dirzted
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2013
- Messages
- 637
Hello all,
Over my years of using, a few paintings have come to define different eras of my life, and I wanted to hear about other works that people have formed a connection to throughout their careers as drug users.
I'll go first,
Painting: "Garden of Earthly Delights" - Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1503-15)
I stumbled across a poster of this painting shortly after taking mushrooms for the first time when I was 15, and though it had been a few days since the experience, I was nonetheless in that after-state of openness that often characterizes the proceeding days of a psychedelic trip. Anyhow, I was in a friend's room and was fairly amused by this painting as my staring at it seemed to trigger a minor sort of flashback that made me recall my recent trip. I remember seeing how the left panel was the innocent Garden of Eden, and that it depicted the moment when Adam takes the apple from Eve. The center panel is then a sort of "middle earth," which shows a fantastical array of hedonistic pleasures. The right panel follows this fantasy land of sin with a horrific wasteland of torture and destruction that is meant to reflect the landscape of hell. In my state of open and engaged consciousness, I seemed to perceive the future trajectory of my life in painted form, with my recent misadventures on mushrooms being the first of many encounters with the "sinful fruit" of mind-altering substances that would eventually lead me to a land of great pleasure, but also great pain.
As I continued onto my path of drug addiction, I came to see this moment in my life as more and more significant. Now when I see the painting, I recall that past time of innocence which is now so far away, just as Bosch's self portrait in the painting (the "egg man" in the middle of the right-side panel) looks back to the scene in the Garden of Eden with an expression of longing--longing for a time before judgement has exacted the inevitable payment of innocence from those who face it.
I'd love to hear similar stories from fellow bluelighters who have had powerful encounters with other works of art.
Over my years of using, a few paintings have come to define different eras of my life, and I wanted to hear about other works that people have formed a connection to throughout their careers as drug users.
I'll go first,
Painting: "Garden of Earthly Delights" - Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1503-15)
I stumbled across a poster of this painting shortly after taking mushrooms for the first time when I was 15, and though it had been a few days since the experience, I was nonetheless in that after-state of openness that often characterizes the proceeding days of a psychedelic trip. Anyhow, I was in a friend's room and was fairly amused by this painting as my staring at it seemed to trigger a minor sort of flashback that made me recall my recent trip. I remember seeing how the left panel was the innocent Garden of Eden, and that it depicted the moment when Adam takes the apple from Eve. The center panel is then a sort of "middle earth," which shows a fantastical array of hedonistic pleasures. The right panel follows this fantasy land of sin with a horrific wasteland of torture and destruction that is meant to reflect the landscape of hell. In my state of open and engaged consciousness, I seemed to perceive the future trajectory of my life in painted form, with my recent misadventures on mushrooms being the first of many encounters with the "sinful fruit" of mind-altering substances that would eventually lead me to a land of great pleasure, but also great pain.
As I continued onto my path of drug addiction, I came to see this moment in my life as more and more significant. Now when I see the painting, I recall that past time of innocence which is now so far away, just as Bosch's self portrait in the painting (the "egg man" in the middle of the right-side panel) looks back to the scene in the Garden of Eden with an expression of longing--longing for a time before judgement has exacted the inevitable payment of innocence from those who face it.
I'd love to hear similar stories from fellow bluelighters who have had powerful encounters with other works of art.
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