Quantum Zen And Other Unfinished Business

Dreams, tarot, Surrealist women… Loose ends and follow-ups on some of this year’s favourite posts.

Quantum Zen

Regular readers will know that my enthusiasm for theoretical physics is matched only by my inability to understand it. The same can be said of my enthusiasm for Zen Buddhism. So when I try to put the two together, the result is always a whole clusterfuck of fun.

Back in the summer I wrote a blog post about Dogen and quantum physics. I later wrote an essay for Peculiar Mormyrid on the same theme. It was a tough theme to handle, so when I discovered Ruth Ozeki’s wonderful novel about it, I was excited to see I was on the right track.

Now Zen teacher Brad Warner has produced this 10-minute video talk on Dogen and theoretical physics. He even pins it to Carlo Rovelli, my current favourite pop physicist.

It’s great. Check it out.

Surrealist Women’s Tarot

As everyone already knows, Fulgur Press have released various editions of Leonora Carrington’s tarot deck. It’s been flying off the shelves.

But as I pointed out during the summer, there are living Surrealist women who are producing tarot decks of their own, right here and now.

Casi Cline’s Tarot Of Perpetual Time is out now and on its way to its supporters.

I’m avidly watching the post every day for mine.

Ithell Colquhoun

While we’re on the subject of Surrealist women and their magickal adventures, Amy Hale’s long-awaited biography of Ithell Colquhoun is finally out from Strange Attractor Press.

(As I write this it’s actually listed as out of stock at Strange Attractor, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find it from other booksellers.)

If you’re as agog to read it as I am, how about hooking up with me on GoodReads to compare notes?

They Want Your Dreams (And They Know How To Get Them)

When the first wave of the you-know-what hit the UK in the spring, I wrote a couple of blog posts about it. One discussed the latent utopianism it was releasing. The other referred to research on how the pandemic was affecting people’s night-time dreams.

Last month the UK’s Museum Of London and Canada’s Western University announced Guardians Of Sleep, a major new project to collect people’s dreams during and about the pandemic. Researchers will conduct interviews to collect the dreams via Zoom in February 2021. The dreams they collect may ultimately become part of the Museum Of London’s permanent collection.

If you’re interested in volunteering for an interview, contact the Museum Of London at info@museumofdreams.org by 15 January 2021.

Image credits: Colliding galaxies image by NASA, in the public domain. Brad Warner video via the Hardcore Zen YouTube channel. Tarot Of Perpetual Time image from Casi Cline’s Ephemerality website. Ithell Colquhoun book cover image from the Strange Attractor Shoppe.

Take a peek behind the veil.