Bower’s Museum is open regularly from 10 am to 4 pm and is located in Santa Ana, CA. It recently went through a remodel and extensive addition. It was a place we wanted to revisit. ML and I had been here years ago, maybe twenty.
We were happy to visit the small Beethoven collection which included rare artifacts (like his hair), letters, compositions, music scores and other memorabilia from the era. ML’s son studies music and bass (the big one) at NYU. He is extremely talented and is being educated one on one by some of the best. In fact, tonight, ML and my daughter are meeting up in NYC to hear and see her son play with the NYU symphony orchestra. Wish I could be there.
I hadn’t been able to enter the Pacific Islands exhibition last time due to the negative, scary vibes I felt when I opened the door (not knowing what it was about). I just thought I was tired of the museum and was on art overload.
This time, I was brave and I followed ML into the rooms full of primitive art objects but I had to leave promptly due to the uneasy energy, like dread and a distinct plummet in my life-force that felt sort of like the heebie-jeebies.
Well, lo and behold, this is an exhibit primarily of the headhunters and spiritual shamans of Oceania. It was creepy and I didn’t see anyone staying long. I am even kinda afraid to share this picture I took with you. Yikes!
In contrast, I stepped out into the large foyer and stood very close to the Chinese drum found in a Daoist Temple. My frazzled body became replenished in its presence amid the natural lighting coming in from the zen gardened wall of windows. The grand drum is divided into eight pictures like the eight limbs of Patanjali’s yoga or the eight noble truths of Buddhism. In this case, it is the eight immortals of Daoism which together on the wheel signify happiness. They are symbolized by a fan, castanets, a sword, a flower basket, a flute made of a gourd, a lotus (we see this a lot in Eastern philosophy), bamboo and drum rods (sticks).
More about the Bower’s visit tomorrow……