Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self. Jean-Luc Godard

“A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming.”― Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet

“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” – André Berthiaume

Self Knowledge Apollo,* son of Zeus,

How could, a simple man as I, your divine command-

to know myself- Will ever be able to realize

When Fruitless, so far, any efforts of mine have turned out to be,

Even though- ashamed I am to confess- decades many have already passed, Wandering on these planes of oblivion

without any Tangible answers whatsoever to produce?

I swear to you, divine Apollo, that

All this time I have been waiting for a ray of your light to come,

A sign, from your part, to guide me out of the labyrinth of ignorance, onto the Road of understanding and to direct me your enigmatic maxim

Correctly to decipher Tell me, oh God of poetry,

Is there a secret way to lead me into the knowledge of myself?

A mystic experience of some sort, perchance?

An epiphany that the truth to me could be revealed

Or The quest for knowledge of me should be, perhaps, the result of My doing? Interpreting your silence

My guess, Oh God of eloquence, your answer would rather be the latter

For If the former was true, till now, your revelation to me you would have

Made known

Believe me, oh God of prophecy,

Innumerable times have I tried to reach the depths of my being,

The innermost part of my soul,

Searching the answer there and only there to find

But Still my efforts a constant failure, were and are thus

Ignorant I still remain

Could you, Oh God of light, tell me what is the cause of my failure?

Is it because:

My soul’s eye have I blinded, by trying constantly into the phenomena, the Answer to find?

That only through others I tried myself to know?

That in a dialogue had I never with myself really engaged?

That honest enough was I not with myself the truth to tell?

That courage I never had to admit my shortcomings?

That my trespasses so easily forgave while onto others constantly

All my faults projected?

YES, now clearly I see the errors I have made,

The errors that prevented me the very truth of myself to know:

The one, that under the appearances,

You very well have hidden

Deep, within the innermost part of my being, where the

Universal Truth

Since my birth resides Oh, Holy One, now unmistakably I start to realize,

You are the reason of my being, the Alpha and Omega of my life

Nothing could ever happen as it should

With your celestial Will, fail to harmonize!

Apollo , son of Zeus and Leto! The sun God and God of: fine arts, music, prophecy, poetry and eloquence! Over the entrance of Apollo’s most famous temple, at Delphi, it was written “ YOU EXIST” meaning the only thing man knows about God is that GOD EXISTS, but in order for Man to acquire wisdom to know God he had first to follow Apollo’s command to Man which was “ Know Thyself.”

What Lies Behind The Mask?