Dentro Tis Zois - The Secret (EWS)

[This article is particularly for that very special person who has been a strong contributor to the Autistic kids thing, and who would like to see a real fairy or elf.]

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Translated into the English, this has been since forever rendered as 'the Tree of Life.'

Which it does not in fact say, in the original language text.

It says and means - 'the Tree of Divine Joys.'

The phrase occurs in Genesis and again in the Apocalypse.

This is the same tree that Hera Queen of Heaven wished to become the personal patron of, and which is the Divine Eternal Tree bearing the Fruit of the Hesperides, beneath which of course, is the Dragon Ladon.

Thomas Whitehead is one of the
best ever Drosselmeyer's in
this year's Royal Ballet and Opera
Company's production
of the Nutcracker.

And around which are the Graces (or some say the, or some, Muses).

Over the last few evenings all over the world, the rich people have all been dressing up in their finery, and going to live performances of the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. 

....The music by Tchaikovsky, choreographed by Marius Petipa, and the story adapted by Alexandre Dumas (pere) from the original fairy tale by the German E.T.A. Hoffmann called the Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

And what does that all have to do with us?

Now although I said that the botanicals composition in Metaxa 7 Star contained - really, was the original formulation basis for the original Chanel No 5 (which is true) nevertheless, today, in order for you, the modern alchemist, to get the same effects, there are still some secrets left to say there... But we shall leave those to another occasion.

Today, we must speak of the rich people.

And of their finery.

Their opera cloaks. And their furs (although this is probably only evident anymore in Vienna and in Moscow). And their pearls and jewels.

And ignorance. Their complete and utter ignorance; their shameful ignorance.

Glued to their iPhones, they search for background info on the Nutcracker and Wikipedia tells them not a word, in its entry for Tchaikovsky, on the Nutcracker. Apparently it is somewhere in the End Notes or 'see also's' in different print face at the bottom of the page. My Russian friend told me but I didn't look.

And so, when the house-lights dim, they are left in the dark.

In the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The original libretto has the real opening scene, left mostly out of current productions except interestingly, in this year's London Royal Ballet production it is right in there(!) - of the sorcerer Drosselmeyer in his workshop, giving instructions to his masked attendant, to take a certain wooden toy (the Nutcracker) to the house of his goddaughter, Clara. 

Inside his workshop, there is a glass-y picture in which there is an image of his nephew, whose soul is entrapped inside the picture, and to whom he may speak, though as if to a living image inside of a magical mirror.

And only then, after that scene, does the ballet move onto the people coming into a grand house, in which a large group of family and friends are in attendance. There are very very old people, children, and adults gathered around a Christmas Tree.

Soon enough, Drosselmeyer himself goes there, and gives out wonderful gifts, and seems to especially select certain of the children, also especially acknowledging certain of the older people there. And he somehow, arranges that a bright shining star fairy, is set at the top of the tree.

The brother of young Clara. jealous of her large special toy soldier, tugs at it and it falls to the floor and breaks. And Clara is upset, but Drosselmeyer effects a modest temporary fix, and places a bandage made from his own scarf, over the wooden toy. And Clara is made happy again but stores the wooden soldier in a toy bed.

This is the correct opening scene.

When it is late and everyone goes home and the household retires, Clara comes back down to the main celebratory hall, and goes back to the Nutcracker doll.

Drosselmeyer, who is a wizard and a sorcerer floats down from the Christmas Tree, cloak unfurled, and Clara is slightly afraid.

A horde of mice appear, led by their monstrous Mouse King -, and the wooden soldier toy tries to protect Clara but a large-scale fight ensues with the soldier falling in battle and lying seemingly mortally wounded, albeit having killed the very ominous and quite evil Mouse King.

Clara is desolated at what has happened and rushes over to the Nutcracker soldier, and he arises not dead at all but very much alive. 

But she is very tired and soon goes to sleep right there -, but the Christmas Tree grows into a gigantic tree glistening with presents, and the Fairy comes down from the top of the tree, transporting the sleeping Clara to the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Fairy King, where Clara awakens and is greeted warmly by the Sugar Plum Fairy herself, and finds that her soldier is also there, but he is a living man not a toy.

Lots of things happen then, all to do with different beautifully-dressed couples dancing round and round -, the Oriental Mirlitons, the Cossacks, the Gypsies, the Arabian couple, the flowers, and Sugar Plum Fairy and Fairy King themselves.

Clara wakes up again next morning, with the wooden soldier toy in her arms.

Outside it is bright day, and there is a young man coming towards the house, with a large letter in his hands. He recognizes Clara and she recognizes him. And the ballet ends either right there, or back at the workshop of the Sorcerer Drosselmayer, where he is very happy that the picture no longer has anyone inside its golden frame.

And those of you who know and understand the meaning of this ballet, and who have recalled the Tree of the Eternal Joys, will now also remember that the movie Eyes Wide Shut is quite incomplete, in the sense that Kubrick never finished it himself, but it was completed by Sydney Pollack with the studio editing the final scenes and then given a global cinema release.

LOL

The problem that atheists have, and many other even religious people, especially the know-it-all's and the bigots (which includes the atheists too of course because these are the most bigoted of them all!) - is that they cannot demonstrate with any material evidence, that there is anything truly supernatural involved in the ideas and beliefs of the standard narratives.

The atheists, and there are almost countless numbers of these in the front rows of everywhere to do with the arts and with high culture particularly -, all of whom possess many wives and mistresses with much fine jewelry and expensive cloths, clap avidly to demonstrate that they are there, and that they appreciate high culture and can enjoy it in the front rows before the envious eyes of the hoi poloi.