Feed Your Head
©2013 M.Krapek
For JoJo.
The Jefferson Airplane House,
2400 Fulton Street, San Francisco, California, looking across the street at Golden Gate Park and the court in front of the Spreckels Temple of Music, south of the DeYoung Museum of Art.
The Tracing Board
The Founding Masons created “tracing Boards” to plot the course of events in their lives. Later these boards were used as tools for apprentice masons to teach them to SEE. The symbology used in these devices were of esoteric origins, with meanings obscure to the untrained mind. There is a schism in what people perceive in this world, one that divides people into those who SEE, and those who do not yet see. Those who do not yet see perceive the world with divisive intent, good vs. evil, black and white, yin and yang, bent upon taking what they can, regardless of the consequences. Those who SEE however, understand the world to be a place of unity and harmony, to cultivate with balance, love and respect.
White Rabbit Legacy:
Remember what the door mouse said, “Feed your head, feed your head, feed your head....”
Titled from the closing lyrics of “White Rabbit” by the Airplane, the iconography of the image reveals the mind scape of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland” superimposed over the park scenes and the neighborhood on Fulton Street. From the porch of the Mansion, left in the apartment house window can be seen the silhouette of JoJo Black, looking out her window at the surreal scene below. Down street is the Grateful Dead House. Under the left front yard tree is the White Rabbit’s door, leading down the rabbit hole. (This tree and door is actually in the park, near the Temple of Music.) The Book of Alice is right on the porch, waiting for someone to pick it up. The right front yard has the Hookah Smoking Caterpillar, relaxing on his magic mushroom perch, passing smoke to the street and building housing the Cheshire Cat. (Google MAP this street location, and see the cat in the window!) The center of the picture is of course the chess board, the layout of life for those uninitiated. The park background reveals the city skyline, Sutro Towers, the windmills of fancy, and the ship Tattoo on JoJo Black’s arm chasing Moby Dick. Triumphant over the whole board, which rules the scene, is the bridge to harmony, the Temple of Music. Over which is the Airplane, from the “Jefferson Airplane Takes off” album. And here we have the tracing board, complete with the keys to Hippie harmony within it’s boundary...
Franklin’s Magic Square:
Of the greatest secrets of this image, the chess board, also known as the
Franklin Magic Square of 64, is among the most esoteric. Ben Franklin was supposed to have discovered this mathematical device, but it is really much older, going back to ancient Greece, and possibly further, to the Chaldeans. The enigma of this device is in the numbers of the diagonal rows always adding to the same sum. He was said to use this device in everyday affairs by developing a systematic decision making technique, relating to the modern day utility theory in mathematics. Like many of the great genius of his time, Franklin could simply not be pinned down into just one discipline. The oddest preinciple within the matrix of the figure of 64 is it’s relation to the Loom of the Maya and how DNA is coded!
Inspiration:
“Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.” By Lewis Carroll. Random House Publishing, 1946.
(With the TENNIEL illustrations colored by Fritz Freidel.)
“White Rabbit,” and The Collected works of The Jefferson Airplane.
The Masonic Tradition.
Ben Franklin’s mathematical prowess.
The City of San Francisco, which values it’s history.
JoJo’s tattoo.
