband were living at the time, and our celebration of the Iftar feast with Mr. Mohammed and his family during Ramadan.

War not only unsettles, uproots, and even destroys the places we once called home. War can also bring our identity into crisis and upheaval. Coordinates is full of poignant and heartfelt stories and works of art that ask and attempt to answer difficult, yet very human, questions: What are our coordinates when home is violently torn away from us? And how do we redraw our place of being, peace, and safety in the aftermath?

You can also download the magazine here.

Coordinates Magazine World BEYOND WarDownload

Beauty as a Divine Imprint

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John
As an expression of beauty, awe, and awakening, art has always played a great part along our journey to our Higher Self. Throughout the world, holy places have been built to hold the polar tensions of spirit and matter, inner and outer space and light, as well as the community that shares the transcendent experience within the architectural space.

Assagioli noted that:

“Matter is the highest form of Spirit and Spirit is the lowest form of Matter.”

In this way, spirit seeks matter to express the full beauty of the transcendent. Assagioli also noted that Plato, Plotinus, and Christian mystics have recognized and proclaimed that “beauty is the essential attribute of the Supreme.” Continue reading →

Giving “Birth to a Butterfly”: Assagioli’s Feminist Patient

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Wall painting by Mina Loy, Peggy Guggenheim’s Villa, Pramousquier, 1923

In 1913, Mina Loy (1882-1966) was living in a rented villa in Florence when she found herself in a torpor and depressed. Her photographer husband had just set sail for Australia, abandoning her with their two children. A painter herself, she was artistically stalled and still mourning over the death of her first child who had died in infancy six years earlier.

Enter Dr. Roberto Assagioli!

Yes, Mina Loy – feminist, bohemian, poet, and playwright – was one of Roberto Assagioli’s first clients.

Over the course of her lifetime, Loy acted, wrote feminist and utopian tracts, created lampshades, and painted – including a lost portrait of Assagioli. Loy was born in London. Her mother was British and Christian while her father was a Hungarian Jewish tailor who had escaped Budapest’s antisemitism. Loy would end up having two husbands, four children, and several complicated love affairs. (More on two of these later…)

Continue reading →