«Russian Theme» in William Blake’s Works

The article is devoted to the factors and evidences of William Blake’s interest in Russia, Russian places and politicians. An analysis of Blake’s works, especially his prophetic poems, confirm that Russia, Russian territories, and in particular the Russian Empress Catherine II, were interesting to Blake and were manifested in many ways in his works. Blake counts Russia and its territories in his great prophecies Milton and Jerusalem. The mention of Poland and Siberia, Tartaria, and Russia separately indicates that the spiritual geography of Blake’s works did not exactly correspond to the current administrative division of the world. There is a reason to believe that the image of the Russian Empress Catherine II was for Blake the embodiment of the sinister Female Will and became a model for the harlot of Babylon, captured by him in a portrait of 1809, as well as one of the prototypes of the powerful demiurge-spinner Enitharmon in prophetic poems. In politics, the end of the XVIII century, there was no ruler who would more embody the concept of female power than Catherine II.

Kierkegaard y Virgilio, guías de un itinerario espiritual. Kierkegaard and Virgil, Guides from a Spiritual Trip

Este ensayo presenta semejanzas entre la obra cumbre de Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, y los escritos del seudónimo Anti-Climacus, El tratado de la desesperación y Ejercicio del cristianismo, a través de los cuales Søren Kierkegaard explicó su teoría de la desesperación y redención. Aun siendo obras con intenciones muy distintas, busco mostrar las enormes coincidencias en la descripción del punto de partida del hombre: la geografía espiritual de la desesperación, así como la necesidad de realizar un itinerario espiritual para alcanzar, junto con el prójimo, la existencia auténtica. Coincidencias posibles porque, más allá de las diferencias de época y cultura, lograron comprender la naturaleza humana.In this essay are showed coincidences between Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, La Divina Commedia, and the writings of pseudonym Anti-Climacus, The Sickness unto Death and Practice in Christianity where Søren Kierkegaard explains his theory about despair and redemption. Even though they are works with so different intentions are showed the big coincidences in the description of the start point of the man: the spiritual geography from despair and the need of making a spiritual journey in order to reach, along the neighbor, the authentic existence. Coincidences possible because, despite the differences between age and culture, they could understand human nature.

Quán Thế Âm of the Transpacific

Bodhisattvas are an essential element of the Pure Land branch of Mahayana Buddhism practiced in Vietnam and its diaspora. Many Vietnamese lovingly refer to Bodhisattva Quán Thế Âm as a “gentle mother,” and the circulation of her name and image constitutes a spiritual geography of the transpacific in distinctly Buddhist terms. Through a reading of two miracle tales, I argue that Quán Thế Âm mediates the divergent histories of Vietnamese refugees without dissolving the historical structures of difference that separate the diaspora from the homeland. Devotion to the bodhisattva should thus not be seen only in terms of Mahayana doctrine but also as the embodiment of an alternative ethics of how Vietnamese refugees make sense of their place in the aftermath of war.

Mobilizing a “Spiritual Geography”

As a result of removal and custody of Noongar children from their families and lands—forced mobilities and immobilties over decades, and within days and nights—a distinctive and beautiful artistic heritage emerged. Th is material heritage, too, was moved through and from Noongar country. Illustrated by the art of Carrolup, the culture and identity of the Noongar people has been transcendent and a “spiritual geography” mapped. As “heart returns home” to Noongar country, there are opportunities for new approaches to the reconciliation of the past for the future. Th e beauty of the art and the story of Carrolup teach, inspire, and provoke. Th ese mobilities and immobilities hold lessons that continue to travel.