Earlier last week, during various walks around the Lakes, noticed that Snowdrops were now out. Hurrah for the first signs of Spring to Come! 

Grey Knott. Today, Sunday, we went a walk - originally intending to go up "Rib End" to Kirk Fell, but soon seeing that the tops were icy and snowy, it was getting a bit late, and then it started hailing for a while! So we detoured back to Grey Knott, another 'Wainwright' that B. hadn't done yet, so there's another tick in the book for her, and I get to live another day! 

A Cat Mask. I have a thing about masks - I once wrote a fantasy piece on MaskDancing, and the tropical museum had plenty of great examples, including this feline apparition! 

A more elegant but equally spooky mask for Japanese "No" plays. 

A Tree of Life. This South American piece at the Tropical Museum was described as a 'Tree of Life' and it had a Crown (Kether) at the top, and a Skull (Malkuth) at the bottom, with little Flowers for the Sephiroth, if you wanted to correspond it to the Kabbalistic Tree! 

Another Mask! 

Red Light District. We walked up and down the canal around which the district lies, with me saying, "There's women in the windows. Women in the windows. There really is women in the windows" in a bemused tone. There were. I'm not sure if it was seedy, liberal, or otherwise, it just struck me that the booths looked like little hair-dressing salons, with the stool and sink, so not very alluring places at all ... 

The Astrological silver amulet in the Tropical Museum. 

An incredible hand-drawn Kabbalah scroll held in the Ritman Library. The Trees are made from one long continuous chain, which has been hand-drawn. An amazing piece of work. 

Books in the Ritman Collection. Notice particularly the early Boheme book in the bottom-right corner of this photograph. I couldn't get over the precise nature and time-consuming work gone into producing these books and diagrams. 

The Ritman Library. I had gone to Amsterdam specifically to see this collection of alchemical, rosicrucian and hermetic material, and was not disappointed! The library was a great place to study, and has an extensive catalogue. The work currently "on show" is based around Reuchlin. 

The Flower Market. Although it was late winter, and the market was very quiet and mainly seeds and bulbs, I did catch some colour and Tulips! 

Magical Amulets. I couldn't go very far without seeing more magical amulets! These were beautiful; I liked the silver-plated astrological amulet in this collection, and the heart-shaped Islamic amulet. 

A Typical Amsterdam Scene. It was quiet in February, and the weather was grey (although it only rained briefly for an hour on one day while we were there). I thought Amsterdam was a 'Practice Venice' as it was built around the canals, not actually on a lagoon! On a canalboat tour we learnt that the houses were restricted in width by early land-planning (I think only a few metres) which explains why they are all so tall and thin (with correspondingly frightening staircases in the hotels, bars and worse, the dope cafes!) 

Voodoo Paraphanalia at the Tropical Museum. There were so many cultures represented it was hard to take in, especially during the last day of our four-day excursion (we hadn't slept well due to hotel guests arriving back at 4.30am every morning, completely wrecked, yelling, and on one night collapsing in a loud bang outside my door in the hallway). I sort of wished I had the Voodoo stuff to hand ...

The Tropical Museum in Amsterdam. A really well laid-out, airy, bright and modern museum with a special exhibition on Hindu Ritual in the main amphitheatre. We also chanced upon a group of people playing Tibetan Drums in a workshop area! It reminded me of the Chicago Natural History Museum, although it didn't have Sue, the T-Rex skeleton in the middle of the hall (this museum had a Hindu temple!) 

More Gin than Sin (Amsterdam 2006)

I've just returned from a four-day excursion to Amsterdam, accompanied by a couple of friends, D & F. I'd mainly wanted to go visit the Ritman Library - a large collection of Hermetica and related materials - but also generally have a 'get-away' with a few friends. I'd also booked a surprise session for myself, D&F, in Flotation Tanks, followed by a proper massage!

The trip was great, no travel problems, the accomodation was sufficient, and well-placed (mainly by accident) inbetween the Central Station area, Abraxas Coffee Shop (which became a regular haunt) and the Ritman library itself. Even the Koan Float place was nearby!

We indulged in far more Gin than Sin, of course, although we did do the obligatory gawp up and down the Red Light District (or at least the main drag) which was somewhat surreal. Another memory of Amsterdam will be olfactory; the smell of dope was everywhere, particularly the hotel room, and noticeable even walking up the streets!

Hotel http://www.amsterdamby.com/belga/pages/gallery.htm
Flotation Place http://www.koan-float.com/
Abraxas Site http://www.abraxasparadise.nl/

The Floatation experience was pretty neat, as well, although 45mins was only a 'taster'. I did get some weird effects, mainly time-distortion. I did a few exercises, and found the best astral practice was the Rose-Cross ritual, as it suited the general floaty 'out of it' sensation. There was definately something re-birth/womb-like about clambering out of the pod afterwards, dripping in thick salty water. That hadn't even occured to me until I was getting out!