Did Bucephalus  ( Alexanders remarkable horse ) have a mystical affect on him?

It’s curious. 

Might  vision come from unanticipated  sources?

Personally, I believe Alexander The Great has been glorified . I believe he was much like Gen. Custer . The ultimate warrior, but like Custer not the greats administer . Much like Custer , he was very egotistical and brutal. Not the sign of a genius.

Ptolemy I, trusted general of Alexander The Great, founder of the Great Library of Alexandria. I believe had much to do with what Alexander took credit for. His brilliant strategy was the work of Ptolemy I.

Both General Custer and Alexander has freakish decisiveness in battle. Their men thought they had magical powers. Time and again, they were incredibly bold and survived near disaster . Gen Custer in the civil war was a legend . Alexander should have died many time over.

Understand: There is something common in the two above and many very successful people. Something in their lives gives them a center. I believe it is a powerful source and yields special direction and focus in life .i.e. vision. Often it is the most powerful thing, more than talent , brains and opportunity.

What follows is conjecture , for me an expanded question:

Bucephalus

Before you get weighted down with all the symbolism or whatever else that may distract you, just listen to the story with a clear head. Try to picture it as I do, use this to inspire your imagination.

Bacephalus was Alexander the Greats horse. Bacephalus was a very unusual horse. It was said, he had  a massive head, he was described as having a black coat with a large white star on his brow. He is also supposed to have had a "wall", or blue eyes.

When Alexander fist meet Bucephalus, Bucephalus was wild, uncontrollable and no one wanted him. His father King Phillip rejected him and said take him away; Meaning death or what not.

Alexander wanted him and insisted that he have him. He was possessed  and was so persistent his father the king and men laughed and thought to teach him a lesson. The owner said, “if you can control him, you can have him, he is worthless now.”

Alexander very cleverly noticed, 

Bucephalus was afraid of his own shadow and turned him into the sun and subduing him.

He astonished everyone.

 It was his first great victory.

 It was at this point, the green eyed monster emerged. 

Everything changed between his father and him. His father was in middle aged and beginning to question his vigor, Alexander was just becoming a teenager and a man. They were at war. Alexander was a threat and started to challenge him. In fact it got violent . King Philip had a huge ego, it was all going down very bad.

Eventually Philip was assassinated and Alexander became a very young king.

Some men are born great, some became great, and some are thrown into greatness. ~ Shakespeare.

Alexander was likely born great, but he was definitely  thrown into greatness.

I contend, he was on the back of Bucephalus which ironically was much like Pegasus.

The one thing that distinguishes Alexander the Great from all the great leaders, 

he had incredible intuition, insight.

He was able to quickly spot an enemies weak spot.

Funny,

Pegasus symbolized wisdom / inspiration,

and insight / intuition,

light! 

Pegasus in other words called lightening, and this was how Alexander was known to strike.

The scene I imagine is before the little river near Issus.

Alexanders first battle and it was against the greatest power on earth, The Persians.

 Everything was stacked against him, out numbered, experienced, every advantage possessed by the Persians. He was in Persia, and they thought he was a joke. He had no escape and his men were questioning him.

He inherited a great and very experienced army.

They were very aware what was before them on the other side of the river and the task was doubting . They were taking a big risk and there was no escape. Their backs were to the sea and it meant if they lost, Greece would soon follow.

Most strange,

Alexander showed complete confidence.

Almost magical vision.

He did not hesitate,

It is said,

Bucephalus took off right for the Persian lines.

His generals saw disaster . In fact, when Alexander breached their lines, he was hit by an ax and the Persian was winding up to kill him when one of his soldiers severed Persians  arm with a sing sward blow.

Back to Bucephalus racing like lightening across the plain right at the huge Persian lines across the stream.

I imagine a perfect muscular white horse racing across the plans for the small stream. Like a bullet, perfect, beautiful shape and stride. You can see his perfect body, muscles, in perfect stride. His tail streaming out behind him and his eyes alined and fixed. 

As Bucephalus reached the middle of the stream,

the motion froze above the water.

Right before the water and world exploded in chaos and battle;

and the hoof just rest above the water,

Arguably before the history of the world changed.

It was this magical he knew  right where the Persians fault line was. Moments later, it was the perfect sniper shot. 

leading a cavalry charge ,

Alexander found their jugular and the Persians collapsed into a panic. In less than 20 minutes,

The Greeks cut them to ribbons.

History changed hands and the Persians were in panic . Their entire army collapsed.

 Alexander was so close to King Darius that he saw his face, it was all over.

One battle  ofter another,

the Greeks were unstoppable.

They conquered the known world.

Personally,

I think Alexander was carried by something much greater than himself.

It is known,

Ancient soldered payed much attention to their animals. They watched their eyes, because often they intuited things they couldn’t.

Bucephalus took him the distance,

to the extent of his conquest that ended in India.

Curious, after which Alexander wasn't the same and turned back to home. His luck seemed to run out.

At the time, it was very unusual for a horse to survive so long; for a variety of reasons,

Battle horses died off. Bucephalus died at 30 which was quite old for horses at the time, and very unusual for battle horses.

Nothing more is known about  Bucephalus.

7 pm

8.31.11

THE STAR

THE STAR

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves." 

— William Shakespeare

But what if the stars  held your fate?

Look around in the night sky,

an endless sea of stars seen and unseen; 

some for a brief moment,

other a hint and others a riddle or perhaps some mysterious gesture or intuitive message that never really becomes conscious;

like a stone that are dropped in a black pool,

first rippling and then small currants settling to your bottom;

the bottom of your being,

where your deepest thoughts lie and perhaps your instincts, 

your heritage;

your own and our collective Mount Olympus ,

many knowable and unknowable god like spirits,

that share our emotions and maybe vastly more.

How do you navigate ?

Perhaps we are all like ancient navigators at night following a coast line and the stars.

With the vast sea on one side,

  above  and bellow and an uncertain  shore line; 

a home and destination, 

a given moment of calm and a majestic  place amongst it all.

What if the stars were like a magical wand waving magical dust  illuminating each and every one of  your connections, moments  large and small?

What if the stars were some sort of magical bridge that you not only cross but are crossing now?

What if we could see each and every moment, being and thing as a star?

Everything in alive and signaling,

Aren't you so grateful you can even begin to imagine?

We are all born to be artist and all art stars with appreciation,

a flash of joy,

insight into the universe.

It make us laugh ,

amused ,

 like madmen in away or perhaps a child and a child with in us,

watching the universe collide with itself in countless ways.

4am

8.31.11

EACH & EVERY MOMENT

EACH AND EVERY MOMENT 

The Sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus

Why I love this quote.

In only six words, Heraclitus says volumes. 

Let me list off what comes to mind:

The universe is change so much it is infinite.

It suggests that to think in terms of permanence goes against the order of the universe.

 In another way, 

the reality of the universe is not only stranger than fiction it’s infinite and unfathomable .

 For anyone to say or suggest that the universe is known and takes it seriously and thinks it’s the only way is nuts.

There are two very powerful elements to this quote:

1. The sun, the center, physically and in most respects it’s the most powerful thing in our world. Beyond the obvious, it is a star. 

Stars represent awe .

Per what we are aware, there are more stars than grains of sand on earth.

"To See a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour." 

— William Blake 

As R.Buckminister Fuller said: 

when a log burns,

it is the sun light unwinding from the log.

Our sun alone has powered our Earth for 4.6 million years.

It’s light travels 93 million mile to get here

it is 100 times the size of earth.

The largest star we know of Canus Magorous is 1 billion times the size of our Sun.

If this star was were our sun is, Jupiter would be buried in it.

Then the sun being knew each day,

this is saying it the universe is brand new every given moment in  a very sunny and palatable way. 

Cell by cell, our energy / molecules  have changed and something as vast as the sun has changed.

It is odd, when we think of the sun, we think of something so incredibly comforting. We orbit it, it’s our solar systems gravity, it is the giver of life, it give us warmth and enables us to see.

It’s like our mother.

It symbolizes enlightenment , inspiration and even intuition.

We know of people having visions ( light) and people seeing a white light at death.

Ultimately ,

It symbolized infinite possibilities and the way Heraclitus said the above, it is very up lifting and is all about hope.

Amongst all these things above,

it’s a miracle that you can stand on the ground and not flout way or be crushed by incredible forces.

As Napoleon said and the Egyptians worshiped as their God:

"If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god." 

— Napoleon Bonaparte

Such a gift, such opportunity,

you are the universe aware of it’s self.

If you don’t think this is amazing and makes you feel amazing,

you’re not paying attention.

Finally,

As David Darling put it ( famed English Astronomer / Scientist)

You are roughly eighteen billion years old and made of matter that has been cycled through the multimillion-degree heat of innumerable giant stars. You are composed of particles that once were scattered across thousands of light-years of interstellar space, particles that were blasted out of exploding suns and that for eons drifted through the cold, starlit vacuum of the Galaxy. You are very much a child of the cosmos. 

In giving birth to us, the universe has performed its most astonishing creative act. Out of a hot, dense melee of subatomic particles – which is all that once existed – it has fashioned intelligence and consciousness. Some of those tiny, primordial pinpoints of matter from the infant cosmos have become temporarily arranged to make your brain and mine. Your thoughts at this very moment derive from energy transactions between particles born at the dawn of time. Somehow the anarchy of genesis has given way to exquisite, intricate order, so that now there are portions of the universe that can reflect upon themselves and ask: Why am I here? What is the purpose of life, consciousness, and reality? 

In posing these questions, we are, in a sense, the universe questioning itself – a most extraordinary realization. It helps dispel permanently the notion that we are irrelevant and insignificant in nature’s broad scheme. The fact is, we stand at the known apex of cosmic evolution. Small though we may be physically, we are giants when measured on the scale of complexity. And it is that complexity, of our brains in particular, that is an essential prerequisite to awareness. 

~ David Darling

So when you get up in the morning at sun rise and you look up at the Sun at noon, see the sun light even during our darkest days and moments, you are alive and the sun, in one way or another is getting to you and is apart of you; so as long as you’re alive, take faith in this fact, and no matter what it may seem, the universe has created a piece of art beyond our comprehension and unique and that is you. You are a sun in away, you radiate energy , have a center, and you are in fact composed of the sun and part of it.

Everything else “fades” in comparison .

"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun" 

— Pablo Picasso

"Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe." 

— John Lennon

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." 

— Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)

"Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away." 

— Elvis Presley

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." 

— Victor Hugo

5 am

8.25.11