Artyfacts and More of the

Thinking CapCulled from the Library of Wynn Wolfe, 2009

Following are two illustrations and quotes from the 1766 Classic book Goody Two-Shoes: The thinking cap was originally called a “considering cap.” It had three equal sides. On the first side was written I MAY BE WRONG, the second was IT IS FIFTY TO ONE BUT YOU ARE, and on the third side I’LL CONSIDER OF IT.” During this part of the 18th century “These caps, indeed, were of such utility, that people of sense never went without them...”

In another chapter of this book it is asked: “What was Fortunatus’s ‘Wishing Cap’ when compared [to the ‘thinking cap’]. Interestingly, “the [Wishing] Cap, is said to have conveyed people from one place to another.” As the central figure here points to a globe map, it is certainly a remnant idea of the ancient practice of the ether-goers or skywalkers. Furthermore, Goody Two-Shoes goes on to say, “Peace and Happiness depend so much upon the State of Man’s own Mind, and upon the use of the considering cap... One of these Caps will last a Man his whole life.”

Here is an Australian Aboriginal petroglyph adorned with a radiant thinking or thinker’s cap. The enlightened ones throughout history have always been depicted and revered as the clear-seeing thinkers.

This is a detail of a late 15th century Russian Icon painting -- this cap looks as if it’s illustrating thoughtfully long-established synaptic pathways.

Rembrandt painted this Self Portrait (notice there is no shadow on the wall behind him). The source of light is himself -- he is immersed in glowing jubilant thought!

In a detail of a 1790 engraving from Sibly’s Celestial Science we see a starry-crowned woman. Apropos of the “considering cap,” the word consider is rooted in French: con-sidere, con-sideral; “to think with and among the stars.”

This is an early 19th-century engraving by Gustave Dore titled: Queen of Lanterns. Perhaps it is indicative of the ancient adage: “One who sees by their own phosphor light.”

Here is an anonymous modern portrait titled Kwan Yin: “the divine SELF perceived by Self” (the human).

This is my friend Courtney at her recital -- the camera caught this stunning glimpse of her thinking cap!

Cover, Teacher Magazine, 1975. “Jessica, age 7, saw white light coming out of her teacher’s head.”

From Rhoda Kellogg’s The Psychology of CHILDREN’S ART.* This little boy’s drawing suggests that the one big ‘thinking cap’ he now wears is made up of many thought-provoking experiences, maybe many lifetimes of experience -- who’s to know?

* Rhoda Kellogg with Scott O’Dell, CRM-Random House, 1967, p.71

This drawing is by a young girl also selected from The Psychology of CHILDREN’S ART*-- it speaks volumes.* From petroglyphs to Icons, from engravings and paintings, to children and their obvious displays of innate knowledge and wisdom (all of which is ‘wrapped-up’ within ourselves when we arrived here in this world), we humans are mysteriously powered by invisible electromagnetic wavelengths and their physical counterparts of radiant, scintillating particles of starry light that evidently show mostly on our blossom-crowns. I’ll repeat, when you put a “Thinking Cap” on it’s as if you are making eye contact with your mind’s eye -- you get to see and understand more!

*Rhoda Kellogg with Scott O’Dell, Op Cit., p. 70