The Sacred Promise
Just when I think my life couldn't possibly get any 'weirder', it does exactly that. Synchronicities are at the heart of it. I don't mean the occasional 'co-incidence'. I mean long chains of events that go on sometimes for days! And they're not the sort of events that one could foresee. Not even as a psychic! For the past two days, I've been writing this book review and commentary on Gary Schwartz's The Sacred Promise. Gary's life is also rich in Synchronicities and he relates a number of them in the book. Beginning yesterday, the 30th of September at 10:11 in the morning, a sequence of co-incidences connected with my reading of the book got my attention. The 11-related time prompt started it all off. I think these time prompts are a kind of signal or code. They seem to occur with or just before an event - or even a thought - that later turns out to be synchronous with its 'twin' so to speak. My synchronicities often involve names. First names, last names, sometimes both at once. Earlier, (on the 29th) I was looking up name origins for an article I had planned for the future and I came upon the name Clarissa. My immediate reaction was negative based on my memory of a very unpleasant woman whose cynicism and general air of disapproval had caused me much pain at a time of great vulnerability in my life. I dismissed the name and gave it no more thought.The Sacred Promise
On the evening of the 29th I was watching television when - for no reason that I could discern - the name Clarissa popped into my mind. Given its negative connotations for me, it was not a welcome presence so I dismissed it again and gave my attention to The Dog Whisperer - altogether a much pleasanter experience!
Later that same night, as I was getting ready for bed I remembered the fact that the name Clarissa had got my attention twice that day which could be significant so I spent a moment releasing the negative feeling I had attached to it and then sent forgiveness to the woman who had caused me such deep hurt so long ago. End of story. Or was it?
In The Amazon Cloud...
I bought my copy of The Sacred Promise to read on my Kindle but changed my mind
and ordered it for the Amazon Cloud Reader so I could read it on my computer instead. The application opened to the page I had last read and I continued from there. That's when the third co-incidence happened. Gary has a research assistant who happens to be a highly sensitive medical intuitive named...wait for it...Clarissa. It turns out that Clarissa is also involved in a long chain of synchronistic events with Gary. Several examples appear in that chapter but one in particular jumped right off the page at me: the mention of a Salvador Dali painting that I had encountered just recently when - co-incidentally ? - I was reading about another painting, Wrestling With The Angel, by Eugene Delacroix.
and ordered it for the Amazon Cloud Reader so I could read it on my computer instead. The application opened to the page I had last read and I continued from there. That's when the third co-incidence happened. Gary has a research assistant who happens to be a highly sensitive medical intuitive named...wait for it...Clarissa. It turns out that Clarissa is also involved in a long chain of synchronistic events with Gary. Several examples appear in that chapter but one in particular jumped right off the page at me: the mention of a Salvador Dali painting that I had encountered just recently when - co-incidentally ? - I was reading about another painting, Wrestling With The Angel, by Eugene Delacroix.The Dali Connection
The synchronicity involving Gary, Clarissa, and Dali occurs one Sunday when Gary goes shopping for a new watch, something he hadn't done in about twenty years. A rather unique and isolated event, in other words, certainly not an everyday shopping trip. Of all the watches on display, he finds himself drawn again and again to one watch with a stunning dark blue dial and finally he buys it. Unbeknownst to Gary, Clarissa has also been out shopping and she feels prompted to buy a gift for him. Rather than waiting to give him the gift at work, Clarissa suddenly feels the urge to call him and ask if she could drop by his home and deliver the gift that day, the same day Gary bought the watch. Gary agrees and Clarissa arrives with the gift: a print of Salvador Dali's Meditative Rose, the painting I read about in Jean-Paul Kauffmann's book on Delacroix.
The Master of Ambiguity
Like a lot of people I like and loathe Dali in almost equal measure. He is one of those
artists one cannot seem to make up one's mind about. Some of his images are downright perverse and even repellent, but many are fascinating and thought-provoking as well. The Meditative Rose seems to me, however, to be unique in Dali's opus. There is nothing sinister in the image of the gorgeous rose but it is embellished with an ambiguous crystal-like single droplet of water that might, or might not, be a tear. A divine tear, perhaps. The rose also seems to take the place of the sun in the sky, an odd juxtaposition that creates another level of ambiguity. The painting is mesmerising and draws you into its fabulous colours and disappearing landscape leaving you suspended - like the rose - in mid-air. What struck Gary about the
painting was that the colour of the sky was identical to the colour of the watch dial he had been so strongly yet inexplicably drawn to. But wait, it gets even better. Five days after receiving the art print of Meditative Rose, Gary is at Duke University listening to a presentation by Dr. Larry Dossey, pictured at left. Suddenly a slide with the image of...Dali'sMeditative Rose is projected onto the screen! After his presentation, Gary asks Dr. Dossey why he happened to include such an unusual image. Dossey wasn't quite sure himself! He hadn't originally planned to use it but when he was preparing to deliver his address that morning he felt prompted to include the Meditative Rose.
artists one cannot seem to make up one's mind about. Some of his images are downright perverse and even repellent, but many are fascinating and thought-provoking as well. The Meditative Rose seems to me, however, to be unique in Dali's opus. There is nothing sinister in the image of the gorgeous rose but it is embellished with an ambiguous crystal-like single droplet of water that might, or might not, be a tear. A divine tear, perhaps. The rose also seems to take the place of the sun in the sky, an odd juxtaposition that creates another level of ambiguity. The painting is mesmerising and draws you into its fabulous colours and disappearing landscape leaving you suspended - like the rose - in mid-air. What struck Gary about the painting was that the colour of the sky was identical to the colour of the watch dial he had been so strongly yet inexplicably drawn to. But wait, it gets even better. Five days after receiving the art print of Meditative Rose, Gary is at Duke University listening to a presentation by Dr. Larry Dossey, pictured at left. Suddenly a slide with the image of...Dali'sMeditative Rose is projected onto the screen! After his presentation, Gary asks Dr. Dossey why he happened to include such an unusual image. Dossey wasn't quite sure himself! He hadn't originally planned to use it but when he was preparing to deliver his address that morning he felt prompted to include the Meditative Rose.It's Not Over Yet...
The next link in my chain of synchronicities related to reading The Sacred Promise involves a member of my family named Celeste who broke her leg about a month ago. She had been on my mind and (it's 10:11 AM on 1 October 2011 as I am writing this) I made a note in my diary to call this weekend and see how she is progressing. Meanwhile, I returned to The Sacred Promise and read about Gary Schwartz's next synchronicity.
Bears and Rainbows
Gary and his wife Rhonda (from the Greek word for ROSE) Rae (for the SUN) are in Hawaii attending a memorial service for Dr. Paul Pearsall, a friend and mentor of Gary's. Amongst the mourners is a Hawaiian healer named "Kuma" Hewitt. Kuma's little daughter is sitting on a chair hugging a Teddy Bear who is wearing a tee-shirt with a rainbow on it. Gary had been having another series of synchronicities on this trip involving both bears and rainbows! Only he and his wife Rhonda - and Dr. Pearsall's widow Celeste - were aware of that fact. (See Link Below for Teddy Bear purchase).As if all of this were not enough, today as I returned to reading The Sacred Promise, Gary tells the story of a woman he calls Carol who has son with some physical disabilities. Gary calls her ex-husband, Eugene, not exactly the most common male name in America! About ten minutes before I reached this point in the book, I scheduled a post on the French artist, Eugène Délacroix, to be published later today!
The Cherry On Top...
By any chance do you know the artist El Greco's real name? No, I didn't either. I discovered it when I was searching for a print of his painting Toledo on the net. His real name was Domenicos Theotocópoulos. It so happens that I'm due to meet a friend this afternoon with the same last name. Not exactly a common one, is it? Don't you just love Synchronicities!
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© Delia O' Riordan 2011
