Home

Caltabellotta was mystified by some in German-speaking “esoteric Christian” Europe. Myhified Modern History. About like the enchanting lights in the halls, empty city village.

Within three minutes of arriving at the Palermo train station, I am approached by two strangers to make some sort of purchase. One man selling an umbrella; the other man didn’t listen to hear.

After studying a local famous sculpture’s work in a nearby village museum, I walked into his studio, expressed my appreciation of a sculpture with ideas… And then, seeing the Dostoyevsky piece, I decided to take a photo andI told this man, who I have never met before, where to stand for the photo. I told him to think what he thought when he created the sculpture of Dostoyevsky. His daughter tells me it captures not only the essence of the work, but the essence of him.

I had no ticket for the bus, but the driver just waved me on. 👍

I suppose it is true, as with their “normal” lives, that people come to Italy for pleasure, for aesthetics, sightseeing, landscape, seeing… I came for knowledge and insight.

I brought clothes for Rome, Naples, Crotone, Palermo… But I did not think to bring clothes for 2000-3000 feet higher. Almost all clothes combined did not keep me warm at 3114 feet in the wind for sunrise.

No Russian on ashamed of their country these days should be taken seriously

Unable, even with asking, to locate a plastic spoon in barely-inhabited Caltabellotta, I brought this yellow spoon with me back from an ice-lemon at the hot-day ruins of Agrigento… Nearby, I have the choice of an at least four-day-old pizza, or my own four-day-old lasagna! The lasagna is cheaper (paid for in Palermo), nearer, I eat in my room,… and I have some wine by the hotel owner. Viola! But the main element is the yellow spoon.

I read how Henry David Thoreau preferred a swamp, what he described as a sanctum sanctorum, to any refined garden in a city. Dante met other swamps… And Petrarch descended the mountain under the influence of Augustine. Tomorrow I go to Ostia in pursuit of Augustine and Monica.

Turns out the anthopops, on good basis for their world- and history-view: Steiner himself, mythologize Kalot-Bellota.

In Sciacca I was able to get €100 without any charge at all. Not like in Rome or Naples, or other places where they charge 13% interest.

I think I’ll start saying I’m from California rather than North Carolina, the reaction is bigger

The music on the bus from Sciacca to Agrigento is of the same style as you could hear these days anywhere in the world. Only with Italian words.

I heard the identical sound of music in Yucatán. Where is difference in the world these days?

Most people have absolutely no idea what “Charles” means when they said

For me, as usual, it is not the temples, not the stones, however, beautifully carved, but the ideas by which men and women lived in those times.

Is there some kind of physical inevitability to this structure, or how much of it is “aesthetics” as we would later call it?.

But what can we now gain from this?

I can not help but recognize American politics as the stirring of herds.

A deep outbreath, when leaving the temple of Zeus Olympus in Agrigento, indicates to me the conclusion of my Italian journey.

Certainly, the Ontos of ruins is much less than our imaginations would find.

Goethe’s Faust engaged the doctorate; Hesse’s Steppenwolf the bourgeoisie.

A more dramatic place than where I now stand, atop the peak at Caltabellotta, I have only a few times experienced. This time, as I predicted, completely alone — for the sunset and full moon rise. June 3, 2023, approx. 8pm.

Question: When did Caltabellotta, even with its Arab name, begin to be considered some sort of center of malevolence, evil, especially mystical? And perhaps investigate the etymology, and history of the literary image of Klingsor. Surely, a Christian view of Arabic power and influence, possibly Islam, is a part of the origin and development of the mythology of Caltabellotta as a mystical source of evil. Surely the concept did not originate with Steiner, however much emphasis he may have given it. So what was his source, and how far back does such imagery and belief go?

No matter how great the deeds and eventsat even momentous locations, most are simply living their daily lives.

And Paris or Rome, or Naples, or other it is nearly impossible to walk out the door, without being impacted by scores of persons and stories. Here I might encounter one or two people, baby for five and a day.

Watching a large class of Italian students going into the Royal Palace this morning, and seeing how most of their T-shirts had one variation or other of English language, and even American names, titles, etc. The question arises: when was the last tiny village on earth impacted by the USA?

I cannot imagine ever living in Russia again.

Now heading to a small village to, quite likely, dispel a myth I’ve had for nearly 50 years.

Goethe observed the plants in the Palermo botanical garden to come up with the idea of the Urphlsnze. I myself have been traveling the gardens of the world, trying to come up with a living inight(s) of the essential man in the variants of societies and cultures. This included recently attempting to see into the essential reality, know the essentials in the realitities, of the evening of romantic music performance in Crotone. In other words, I have been trying less or more consciously for nearly 50 years now to see into men and women in relation to Man as Goethe did in relation to plants, and other realms of Nature.

This is actually a very deep, biographical insight.

This gives clear and true theme to nearly, in fact essentially more, than 50 years of my life.

And the only other person who know this is he or she who is reading this. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Urpflanze :: Essential Man

I have rarely if ever eaten in a restaurant without at least taking price into consideration, if not a serious factor.

I have, and will have, this mountain to myself. There is virtually no chance that anyone else will ascend here.

I came here primarily for Goethe and the Botanical Garden. Will I have been sufficiently interested and tempted to return for Sicily? For Palermo? Probably depends on whether I find it needed, useful in the future. My intentions and goes here we’re very specific.

True, I am to society and oddity, an outsider, an outlier, but in fact, I am a singularity, and individuality, on my own, even if alone

After searching in the early afternoon near the Palermo Centrale with much and many misdirections for an hour for the correct location of the bus (Lumia) stop to go to Caltabellotta, walking after final success toward the Palermo Botanical Garden I came upon a magazine box, in which window I was astonished to see a photo of Nietzsche. With essentially no Italian, I asked to see it, and it’s not unusual now with me, the only copy of what I was interested, was the one in the window which I Purchased. (The book I noticed and bought on Sicily was the single same.) Seems the magazine man was somehow moved by my enthusiasm and exclamations, and gave me a free book on the WWII blockade, and a National Geographic on Athens and travel..

Then, after a couple of hours in the Botanical Garden, I walked to meet the leather artist Alexei, where we talked an hour or so about his and my life. And there is a 7-year party this evening at his shop, with “really good musicians”, to which I am invited!

After Goethe…

Today to the Cappuchim catacombs — at Alexei’s recommendation — and an Arabo-Norman church.

The question is now for me, device completely superficial level in my relation to Palermo, who do I study then come back Sunday?

It was either Jimi Hendrix, or Santana I heard played earlier in the courtyard here… And now I am definitely listening to “Black Zmagic Woman” though it doesn’t quite sound like Santana! But it turns out it was a live recording! So it could’ve been Santana. I am in Palermo, May 30, 2023.

Bar Liberty. Palermo… that it is the same dour faced man who served me seconds ago, smiling so delightedly with that woman at her table…

There is certainly a human inevitability to giving a misplaced ultimacy to our passing lives.

I may leave my time in Italy freed of Goethe. Certainly, I am not searching for the “Urpflanze”In my case, I would say that my travel to Rome, and other parts of Italy, is the kind of “after study”. Certainly the main elements of my world in life and man view are established, and I have perhaps, completely given up, hope of any sense of influence by my life and in my life. I will go to the Palermo Botanical Barden today to consider, and reflect on. In my case, I would say that my travel to Rome, and other parts of Italy, is the kind of “after study”. Certainly the main elements of my world-, life- and man-view are established, and I have perhaps completely given up,hope of any sense of influence by my life and in my life. But to be free of Goethe is also an accomplishment.

To be freed from Goethe’s Faust would be even more, as Faust “floats” as literature.

Airplanes allow(ed) those who otherwise would not have traveled to fly their selves around the world.

Happened onto a ceremony to the local woman Saint Rosario. Exterior ceremonies, external ceremonies come on and faces of people who were local shop, keepers, handy craftsman, and someone. Not a separate or in telogen face in the crowd.

One of the greatest pleasures, I believe in intelligent, educating, knowledgeable people is wandering in a city, not knowing where one is… so that unexpected experiences may happen.

When Moses descended from the mount, his being was so altered that his face had to be covered, for others could not bear to view him. I would be content to come down, Mount Pellegrini, from my few hours,there, stronger and more solid, and perhaps even more at ease in society — though solitarily so..

I must understand Goethe’s own relationship to his Faust creation.