Transcript for Podcast 2 – But what do Durer’s Melencolia’s symbols actually mean? Are they relevant to us in the modern world? A little about Book 2.
The original engraving of Melencolia is barely bigger than my book. So this poster of it here behind me is many times bigger than the original. But as you zoom into it, more and more, (look at a high resolution image of it, such as at wikipedia), you find its astonishing, intricate detail. Durer must have used tools a hair’s width to create it. And the detail is very subtle, with one thing seeming to morph into another. So that you find yourself gazing into it, as if you’re exploring yourself, and beyond. And each time you look at it, you see something different.
As I said in Podcast 1, Melencolia is one of a few visionary artworks throughout history that awaken human consciousness. Just by looking at it. So it was my consciousness that was responding to it! Which explains why it’s one of the most written about artworks in history, not just because of its pioneering mastery and its baffling mystery, but also because Durer hid within it a map of human consciousness, and our Quest through it, to find our true self.
But what is Consciousness?
Because it seems to be invisible, it was long overlooked by humanity. Yet it is vital to us. It is our awareness, both conscious and unconscious, within which we find not only our own personal story but also the collective stories of humanity. Since it influences what we do and how we think, we need to become aware of what it contains. Our lack of awareness of it is why humanity is in the global mess that it’s in right now.
A little about Book 2
In my second book,The Melencolian Quest, Book 2: The Actual Journey, I have interpreted Durer’s Quest, with its strange-sounding terms, into the modern world.
The first four rungs of the ladder are the ‘physical’ stages of our inner journey. The final three are about our ‘non-physical’ realms. Our Quest starts off in the darkness of the first rung of the ladder, of the dark Saturn and dark Hell, which is our Mind. In which we, humanity, are stuck. We’ve all felt it, the busyness of our thoughts, and how hard it is to switch them off, and empty our head. Our Mind still retains its primate Alpha desire to control everything, ourself, everyone else, and the world around us. Our journey at this stage is about rebalancing this.
The end of our Quest, when we know all of ourself, is represented by the Sun, its light flooding all of our darkness. Seeing Durer’s final rungs will make the whole journey a lot clearer, which I’ll come to in later blogs.
Durer’s map reveals that we, humanity, are still stuck in the transition of the Renaissance, stuck in our past, generally stuck. Time is running out for us to fix ourselves and the global mess that we have made on the planet. One of the most surprising things I’ve learnt on this journey is that our consciousness affects everything around us, including the planet. We urgently need to help by awakening our consciousness and taking its inner journey.