I posted a short story concerning Giordano Bruno and have often mentioned this fascinating philosopher of the late Renaissance. I thought, today ,I would post considering my schedule, just Four quotes of his I found on the Web. I have read the books mentioned and I am familiar with the context of all the quotes :

"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."

"There is one simple Divinity found in all things, everything has Divinity latent within itself. For she enfolds and imparts herself even unto the smallest beings. Without her presence nothing would have being, because she is the essence of the existence of the first unto the last being."
~The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, 1582

"This entire globe, this star, not being subject to death, and dissolution and annihilation being impossible anywhere in Nature, from time to time renews itself by changing and altering all its parts. There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the centre of things."
~ On Cause, Principle, and Unity

"In space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns, no worse and no less than this globe of ours. For no reasonable mind can assume that heavenly bodies that may be far more magnificent than ours would not bear upon them creatures similar or even superior to those upon our human earth. "
~On the Infinite Universe and Worlds

"Circles the sun and seeks whence he hath come;
And wandering lights make ever for their source;
The child of earth returns to earthly home;
From sea to sea again, the waters course;
Divine desire, wherever it may roam,
Soars ever upward, of its native force.
        'Tis thus the soul, born of my lady fair,
        Turns back to find that goddess past compare."
              - Gli Eroici Furori

This is one of the darkest things I have ever written - a good contrast to the light of the Amethyst Rose of the last three days. I do not mean to suggest that Dear Giordano deserves hell - far from it, he deserves to be honored as one of the best thinkers and futurists who ever lived - a true lover of the Lady Sophia, Wisdom. But when our souls are abused beyond all reason, some of us must go to hell to get to heaven - despair enters and does not leave for centuries. I do believe, that Giordano Bruno, the gnostic philosopher and mystic belongs in heaven, if that place truly exists!

    The Exile Beyond the Gate 
   
      I seem to stumble and fall and cannot rise. Blackness surrounds me, it is completely black, a lack of light so intense that it has substance and taste.  Trying to steady myself, I lay still a moment to gather my strength.  The deep black all around me seems as a solid wall though there is no hardness to it, no perception of depth, height or distance exists to reassure my senses and help me orient myself. The blackness, deep and absolute, is all about me. I am completely alone, alone, no sense of otherness to reassure me of my own existence. 
At first, I do not even realize how completely alone I am, so intent am I to make sense of my environment, but, as time passes, yes, my isolation reaps a bitter harvest.

Emptiness. Non existence, without light man is but a shadow of thoughts and dreams, I am nothing. Empty, without others to fill me. An empty glass of humanity, I am without all, without light, without being, without name.  

    Cold. Cold- like what, the grave? A winter's morning, crystal hangs from trees and light diffracts through the branches of ice creating rainbows of the early morning light. The chill fills the soul and stills the heart.  The crack of ice and snow underfoot sounds closer to stone than water. This is the agony of winter when life is dead and still and silent, yes, I know winter well.  

   Fear. There is no fear now, only despair and a need to understand and make sense of nothing. No up or down, nor floor or roof . Certainty dies when there is no point of reference, no beam of light to plummet. Voice came not to me, I cried out but no voice comes. My Hand does not feel resistance when it moves and there is no  throat to grasp, no hand to move. My senses seem to work, yet, except, to touch not, no longer can I feel myself .  No boundaries, nor self, nor limit, no fleshy being to feel. As Time passes, I have no reference, no star nor planet to judge by, but time, my time passes.  

  Awareness of  self gives birth to time. My mental functions are active. I have attempted to make sense of nonsense, but I perceive that my memory is failing me . I know it is impaired because I can not remember how I came to be in this cold, dark place, so disoriented am I,  that the minutes and days are as one and my thoughts do not come before or after one another any longer.  My memories after I made the effort, are returning as pictures in my mind.

I was a philosopher, a thinker and teacher of ideas, an adventurer in the realms of thought. A prison, I remember now, dark, dank, it smelled like a ten-day-old dead man and stank of my own excrement and urine.  The food! the rats of Rome ate better than I !  Yes, I remember, and why ? Yes, Why?    I had written books : philosophy, religion, the sciences and humanities. My books were wrong, I remember. I said that the earth went around the sun and was not the center of all creation, that there was an infinity of stars, planets and universes which exist -Unlimited Infinity and a God that matches His creation and life, itself, breathing, pulsating in , though and around all creation. The universe, itself, is a breathing living entity.    
   Heresy they called it, heresy! I laugh even now. They are the heretics , they who limit  God to Aristotle and their own dead souls, they who torture, destroy and kill in the name of the Prince of Peace! A scandal and corruption are they to all Christendom.  
  Finally, I try to speak again but cannot hear. Leonardo da Vinci a countryman of mine, has proposed that without air there is no sound for sound is but a wave upon the ocean of air. If that most excellent man was right, than I am either deaf, dumb or in a place where there is no air.  Tears well up in my eyes, so much had been taken away from me because I had dared to speak.  I have fought a battle for the right to think, to consider and to doubt and I have lost. Never again shall I speak, I swear, never again shall I write, it is better to be silent and still born then to speak to a deaf world. It was foolish for me to risk myself for the sake of truth and speculation. Neither are worth the effort or danger incurred by their expression. I have found that the strong and powerful always prevail and rebellion against them is useless.     
       I remember now ... a cry ruptures my soul, ripping me asunder. Like a sword, the cry slices through me , severing me...
   They tied me to a stake, I remember their cruel hands and the tight ropes and chains. Words came, my very soul, " The soul is eternal, it cannot die." over and over I say it. I saw the executioner throw additional fagots of kindling on the already immense pile of wood at my feet. I looked up at the 'Bella Donna', the fair sky of spring.  For nearly eight years of torture, imprisonment and trial I had been cheated of the sweetness of spring and now I was to die in the early spring. It seemed very fitting and proper to me that fate had chosen such an end for me.  Looking back down, I saw the executioner light the fagots with a torch. I looked at his face and wondered what manner of man could do such a thing.  Rage and anger  filled my heart, I would kill my dinner before I cooked it and they could not kill me before roasting me!  I wanted desperately to scream but scream I could not for they had pounded a stake into my mouth that I would not blasphemy as I died. They put a cross before me that I might be saved.  Their concern for my soul was touching, I thought, but the battle was lost already and my death would come soon enough.
I was lost already and would not yield.  Turning from it I hung my head a moment and then watched the nearing flames, God had destroyed me and the Church had condemned me. I had lost everything, perhaps, even, my soul, but I would not consent to my own execution by agreeing with them and showing signs of repentance, it was too late for that.
 My death was now a matter between my soul and the flames. 
     The flames began to consume me. I screamed , screamed and struggled.  Oh, God, the pain of being burnt alive!  Blood flowed from my charring flesh, into lidless eyes the red tide flowed, blinding me.  My hair fizzled and burned. I screamed until I died.     
            I know where ..... Io capisco, I know where ... My surroundings,  the endless night, the emptiness and the chill,  of -  Hell.  
   Yes, I have awakened in Hell.
I cry out across the centuries to a God, whose heart, if it be not eternally locked by the keys of St. Peter, must now hear my anguished cries of regret and remorse. I was once his loving and loyal servant, can He not forgive me?      
 "God forgive me, forgive me, I beg! Forgive......."  
 
  The prayers of my troubled soul, which has known no rest through all these endless nights , can these prayers of grief and anguish, I wonder,  pierce through these walls of empty darkness? 

++++
I told you it was dark. May the soul of Giordano, where ever you are, now, someday, get past the lies told you and may you know union with the Divine Light of Wisdom. 


     

Giordano Bruno would be clapping his hands and laughing hysterically - finally - the Vatican GETS IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, guys it only took you 408 years, congrads!

Ah, the fool's day ! I am no good with surprises - sorry - My husband is a little better at the practical joke.. he's better at EVERYTHING ! 
I could say that I woke up this morning and realized I had grown two inches --- I WISH ! Now, that would be a joke !!!!!!!!!!

The Fool (The foolish one, the practical joker, the seeker, the class clown, the town fool, etc...) is a sacred image. Very few people understand this, today. We make fun of people calling them dorks, jackasses or naive fools, or 40 year old virgins. etc.. - but the fool is actually a sacred person set apart from the rest of us - in the tarot card above he is directly and clearly identified with the Seeker after Truth. The Native Americans (who in my head will always be Indians no matter how much they insist on the longer name, they were not native to this shore, alas,guys, we are all immigrants - the difference is when !) treated mad men with respect.. there were several incidents in the 19th. century when they left a white man alone because they thought he was crazy. They knew what for I speak - that the mad are holy.

The Fool - (And I am not talking about people that actually believe in global warming or the movies of Michael Moore, 9/11 conspiracies or the aliens eating their homework dreams or what ever you are personally for or against!)  Is  the Seeker -  he is also called the Mystic. He is crazy - mad, actually - he really, honestly, completely believes that there is something more to life than mere matter, dancing atoms, hormones, science, Brittany Spears, Name that Jackass, latest fashions,  diamond rings and communism -- he believes that there is another reality behind this reality - the realms of spirit and soul - and they are the TRUTH behind appearances. and - by all that is Good & Just - He is going to go searching for that other reality, even put his well being, perhaps his life on the line - or over the cliff, because he really believes there is something more to life. No one can stop him - his little dog is trying - (that is actually is body and mind barking its meaningless drivel - it is  also that Lord and Master of this era --- REASON demanding the man's worship but he is ignoring it...)  but He is going to jump off the cliff of Matter (material realm) into his dreams, visions, intuitions, hopes, prayers and desires... he may crash to the ground far below - or he may soar to the heavens on the wings of spirit - towards that brilliant sun behind him, perhaps - is that the sun or is that God that blesses him with warmth &  life?   It doesn't matter. He has made his decision and is committed, he's even put what earthly things he thought might help him on the journey in a little sack that he carries on that stick - which looks like a magician's staff, doesn't it?  you can see his decision to just JUMP, it is the white flower he carries in his hand... white symbolizes innocent desire and purity of purpose. The number of the card is important, also - "0" that moment just before we take an action... scientists even have a name for it - the singularity - that moment before birth, that moment before all things began - the zero point of creation... he is ready to jump - shall he soar to the stars, to God, to the Divine ONE  or is he really the stupid fool, the nonsensical one that refused to believe that "This (the earth, matter) is all there is.."

And it doesn't matter if he does fall and fall until his life ends on the rocks below... it is the intention with which he set out that really matters. He is NOW and Forever  On the Path - next lifetime he will be born again and will again try that cliff - He will someday soar, no matter how many times he crashes to the rocks. The Seeker, once he begins seeking, never gives up.

I use the Fool to great effect in the novel I am writing - May Day the herbalist James chooses one of the young pages or servants in the castle and gives him certain herbs that dislodges him from his normal consciousness. He is the FOOL, incarnate - he can do anything he wants that day - he can sing silly or nasty ditties, dance along the allures, pull the veils off ladies, stand upside down in the throne room for an hour, treat even the king and his family with disrespect, bow to servants as if they were kings and queens and demand that nobles fetch his dinner ...  (there are certain limits but we won't mention those in polite society, will we? ... ) and he can predict/utter prophecies, also .. anyone can walk up to him and ask for a prophecy of the coming year... the fool because his feet are in both worlds will and often, in my novel, does give a prophecy, in fact, several. He wears the traditional outfit of fools everywhere - funny clothes, silly hat of conflicting colors, two colored hose and carries a rattle.

Some of my favorite  FOOLS throughout history & literature :
The first walking fish that left water, First human to say "what's that thing?" and got burned by fire. The first man to go over that distant hill, the first man to leave Africa, Socrates, Moses, David, St. Francis of Assisi, Ramon Lull,  Joanne of Arc, Giordano Bruno, Cyrano De Bergerac (from the play, scene 2, not history!) Frodo Baggins and his Uncle Bilbo and of course, don't forget that great master of the foolish, Don Quixote.
And this is the short list !!
So, be a fool, my friends. It will irritate those who worship their own self important egos, it will get you called all manner of names by scientists and religious people,  it will drive your friends to wrath and disregard, the insults to you will become unceasing amusement to your spirit, and, yet, that cliff still awaits you -- will you step off into the unknown or not? 

And, no, I didn't mention FAITH >>> but you have good sense - or is that foolish sense -its implied, people, isn't it ?
 
 

Giordano Bruno said it best :
"It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."

In Giordano's time the question that troubled scientists was the very nature of space : was it the Ptolemy version, or the Copernican version? Most believed in the Bible's version of the solar system and the rest of cosmos - the earth as the center of everything - even the sun, orbiting it. Copernicus suggested a new model, the one we know is true now.

I mention his observation because common wisdom is rarely wisdom.

Many are impressed with scholars and their diplomas - if an expert says something it must be true, because he/she is an expert, yet the experts have been wrong many times, as they were in Giordano's time. He went against the grain of his times. He believed in an infinite universe full of light, planets and life forms. He belongs more to us then he ever belonged to his own people and times. Today , he would be a really great Science Fiction writer/scientist/ mystic. I truly wish the dear, good man could have lived in times when his gifts and obvious wisdom would have given him a long life instead of a short, painful life.

I will say it simply : Smart does not always mean right. Wisdom is not learned in a book.

A very tragic thing has happened - a book concerning the Saudis and their financial involvement with the extremists has been taken off the market and all copies destroyed - they even asked libraries to destroy any copies they owned. The Saudis claimed the book lied, but as far as I can see they did not prove this by showing contrary proofs that refuted the' lies'. You can do as much research on this subject as you like but it all comes down to this : a printing company yielded and took off the market in both Brittan and the USA, a book, because a rich Saudi Arabian demanded they do so - because he threatened to sue them.

What a dark day, what a wicked day it is for all of mankind.

Men who live in the 7th century A.D. know no better, but the university of Cambridge?

Of all the things I treasure my freedom to say what I will is most beloved and held closest to my heart. Since childhood I have been told to be silent, to behave myself, to obey the authorities above me - many times very cruelly, by teachers, my parents, friends and even my dear husband, though, with him, very rarely and for good reason, usually. (he has learned that I do not take kindly to such things and he truly saves such for moments for when I am making a complete ass of myself!) I was harshly disciplined in my grammar school days when I asked questions and had doubts. I heard 'Be quiet and sit down', time after time for years. 'Don't think, don't question, don't have thoughts of your own, you are only a girl, be humble, be malleable' ... time after time for years.... I rebelled. My soul rebelled, my very essence rebelled.

When young, I obeyed but in adulthood I have walked my own way and had my own mind. I have lost friends, I have lost communities, I have lost jobs, even, but my integrity is intact.

I did, from my first breath love learning and study and always asked questions and had doubts - I would not be ME if I did not, my soul, my essence is that of seeker and thinker ... I admit I can be obnoxious. I admit I can be wordy, foolish and boring. I admit I can be very mistaken and ignorant, upon occasion. I admit that I fail to put my thoughts and images into suitable words, I even admit I am poorly educated - But I also know I am an American woman in the early 21 century and no one has a right to silence me unless I threaten harm or speak lies or commit some other crime that is against the laws of my country. I believe that it is better to be strong and wrong than weak, right, and obedient.

I left the Catholic Church, a home I loved dearly because a priest told me that, if I did not like HIS CHURCH, I should leave it. I did. I have searched for truth, understanding and most of all, wisdom, since. I would no more surrender to another church or authority than I would cut out my own tongue because that is what it would take to silence me forever ! I will not surrender to the powerful, to the mind police of liberal political correctness or the clerics of Islam or the authorities of my own religion ! I will be free even if it is only the freedom to make mistakes and be mistaken. I will not give up my right to think freely about everything in the universe that is not wicked or obscene. I will be free.
Giordano Bruno, for me, is an example of what a human being can be if they believe that freedom is worth defending. He chose death by fire instead of life as an obedient slave of the Pope and cardinals. He was a brilliant man, he could have been an abbot or even pope if he had stayed safe and silent in the Naples Abbey, if he had nodded and said all the proper words in the right order (is that not what all political correctness is about, the right words in the right order?)- but he chose a life true to his soul - he searched, he questioned, he debated, he wrote, he considered. That is all they wanted him from him :the right words in the right order and he could have saved his life by sticking a knife in the heart of the philosophy he had created, nurtured and built over decades. He knew that even if he was wrong it was better to be wrong than to be subservient to anyone. He died a hero to every person who is as he was. He knew, long before the declaration of Independence, Constitution or the Bill of Rights were ever signed, that is better to fight and die a free man than to surrender and bow before kings, priests or the elite wealthy.

Now, Cambridge University Press , that old and respected institution has chosen to bow - to surrender to the desires of a rich Saudi who was offended by a book and all copies of that book are now destroyed - again, the powerful win and silence enters the word, fire consumes, words die- cowards,they are at Cambridge, every sorry soul of them --- cowards.

Saturday was the 406th anniversary of the execution by fire of Giordano Bruno, the Italian poet,philosopher and mystic of the late Renaissance. I seem to have a personal affinity for this dear man and find in his philosophy a great deal of my own world view & philosophy. Reading his work is not easy - it is damnably hard work, but he is well worth the effort. He will sometimes be obscene, often funny and very often, sublime. His words, at their best, soar to the gates of heaven. He is for those who do not want to reject the existence of the Divine while desiring to explore, think and examine all of nature, mankind and greater cosmos. Many of the sciences we today acknowledge as separate disciplines were speculated upon in his dialogs - bits and pieces of the future are strewed in his prose. In his philosophy you can be both mystic and scientist - something, many today,believe is an impossibility.
Born in 1548, of a poor southern Italian family, he choose priesthood as a Dominican monk instead of the sea,the soil or the sword. He was a wonderful mixture of contraries: Mystic and scientist, arguing troublemaker and moralist, believer and profound doubter, religious and spiritual, spy and wanderer belonging to no one land; he had one leg in the religion of his ancestors, one hand in the future and age of discovery, the other leg in the 20 century, the last hand in mystical, arcane and magical world of alchemy and hermetic magic. I believe he would have been at home in our own times if he didn't get too restless by its dogmatic rigidity(in every field of intellectual endeavor, including science.) - he was a scientist born too early, a science fiction writer whose imagination was quite profound before there was any call for one, a mystic who said many of the same things that got others sainthood and one very curious individual in every possible way. His life was a painful one and I doubt he ever knew much happiness or real peace. He was torn between his lady love (wisdom, science, Truth) and the Roman Catholic church that had nurtured him as a youth. He wanted intellectual freedom but he also appreciated the need for structure and traditions; attempting to return to the church several times. He believed that you could be free and be Christian. I would suggest he was a Gnostic Christian with other influences and I suspect that he would have been attracted to Buddhism if it had been more available in the Europe of his time.He appreciated the yin and loved the yang, th0ugh he did not call the Balance of universe by those names. Some experts believed he was an atheist but I do not believe it - He could hold in his deepest soul many contraries (opposites), understanding that you do not need to have certainty and can not have it as long as you are mortal. He wanted the TRUTH and he was willing to do anything to seek it. He saw no need to stay in one place for very long - this was as true intellectually as it was physically. Ultimately, his desire for the Truth above all other things was his undoing as was his inability to prevaricate.
His end was as a human candle, a fire that consumed his soul as well as his body taking both away to eternity. I think he appreciated the poetic nature of his death, which he did not fear because he knew his soul to be immortal. BUT sadly, in the end, he felt betrayed by God and Christ, for as the fires grew closer, he turned away from the cross. Death is never sad in its self, only defeat in death is sorrowful and in the end, the church had that one victory, it drove him away from Jesus Christ. We, who look on from this century can not fault him and what he must have suffered in the jails of the Inquisition, we can only guess; My suggestion is that they brain-washed him and beat him into something like acquiescence, damaging his soul. He, in short, believed their lies in the end. I must explain that I am not saying that he agreed with them about their dogma, his last statement shows he did not, but he agreed that you could not love the Divine ONE and Lady Wisdom (science, philosophy, Truth). That of course, is a lie. I can only pray in his future lives his soul will awaken again and with new eyes and a new age see the lie for what it is.
Note: The above picture is from the net, I fear I have no record of where I found it or who originally took it. It is of a statue erected on the site of his execution, the Campo de Fiori in Rome.