The Spiritual Pilgrim

from John & Emily Meluch
This is a woodcut done by an anonymous German artist, circa 1530. I found it in a book on the history of science fiction. I believe that this image originally portrayed the shift of consciousness which occurred at the dawn of the age of science (Enlightenment!). That is, man was no longer the center of the cosmos. The orbiting wheels and spheres represent the mechanistic, Newtonian universe which eventually became the model for the new ("occluded") scientific mode of thinking.

I scanned the black & white image and "cleaned it up " a bit. Then, my daughter Emily, age 10, hand-colored it using watercolor pens.

I added the quote from Gustav Stromberg's book, THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE. I felt that his notion of "purposeful organization behind this play of shadows", not only is analogous to Plato's metaphor of "The Cave", but is also similar to PKD's idea, ie., what we call reality is a FAKE...or to quote Dick:

"....the phenomenal world does not exist; it is a hypostasis of the information processed by the Mind." (from Cryptica Scriptura #30 - Appendix to VALIS)

- Submitted by John Meluch.

Hard copy prints are available for parties interested.....16 x 20 inch gicle� prints, signed by the artist....$36 bucks and $3 shipping and handling. Send e-mail to John Meluch or visit the Rhino Graphics Web Site. Rhino Graphics Web Site
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