Peacocks “Surrenderance”

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina/October 2007.

In the Lagoon Cabin amidst vibrantly colored bouquets, a single white ginger lily in a small glass vase captured my attention with its most bewitching fragrance. On the far wall a sign read: “Things that are real are given and received in Silence.” Meher Baba.

I mused over the extraordinary brilliance of this tiny flower that released its inner fragrance, its essence, in silence. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What you are, speaks so loud, I can’t hear a word you are saying!”

A few months earlier I had dreamt of a White Peacock flying to me from beyond the lagoon, gold dust streaming from her tail. After encircling me three times, she stood in front of me so I could touch her soft white feathers and golden yellow down. I painted her after a deeply touching call with my friend Mahmoud Farshchian. He told me: “My whole family and I, respect your art.” When my heart felt those words I cried and was able to immediately paint my White Peacock in Mehera’s room.

When I began the Blue Peacock at home on Monday, I became so ill I could not work. By Thursday night as I went to sleep, I said, “I can’t believe “You’ are not going to let me complete this painting for the show! Alright if that’s what You wish, that I paint only for You and not for a show, I surrender.” The next morning, Friday, the day before I was to drive to Washington on the way to NYC to hang my show at the National Arts Club, I began to paint at 9am and painted till 6:30pm and the painting was finished! I know that it was not I that painted this or any of my paintings for that matter. I am just the vehicle. Many times I have become very ill just before finishing a painting or before leaving to do a show and I believe it is so I will get out of the way so the True Artist can work through me. The White Peacock symbolizes The Perfect Mirror of the Soul, devoid of everything of the World. The Moon Mirror of the Heart reflects the Mighty Sun’s rays.

Excerpted from “Language of the Birds — It Is All the Mirror of God by Laurie Blum” an original adaptation of Farid al-Din ‘Attar’s Conference of the Birds:

PEACOCK — GABRIEL OF THE BIRDS-ANGEL OF REVELATIONS speaks:

“…Hoopoe speaks: “O Vain Peacock!
Will you renounce your Paradise on Earth?
The heart’s inner mirror polished reveals true Self-Worth….”

“…A warrior’s shield your tail feathering displays.
Each feather of wisdom, star-tipped, perches atop the spray
Amidst world’s battlefield and its brilliant color play.
The fire blazes within you as you feed it the poison decay
And you march on to glory, the conqueror of darkness.
Each of your tail feathers bears an insignia of grace,
The Eyes of God poised aloft your luminous tail fan in space….”

Please contact Laurie Blum for details.