Hijab Aesthetics and Mysticism
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Hijab Aesthetics and Mysticism
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge
Emergence
This project, fusing my fascination with mysticism and female centred aesthetics and spirituality, has at last been born having been first conceived in 2012 without being taken to fruition. It has re-emerged into this form from a comment I made on a news report about the views of a Muslim woman pictured wearing a hijab, leading me to remark on the aesthetic and erotic force of the Islamic women’s head covering, an idea that had crystallized for me on reading, in an erotic book the title of which escapes me, a perspective celebrating the erotic power of the hijab’s dialectic of concealment and revelation, further exemplifying the alluring potency of such a rhythm through reference to the incident from Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children presented in the body of this text.
In the course of listing the sources for the images of hijabi-hijab wearing women- pictured here, the references drew in a range of depictions of not only hijab aesthetics, but also of the sociology and politics of the hijab. These references span the hijab’s role as a locus of identity affirmations and power struggles, as demonstrated for example, by its use as a means of enforcing conformity to a particular kind of Islamic identity, its voluntary deployment in creating a form of Muslim character and its mobilization by a non-Muslim in identification with Muslims, the last example dramatized by Larycia Hawkins, the Black academic who left her job in the Christian university Wheaton College in the wake of the drama ensuing from her wearing a hijab to church and to work, demonstrating what she names “embodied solidarity”, projecting her understanding that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.
Within and beyond the drama of struggles of power for the self and power over others the hijab actualizes, is its enduring expression as an aesthetic strategy, a means of framing the self that readily lends itself to the explorations of various means of framing, the forms of such contextualization explored here ranging from the hijab’s amplification of the beauty of the human form to its evocation of the quest for the divine as a dance between concealment and revelation.
The goal of the visual and verbal exploration realized through this text is that of touching an archetypal ground, a resonating matrix that unifies humanity at its deepest levels through images and verbal symbols from the Islamic engagement with the feminine and the creativity of those inspired by this Islamic experience. In order to contribute to that effort of grounding within a specific social, artistic and cognitive reality and using that as a launching pad to explore humanity’s deepest drives towards ultimate meaning, some of the images are accompanied by texts, responding to the beauty or the ideas they project, or both, beauty and ideas dramatizing aspects of Islamic experience, in which context they speak profoundly to the human tapestry they help to weave.
A caged tiger had a dream in which the captive existence he found himself in was revealed to him by God to serve the purpose of having a particular man see him a particular number of times, and be thus inspired to place the tiger within a poem that has a precise place in the structure of the universe. “You suffer captivity”, the Holy One concluded, “but you would have contributed a word to the poem”. The tiger woke up, however, and forgot the dream, for the dynamism of the universe is too complex for the mind of a non-human animal.
Dante Alighieri, the man in reference, was at that moment enduring a challenging exile from his native Florence, making do with working out his existence in improvised conditions having been exiled by being on the losing end of a political struggle. He had a dream in which God revealed to him the reason for the bitterness of his life, leading him to bless his fate. Dante woke up, however, and forgot the dream, being left with the obscure sense that he had gained and lost something of infinite value. The ultimate direction of the universe is too complex for the mind of a human being.
The story of the tiger and Dante paraphrases Jorge Luis Borges’ “Inferno, I, 32” from The Floating Library.
Along similar lines, this essay and the actions that bring it about have a particular place in the structure and meaning of the cosmos, an orientation within a perhaps infinite web of permutations an aspect of which involves the various hijabi I have seen and the impact those sight have had on me, ultimately stimulating the birth of a new element into the teeming roiling of possibilities that come and go out of existence, a location within constellations of emergence that cannot be fully understood by myself or perhaps by any existent, and perhaps not even by a source of existence, if such a source is itself evolving, as one view claims....
“I came close, but I beheld you still veiled”, a paraphrase of a line from an Islamic mystical poem, suggests much about the aesthetic power and ideational resonance of hijab aesthetics.
Nigerian politician Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki
Photography by Victoria Cattoni. "Emma, Cairns Digital Photograph Giclee Print,2009". From the Re-Dressing the Veil project. http://www.victoriacattoni.net/re-dressing.htm. Accessed 11th April 2016.
In Salman Rushdie's novel, Midnight's Children, a man wins in marriage for his daughter the coveted hand of a medical doctor by convincing him to attend to illnesses she is supposed to be suffering from, but which, on account of religious modesty, can only be addressed through examining those parts of her body where the illness is supposed to be expressed, keeping the rest of her body covered during the medical procedure.
From Pinterest : The Beauty of Islam : https://uk.pinterest.com/4hijabisisters/the-beauty-of-islam/. Accessed 10 April 2016
This continues for a long time as the man is thereby discreetly introduced to different parts of her body while the mystery of the whole is retained, thereby subtly but deeply inflaming his male identification with this alluring but elusive personage.
Lisa Namuri photographed by Langston Hues. Source: Atikah Elhabsyi on Pinterest:https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/325455510547785287/. Accessed 10 April 2016.
This image of concealment and revelation is at the core of the eroticism of the human body and self and its mystical potential.
Source : Rahila Sadiq. "Different Naqab Styles": http://www.awomensclub.com/different-naqab-styles.php. Accesed 11 April 2016.
"Carol Earl, an Australian hijabi Muay Thai fighter" from Muslim Female Fighters. http://muslimfemalefighters.tumblr.com/post/77141004912/carol-earl-an-australian-hijabi-muay-thai-fighter. Accessed 15th April 2016.
From Pinterest : African Muslim : https://uk.pinterest.com/hajarslade/african-muslim/. Accessed 11 April 2016.
Mysticism, which may be understood as a quest for direct perception of or union with ultimate reality, often involves a progressive unveiling of the Ultimate, a tension between unravelling and hiddenness suggested by the Islamic mystical poem referred to earlier in the description of the Ultimate as encountered by the poet, its being depicted as veiled suggesting that its essence remains concealed, possibly because it is beyond even the most exalted human apprehension.
From " Match your makeup with your hijab" in GAYA Magazine. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/381398662164738909/
From "Dolce & Gabbana’s hijabs come in sheer georgette with lace detailing. Photograph: Vantage News" in " Dolce & Gabbana launches luxury hijab collection " by Aisha Gani in Guardian UK. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/07/dolce-gabbana-debuts-luxury-hijab-collection. Accessed 11th April 2016.
The human face, as eloquently suggested by the Yoruba expression, oju loro wa, translated by Pius Adesanmi in his essay translated by Pius Adesanmi in his essay "Oju l'oro wa" as "the face is the abode of discourse", an interpretation which may be adapted to mean, less literally, "cognitive possibilities are centred in the face", or, as presented by Stillwaters in "Yoruba Proverbs and Words of Wisdom" as "Words are spoken with the eyes", and by another source as "The Message is in the Eyes", by Holger G. Ehling in No Condition is Permanent: Nigerian Writing and the Struggle for Democracy as "communication is in the face", is the primary zone of human physical expression, a physical and epistemic centrality assured by concentration within one space, of the eyes, the foremost means of human perception.
From "Faces of the World" on Pinterest : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/4433299610355115/. Accessed 11th April 2016.
"All [people] by nature desire to know", states the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, "as evidenced by the delight they take in sight because it enables them grasp the differences between things", in the first line of his Metaphysics, one of the foundational texts of human knowledge, as he explores the question of how to arrive at the principles underlying the diversity of phenomena.
Photography by Sara Shamsavari. Source : Sarah Gilbert. "London Veil: International Women's Day - in pictures". Guardian UK.6 March 2013. URL : http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/mar/06/women-photography. Accessed 10 April 2016.
Aristotle’s perspective is reinforced by the emphasis in Yoruba thought on vision as a primary means of catalyzing human cognitive ability. This ranges from oju lasan,basic corporeal vision limited to the more obvious characteristics of phenomena, to oju inu, inward perception penetrating to the constitutive, defining nature of phenomena, also known as oju okan, "the minds eye”, a conceptual complex presented, among other sources, in Babatunde Lawal’s "Aworan : Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art".
From Pinterest. ". Wedding Abayas". https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/327355466635209790/. Accessed 15th April 2016.
These ideas belong to an ideational system operating in terms of a relationship between exteriority and interiority understood in metaphysical and epistemic terms. This outward/inward dialectic culminates in the Yoruba concept of ori inu, "the inner head", the ultimate embodiment of the individual's potential, grounded in the self's relationship with the source of existence, a metaphysics correlated with the aesthetics of the head and hair as demonstrated in Abiodun’s “Orilonise : The Hermeneutics of the Head and Hairstyles among the Yoruba”.
From Pinterest: The Beauty of Islam : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/476959416759898151/. Accessed 11th April 2016.
The Aristotelian and Yoruba conceptions are themselves reinforced by Anenechukwu Umeh's depiction in After God is Dibia : Igbo Cosmology, Divination and Sacred Science in Nigeria , of the epistemology of the Igbo Afa discipline in terms of the relationship between the cognitive duality and complementarity represented by ose naabo, corporeal vision, and ose ora, unified, spiritual vision that penetrates to the ultimate unity of existence.
Photography of Dexter Browne. "Lucy's Profile - A tribute to Gordon Parks. An image of Lucy shot as a tribute to Gordon Parks who photographed black muslim women inside churches during his career. This image reflects the talent and discipline that Parks conveyed in every shot"- Dexter Browne". https://www.flickr.com/photos/78619399@N00/332087309/. Accessed 11th April 2016.
Cyrus Ali Zargar in Sufi Aesthetics : Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn 'Arabi and 'Iraqi discusses a perspective exemplified by the Islamic thinkers, mystics and poets Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi and Fakhr al-Din 'Iraqi and emblematised by the Persian contemplative "School of Passionate Love", which understood divine beauty and human beauty as one reality, leading the Persian school to advocate the practice, controversial in Islam, of gazing at beautiful human faces. This aesthetic and metaphysical orientation is correlative with a heightened form of perception in which that which is seen and that which is deemed beautiful as encountered through the senses facilitates entry into the divine and supersensory, inspiring the use of erotic language in describing the divine.
Zones of perception evoked through photographic perspective. Then Nigerian Petroleum minister, Alison Madueke, middle, in Islamic dress on a visit to ex-Nigerian head of state Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar. From " Dieziani Allison-Madueke Visits Abdulsalami Abubakar In Minna - Politics - Nairaland". Nairaland.http://www.nairaland.com/2236637/dieziani-allison-madueke-visits-abdulsalami-abubakar. Accessed 30th April 2016.
These mutually reinforcing ideas from different cultural and temporal locations are further amplified by the presence in the physical head of four of the five sensory organs, the eyes, nose, ears and tongue, the senses being the primary means of human encounter with the world, the face also being a central medium through which the person's projection of self into the world is encountered, through speech, communicated through the mouth and through facial expression, which often expresses more than what may be verbalized or even depicted through explicit action.
"Woman in Indonesia wearing a hijab, looking to her left. Her magenta-coloured clothing is in colour while the rest of the photo is in black and white. In the background, a blur of people". Neil Niddle. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hijab_glance_back_Indonesia.jpg
Maimouna Guerresi’s description of her Hats-Minarets photographic series inspired by Islamic architecture and Islamic mysticism is correlative with these depictions of the apexical role of the head in the structural and cognitive configuration realized by human embodiment:
Photography by Maimouna Guerresi. "Minaret Hats" 2011. From the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_photography.php. Accessed 16th April 2016.
“For this work, I focused on the highest part of the body which is exposed "to the elements of life": the Head. I've covered and crowned it with a series of artifacts in the form of hat - minarets that I made in the traditional way. There is also an element of ritual, as the hats are made with simple materials and pieces of cloth, collected, put together and then stitched as is the tradition of the Baifall Muslim Sufis of Senegal who manually produce their own clothes. The hat minarets are tall and narrow forms of architecture with which I dress my characters. The figures in the photographs conceal their face with a hand gesture, are blindfolded or simply close their eyes. They seem to draw away from the world to get in tune with the cosmic spirit and divine. The hats are for me like castles or fortresses that protect the head but they can also be seen as an extension of the body, a type of receptive antenna or channel that lead and transmit spiritual energy. One of these pieces, I called Touba Minaret in memory of the minaret of the holy city of Touba.”
As further evoked by the suggestion of the head radiating into infinity in Maimouna Guerresi’s Lobla- Infinity Hat, shown directly below, “Maïmouna’s artistic choices and expressions continue to explore the different perceptions of ‘the body’ (as a temple of the soul) and its metamorphosis into the mystical, the metaphysical and the cosmic”, as described by Tasveer Journal in Syncretic Textiles : Maïmouna Guerresi.
"Lobna – Infinity Hat", 2010 in "Syncretic Textiles" at Tasveer Journal . July 20, 2014. http://tasveerjournal.com/2014/07/20/syncretic-textiles/. Accessed 15th April 2016.
Gambian woman from Pinterest : AgE - a BeautiFUL tHinG : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/489062840754484980/.Accessed 11th April 2016.
All these aesthetic, metaphysical and epistemic possibilities may be seen as mobilised and their further development suggested by the hijab as a crown for the head and an amplifier of the potency of the face, covering the head and isolating and emphasizing its visual centrality while the rest of the body is kept covered.
Maimouna Guerresi : " Adji Baifall Minaret, 2004, Lambda print, 200x90 cm. Her large colorful mantle, which I made with the help of other Sufi African women, consists of 99 individual pieces of hand-sewn fabric, representing the 99 names of God". "The Sufi Frida Kahlo Maimouna Guerresi’s Mystical Sculpture and Photography: in Muslima : Muslim Women's Art and Voices : http://muslima.globalfundforwomen.org/content/sufi-frida-kahlo. Accessed 11 April 2016.
New Collection Grey Extravagant Warm Shawl / Knit Warm Extravagant Scarf by AAKASHA A13108 Aakasha https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/174123925/new-collection-grey-extravagant-warm?ref=shop_home_active_6
The hijab may be seen as amplifying the suggestive force of the rest of the body by keeping it hidden, while emphasizing the radiance of the face which is revealed to the world, a dialectic of concealment and revelation that is at the core of the erotic force projected by the profoundly suggestive yet socially conservative character of hijab aesthetics.
From Pinterest : Beauty's In the Eye of the Beholder : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/390476230165290819/. Accessed 11th April 2016.
Jamie Pandaram FOX SPORTS May 30, 2014 10:19AMAussie fighter Carol Earl to wear hijab into Muay Thai world title shot against German Meryem UsluCourier Mailhttp://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/boxing-mma/aussie-fighter-carol-earl-to-wear-hijab-into-muay-thai-world-title-shot-against-german-meryem-uslu/story-fnii0bqi-1226936912390
From Piinterest : The Beauty of Islam : https://uk.pinterest.com/4hijabisisters/the-beauty-of-islam/. Accessed 10 April 2016
Imagine an Islam that celebrates the feminine without denigrating it through what are supposed to be means of protection, from the use of the hijab as an index of constriction of women's rights to the physically, psychologically and socially destructive culture of marrying children of below upper teenage years.
Photography by Sara Shamsavari. Source : Sarah Gilbert. "London Veil: International Women's Day - in pictures". Guardian UK.6 March 2013. URL : http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/mar/06/women-photography. Accessed 10 April 2016.
Celebrating the creative possibilities of the Islamic feminine aesthetic could contribute to the spread of this more humanizing form of Islam as well as enhance non-Muslim's appreciation of the faith.
"Fashion Style Hijab ". Wednesday, January 1, 2014 at New Fashion Style 2014. http://newfashionstyle2014.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/fashion-style-hijab-2014.html
Image above:
"Kholoud Essam takes bodybuilding exercises at a gym in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 29, 2015. Kholoud Essam, a 27-year-old Muslim, is known as the first female body builder in Egypt. Despite the opposition of friends and family, she chose the bodybuilding for self-defence and keeping slim originally. With her effort for two years, Kholoud has become a fitness coach and achieved some fame in the circle of bodybuilding. In the future, Kholoud intends to challenge the championship of an international strong power competition, 'I'm the iron woman of Egypt', as she called herself". From xinhuanetXinhua/Ahmed Gomaa) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2015-12/30/c_134963763_5.htm
From "Niqab" on Pinterest. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/539376492843841988/. Accessed 15th April, 2016.
Image above:
Sxientist Azza Faiad as shown in "Teenage Girl Turns Plastic Trash Into Million-Dollar Biofuel". "An Egyptian teenager has discovered an inexpensive way to turn plastic trash into fuel — and it could be worth tens of millions of dollars a year. Azza Faiad’s ideas attracted the attention of the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute.
The institute gave the teen access to a lab and its researchers in order to help refine her trash to fuel formula. Faiad discovered a cheap and plentiful catalyst called aluminisilicate that drastically reduces the cost of converting plastic waste into gases like methane and propane, which can be turned into ethanol, what some scientists are calling “biofuel” because the organic chemicals from plastic polymers she extracts, are the same chemicals extracted from vegetation to create ethanol biofuel.
The process releases other chemicals that can also be recycled and sold. Egypt produces a million tons of plastic trash every year, and it’s estimated Faiad’s process could convert that much trash into fuel worth $78 million every year. In fact, she believes it could raise the total return to $163 million each year from Egypt’s plastic trash. The European Union Contest for Young Scientists has already honored Faiad with a prize for her work and she is now working on a patent for her trash to fuel process".
From Good News Network http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/teenage-girl-turns-plastic-trash-into-million-dollar-biofuel/#
Photography by Juanmonino of Muslim woman praying. From Getty Images. http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/muslim-woman-praying-royalty-free-image/117146703. Accessed 12th April 2016. Accessed 12th April 2016.
"An image of [ model] Mariah Idrissi from her Instagram account" . From Caroline Mortimer "Mariah Idrissi: H&M's first hijab-wearing model says her work 'isn't immodest' ". The Indepedent. 30 September 2015. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mariah-idrissi-hms-first-hijab-wearing-model-says-her-work-isnt-immodest-a6673901.html. Accessed 11th April 2016.
"A Ninjutsu practitioner performs a split as members of various Ninjutsu schools showcase their skills to the media in a gym at Karaj, 45 km (28 miles) northwest of Tehran". February 13, 2012. REUTERS/Caren FirouzNINJAS IN IRAN Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Reuters http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ninjas-in-iran?articleId=USRTR2XW8I
From "Sexual Terrorism in Africa: A Case of Two Crimes in One" by The African Network on International Criminal Justice (ANICJ) . https://www.issafrica.org/anicj/iss_today.php?ID=925. Accessed 12th April 2016.
Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi's Tarjumān al-Ashwāq translated by Reynold Nicholson as The Interpreter of Desires, inspired by the Lady Nazim, an actual woman he deeply admired, projects the splendour of the female face in terms of dazzling sensuality, interpreted by Arabi in the accompanying commentary, not presented here, in terms of various aspects of his engagement with the divine:
From Pinterest : "Hijab" : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/357332551661264171/. Accessed 12th April 2016.
Picture by Mitch Cameron. "Lael Kassem Pocket rocket Lael Kassem is a Giant on the AFL field" from Sydney. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/parramatta/sport/pocket-rocket-lael-kassem-is-a-giant-on-the-afl-field/news-story/a8748ea1ddcb361425d7b8b891634281
From "Why do Some Muslim Women Wear Head Scarves?" at "wiseGEEK clear answers for common questions". http://www.wisegeek.org/why-do-some-muslim-women-wear-head-scarves.htm
"As I kissed the Black Stone [ the Ka’ba, a central focus of Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca, the geographical and historical heart of Islam], friendly women thronged around me; they came to perform the circumambulation [ the ritual of circling the Ka’ba] with veiled faces.
"New Trendy Malaysian Hijab Style 8" by Mahr Gi from f9view.com Beauty Of The World. http://f9view.com/new-trendy-malaysian-hijab-style-collection/new-trendy-malaysian-hijab-style-8. Accessed 12th April 2016.
They uncovered the ( face like ) sunbeams and said to me, 'Beware! for the death of the soul is in looking at us.
Photography of Charlton Hudnell at " Fall in love with Head Wraps, Head Scarves, and Veils. Photographed by Charlton Hudnell". Sez Magazine Africa. http://zenmagazineafrica.com/fashion/veils-head-wraps-head-scarves-american-photographer-charlton-hudnell/. Accessed 11 April 2016. "
"15-year-old Amaiya Zafar is an amateur boxer and a devout Muslim. She's challenging international rules in order to compete in the ring wearing a hijab, a long-sleeved shirt and leggings."Veil Hijab 15 December 2015 https://www.facebook.com/veilhijabs/photos/a.414125192121713.1073741828.386672131533686/493798497487715/?type=3
From " So What are the Hijab Accessories?" in EastEssence Online Islamic Store. http://eastessence.jigsy.com/entries/islamic-women-clothing/so-what-are-the-hijab-accessories. Accessed 12th April 2016.
How many aspiring souls have we killed already at al- Muhassab of Mina, beside the pebble-heaps [ to kill, in in this instance, may be seen as metaphorical for a transformation generated by contact with divine presence].
Photography of Sara Shamsavari. Source : Sarah Gilbert. "London Veil: International Women's Day - in pictures". Guardian UK.6 March 2013. URL : http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/mar/06/women-photography. Accessed 10 April 2016.
"Ninjutsu practitioners participate in a sword drill as members of various Ninjutsu schools showcase their skills to the media at a park in Karaj, 45 km (28 miles) northwest of Tehran". February 13, 2012. REUTERS/Caren Firouz . http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ninjas-in-iran?articleId=USRTR2XW8I
From A Little Slice Of Heaven.... http://heavensigh.tumblr.com/post/107628005480/allakinwande-hijabs-are-coolbeans-queens. Accessed 12th April 2016.
And in Sarahat-a-Wadi and the mountains of Ridrana and jam' and at the dispersion from 'Arafat!
From Veil Hijab Facebook page. 17 November 2015. https://www.facebook.com/veilhijabs/photos/a.414125192121713.1073741828.386672131533686/485628401638058/?type=3
Larycia Hawkins, former associate professor of political science at Wheaton College, from "The Professor Suspended for Saying Muslims and Christians Worship One God" by Ruth Graham. Dec 17, 2015 in The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/christian-college-suspend-professor/421029/
...when they are afraid they let fall their hair, so that they are hidden by their tresses as it were by robes of darkness.
Margari Aziza in her article " The Politics of Black Hair and Hijab" in ALT Muslima. December 2, 2015.http://www.altmuslimah.com/2015/12/10365/ Accessed 11th April 2016.
Photography of Sara Shamsavari. Source : Sarah Gilbert. "London Veil: International Women's Day - in pictures". Guardian UK.6 March 2013. URL : http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2013/mar/06/women-photography. Accessed 10 April 2016.
How often did they vow and swear that they would not change, but one dyed with henna does not keep oaths. And one of the most wonderful things is a veiled gazelle, who points with red finger-tips and winks with eyelids.
From "The Black Girl Appreciation Thread, Part II" in The Student Room. http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3356909&page=74. Accessed 12th April 2016.
"I’m a Footballer Who Happens to Wear Hijab — I Didn’t Need FIFA to Tell Me That". Shireen Ahmed Writer and advocate focusing on Muslim women in sports in The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shireen-ahmed/hijab-women-fifa_b_4907732.html
Photo by Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune, via Associated Press of Larycia Hawkins "an associate professor of political science at Wheaton College, wore a hijab at a church service in Chicago" in "Wheaton College Professor Is Put on Leave After Remarks Supporting Muslims" By Christine Hauserdec. 16, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/us/wheaton-college-professor-larycia-hawkins-muslim-scarf.html?_r=0
A gazelle whose pasture is between the breastbones and the bowels.
Photography of Eric Lafforgue. "Afar tribe woman". Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/12289890796/. Accessed 11 April 2016. :
O marvel, a garden amidst fires".
From Pinterest "African Beauty". https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/21673641928795666/Accessed 12th April 2016.
Abdussalam Mohamed-
"God is neither male nor female. Quran says, ‘..Allah) is above all comparison.’ The Creator cannot be compared to the Creation".
Askiah Adam ·-
"... the inadequacy of human intellect, its inability to transcend what is extant...Were Allah restricted by gender definitions or anthropomorphic limitations where is the reason to worship only Allah.
...
God's rahman and rahim needs no gender perspective to be embraced".
Kashif A. Shahzada-
"Gender is a creation of God and the creation is not equal to the Creator".
Duston Barto-
"The Divine and eternal Allah is One. As the Divine Creator, Allah must therefore encompass all of creation and then some. Allah is both masculine and feminine and other attributes that we have no names for. Allah is without gender and yet all genders. Allah is All".
The One Beyond All, Neither Male nor Female. From "Niqab " on Pinterest. https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/539376492843841993/. Accessed 15th April 2016.
Shahla Khan Salter :
"Say: She is Allah, She is One, She is Eternal
She begets not nor is She begotten
And there is none equal unto Her."
-The Holy Quran: Surah Ikhlas (Absoluteness), 112 [modified by Shahla Khan Salter]
The above verse defines the Omnipotence of God in Islam.
Emphasizing... the concept of Absoluteness, the verse lays the framework for "Tawhid"...the Oneness of Allah.
It is that Oneness that gives Allah power. It is that Oneness that connects us as a single humanity. It is that Oneness that serves as a reminder that -- before God -- every individual is simply a speck in a vast and humbling universe.
It puts the enormity of our problems into perspective. It makes us check our ego at the door.
It serves as a reminder that we humans are not that different from one another, having all originated from One God, who resides inside each of us, while remaining in existence far beyond our wildest imagination.
Traditionally acknowledged by all Islamic schools of thought as being beyond gender, Allah is regarded as encompassing both masculine and feminine characteristics.
Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi."Adji and Valentina, 2004"in Linsey McFadden : "Mystical Images Inspired by Sufi Saints – in Pictures ".http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/20/mystical-images-inspired-by-sufi-saints-in-pictures. Accessed 13th April 2016.
Allah as Al Dhaat, or The Essence. The Essence composes Allah. And The Essence is Feminine.
And this is not a new notion. In fact, it was the great 12th century Islamic philosopher, Ibn al- 'Arabi, who said, "I sometimes employ the feminine pronoun in addressing Allah, keeping in view The Essence, Al Dhaat."
Also important are the two most highly prominent names of the 99 names of Allah. They are Al Rahman and Al Raheem and they refer to God as The Merciful and The Compassionate.
They are mentioned often -- at the start of virtually each Surah or chapter of the Quran. They are also recited at the commencement of every daily prayer.
The qualities -- Mercy and Compassion -- form the lens from which the rest of the scripture must be read and our intentions must be formed. They are the conscience of the Quran and inhabit the mosques that reside in all of our hearts.
Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi. Madre Minareto in "Inner Constellations by Maïmouna Guerresi" in "Mystical Portraits, From Africa to Italy By Stephanie Eckardt" in THE CUT, October 18, 2015. http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/10/mystical-portraits-from-africa-to-italy/slideshow/2015/10/14/inner_constellationsbymaimounaguerresi/. Accessed 13th April, 2016.
And the repeated remembrance that Allah is The Merciful and The Compassionate leaves us to self-reflect as an Ummah on the most critical question of our era: Does The Merciful and The Compassionate, Allah, actually order the prescriptions for humanity that the cruel clerics of our day now demand?
Groundbreaking is that Al Rahman and Al Raheem directly emanate from The Divine Feminine.
Why?
Because, it is from the root of these words, Al Rahman and Al Raheem, that we discover a direct correlation to The Divine Feminine specifically from the word, "rhm" which means the "womb."
The connection correlates what is uniquely feminine -- the womb -- to The Divine Feminine.
Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi. "Surprise, 2010. 'The two children are surprised to see their mother lifted from the ground and becoming like a Madonna' in Linsey McFadden : "Mystical Images Inspired by Sufi Saints – in Pictures ".http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/20/mystical-images-inspired-by-sufi-saints-in-pictures. Accessed 13th April 2016.
It follows that the conscience of the Quran, Mercy and Compassion, illustrate Allah as The Divine Mother.
The imagery is profound considering that returning to the womb is humanity's most common dream.
It is from inside Allah The Goddess -- Al-Dhaat, Al Rahman, Al Raheem -- that The Patriarchal Allah of the clerics (who supposedly demand blood atonement and war) are relegated to myth.
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"2003 Da’îrat, video 10’ The video titled Da’irat which, in Arabic, means circle. In the video the a veleid woman ,mimes and repeats imaginary circles with her eyes, her hands, and her feet. Each sequence is interrupted by black intervals on the screen almost as though to mark the infinite time of the images.
The video ends with the same veiled woman, this time, however, wrapped in a long mantle which makes her seem extremely tall. She stands in a great park as though to indicate the mysterious, inscrutable, and sacred spirit of the Great Mother. Each thing and each being is a circle, because it returns to its Origins.
Muhyi alDin bn Arabi (1165-1240) director : Patrizia Guerresi Maimouna director of photography: Piero Matarrese sound: Massimo Zarantonello stylist: Marlene Roncolato actress : Fatou Sy" From Maimouna Guerresi's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_video.php?anno=2003. Accesssed 1st May 2016.
Allah, The Divine Mother, bears the universe and all of humanity. Her most profound role reminds us of Her ultimate safety and unconditional, infinite love.
After all, no Muslim forgets the sanctity that embodies the verse of the Quran we turn to traditionally during trials and tribulation: "from Allah we come, to Allah we return."
What do we need more in our era?
From Her we come. To Her we return. Inshallah”.
From Shahla Khan Salter “Inside Allah, The One Divine Mother and the Conscience of Islam” and responses to the article in Huffpost Living Canada. 01/06/2016. Accessed 12 April 2016.
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Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi. (1) : "Genitilla Al Wilada, 2007 .'Bubbles emerge, like new weightless worlds, from the black cavern of the female figure’s structural garment', says Guerresi. 'Genitilla is the name of a pagan female festivity, and Al Wilada is the Arabic name for a woman who is about to give birth' " (2 )Niccolò Fano: Of particular interest to me are the recurring larger than life Giants and their literal/metaphorical black portals referencing in some cases religious architectural structures. Are these the gateways for what you describe as inner space?
Maimouna Guerresi : The spiritual Giants are a series of portraits with the names of ancient Saints. These characters with dark faces are great spiritual guides, ancestral icons, where aesthetics and ethics merge in a mystical spiritual renewal. The appearance of depth and void that I create through an architectural structure represents the cosmic (and space) infinity, for example the photo entitled Genitilla Al Wilada, a composite name which means both a female pagan celebration and a woman in labour wearing a sculpture-garment with a large black hole in the centre gurgling bubbles like many new and light worlds".
Source for ( 1 ) : Linsey McFadden : "Mystical Images Inspired by Sufi Saints – in Pictures ".http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/20/mystical-images-inspired-by-sufi-saints-in-pictures. Source for (2) : "Maimouna Guerresi interviewed by Niccolò Fano". Global Archive Photography: http://globalarchivephotography.com/project/maimouna-guerresi/hy. Accessed 13th April 2016.
"The name Laylá comes from the word layl meaning ‘night’. Night represents the Unmanifest. In the Arabian desert, the night is a reality without boundaries: forms are dissolved, no sand dunes or camels or anything else is visible, all is formless, nothing but darkness. This is direct symbolism of the unmanifested aspect of the Divine Nature, Allah as Unmanifest. Blackness absorbs all light, as it is above manifestation, so it symbolizes the Beyond-Being. In [ an Arabic poem] Layla was named for the blackness of her hair and the beauty of the night. By extension, it in fact refers to the beauty of the Divine Reality beyond this world, beyond the act of creation, and therefore the supreme goal that the Sufi [ Islamic mystic] seeks to reach.
Maïmouna Guerresi's "Black Mountains"sculpture, the evocative force of its shape and colour amplified by deeply sensitive photography.. Global Archive Photography. http://globalarchivephotography.com/project/maimouna-guerresi/. Accessed 13th April 2016.
Allah as the Beloved in Sufi literature, the ma‘shûq, is always depicted with female iconography. Although Islam is aniconic and does not make images of Allah, verbal depiction exists. Sufi literature is replete with this imagery of our experience of Allah as the vision of the Beloved and union with the Beloved. An elaborate vocabulary developed in which every part of a woman’s body, especially the face, symbolizes the Divine Reality. For example, the eyebrows are likened to a bow that shoots the arrow of the eye’s glance, the arrow of the love of Allah into our hearts and makes us go beyond ourselves. Like the eyes of veiled women in traditional Islamic culture, where all you can see are their beautiful dark eyes: their whole vocabulary of love has to be expressed through a single glance.
From Pinterest : "One's love of the hijab Hijab is a way of life not just a fashion statement."https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/450289662714664457/. Accessed 15th April, 2016.
The ruby-red lips with their red color symbolize wine. Wine is used in Sufi literature to symbolize going beyond our ordinary consciousness into union with the Divine. Although wine is forbidden in Islamic law, there will be pure wine to drink in Paradise. Since Sufis experience Paradise here in this world by having inner experience of the higher levels of reality, the wine of Paradise is accessible symbolically through Sufism. Here, the redness of this wine is conjoined with the color of a woman’s lips. At the same time, the kiss of the lips is an erotic symbol of union and intimacy".
From "Islam and the Divine Feminine" by David Matthew Brown in The Naked Mystic. May 14, 2013.
“The cloak, worn by people and characters, is an architectural structure which covers them from preventing them from showing their shape. Only the faces, hands, and feet are visible. This emptiness becomes a metaphor of the fear of the different and of the unknown. But, the reassuring face of the characters appeases those fears. My costumes are cloaks for inside beauty.
Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi. "Wheel". From Pinterest. "Art in Maïmouna Guerrersi ". https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/380624605980236073/. Accessed 1/5/2016.
My interpretation of the veil is symbolic and dreamy, and sometimes it moves away from specific cultural or religious references. In my works, veiled figures symbolize the sacredness of a body which to me, is considered as a sacred building and a temple of the soul.
Maïmouna Guerresi's "Black Mountains"sculpture installed in a church, the visual resonance of spaces and form highlighted with profound force by the creative photography.
The body reminds me of the traditional Madonna of classic art from Piero della Francesca to Antonello da Messina, but also to ordinary Muslim women. I am interested in looking for the infinitive possibilities of female spirituality and telling about the unease, fascination and value of being something different.
The veil has a very long pre-Islamic tradition. It is the distinctive showpiece regardless of rich, noble women and slaves. It is meant to protect respectable women so that they could not be harassed. It was later in Islam that the veil becomes a religious and political sign for Muslim women, although it is not an obligation but a Quranic prescription.
"Montagne nere". Photography by Maïmouna Guerresi at the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_photography2.php?id=9&anno=2011&pic=2. Accessed 16th April 2016.
Culture and traditions develop though time. The role of a woman in the Muslim society has changed. In fact in recent times, a lot of women have studied at universities and have been taken up high positions in many important offices. The women’s liberation and emancipations is rightfully, growing in a still strongly male dominated society.
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Art of Maimouna Guerresi. " The Golden Door, 2011 The Golden Door, 2011 “This suspended and metaphysical scene features a character dressed in a tall, majestic, architectural costume that creates a dark and infinite door. The same shape is mimicked by the golden door placed behind her.”
Source for ( 1 ) : Linsey McFadden : "Mystical Images Inspired by Sufi Saints – in Pictures ".http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/20/mystical-images-inspired-by-sufi-saints-in-pictures. Accesed 1/5/2016 "
For me, the veil should not be a mandatory garment except in the ritual of prayer or in a Mosque. But at the same time, I find it absurd to ban it. The veil must be a personal expression and freedom of the Muslim woman, and that she has the final say if she wants to wear it or not. It is not a garment that makes the faith. In fact, even men do not carry mandatory headgear of any kind. I think that for a Muslim woman – with or without veil – is a simple and practical clothing and should be a right response to a dynamic world that we live in”.
Maimouna Guerresi in “MOCAfest 2015: Islamic Mysticism and Women Spirituality : The Bedrock of Maimouna Guerresi” by Aquila Style, Thursday, 24th March 2016 in AquilaStyle.
Sacred circle composed of adepts in conclave as the multifaceted beauty of the external world is framed by the lone window. Installation image from the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_exhibitions2.php?id=13&anno=2001Accessed 16th April 2016.
“The veiled figures that I represent in my work symbolize the sacredness of the body as a sacred building, as a "temple of the soul" according to a style reminiscent of some traditional Madonnas of classical European art. These bodies of men or women, I represent them in their upward tension drained from the raw material and they become like Gothic architecture. They are mystical bodies that transcend the temporal dimension to enter the sacred symbolic reality, "true reality" as Rumi says.
In my work, I emphasize particularly the feminine-divine, the great mother, clement and merciful, as God is "like a welcoming womb." In fact the key word of the basmala - Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, which means In the Name of God, the Clement and Merciful - denotes the feminine. From the root rahima comes rahim which means merciful from which derives the word for uterus: rahm.
[Piercing 47 second basmala chant from Raselosman. Basmala superbly visually and verbally rendered as a gallop towards the Ultimate : six minute video from Naksibendi tarikati bursevi yolu]
...the continual repetition of ... the veil in my work [ is] like mantras and like the basmala, a formula of enchantment, prayer, thaumaturgy, and dhikr. My art is a reference to share the beauty, the divine mystery and an inner surface that expressing cosmic beauty heals the diseases of the soul”.
Maimouna Guerresi in "Connecting Worlds: The Art of Maїmouna Patrizia Guerresi" by Valerie Behiery in Islamic Arts, August 24, 2012.
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Maimouna Guerresi's installation "The Golden Mosque". The feet of devotees, suggested by their slippers, converging on a doorway luminous in gold and white, evoking the Muslim approach to the Ultimate through the devotion represeted by pulling one's shoes before prayer in sacred space. "2003 Scultori a Verona Palazzo Forti, Verona, Italy. Group Exhibition Curated by Giorgio Cortenova. Installation image from the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_exhibitions.php?id=15&anno=2003
“... in [my] sculptures the veil stiffened by material becomes armour- chrysalides, so too in my photographs the veils become containers of spiritual energy, a cave, an unknown universe, other and new worlds.
In the course of my artistic career I have made many works which have confronted different themes, but with a concept in common- that being the affirmation of female spirituality.
I wanted to show in my work the image of the Muslim woman beginning with the African woman with whom I identify spiritually, shown as a strong and powerful woman...I think that women in general have a great task ahead of them- that of improving society, Muslim women in particular can be of great help towards the spiritual growth of the world…trying to make known the true maternal essence of Islam that is represented by the most beautiful names of Allah and to help children to grow up with respect for other religions.”.
From “Female Spirituality Photographed: Interview with Maïmouna Guerresi” by Polly Brock at Artctualite. 1 February 2015.
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The Light. Within which a female form is poised. Distant yet compelling as slippers are removed to enter the golden glow, the place of worship where she is located. " 1999 Maïmouna Museo d'Arte Contemporaneo La Rocca di Umbertide, Umbertide, Perugia, Italy Solo exhibition Curated by Enrico Mascelloni " .
From the artist's website.http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_exhibitions.php?id=10&anno=1999. Accessed 17th April 2016.
"Maimouna Guerresi’s work focuses on the relationship between women and society with particular reference to those countries in which the role of women is most marginalized. For over twenty years Guerresi’s work has been about empowering women and bringing together individuals and cultures in an appreciation for a context of shared humanity, beyond borders – psychological, cultural, and political. She uses recurrent metaphors such as milk, light, the hijab, trees, and contrasting white on black to create awareness of the vital unifying qualities of the feminine archetype and its special healing potential.
Maïmouna Guerresi's "Black Mountains"sculpture from the artist's professional Facebook page.https://www.facebook.com/maimounapatriziaguerresi/photos/a.210764209065131.51554.210742265733992/316333568508194/?type=3&theater. Accessed 13th April 2016.
Guerresi’s art is uniquely authentic. Her work is inspired by personal experience and cultural contexts that reference universal myths, the sacred realm, and the female condition, all of which are seen as vital expressions of the human form: an essentially spiritual and mystic body. Through photographs and videos of silent, austere, veiled women in domestic scenes and individual poses, her work functions as both metaphor and provocation. Guerresi’s images are delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, as well as rational analyses: women dressed in white, enveloped in chadors, fixed within their own tradition and isolated from and by it in the contemporary world".
From Maimouna Guerresi Introduction in Global Archive Photography. Accessed 13th April 2016.
“ Her Fatimah image suggests the woman as Mother- Earth supporting us in the original energy cycle of Space-Universe-Infinity".
From “About the Artist” on the website of Maimouna Guerresi.
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Maimouna Guerresi : "Talwin is a mystical term meaning ‘the change’, seen as the spiritual evolution of human beings who, through religious practice and the continuous effort of soul searching, approach the divine. It is that ecstatic state of psycho-spiritual sensory perception from which you can reach ‘the invisible’.
I attempt to convey such concept through my work.". Adama is the primordial body, the embryo, a form that is being developed. The figure is veiled, squatting on a small cot (base), and carries in itself the idea of transformation. Its curled up position as dormant keeps a potential energy force; besides, the circular round shape is recurrent in my work. This sculpture shares with the others on view the concept of waiting and suspension".
From "Islam and spiritualism in Maïmouna Guerresi’s “Talwin” on view at Matèria Gallery" at Wheresart. http://www.wheresart.eu/islam-and-spiritualism-in-maimouna-guerresis-talwin-on-view-at-materia-gallery/. Accessed 13th April 2016.
A lot of her work... taps into the mysticism of the Sufi practice in the effort to capture something of the transcendent moment you shed the barrier between you and the Creator.
Guerresi’s work attempts to capture something of the poetry and surrealism of that connection.
Rumi, the iconic poet and arguably the most well-known Sufi of all time, devoted his life and art to celebrating the Beloved, to bearing witness and singing praises, as in this excerpt of his verse [ that resonates with Guerresi’s visualization of the human body as intersection of the known and the Unknown, through the materiality of the human body, its coverings and the dark spaces imaged by these bodies in her art] :
All of these are symbols – I mean that the other
world keeps coming into this world.
Like cream hidden in the soul of milk, No place
keeps coming into this place.
Like intellect concealed in blood and skin, the
Traceless keeps entering into traces.
And from beyond the intellect, beautiful Love
comes dragging its skirts, a cup of wine in its hand.
And from beyond Love, that Indescribable One
who can only be called “That” keeps coming. – Rumi
From “Maïmouna Guerresi’s Photos Counter Islamophobes and Islamic Fundamentalists Alike” by Ernest Hardy in Crave. Feb 21st, 2016. Accessed 14th April 2016.
“[ The] bodies [ of the characters in her works] are often empty voids, mysterious holes that create curiosity and tension ...Guerresi investigates the relationship between the soul and the human form and, by tracing white lines on her photographed subjects, she hints to motifs of purification and sacrifice”.
from “Maïmouna Guerresi: Iconographical Mysticism” by” by Giulia Franceschini in I Am : Intense Art Magazine. 06.04.2015. Accessed 14 April 2016.
Maimouna Guerresi : "Suspense, mystery, empty space, darkness and concavity are the elements I use to express myself in my photograph's composition. Clothes shaped like metaphysical architecture is surreal, and when the characters in my photographs wear [ such clothes] they become one with their body". Maimouna Guerresi in Lasagne Art Magazine. https://issuu.com/lazagnemagazine/docs/lazagne_7_da7524f2bb1aca/77. Accessed 15th April 2016.
“I arrange and paint the backdrops in my studio, but increasingly I prefer to find and paint open air props, like peeling walls. This is the first phase of my work, then I dress the model in a garment I have made - an empty, sculptural form - to represent a metaphysical and supernatural body. Only the mantle defines and identifies the overall shape. So the emptiness or void becomes a metaphor of fear for what is different, what is unknown and frightening. In these figures, only the face, hands, and sometimes the feet, are visible, like in ancient icons. I mark these visible parts of the body with a white line, which I interpret as a symbol of purification and light, or bisection marking the borders between life and death, the known and the unknown”.
From “Maimouna Guerresi in Art: Exploring Feminine Spirituality” by Kriti Sharma in Femina. 07.05.2103.
Art of Maimouna Guerresi. Breast like orbs in cosmological space, feeding cosmos. " Illumination III, 2012, Lambda Print, on aluminum, 40x70 cm / Courtesy of the Artist". From "Connecting Worlds: The Art of Maїmouna Patrizia Guerresi" by Valerie Behiery in Islamic Arts, August 24, 2012. http://islamicartsmagazine.com/magazine/view/connecting_worlds_the_art_of_mamouna_patrizia_guerresi/. Accessed 23 April 2016.
Maimouna Guerresi: “In my work, I try not only to express a concept, but I am interested in representing the balance of shapes, of bodies and postures of people in my photographs, of signs or writings in the backdrop of my pictures. In Islam, the balance and harmony of signs and shapes are the essential expression of divine beauty and harmony. I am fascinated by the Italian artists who can better express this concept, such as Canova, Antonello da Messina and Piero della Francesca. The latter, in particular, in addition to the golden balance of shapes, has depicted the concept of metaphysics which is the basis of Islamic philosophy.
My work is first conceived in my head and then it is transformed into a photograph. Of course I need the stimuli coming from new encounters, sensations and emotions. But often, it is the image that wants to be born and to be represented… even before having seen it … The creative effort is something mysterious and very intimate and it is beyond rational control.
The whole process must result in a metaphysical and somewhat supernatural effect, distancing itself from a simple photograph of a model dressed up and becoming more of a hieratic and metaphysical persona".
Excerpts from "Maimouna Guerresi interviewed by Niccolò Fano". Global Archive Photography. Accessed 13th April 2016.
Art of Maimouna Guerresi. Hieratic conclave at the centre of the Muslim Ummah, the "Commonwealth of Believers" [Wikipedia] , represented by the slippers, evocative of the Islamic practice of removing one's shoes before entering the place of worship, that encircle the reverent figures encased in a luminous, mysterious and yet comforting presence. "Milan: ISLAM, work of art by the muslim sculptress Patrizia Guerresi - Maimouna, Group of veiled women praying © Almasio & Cavicchioni". Almasio Cavicchioni Photojournalists. http://cavicchioni.photoshelter.com/ http://cavicchioni.photoshelter.com/image/I0000e30vw5BsFiY. Accessed 16th April 2016.
" ‘Maybe’, one might ask, ‘he or she in the picture is really a spiritual entity here to evoke change of perception, as Maïmouna has done by treating the human body as sacred dwelling place – a “temple of the soul.” Female subjects also tend to take center stage in a lot of Maïmouna’s work. Here, women are treated as powerful symbols of the feminine divine, altars to the primordial act of creativity, which makes perfect sense, as women are mothers or instruments of creation".
From "Maïmouna’s Photographer’s Gaze Of The Gods Within". Cause and Yvette. Accessed 14th April 2016.
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Art of Maimouna Guerresi. Two figures demonstrating an enigmatic but deeply evocative spatial relationship with each other and the surrounding landscape. The creative tension realised through their contrastive stances, amplified by the concealment of the face of one and the opening of the face of the other, plays out a dialectic resonating with the sense of imagination stirring mystery suggested by the lancing of a shaft of light between the partially shaped architectural structure on a hill in the distance and the radiantly clear sky.
The tableau conjoins the human form and landscape within an imaginative recreation that grounds the feminine in its secular and religious dimension, represented by the woman with her face uncovered and the one who is covered in a niqab, a full body Islamic female dress.
The women and the spatial context in which they are placed evoke ancient associations of the feminine with landscape perceived in a cosmic context, as suggested by the structure on the hill overlooking the landscape, like Glastonbury, the famous English centre of Goddess devotion that conjoins the Christian associations of the ruined church at its apex and its magnificent geological structure rising from the earth like a breast, and lanced by a shaft of light linking it to the depths of the sky.
"The Sisters". Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi at the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_photography2.php?id=7&anno=2011&pic=5. Accessed 16th April 2016. "The photographic series 'The Sisters' interpreted by my daughters Marlene and Adji tells the story of two different worlds that are however spiritually similar.
The two girls, one black, one white, meet and converse showing the possibility of real communion and family. Adji, a métis with a veil covering her head, identifies herself as an African-Muslim, while Marlene of European Christian heritage has her head uncovered. The sisters are represented in hieratic and mystical poses during intimate moments and undertaking everyday gestures. They too evoke the iconography of the Madonna of the past.
I am particularly interested in investigating the infinite possibilities of the human spirit, and, in the case of women's spirituality, recounting the discomfort, the charm and value of diversity."Maїmouna Patrizia Guerresi in "Connecting Worlds: The Art of Maїmouna Patrizia Guerresi" by Valerie Behiery in Islamic Arts. Aug 24, 2012. http://islamicartsmagazine.com/magazine/view/connecting_worlds_the_art_of_mamouna_patrizia_guerresi/. Accessed 11th October 2016.
The symbolic, the metaphysical, the mysterious and the human form converge in the great Islamic thinker, poet and mystic Ibn ʿArabi's meeting with the [ personage] (from the beginning of the Futuhat al-Makkiyya which may be translated as The Meccan Illuminations):
As I was standing in rapt amazement in front of the Black Stone [in Mecca], I encountered the [ One] , steadfast in devotion, both speaker and silent, neither alive nor dead, both complex and simple, encompassed and encompassing.
Ahmed Mater "Magnetism", evoking pilgrims' circumambulation of the Ka'ba, the Black Stone at the centre of Muslim devotion in Mecca, the geographical and historical centre of Islam,in terms of iron filings configured by their attraction towards a magnet, suggesting the pull of faith drawing the faithful towards a cardinal object of their faith.
Then God revealed to me the spiritual rank of this [ personage] and that [ they were ] far beyond all considerations of space and time. [ The personage] indicated to me that [they were] created to speak only in symbols.
Then [they] indicated to me and I knew. [ They] revealed the reality of [ their] Beauty to me and I understood. I stood completely dumbfounded, overwhelmed.
So I said..: "O bearer of good tidings, this is such a blessing! Grant me the knowledge of your special language, and instruct me in how your keys work. How I desire your converse and long for your company!"
[They] said to me: "I am neither speaker nor spoken to. My knowledge is not of other than Me, and My Essence is not different to My Names. I am Knowledge, the Known and the Knower. I am Wisdom, the giver of Wisdom and the Wise. Circumambulate in my footsteps, observe me in the light of my moon, so that you may take from my constitution that which you write in your book and transmit it to your readers."
FromFrom The Unlimited Mercifier : The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi by Stephen Hirtenstein. Anqa Publishing,1999.
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Art of Susi Krautgartner ."#56 of 109 self-portrait after Shirin Neshat and Daniel & Geo Fuchs | Susi Krautgartner. Posted by Susi Krautgartner - 26. February 2015 - After a self portrait, Appropriation, Multiple appropriation 56of109 self-portrait after Shirin Neshat and Daniel & Geo Fuchs Susi Krautgartner 2015 Susi Krautgartner, #56 of 109 self-portrait after Shirin Neshat and Daniel & Geo Fuchs, 2015. After: Shirin Neshat, Offered Eyes, 1997. Daniel & Geo Fuchs, Portrait of Shirin Neshat, 2001". http://www.109.at/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/56of109-self-portrait-after-Shirin-Neshat-and-Daniel-Geo-Fuchs-Susi-Krautgartner-2015.jpg. Accessed 18th April, 2016.
The following sequence of images, directly above and below, from or inspired by the art of Shirin Neshat as well as from the work of Maimouna Guerresi may be seen as unifying the various themes discussed in this essay.
The images may be seen as centred in the idea of concentration and expansion realized through the human face and the totality of the human form, this relationship between face and form being a quality suggested by the hijab’s revealing of the face and the covering of the body.
Neshat’s self portrait I am It's Secret conjoins the human face and script in a manner that evokes the mysterious resonances arising from using the human form as a template for abstract symbols, thereby conjoining two powerful signifiers, the human form, the nexus of human experience and script, the abstract distillation of human cognition.
Her face is framed by the hijab, highlighting the brilliant luster of her eyes, projecting the individuality of the self ablaze with life, a visual foregrounding further amplified by the concentric circles of script in elegant red and black calligraphy that radiate outward from the centre of her face and converge inward to that centre, circular expansion and convergence being a universally recurrent motif for the integration and expansion of the breadth of qualities associated with a phenomenon.
The highlighting of the face and embedding of script within the face creates the effect of an incantatory rhythm as the text seems to ripple outwards and inwards towards the centre defined by the eyes and the space between them at the bridge of the nose, on which rests what would look like particularly arcane inscriptions to those who do not understand the language, distilling, as they seem to do, the sense of beauty and mystery evoked by script in any language, containers of ideas carrying the abstract concentrations of humanity’s engagement with meaning in terms of one of the most ingenious of human creations, shapes meant to embody and communicate breadth of ideas within concentrated visual space.
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Shirin Neshat "I am It's Secret" (from The Women of Allah Series), 1993. " a provocative self-portrait of the veiled feminist artist Shirin Neshat. On the image, her face is covered by a swirl of black and red Farsi script - a poem by contemporary Iranian writer Forugh Farrokhzad. The print originates from the series ‘Women of Allah’, which Neshat made in the early 1990s after her first trip to post-revolutionary Iran." From LiveAuctioneers : https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/43069020_shirin-neshat-i-am-its-secret-offset-print-usa-1993.
"Technique : Original Color Photograph. Work size : 49 X 33 cm / 19.3 X 13 inch. Additional Information : This Photograph is Hand Signed, Titled and Dated in ink on the reverse by the artist "Shirin Neshat". Shirin Neshat was born in Iran in 1957 and went to the USA to study art. After completing her studies in the University of California at Berkeley, she moved to New York and first returned to Iran in 1990. During her absence, the country had gone through the Islamic revolution of 1979 and had changed completely.
New York based artist Shirin Neshat achieved international fame upon the publication of her photographic series “Women of Allah” (1993-1997), which can meanwhile be called iconic. The series was highly successful on the Western exhibition circuit from the start and attracted a great deal of attention. In all of her series, Neshat incorporates three components: the veil, the body and calligraphied Farsi texts.
Neshat painstakingly hand-paints these texts, generally works by contemporary Muslim female poets, onto the photographs. The Women of Allah series primarily uses the poetry of Tahereh Saffarzadeh, who was deeply entrenched in the Islamic Revolution. By photographing herself draped in a chador, and by writing contemporary poems in Farsi on the remaining bare surfaces, she links several discursive levels. On the one hand there is the interface between the private and public spheres; public space is regarded as male, private space as female. A prominent, albeit incrusted symbol of Islam, the chador marks the interstice of cultural difference and is thus a sign of intercultural perception or image production, whereas the ornamental script, which further enshrouds the images, underscores the distance from reality characterizing perceptions of conflicts and culture in the Middle East. "
From icollector.com : http://www.icollector.com/SHIRIN-NESHAT-Signed-Black-White-Photo_i6698450. "“I Am Its Secret,” by the Iranian-born photographer and artist Shirin Neshat — which shows a veiled Muslim woman (who is Neshat herself) staring intently into the camera, her skin covered with a swirl of black and red Farsi script...The picture, made of ink on a resin-coated print, comes from Neshat’s series “Women of Allah,” which she made in the 1990s after her first trip to Iran after the revolution.
Four symbolic elements help build the series’s melancholic beauty, Neshat explains in the book where we found this image: “the veil, the gun, the text and the gaze.” The missing gun renders this picture more timeless than most of the others, and something similar is at work in its text. “Although the Farsi words written on the works’ surfaces may seem like a decorative device,” Neshat writes, “they contribute significant meaning.
The texts are amalgams of poems and prose works mostly by contemporary women writers in Iran. These writings embody sometimes diametrically opposing political and ideological views, from the entirely secular to fanatic Islamic slogans of martyrdom and self-sacrifice to poetic, sensual and even sexual meditations.
Neshat made a lovely choice in her text for this image, which imbues it with layers of paradox and discovery; it’s by the remarkable prerevolutionary Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67), a rebel against many of the conventions symbolized by the veil” From " Shirin Neshat’s ‘I Am Its Secret’ " By Steve Coates at The New York Times May 17, 2010 "http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/shirin-neshats-i-am-its-secret/?_r=0. Accessed 2\/4/2016.
Shirin Neshat From LiveAuctioneers : https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/43069020_shirin-neshat-i-am-its-secret-offset-print-usa-1993. Accessed 20/4/2016.
Zooming in on Neshat’s face in the image highlights the dialectic of expansion and convergence realized by the scriptic forms as they swirl like flames of red fire and black fire, suggestive of the Jewish Kabbalistic evocation of the creation of the universe through letters of black fire and red fire thereafter condensed into the text of the Torah, as described in Moshe Idel’s Absorbing Perfections: Kabbalah and Interpretation, a conjoining of cosmic text and humanly accessible text that may be transposed to the human face as a primary carrier of discourse in social and even cosmological terms, in interpersonal communication as well as in demonstration of the convergence of matter and life as projected through the animation of the eyes.
Shirin Neshat from Morgan O'Driscoll : http://www.morganodriscoll.com/art/lot-47-shirin-neshat-b1957-iranian/34724/?SearchString=&LotNumSearch=&GuidePrice=&OrderBy=&ArtistID=&ArrangeBy=list&NumPerPage=12&offset=46. Accessed 20/4/2016
From Neshat’s self portrait, we move to her enigmatic picture in an image from her Passage Series of a circle of women clad in the full black robes of a particular style of Islamic women’s wear, congregating in what looks like a ritual conclave in the style developed with great evocative power by Maimouna Guerresi’s deployment of the collective force of the imagery of Islamic women’s wear
Shirin Neshat. "Passage Series", 2001 Cibachrome print from Gladstone Gallery : http://www.gladstonegallery.com/artist/shirin-neshat/#&panel1-10. Accessed 20/4/2016
From Neshat’s image of women clustered in conclave round a central space, we come to Maimouna Guerresi’s unfolding of such a formation in her Cosmos installation, in which the black robes of these women, the dark depths of that color highlighted by the uncovering of their faces, contrast with the expanse of white from which they rise, like galaxies from the generative Nothingness beyond human conception, but manifesting all possibility,which various cosmologies, scientific and religious, describe the cosmos as emerging from .
Image above:
Photographic art by Maïmouna Guerresi. "Cosmos" installation of 8 pieces of lambda print mounted on round-shaped plexiglass. This work realizes a pattern simiklar to that of Guerresi's "Illumination" series, of which which she describes the figure in the work as " a metaphorical representation of the many worlds and constellations where inner beauty and aesthetic appearance are joined together as the symbolic representation of infinity, in a mystical union with the divine universe expanding and contracting like a breath.
This circular motion is like a never ending spiral that leads to the dissolution of the self into divine beauty as well as like the mystical knowledge that floods the heart of every seeker, leading to the search for 'interior illumination" in "Connecting Worlds: The Art of Maїmouna Patrizia Guerresi" by Valerie Behiery in Islamic Arts, August 24, 2012.
http://islamicartsmagazine.com/magazine/view/connecting_worlds_the_art_of_mamouna_patrizia_guerresi/. Image from the artist's website. http://www.maimounaguerresi.com/maimouna_photography2.php?id=4&anno=2011&pic=0. Sources accessed 13th and 14th April 2016.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
The Sri Yantra highlighting , in red, the Trailokyamohana, also known as the Bhupura, the square of earth, evoking the material universe. Image from Mike Magee's Shiva Shakti Mandalam on "Lalita Tripurasundari, the Red Goddess" : http://www.shivashakti.com/tripura.htm
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge
1. On a dark and secret night
2. starving for love and deep in flame
3. in love for Lord Shiva
4. you leave your house
5. led by the fire in your heart.
In nakedness we are born; in nakedness do we know ourselves
6. Travelling on the great ocean that animates existence,
7. the fountain’s rushing flow that waters all being
8. the deathless spring of which is hidden
9. deep in night.
The rushing flow that animates existence. Shakti, the feminine, creative cosmic force in Hinduism, possibly suggested through the flow of a dynamic weave of colours against which is outlined a downward facing triangle, an evocation of the frontal view of female genitalia, and therefore, of the yoni, female sexual and procreative biology understood as a dramatisation of cosmic creativity. Art by Sohan Qadri. Source : Bindu Magazine : "Interview with Sohan Qadri : You Must Let Yourself Be Swallowed Up" : http://www.yogameditation.com/Articles/Issues-of-Bindu/Bindu-0014/You-must-let-yourself-be-swallowed-up. Accessed 14th February 2016.
10. Its origin, since it has none, none knows
11. but all origin from
12. it arises
13. deep in night.
Emergence at cosmogenesis. A spiral journeying into infinity within a background awash with dynamic colour, alive with forms of ontological integration and emergence- green holes, pink wholes, black holes-a cosmicising landscape. Obiora Udechukwu "Our Journey" 1993. Acrylic on canvas. Influenced by traditional Igbo wall painting. Image from Psychic-Junkie : http://psychic-junkie.tumblr.com/image/4972728944. The name and description of the material the work is made of as well as of the inspirational context of the work come from 20th Century African Art : http://hum.lss.wisc.edu/hjdrewal/Contemporary.html. All sources accessed 14th February 2016.
15. Its depth none can sound
16. no ford to cross it can be found
17. in the depths of night.
Earth emerging from comic womb imaged through a collage of a Google Earth picture and an opon ifa, a symbol of the permutation of possibilities within the armbit of eternity, from the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge, as the face of Esu, the All-Seeing, peers at the scene from the top of the opon ifa and the serpent of infinity looks on from its place on the circumference
18. The ancestor of the myriad living things
19. empty, yet not needing to be filled
20. providing life, gurgling up unbidden from the ground of being,
21. moving of its own accord,
22. becoming perfectly level and clearing itself of sediment
23. when still, taking the shape of any container
24. penetrating the tiniest opening, yielding to pressure but wearing down the hardest stone
24. transforming into myriad forms, the hardness of ice and the aery flow of steam
26. the eternal and mystical link between past, present and future generations
27. manifesting the eternal in the here and now
28. crying to all creatures to drink their fill
29. though in the dark
30. for it is night.
The river that waters existence. Sand as aquatic flow. Stones as possibilities of being as they emerge into manifestation. Japanese garden. Source :"Overview : Sloan Group International : http://www.sloangroupinternational.com/services-overview/. Accessed February 2016
31. You rise from your place in the whirlpool of Muladhara,
32. the point of entry into the solidity of form of the terrestrial world,
33. exuding the smell of fresh earth,
34. between the place of birth and the zone of emission,
35. constituting the twelve angles formed by the superimposition of square on square,
36. the Trailokyamohana of the form of the cosmos that is Sri Cakra,
37. where you lie coiled like a snake,
38. its ripples vibrant with energy.
Shakti, the feminine creative cosmic force permeating existence, as Kundalini, a concentration of energy coiled like a snake in an energy matrix at the base of the spine in the envelope of energy that sorrounds the human body according to Yoga theory. The feminine associations of these powers is depicted by the snake circling a downward facing triangle, the slit at the apex of the triangle suggesting its correlation with female genitalia, the yoni, its erotic and procreative functions understood as a manifestation of cosmic creativity.
The circle the snake assumes suggests Ouroboros, the serpent of eternity and of cosmic wholeness and dynamism while the deep gold of the work may be seen in terms of the alchemical idea of transmuting ordinary metals into gold, a process at times interpreted in terms of creative transformation of self and cosmos. Art by Sohan Qadri. Source : Bindu Magazine : "Interview with Sohan Qadri : You Must Let Yourself Be Swallowed Up" : http://www.yogameditation.com/Articles/Issues-of-Bindu/Bindu-0014/You-must-let-yourself-be-swallowed-up. Accessed 14th February 2016.
39. On a dark and secret night
40. starving for love and deep in flame
41. you leave your house
42. in pursuit of your consort
43. guided by nothing but the fire in your heart
44. your power diffusing within
45. the outer world
46. of
47. the eight directions of space and the eight circuits of the day;
48. pervading the inner world
49. of
50. the eight passions of
51. lust,
52. anger,
53. possessiveness,
54. obsession,
55. pride,
56. jealousy,
57. self centeredness,
58. and
59. sovereignity of mind.
The rushing flow that waters all being. Rock garden in Zuiho-in Temple, Kyoto. http://phototravels.net/japan/pcd2633/garden-rock-89.html
60. You manifest
61. the minuteness of the atom,
62. the lightness of air,
63. the most encompassing magnitude,
64. utmost creative control,
65. enchanting command,
66. achievement of all possibilities,
67. enjoyment of all possibilities,
68. the will power that enables all possibilities,
69. the attainment of all possibilities,
70. the realization of all desires;
71. the power that
72. impels all,
73. melts all,
74. attracts all,
75. commands all,
76. maddens all,
77. directs all,
78. moves all , flies all through space;
79. the seed, information matrix, DNA/genetic map, of all,
80. the source or womb of all,
81. the trifold division/separator of all: Knower, Knowing and Known,
82. the uniter of all.
83. Trailokya Mohana Cakra Sväminé Prakaöayogini
84. The Mistress of the Wheel of the Three Worlds of Waking, Dreaming, and Superconsciousness, the Prakatayogini who expresses Herself openly and without inhibitions.
" The Prakatayogini who expresses Herself openly and without inhibitions". Erotic model Tiara Harris in regal self display
Explanation
Expanding the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram
This poem is the first part of an expansion of the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram, a great ritual of the Hindu school of Srividya celebrating the Goddess Tripurasundari, the central deity of the school.The ritual consists in navigating the Sri Yantra, a geometric structure understood as a manifestation of the Goddess. Since the cosmos, as expressed in the Soundarayalahari, one translation being The Billowing Waves of the Ocean of Beauty, a sublime poem celebrating Tripurasundari, is a manifestation of the tiniest fraction of the plenitude of being that is the Goddess, the Sri Yantra is also understood as a manifestation of the totality that is the cosmos.
The Sri Yantra
The Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram ritual dramatises the understanding that-
In navigating the yantra, one navigates the Goddess.
In navigating the Goddess, one navigates the cosmos.
In navigating the cosmos, one navigates the human self, because the self, the Goddess and the cosmos are one.
Each aspect of the yantra, therefore, is identified with an identity of the Goddess, an aspect of the cosmos and an aspect of the human self.
The various sections of the Sri Yantra in their Sanskrit names
This poem is the first part of an expansion by myself of the concise structure represented by the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram ritual, which itself is a condensation of a longer ritual in the traditional context.This expansion integrates texts and images from different cultures and spiritualities, blending them with lines composed by myself. The verbal text is complemented by art from various artists, directly related to the world of ideas to which the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram belongs as an expression of what is known as Hindu Tantrism, as well as images representing other possible correlations.
A central source for the full scope of symbolism of the yantra is Douglas Renfrew Brooks’ Auspicious Wisdom: The Texts and Traditions of Srividya Sakta Tantrism in South India and Maddhu Khanna’s Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity while the Shakti Saddhana translation of and notes to the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram,“Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram: A Practice Text. © 2004-2006 by the Shakti Sadhana Group” in particular, along with other versions of the ritual provided the central body of ideas developed in the poem as a whole. Mike Magee’s magnificent massive compendium of Tantra, Shiva Shakti Mandalam provides priceless information for the Srividya tradition, various aspects of the Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram ritual as well superb images.
I owe my enthusiasm for this project to renewd attention to the ritual inspired by Aghor Pir’s celebration of the ritual at his now defunct blog Musings of a Tantric Sorcerer, sections of which can be found at the document archive Scribd. This led me to study and practice the ritual, leading to this expansion of the foundational text.
Verbal Text
In this first movement of the poem the cosmic navigator commences the navigational process by engaging with the outermost section of the Sri Yantra, the square that encloses the entire structure.
This square is identified with the earth and the four directions of space, the basic units of time that constitute the day, as well as with the aspect of the human being that connects the self with the material world.
The square is known as the bhupura as well as the Trailokmayohana. The connection in the human body with the rest of material world is known as the Muladhara chrakra, the chakras being seen as points of intersection between the world of cosmic energy and the material world located in a mesh of energy surrounding the body, the Muladharat being positioned between the place of birth - the sexual organs and the point of emission-the excretory organs.
The entire poem is based on the image of the Goddess rising in quest of her husband Shiva.
The conjunction of Shiva and Shakti, Shakti being the feminine creative force that animates the cosmos, a force of which Tripurasdunrai is an expression, and Shiva, in this context the male force beyond existence but underlying all being, is central to the body of thought and practices known as Tantra, to which Srividya, in its celebration of Tripurasundari, belongs, as superbly demonstrated in, among other classic texts, the Soundaryahalarai and the Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta, the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra and the Yoni Tantra.
The Goddess is associated in the poem with the Kundalini, the expression of Shakti in the self, a force understood as coiled like a snake at the chakra corresponding to the base of the spine, and, as it rises rising upward, activating the various chakras along the way, culminating in activating the chakra at the top of the head, associated with Shiva.
This topmost chakra, the Sahasrara, is identified with the ground of being. The opening of this chakra, this point of convergence of self and cosmos, is understood as creating the convergence of the self and cosmic identity at the source of existence, beyond time and space.
This journey of Kundalini, an expression of Shakti in the human being, is correlated in this poem with the process of navigating the Sri Yantra as dramatized by the Sri Devi Khadgamala. Each point in the Sri Yantra corresponds to a point in the metaphysical structure of the cosmos, to a particular identity of the Goddess in her multifarious manifestations and to an aspect of human existence.
A primary source of imagery and lines for the progression developed in this first movement in the poem is the marvelous Noche Oscura Del Alma by the Christian mystic San Juan de la Yepes, better known as St.John of the Cross, a poem often translated from the Spanish as Dark Night of the Soul , in which John expresses his yearning for union with God in terms of a fire burning in his heart as he seeks his lover.
Lines 1 and 2 are quotations from Dark Night of the Soul .
Lines 4 and 5 are slightly adapted from Dark Night of the Soul.
Lines 7-17 are drawn from another poem of St. John of the Cross, “Song of the Soul that is Glad to Know God by Faith”,where he uses the imagery of divine sustenance and call as active even in night. Night may be seen here as the state of distance from immersion in divine reality which the poet seeks to achieve.
Lines 15-17 evoke the distance from conventional human perception represented by this ultimacy that is the source of being in terms of spatial depth and night in lines drawn from the same poem by St.John of the Cross.
The central motif in these lines is that of divine presence expressed as a fountain, an aquatic flow within which the Goddess moves in her quest through the cosmos.
Lines 18-30 develop further the character of the flow within which the Goddess rides in her quest through a combination of lines from classical Chinese conceptions of cosmic creativity expressed in terms of the flow of water, from John Mbiti on imagery of rain in classical African cosmologies in his African Religions and Philosophy and St.John of the Cross on the imagery of night as suggesting the depths of divine being in its distance from human knowledge.
The use of ideas from various cultures in dramatizing the idea of cosmic presence in terms of aquatic flow represents the understanding that such a motif is not unique to classical African cultures, John Mbiti in African Religions and Philosophies describing it as being a unifying idea in those cosmologies, but a universal one, in which the imagery of flow from an ultimate source that embraces the cosmos is developed in various ways in different cosmologies.
Lines 18-24 are drawn from the summation of Sarah Allan in The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue by James Miller in “Daoism and Nature” from The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, edited by Roger S. Gottlieb.
Line 26 is drawn from John Mbiti’s description in African Religions and Philosophies of a pervasive symbolism of rain in classical African cosmologies as evoking the unification of time and timelessness.
Lines 28-30 are drawn from St. John of the Cross’ “Song of the Soul that is Glad to Know God by Faith” on divine sustenance in the depths of spiritual night.
Lines 31-38 use lines are composed by myself in depicting the associations of this stage of navigation of the Sri Yantra with the relevant section of the structure of the yantra, the Trailokmayohana, representing the human body and the material world as well as the relevant chakra in the human energy envelope, the Muladhara chakra and the presence of Kundalini at rest at that point.
The square, the outermost section of the Sri Yantra, is known as the Bhupura as well as the Trailokmayohana. The connection with the material world is known as the Muladhara chrakra, the chakras being seen as points of intersection between the world of cosmic energy and the material world located in a mesh of energy surrounding the body, this particular point being located between the place of birth - the sexual organs and the point of emission-the excretory organs.
The next stanza, lines 39-59, consolidate the image of the journey of the Goddess, quoting the Khadgamala, in projeccting the context of the journey and the passion that drives her quest in relation to the effect of her entry on the first stage of the quest. This first stage dramatizes particular qualities of ultimate reality as expressed in the world of manifestation,qualities both concrete and abstract-the directions of space, the movement of time, and negative human emotions, since the cosmos embraces all possibilities, as suggested by “sovereignty of mind” which is the dominance of ultimate reality over all manifestations.
Lines 39-43 combine direct quotation from St. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul and paraphrases from the same poem.
Lines 44-82 from the “Sri Devi Khadgamala Stotram: A Practice Text. © 2004-2006 by the Shakti Sadhana Group”, develop further the qualities of being manifest by the Goddess at this stage of manifestation catalysed by her journey, correlating material and non-material qualities, enumerating the multifarious forms of being, culminating in the unity of existence in terms of knowledge as represented by the unity of the knower, what is known and the process of knowing, thereby unifying metaphysics, enquiry into the nature of being, with epistemology, exploration of the means of knowing and the validity of the knowledge reached, in a mystical synthesis.
The next stanza, line 83, drawn from the text of the Shakti Saddhana translation of the Sri Devi Khadgama Stotram ritual, begins the consummation of this movement by saluting the Goddess in Sanskrit, while the last stanza, line 84, completes or seals that salutation in terms of the qualities of the Goddess manifest at this level of existence represented by the outermost square of the Sri Yantra.
“Trailokya Mohana Cakra ” is the name of this level of the Sri Yantra or cakra.
“Yogini” refers to the character of the Goddess as a feminine spiritual identity, a yogini being a female yogi, a seeker for unity between self and ultimate reality through the discipline of Yoga, a central school of Indian philosophy and spirituality demonstrating a variety of techniques. Yoga may be described as central to the Khadgamala in developing the unity of material human form and cosmic being, chakra theory being central to yoga.
The Goddess is finally depicted as the embodiment of or “mistress” of three principal states of consciousness, from basic forms to the all embracing consciousness, consciousnesses being understood as the core of existence, its ultimate quality.
The Goddess “expresses Herself openly and without inhibitions”, as she is summed up in the last line because she manifests Herself in the material character of the cosmos, the most readily accessible to human perception.