sangre, sinceridad y llamas

Helen Frankenthaler, Concerto, 1982,

Acrylic on canvas,

53 x 39¼ in (134.6 x 99.7 cm)

The Virgin Mary as a ‘quasi-incarnation’ of the Holy Spirit

"There have always been certain Christian traditions which associate feminine and maternal qualities to the Holy Spirit. In certain hymns from the Coptic tradition of Christianity, the Holy Spirit is evoked as the ‘Mother of all Creation’ and the ‘Compassionate Mother’. Even the Hebrew word for ‘Spirit’ (Rûah) is feminine. Isma‘ili theosophers also understood the Universal Soul as possessing distinctly feminine and maternal qualities. Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani, recognizing that the Arabic word for soul, nafs, is feminine, continuously refers to the Universal Soul with the feminine pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ in some of his treatises. Nasir Khusraw has also compared the function of the Universal Soul to that of a mother. In the below quoted passage, he likens the Universal Intellect to a man and the Universal Soul to a woman:

'The Universal Intellect is like the man, the Universal Soul is like the woman, and the Prime Matter (hayula) from them is like the sperm, while the material world is like a child.'

The Common Word: This dialogue has demonstrated that the Christian metaphysics of the Trinity as taught by Meister Eckhart and the Islamic metaphysics of Tawhid (Unity) as elucidated in Isma‘ili theosophy can indeed be reconciled and correlated at the level of gnosis." - The Metaphysics of the Common Word: A Dialogue of Eckhartian and Isma‘ili Gnosis Part Two: Intellectual and Emanative Reality By Khalil Andani

Anonymous Bolognese Painter, c. 1450–1475

Saints Pierced by Thorns (Polyptych fragment)

Tempera and gold leaf on panel

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Italy

“Bless me, line, bless me with sword and wound. I will fall, but get up right away. Bless me, line.”

Long dandelions in overwintered grass - Paula von Goeschen-Rösler

German , 1875-1941