Reflections 2001: 29

While laying summer to rest in ma jardin, I aimed camera  at my reflection in the pergola windows.  The reflection shows a figure with an oil painting-flower for a heart; a landscape trussed by the bones of vines;  windows reflecting windows; houses and lattices and flora enmeshed in a framed window-world.  The Burning Bush was burning nicely in the background. Scissors are lifted like my mini flaming-sword.   I like my accidental self-portrait.  It shows me things about myself that I would never have consciously seen.

Reflections are a classic way to see "what is, what was, and what might be," to paraphrase the Elven Queen in Fellowship of the Rings.  Frodo Baggins, the recipient of her advice, looks into a silver ewer filled with water to see his past, present, and possible future reflected.  "Possible" is an important word in the art of reflection.  We can't see for sure what will be, only what might be if the current juxtaposition of events is not altered.  This is the same psychology of reflection over Tarot Cards: we empty ourselves of expectation, open ourselves to the unkown, and try to pick out patterns that add up to possible ends. Similarly, our wizardly hero Harry Potter looks into a bowl of water --the Pensieve--and is able to see and sort his thoughts. Druids looked into reflective pools of black ink as a meditation tool.  Ancient Greek and Roman priests read goat offals.  Offals are of course not reflective in the sense of light, but apparently provide a focus and a pattern to meditate on.

Reflection is not Illumination, or absolute truth.  It is sign, open to interpretation and flux. The trusty Old Testament (a tool from my Baptist childhood) says that we see "through a mirror darkly."  The reflections we see of ourselves are not the Real Thing.  But reflection is the best that us mortals have to deal with.  We can't handle, or so we are told, the Big Picture, the Whole Truth.  We can make little jabs in the dark, or see ourselves in a reflected context.  Like the Burning Bush that Yahweh manifested himself in, so Moses could see just a little bit of the Glory of God--we have limited sensory perceptions. 

But in my limited understanding, I fully appreciate the added dimension of a chance reflection.