http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/us-navy
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
USS Hartford attack submarine breaking through Arctic ice.
X
A violet lotus blooms signifies a spiritual meaning of ascension, enlightenment, or rebirth.
X
A person’s path in life is said to be similar to that of the
LOTUS.
Starting at the
SEED
stage,
early in the karmic cycle,
through to the bud emerging from the dirty water,
representing a person following the path
of spirituality and leaving attachment behind,
and finally
BLOSSOMING,
this is when a person has become
fully
AWAKENED.
X
X
Please click link for LOTUS 20TEN: A portfolio/ suites/ of the five senses:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/lotus20ten-yourvoiceismylullaby-lotusbloom-the-lotus-20ten-portfolio-a-cycle-of-sixteen-works-summer-of-2010-catherine-l-johnson-artist-suites-of-the-five-senses-sensual-sensuous-th/
X
X
X
X
X
VIOLET
has the highest vibration in the visible spectrum.
Violet opens intuitive channels.
It is a color that is attracted to beautiful things
and has a fragility,
sensitivity and vulnerability to it.
The color violet is of kindness,
inspiring unconditional and selfless love,
devoid of ego, encouraging sensitivity and compassion.
Violet is the color of the humanitarian,
using its better judgment to do good for others
– combining wisdom and power with sensitivity and humility.
Violet encourages creative pursuits and seeks inspiration and originality.
Violet exudes a quiet form of dignity.
Violet is the color of the evolved soul.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
I was a submarine.
I am a submarine.
X
Diving, concealed, below the surface, unseen.
Breathing as a mermaid.
At times, holding my breath
until I would fall backwards
or
was sent to a dark innocent ocean.
No one would know my whereabouts
in my silence, in my solitude.
X
My eyes were periscopes, forever scanning
the hushed life below,
the infinite skies above,
aware of the jagged edges
between land and sea.
X
Suddenly, I would open wide
– inhale and
soar up
– breaking open the astonished still seas.
Majestically.
A water birth.
A sudden kiss.
Awe riSING fire on water.
X
I would exhale all that I
had seen and heard and felt below.
Triumphant, I would reveal, tell.
X
Glistening, I am radiant,
with all my secrets,
handwritten maps
and
sparkling pearls inside me.
Sleek and scarred,
me a shining pearl diver.
Life is living itself in me.
X
Only a select Navy could detect me.
And, from that select Navy, only
one could SEE me
sensing the prism,
the steady calm of
my boundless Song of Songs,
the ancient luminous hallelujah hymns,
the blues and the gospels
of my woman’s voice, and
feel the private rapture within me
– ask me the story, my flowing story,
and listen, listening
and,
then shape
beautiful questions
with the bow
of music.
X
Quietly, I dive deep, and deeper
beyond anyone’s
sound and sight,
for spheric, shimmering,
iridescent rainbow
pearls
– and I rise,
with pure amazement,
and elegant grace.
X
Rhythm.
Rhythmically, breathing
the natural tide of awakenings
and the perfumed blooms
of Life’s simple joys.
X
I was a submarine.
I am a submarine.
X
Catherine L. Johnson
26 May 2018
X
X
X
NOTE: PEARLS. VIOLET. SOULSONIC MUSECATALYST.
I follow with complete dedication and trust to
what is issued/issuing/sounding within me
– and, then later I research the visual elements I have used.
Above is my research on the color violet.
Throughout is my research on submarines.
Anthony Cox / THAT & THIS was/is my pearl, my soulsonic catalyst and muse.
Below is from my “post-creative process” research on/of pearls.:
X
X
In Ancient China, it was believed that pearls
were actually spittle of dragons when they flew through the air to create rain,
therefore many Chinese wore pearls as talismans against fire.
Pearls are symbolic of purity, innocence and faith.
With their natural elegance and beauty,
pearls are said to give the wearer
a sense of calmness
and centeredness,
and to promote faith,
loyalty, truth and purity.
Pearls help one connect with the Goddess,
the ultimate feminine energy.
Pearls enhance personal integrity
and help clear ones mind so that it may be
a clean and clear channel
for wisdom and spiritual guidance.
They were once thought to be the tears of gods and goddesses in different ancient lore.
The pearl has been associated through the ages with the “matrix of life” itself.
Pearls are associated with the 3rd, Sacral Chakra and 7th Crown Chakra.
Pearls will balance and heal all chakras
Pearls assist in the search for higher wisdom and truth,
absorbing negative energy from one who wears it,
assisting/guiding one to SEE
and deal with the truth of self.
A pearl moves one forward to inner wisdom
and strengthens and nurtures the growth of love.
The metaphysical properties of pearls blesses
a person to open up
and
explore the meaning and discover the purpose
of one’s “true self.”
X
X
X
X
During the summer of 1985,
I created a series of work
using the shape
and the poetic,
multiple metaphors of a submarine
as vehicle, a confessional, a memoir
of self-portraits.
I understand the quiet,
the honed senses,
the concealing, the intensity of suppression,
the necessity of vision quests.
the “call” /summons of/to the hero/ine’s
ADVENTURE / JOURNEY / LOTUSSUBMARINE VOYAGE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
https://billmoyers.com/content/ep-1-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-the-hero%E2%80%99s-adventure-audio/
and the voyages within the dark nights of the soul.
The magnificence of soaring UP,
being able to fully BREATHe,
come out of hiding,
and tell,
telling the truth is always beautiful transcendence.
Overcoming, Exodus,
victorious liberation
opens UP
a vast golden field to enter
– to dance / to soar with one’s FULL natural wing span
with happiness and child like joy.
The art testified the poetic associations
of what a submarine
is to me.
No one knowing and my knowing.
X
X
In 1993,
I wrote
“Listen, Listen, Listen
I Hear the Bloom Within the Seed”,
a libretto and the sonic catalyst
to my 1994 solo art exhibition of the same title.
I was unaware that I had actually inscribed an oracle,
a blueprint,
of what would become
my own vision quest
with all the stages of the hero/ine’s journey.
I have learned/discovered to welcome the “call”
and
I abide.
I no longer refuse the call.*
THAT is, I know THIS call for the journey, the voyage, the adventure
IS
beauty, truth and blissfreedom.
X
*Refusal of the Call:
Often when the call is given,
the future hero/ine first refuses to heed it.
This may be from a sense of duty or obligation,
fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons
that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.
X
Joseph Campbell:
“Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative.
Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’
the subject loses the power
of
significant affirmative action
and
becomes a victim to be saved.
His/Her flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones
and
his/her life feels meaningless
— even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort
succeed in building an empire or renown.
Whatever house he/she builds,
it will be a house of death:
a labyrinth of cyclopean walls
to hide him/her from his/her minotaur.
All he/she can do is create new problems for him/herself
and
await the gradual approach of his/her disintegration.”
X
X
X
“The world still waits for the truth that will set us free
—my truth, your truth, our truth
—the truth that was seeded in the earth
when each of us arrived here
formed in the image of God.
Cultivating that truth, I believe, is the authentic vocation of every human being.”
X
Parker J. Palmer,
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (Jossey-Bass: 2000), 11, 15,16-17, 36.
X
X
X
X
“Let your life speak.”
– an old Quaker saying.
X
“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,
listen to what it intends to do with you.
Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to,
let your life tell you what truths you embody,
what values you represent.
x
Parker J. Palmer,
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (Jossey-Bass: 2000), 2-3.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 
Leave a Reply