That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one

 --- from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, via Mark Stavish's Egregores

Holmyard (1923) translation from Jabir ibn Hayyan.

0) Balinas mentions the engraving on the table in the hand of Hermes, which says:

1) Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt!

2) That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one.

3) As all things were from one.

4) Its father is the Sun and its mother the Moon.

5) The Earth carried it in her belly, and the Wind nourished it in her belly,

7) as Earth which shall become Fire.

7a) Feed the Earth from that which is subtle, with the greatest power.

8) It ascends from the earth to the heaven and becomes ruler over that which is above and that which is below.

14) And I have already explained the meaning of the whole of this in two of these books of mine.

Psychology isn’t so much science as it is engineering – applying ideas and evidence to a purpose

 --- Simon Ings, in a review of The Age of Guilt by Mark Edmundson, New Scientist, 8 Jul 2023

In context

In his Freudian analysis of what we might loosely term “cancel culture”, Mark Edmundson wisely chooses not to get into simplistic debates about which of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s ideas have or haven’t been “proved right”. What would that even mean? Psychology isn’t so much science as it is engineering – applying ideas and evidence to a purpose. In The Age of Guilt: The super-ego in the online world, Edmundson, a literary scholar, simply wants to suggest that Freud might help us better understand our cultural moment.

Another neat excerpt

Arguments from intuition need a hefty health warning, but I defy you not to agree with more than a few of Edmundson’s denunciations: for instance, how the internet has become our culture’s chief manifestation of the superego, its loudest users “immune to irony, void of humour, unforgiving, prone to demand harsh punishments”.

In aesthetics, “Huh? Wow!” is preferable to “Wow! Huh?”

 ---Jackson Arn, quoting Ed Ruscha, in God’s-Eye Views: Aerial Photography in the Southwest, Art in America, Nov 2022

In context

To put it succinctly: In aesthetics, “Huh? Wow!” is preferable to “Wow! Huh?” This rule, courtesy of Ed Ruscha, goes some way toward explaining why SAP [Southwestern aerial photography] has been a source of inspiration for artists as different as Trevor Paglen, Robert Smithson, Ansel Adams, Emmet Gowin, David Maisel, and—if we’re counting his shots of Los Angeles parking lots—Ruscha himself. 

what matters more: our enmity with China or our desire to decarbonize quickly

 --- Aniket Shah, head of ESG strategy Jefferies, quoted in The Biggest Winners in America’s Climate Law: Foreign Companies, Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2023

In context

The large investments by overseas businesses have generally been welcomed by U.S. communities, many of which have benefited for decades from spending and jobs created by foreign automakers and other companies. But some investments from Chinese companies have fueled a backlash as tensions between the two countries escalate. 

...

“What we’re seeing is foreign policy conflict with climate policy and trade policy,” Shah said. “We’re going to have to decide as a country what matters more: our enmity with China or our desire to decarbonize quickly.”

(This question could be shibboleth to distinguish between Republicans and Democrats.)

If I have to go through any more character development my character is gonna develop into a villain

 --- Neemo (@ne3m0) on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ne3m0/status/1470747802888454150 

Much of the greatest art, ..., seeks to remind us of the obvious

--- Richard Bringley, in  All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me (2023), ch. II, p. 22

In context

Much of the greatest art, I find, seeks to remind us of the obvious. This is real, is all it says. Take the time to stop and imagine more fully the thing you already know. Today my apprehension of the awesome reality of suffering might be as crisp and clear as daddy's great painting. But we forget these things they become less vivid we have to return as we do to paintings, and face them again.

The Crucifiction, ca. 1325-1330, Bernardo Daddi,  Met Museum Accession Number https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438423