• “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
  • About me
  • About this blog & Awards received
  • Copyright notice

moderndayruth

~ Tarot inspired essays and more

moderndayruth

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wordtrip 2020

25 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Over forty poets and performers took part, and over 2 000 viewers over the 8 days celebrated the European culture.

This year’s videos are still available here:

https://www.parislitup.com/wordtrip

Digital “roadtrip” around Europe resulted in daily 30-minute video featuring short performances from artists from as many countries on the continent as possible.

Videos were premiered on Facebook, then uploaded to the Wordtrip YouTube channel.

Here’s the link to part 6. In part 4., i’ll welcome you to Montenegro.

Enjoy!

#živimokulturu

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

TRI PJESME LENE RUTH STEFANOVIĆ IZ ZBIRKE “IZVINITE, MISLIM DA UMIREM”, OKF, Cetinje, CDNK, Podgorica, 2020.

23 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

So happy to be published at Željko Belinić famed art blog
Čovjek-časopis! (The poems are in Montenegrin.) I’ll post translation to English soon!

čovjek-časopis

POČUJ,

danas,
sedmog dana mjeseca Lava
pet hiljada sedamsto sedme
po starom računanju vremena
u smiraj pretoplog dana
u Podgorici,
prije nego što na kraju moje ulice
počne da zalazi umorno sunce
tu, đe se nebo spušta na zemlju
zapaliću svijeće
od gline sam načinjena
u prah ću se vratiti
ali ja znam da je
Bog, naš Bog,
stvorio ovaj svijet
moj svijet
samo za mene

***

NUDIŠ MI VELIKODUŠNO SVOJE PREZIME

Starine bi rekle da i nije neko
A mene bi kao trebali da uzmu
Sve i da sam pod manom
Navodno sam od takvog roda
Znaš te priče
Nadgornjavanje, nadplemenjavanje,
Olimpijske igre među bratstvenicima
Ti ne očekuješ puno, kažeš
Sve ka’ kod majke
Minus gunđanje
(skuvano, oprano, ispeglano…)
plus seks
ne smijem da se ugojim, to valjda znam
moji su mi valjda obezbijedili
stalan posao, po jedan stan u gradu i na moru i dobra kola
koja ćeš…

View original post 539 more words

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

It was the best of times…

20 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Chronos” and “Altar of Emptiness” are two poems which are among the best known poems from my body of work. It seems that concepts of Le temps perdu and ( stemming from it?) minimalism resonate with audience across the globe. These two poems were first included in the anthology published by Ratkovic’s poetry evenings [RVP, 2018] and i presented them live at the festival. The same year, i had the honor to present them once again (among other poems) at Rahovec international poetry festival; finally both were included in American selection of poetry by Balkan poets, among work by the shining stars from the region such as Tanja Bakić, Nikola Madžirov, Fahredin Shehu and others [Poetry from the Bslksns, Inner Child Press, 2018].
Enjoy!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Live the culture

13 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

#živimokulturu is an amazing project created by Ministry of culture of Montenegro in cooperation with numerous free lance artists. Two hundred artists proposed numerous creative ways to live our culture under most constrained of the circumstances, during the global pandemics.

There is that famous saying by Orson Welles: “in Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Follow the hashtag #živimokulturu on social networks and you will see what Montenegrin artists created during “the worst of times…

Love&Light

moderndayruth

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

In The City Of Amsterdam

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by moderndayruth in I Ching, Photography, Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Amsterdam, Anne Frank, I Ching Hexagram 18, John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, Waterlooplein

10520600100097471038941810407442104250851042809110437785107021051080166310805702

1459881

Mici the cat, my favorite Amsterdammer:
106714321487440

Traveling to a city second or third time in a row to me is like… well, like having a quickie with one’s loving long-term partner. First time there is that overwhelming excitement, expectations of all sorts to be met, then, the fear to miss something from the sightseeing and then feel like a complete idiot if asked:”What, you haven’t seen XY?!”

Prior to my first visit to Amsterdam, i had conducted a research on the city worthy of a phd thesis. During the stay, for two weeks, early in the morning i’ leave my best friend’s downtown apartment  equipped with all sorts of guides and maps and carrying the inevitable camera i’d commence my daily chore… that is, sightseeing. I’d visit  three museums per day, i’d walk for miles and i’d make endless notes in my diary while taking zillion of pictures, so not to forget anything.

I guess i did enjoy that stay – on rare occasions, when i’d allow myself to relax for a moment, those moments very few though.

I don’t regret it, knowing my perfectionist and obsessive little self, i know that i’d feel utterly miserable was it any other way (more so that it’s then that i wrote that poem in prose which i still think to be my best work: A dream about canals in Amsterdam, in which the water was murky )…

But, boy, did i enjoy the stay last week when all i did was merely strolling the city streets no rush, no must-sees!

I was hanging around the Waterlooplein, Amsterdam’s historical Jewish quarter – most  conveniently, my best friend actually lives there – and i was whistling to the tune of Joe Dassin’s Les Champs Élysées (can’t sing, i don’t speak Dutch, so  whistling was is the best i could do, but here is the original “Oh, Waterlooplein” for you:

Most interestingly, the I Ching reading i did beforehand resulted in Hexagram Work on what has been spoiled; here is how my favorite contemporary I Ching scholar, Hilary Barrett, interprets it: “Corruption opens the possibility of starting at the source: going back to the origins of how things are and coming from there, recreating your way of interacting with the world. From here you can ‘cross the great river’ into new and unknown territory. This means taking a risk: it would be altogether easier not to cross, to keep walking round the same familiar loop on this bank and keep out of the deep waters. But in a time of corruption, people sometimes seem impelled to cross, driven by feelings as strong as revulsion to bring about change. [H. Barrett, Hexagram 18: Corruption].”

Anne Frank words come to mind:

how wonderful

“.. the smell of canals and cigarette smoke, all the people sitting outside the cafés drinking beer, saying their r’s and g’s in a way I’d never learn. I missed the future. Obviously I knew even before this recurrance that I’d never grow old with Augustus Waters. But thinking about Lidewij and her boyfriend, I felt robbed. I would probably never again see the ocean from thirty thousand feet above, so far up you can’t make out the waves or any boats, so that the ocean is a great and endless monolith. I could imagine it. I could remember it. But I couldn’t see it again, and it occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again. That is probably true even if you live to be ninety.”   John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Brave Old Worlds — A European Short-Fiction Sampler

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

“Brave Old Worlds” – an upbeat review of Dalkey Archive Press’ Best European Fiction 2014

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Critique of Pure Writing Genius

06 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Calvino, Ghost, Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, Joseph Campbell, Michel David, Religion and Spirituality, Tarot, Thomas Aquinas

English: An original card from the tarot deck ...

English: An original card from the tarot deck of Jean Dodal of Lyon, a classic “Marseilles” deck. The deck dates from 1701-1715. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sic. You know i am into catchy phrases, but there is something else… It’s that a genius  is presumably so exceptional and so out of ordinary, that it’s beyond critique – and often – even beyond the comprehension of us, the mortals.

Let alone that no one really knows what’s genius (except that we all agree Da Vinci, Einstein and Tesla were that ), sometimes being genius in one field obviously doesn’t mean the individual in question can transplant that geniousness  onto something else – or – better to say, on anything else.

If you wonder what got me into this flow of thought – it’s that i am reading Italo Calvino’s Tarot inspired book – The Castle of Crossed Destinies… Meh. I’ve been hunting it for years and only this time in Moscow i bumped into a forgotten (and damaged) copy laying somewhere at the sides of a big, flashy bookstore in my neighborhood.

Not sure why i thought Calvino’s would be any different than Pavic’s – or of any other good (or even great) writer who thought his genius writing style sufficed to bite into something as complex and as mystical as Tarot is. You see, it’s not enough. It takes way more than being good (or even great) with words to write about Tarot – given that in your writings you aspire to any depth and any subtext.

I loved Calvino’s others books, he’s simply a great writer. The beginning of the Castle sounded promising – again, at first it’s the master storytelling that gets you… But what it comes down to?

It seems what Calvino did is the following – he shuffled and pulled the cards randomly and than wrote whatever association came to his (rich) imagination.

Which is good, and every single serious Tarotist did it – as a learning exercise. That’s what you do, when you are just starting to learn reading Tarot de Marseilles; you pull the cards randomly, arrange them in a line, pay attention to the body language of the figures depicted – and tell the story.

If you are somewhat gifted for writing and more so if you were diligent in your high school history classes – you’ll end up with a good story and most probably – with a great story.

Then you learn to read the Tarot as cartomancers do… and a whole new paradigm, a whole ‘brave new world’ opens up for you.

That space, the discourse between you and the cards – it’s sacred and i won’t pollute your experience by retelling mine, but whomever did it – knows it’s deep and overwhelming and mind blowing… Oftentimes it’s beyond verbalization, but when peeps who were brave enough and nerdy enough to let the Tarot paradigm infuse their minds, those who were opened enough (and mad enough) to live the Tarot experience… when they start putting those into words, in their very words – and often  in between them, you feel the Light, or that which we normally name ‘geniusness’.

I am not saying Calvino’s book is not good – it is of course, but not more than that – and somehow i did expect more.

The thing is that many great minds – such as Joseph Campbell, who co-authored a book on Tarot ( “Tarot Revelations”, Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts)- in their work touched on Tarot and left it at that…

Sad, because one can’t but think – what if… What if those great minds really spent prolonged periods of time with their decks, without presuming that they can put it to some use, as it is?

Mary Greer writes on Jung and Tarot. I claim Mary to be genius – and here is why: i’ve studied from her books and i’ve been reading her posts on certain Tarot forum and in several facebook groups, see – firstly she has an out-of-ordinary capacity to learn, digest and deconstruct enormous quantities of both scientific data and mystical texts; she found the proverbial middle way – not being a slave to facts, but not falling into mishy-mashy pseudo-scientific discourse to which many of esoteric authors are inclined. You see – to achieve that balance when working with the occult – is genius. Also, Mary is movingly honest in her search – and from Socrates onwards all great minds were such. See, that – the honesty in one’s search for truth – is the main reason that Thomas Aquinas by most in academia is not even considered to be a philosopher; the thing with him is that he ‘knew’ the truth and by various means is manipulating you into his believes and views… that’s dogma, not philosophy, no matter how skillful the orator.

So, for myself, when defining a genius i follow the notorious ‘i know it when i see it’ – and it is so; we all have this or that author to whom we are partial, but we mostly agree on who among them is genius.

Calvino’s writing style is genius, it’s a gift and when you read his work, even in a dreaded translation, you feel it, you feel that 1% of something, that can’t be put into words and which can’t be achieved with the proverbial 99% of sweating. Calvino has it in his words, my pet peeve is that he thought it sufficed to write on Tarot.

Once again, his is a good book – and even  a great one, if you don’t have a clue about Tarot; the thing is that equally well written texts you can find on aeclectic.net if you go to the Tarot de Marseilles subforum and dig out some older threads there… You know what? You’ll find way better written texts there – because the peeps who authored them – Le Fanu of the Curious Cabinet, Paul Nagy, Enrique Enriques , Jean- Michel David and others with great gift for words wrote those – and that’s after having spent years and decades with the cards.

Tarot-wise, i grew up on that forum, so while reading Calvino’s book, i can’t stop myself from thinking: Italo, my man, you should have tried harder…

“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.” 
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Related articles
  • The Disappearing Act: Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’ (theculturetrip.wordpress.com)
  • – it takes half an hour to write an article … (omstreifer.wordpress.com)
  • The Letters of Italo Calvino, Day IV (newyorker.com)
  • The Dreams of Italo Calvino (nybooks.com)
0.000000
0.000000

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Image

Weekly Photo Challenge: Tarot Reading From Above

09 Thursday May 2013

Tags

Crowley Harris Tarot, From Above, Thoth Tarot, Weekly Photo Challenge, WordPress

Weekly Photo Challenge: Tarot Reading From Above

Weekly Photo Challenge: Tarot Reading From Above

0.000000
0.000000

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted by moderndayruth | Filed under Uncategorized

≈ 11 Comments

Pray for Boston

16 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

goodness… may wounded in Boston be healed promptly, may those who lost loved ones be comforted and let the terrorists be caught promptly and dealt with harshly

Black and Grey Boutique Blog

Praying for all affected by such a horrible tragedy.

20130415-190942.jpg

View original post

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

I love Russel Ray’s photos – and especially those featuring Zoey , the cool cat! Here she is, in all her awesomeness – for all fellow cat lovers out there!

Russel Ray Photos

Picture of the Moment

Pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos

Zoey the Cool Cat was upset when she found out that I had posted pictures of birds yesterday (Fly softly, and carry a big stick). I promised her that if she would behave herself out on the patio, I’d post some gratuitous pictures of her. Here she is enjoying the patio, although in the second picture you can see what she thought when I suggested that we go inside.

Zoey the Cool Cat

Pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos

Zoey the Cool Cat

Pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos

I'm Zoey the Cool Cat, and I approve this post

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!Real Estate Solutions

Pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos

View original post

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts
Newer posts →
Logo ministarstvo kulture cg

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 791 other followers

Lena Ruth Stefanovic

Lena Ruth Stefanovic

Top Posts & Pages

  • Tri boje: bijela, crna, crvena
  • Nevinost sa niskim zaštitnim faktorom
  • Mrlja u mojoj svijesti
  • RETURN
  • Spavaćica moje majke
  • književna premijera: ROMAN LENE RUTH STEFANOVIĆ "AIMÉE / VOLJENA", OKF, Cetinje, 7/2020; ulomak
  • Crvene šterike
  • Bookfair
  • Dreaming city
  • A Daughter of the Childless One (an excerpt)

Recent Posts

  • Tri boje: bijela, crna, crvena
  • Nevinost sa niskim zaštitnim faktorom
  • Mrlja u mojoj svijesti
  • RETURN
  • Spavaćica moje majke

Archives

  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • November 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012

Categories

  • Awards
  • Coming of Age / Bildungsroman
  • Essay
  • Humor
  • I Ching
  • Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition
  • Magical Realism
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Satire
  • Tarot
  • Uncategorized
  • Zen

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Archives

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Sep    

Archives

Tarot Community

Tarot Community

Categories

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 791 other followers

Pages

  • “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
  • About me
  • About this blog & Awards received
  • Copyright notice

Recent Posts

  • Tri boje: bijela, crna, crvena
  • Nevinost sa niskim zaštitnim faktorom
  • Mrlja u mojoj svijesti
  • RETURN
  • Spavaćica moje majke

  • moderndayruth
April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Sep    

Top Posts & Pages

  • Tri boje: bijela, crna, crvena
  • Nevinost sa niskim zaštitnim faktorom
  • Mrlja u mojoj svijesti
  • RETURN
  • Spavaćica moje majke
  • književna premijera: ROMAN LENE RUTH STEFANOVIĆ "AIMÉE / VOLJENA", OKF, Cetinje, 7/2020; ulomak
  • Crvene šterike
  • Bookfair
  • Dreaming city
  • A Daughter of the Childless One (an excerpt)

Blog Stats

  • 52,136 hits

Blogroll

  • (con)temporary tarot Enrique Enriquez’ Blog
  • Live Kabbalah Live Kabbalah University
  • Love Dove Tarot Lisa Frideborg Lloyd’s Blog
  • Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog
  • Microfiction by Bonnie Cehovet Microfiction by Bonnie Cehovet
  • Perspectives On Tarot BONNIE’S TAROT WORLD
  • Portal MONTENEGRINA Cultural Gate to Montenegro
  • Tarot Weblog – Adam McLean Tarot Weblog – Adam McLean
  • This Game of Thrones Alison Cross makes Court Cards less of a battle!

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: