Late Sommer Arcing

“All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” -Buddha



Whether you are going or staying or sitting or lying down,
the whole world is your own self.
You must find out
whether the mountains, rivers, grass, and forests
exist in your own mind or exist outside it.
Analyze the ten thousand things,
dissect them minutely,
and when you take this to the limit
you will come to the limitless,
when you search into it you come to the end of search,
where thinking goes no further and distinctions vanish.
When you smash the citadel of doubt,
then the Buddha is simply yourself.

– Daikaku

Late Sommer Arcing ….
I have found myself writing again;(not just for the magazine or Turfing) which of course is one of those acts that I do… either well, or poorly. I cannot pretend that I have a great talent at it, as I fledge at it whereas others soar. It is in the elbow grease; don’t give lip service to that which you don’t apply yourself to, right? I am finding that writing down notes as you go is pretty effective; inspiration hits me more often when I am away from the computer than when I am on it. The art of writing out by hand trumps typing for the capture of the pure thought. Typing is like herding words into the corral of structure, whereas writing is like climbing an open face of granite. Perilous at times, but so satisfying.

I have been reading Dale Pendell’s new book, “The Great Bay”. There is a review soon to follow, but suffice to say, it’s a page turner. (I am not going to give it away yet!) It is a complete new direction for his writing, and has already won the “Best Science Fiction” award for the 2010 Green Book Festival. It is very, very good.

I want to promote an event for another writer friend, Graham St. John this Friday in San Francisco for the American release of his wonderful “Technomad”. If you are not familiar with Graham’s work, follow the links below. It is really an impressive bit of anthropological work.

Anyway, on the Caer Llwydd front. Rowan has been working on film weekly since his new quarter started at the Art Institute. We will soon be posting a video or two of his, so stay tuned. Summer has somewhat arrived in Oregon. It is very odd though, unlike any summer I remember here. Intensely warm/hot for several days, then the temperature drops, and everything is extremely cool again. It must be playing havoc with the poor farmers. Life flows on here, every other day there is another film crew working in the house, Mary is in the garden and life is sweet as summer arcs into harvest. Fall, the old traditional Autumn, is but a few days away. How does it go so quickly? We walk together on the street at night, everything is just so perfect and the beauty of life shimmers all around us. Catch your breath, life tumbles on.

I hope this finds you with those you love, doing that which means the most to you, as we swim together through the air…

I hope you enjoy this edition.

Gwyllm
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On The Menu:
Technomad Book Launch
Anarchist Quotes
Silversun Pickups – Growing Old Is Getting Old (Live on MTV: Unplugged)
The Future of the Future – Robert Anton Wilson
The Daoist Poet: Yuan Mei
Silversun Pickups – “Kissing Families”

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I will soon have a review on Technomad, but meanwhile if you are in the Bay area this Friday, you might consider attending the US launch event!

Technomad Book Launch : San Francisco
Friday, JULY 30th 9:00pm – 10:00pm
1015 Folsom, 1015 Folsom Avenue San Francisco, CA

Book Launch for Graham St John’s Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures. Panel discussion on San Francisco, Burning Man and its contributions to the “Global Tribal Revival”. Graham will read from his landmark book and discuss the contributions that Bay Area groups and projects have made to the international rave and festival
culture, including a panel discussion with: Marian Goodell (Burning Man), Michael Gosney (Digital Be-In, Earthdance) and Brad Olson (How Weird Street Faire/CCC)

The Launch is part of SOUL OF THE CITY: Transforming Metropolis at
1015 Folsom July 30 8:00pm – 3:00am
A benefit for Entheon Village, Red Lightning, Sacred Spaces and Feed the Artists at Burning Man 2010 – Celebrating the Evolution of the Revolution

Cost:
$15 in advance
$10 before 9pm (for Talks/Book Launch)
$20 at the door after 9pm

TICKETS @ http://thesoulofthecity.eventbrite.com/

PERFORMANCE LINE-UP

MAIN STAGE
9:00pm – 10:30pm
Outersect – DJ Set

10:30pm – 11:30pm
OM Live! – Live Act
First Bay Area live performance since Lost At Last for the new band featuring Digital Shaman Om with Kali’s Angel Amy Carr.

11:30pm – 12:30am
Lux D’Coda / DJ Goz – Live/DJ Act
The cosmic muse of Foxgluv is back to enthrall us with potent new magic, morphing into DJ Goz trance grooves.

Niema Lightseed, Prayer Performance

12:30am – 2:00am
AFROLICIOUS featuring DJ Oz – Live/DJ Act
A full on electronic live act featuring Afro-Tropi-Electro-Funk-Disco-House to dance yourself into bliss

2:00am – 3:00am
DJ tba

DOWNSTAIRS – Sacred Sound Temple
– Talks by Graham St John and Radhanath Swami
– Kirtan by Radhanath Swami
– Alan Tower’s Sound Eggs
– Graham Lightfinger
– Healing Zone
– Sacred Metropolis Community Altars

FRONT ROOM:
– CHLOROPHIL
– MODA – Romentum.com – LA
– OUTERSECT
– AIRE REDTREE

BM 2010 Interactive Art Preview
Food and Drink

More info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130737523616731
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BOOK PREVIEW

Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures
by Graham St John (Equinox, 2009)

A cultural history of global electronic dance music countercultures, Technomad explores the pleasurable and activist trajectories of post-rave culture.

“Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures is the most wide-ranging and detailed of all the books on rave. More than the study of a musical movement or genre, Technomad offers an alternate history of cultural politics since the 1960s, from hippies and Acid Tests through the sound systems and ‘vibe-tribes’ of the 1990s and beyond…. Like Greil Marcus’ Lipstick Traces, Technomad makes unexpected but entirely convincing connections between people, movements and events. Like Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, St John’s book introduces us to unknown heroes, committed geniuses and genuine revolutionaries. Beautifully written, with a genuinely international perspective on electronic dance music culture, Technomad is one of the best books on music I’ve read in some time.” – Professor Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University

(Get the book from the Earthdance Bookshelf <http://www.earthdancenetwork.com/page/bookshelf-1>)

Online excerpts from Technomad:
Digital Be-In: http://www.earthdancenetwork.com/notes/Conscious_Parties_and_Cybertribes
Burning Man: http://www.undergrowth.org/burning_time_begoggled_in_the_mega_vibe_burning_man_by_graham_st_john

Graham
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Anarchist Quotes:

Anarchists are opposed to violence; everyone knows that. The main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations. It is life based on freedom of the individual, without the intervention of the gendarme. For this reason we are the enemies of capitalism which depends on the protection of the gendarme to oblige workers to allow themselves to be exploited–or even to remain idle and go hungry when it is not in the interest of the bosses to exploit them. We are therefore enemies of the State which is the coercive violent organization of society. – Errico Malatesta

I am an anarchist! Wherefore I will not rule and also ruled I will not be. – John Henry Mackay

Anarchism…stands for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. – Emma Goldman

The political arena leaves one no alternatives, one must be either a dunce or a rogue. – Emma Goldman

The poor object to being governed badly, while the rich object to being governed at all. – G.K. Chesterton

For every complex problem there is a solution which is straightforward, simple, and wrong. – H.L. Mencken
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A Wonderful Band!
Silversun Pickups – Growing Old Is Getting Old (Live on MTV: Unplugged)

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The Future of the Future
– Robert Anton Wilson

There was a Fundamentalist Futurist back in the 1890′s who demonstrated that New York City would be abandoned as unfit for habitation by the 1930s. His argument was based on projection forward of population trends, and he correctly estimated that population would grow from 4 million to over 7 million in 40 years. (He didn’t guess it would reach over 12 million by now.) It was then obvious, he said, that the amount of horses necessary to provide transportation for that many people would result in a public health hazard of incredible dimensions: there would be horse manure up to the third floor windows everywhere in Manhattan. This illustrates the most frequent fallacy found in Future projections: the “elementalistic fallacy” named by Alfred Korzybski. The elementalistic fallacy as Korzybski noted, seems to be built into our very language. We can talk about Joe Smith in isolation from his (or any) environment; we can therefore think about Mr. Smith in such fictitious isolation; and in such “elementalistic fallacy” we will always draw wrong conclusions, because Mr. Smith cannot exist without some environment. (He will explode in a vacuum, and without a social world his mind will similarly explode — or implode — or at least mutate shockingly, as isolation experiments have shown. )

Projecting population forward without projecting other factors forward has produced numerous elementalistic fallacies similar to thinking of Joe Smith without an environment. Malthus, for instance, “proved” that population will always increase faster than resources, but this was disproven by technological history, and we now understand that “resources” only exist when identified by analysis and each new discovery in pure science shows us new resources everywhere.

One example: the Newtonian system allowed us to tap 0.001 per cent of the energy in a glass of water; 19th Century thermodynamics showed us how to tap 0.01 per cent of that energy; we can now tap 1.0 per cent. Nobody knows how much we’ll be able to tap in 50 years.

Elementalistic fallacies abound in Future projections (including my own). We are only gradually and gropingly learning to think “non-elementalistically” (in Korzybski’s phrase) or “synergetically” as Bucky Fuller liked to say. I have found one quick way to avoid the more obvious elementalistic and Fundamentalistic errors, which is this:

Whenever I project one trend forward, I then re-analyze the situation, projecting at minimum five other trends forward also.

For instance, lifespan and population have both been increasing in the past 200 years. Projecting these trends forward elementalistically (in isolation) has led to some notable Doomsday scenarios in which humanity overcrowds itself to death. An entirely different picture emerges, however, if one projects these trends synergetically along with five other trends, such as:

The effect of industrialism on population. As documented by Fuller (Critical Path) a nation’s population only rises rapidly in the transition from feudalism to industrialism, then levels off when industrialism is well established in a country.

The emergence of Feminism and self-choice among women, beginning with the 18th century radicalism of Mary Wollstonecraft and now including Women’s Liberation movements in all parts of the world — even dawningly in Islamic nations.

The movement of communication technology into space, with clear trends indicating that “industrial” (or more likely, post-industrial) technology will follow, with workers and then families and then schools and grocers and museums, etc. moving into space colonies.

The continued improvement in birth control technology and the fading line between contraception and abortion. There is already a heated debate, for instance, about whether certain devices — e.g. the IUD — “are” or “are not” abortifacients.

The neuroscience revolution (or H.E.A.D. Revolution — Hedonic Engineering And Development) with its increasing promise that humans in the near future will achieve more freedom from mechanical conditioned reflexes (both “physical” and “mental”) than ever before.

Whenever I try to project all five of these trends even 40 years into the future, I find the “overcrowding” problem seems less likely than New York being buried in horse manure. To get a feel for synergetic thinking, try your own projection, “guestimating” what the next decade will bring in each of these fields, and the decade after that, and so on, to 2029.
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The Daoist Poet: Yuan Mei

Nearing Hao-pa

(I saw in the mist a little village of a few tiled roofs and joyfully admired it.)

There’s a stream, and there’s bamboo,
there’s mulberry and hemp.
Mist-hid, clouded hamlet,
a mild, tranquil place.
Just a few tilled acres.
Just a few tiled roofs.
How many lives would I
have to live, to get
that simple.

Just Done

A month alone behind closed doors
forgotten books, remembered, clear again.
Poems come, like water to the pool
Welling,
up and out,
from perfect silence

Climbing The Mountain

I burned incense, swept the earth, and waited
for a poem to come…

Then I laughed, and climbed the mountain,
leaning on my staff.

How I’d love to be a master
of the blue sky’s art:

see how many sprigs of snow-white cloud
he’s brushed in so far today.

Mad Words

To learn to be without desire
you must desire that.
Better to do as you please:
sing idleness.
Foating clouds, and water idly running –
Where’s their source?
In all the vastness of the sea and sky,
you’ll never find it.
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Silversun Pickups – “Kissing Families”

The Song of Amergin

“People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have corpses in their mouths.” – Raoul Vaneigem

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It has been a rough and tumble few weeks. I am not here for the complaining tho; I made it through and I am looking forward to new adventures, friends coming a-visiting, and new opportunities.

We are not going to spin wheels, but spin tales and display some wonders for you all. In this edition, we cover some of the territory from older editions of Turfing. I find the cycling interesting.

Remember the beauty that surrounds, remember the relationship that is.

Bright Blessings,
Gwyllm

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On The Menu:
The Links
“Above & Beyond”
Review: Opium For The Masses
Liza Gerrard – The Song of Amergin
Celtic Wonder Tales: Inisfail
The Poetry of Gabriel Rosenstock
Liza Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy – Amergin’s Invocation
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The Links:
Inside Insides
Learning From The Ancients
The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense
I Have Been Saying This For Years…
African Child Witches On The Increase
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“Above & Beyond”
We find out this week if Rowan & his friends film “Above & Beyond” goes to the national competition! We are very excited around here about this!

Above and Beyond – Portland 24 Hour Film Race from William Schultz on Vimeo.

Shooting for Amour Sincère resumes this next week as well!
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Review: Opium For The Masses

Opium for the Masses – Harvesting Nature’s Best Pain Medication
By Jim Hogshire

“Contrary to general belief, there is no federal law against growing
P. somniferum – Martha Stewart Living

I have to tell you; just the cover alone…. 80)

Michal Pollan wrote a lengthy feature (“Opium, made easy”) about Jim Hogshire in Harpers Magazine, amazed that the Opium Poppy which grows wild, grows legal and is available at craft and hobby stores and nurseries, could also be made into a drinkable tea that acts in a way similar to codeine or vicodin. (I am searching for a copy of this!)

This is perhaps one of the most important books for the home herbalist; in it one finds the folklore, the formulations, and the functions of the Opium Poppy in all its applications. Because of the propaganda, bad press and general ignorance of the modern age many have suffered needlessly. I have seen many sides of P. somniferum and its various constituents since I was young; from codeine, to morphine, heroin, darvon, vicodin, etc. etc,. I have seen the use, and the misuse of this ancient companion plant.

Let me be forthright; I feel people should be in charge of their own health, autonomous in as much as they can be. This includes using herbs, tinctures, exercising, meditation and more. It also includes pain management. In Opium for the Masses, you will discover information that is of great use for safe pain management. Opium and its derivatives have been in the cabinets and gardens of the apothecary since at least the Mesolithic. Fact: Until the late 19th century and 20th century, most people in Europe, Asia and parts in between had access to Opium without the crazed response in the west and elsewhere since Opiate Prohibition was initiated. (Originally instituted as a racist policy against the yellow peril in the US) It was commonly available in apothecary’s, pharmacies, in the garden, and in the wise woman’s bag of tricks back in the ancient of days. Opium eased the pain and agony of countless humans, and eased the passage of end of life for those in need of it; We still see its constituents used to this day in such worthy exercises like Home Hospice, and in countless hospitals around the world.

There is so much knowledge to be digested from Opium for the Masses. Histories, formulations, myths, the lies, truths, and anecdotes about this most intriguing of plants. The book is laid out in succinct order, the writing is very tight and flowing. It covers artist, addiction, and various forms of misuse. It illustrates the proper preparation of various opium formulas from poppy tea to laudanum. The book covers laws, and what one must be prudent about.

I would purchase this book just to have it on the forbidden knowledge shelf. Thankfully, it is in print again after 15 years of being out of print. Do yourself a favour, pick up a copy.
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Liza Gerrard – The Song of Amergin

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Celtic Wonder Tales: Inisfail

It was on the First of May that the Milesians came into Ireland. They came with their wives and their children and all their treasures. There were many of them. They came in ships, and it is said by some that they came from a land beyond the utmost blueness of the sky and that their ships left the track among the stars that can still be seen on winter nights.

When they were come to Ireland they drew up their ships. They put the fastening of a year and a day on them and set foot on the Sacred Land. Amergin was the first to set foot on the Land, and he made this rann in honour of it. He chanted the rann because he was the chief poet and druid among the Milesians.

THE RANN.

I am The Wind That Blows Over The Sea,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Wave 0f The Sea,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Sound The Sea Makes,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Ox Of The Seven Combats,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Vulture Upon The Rock,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Ray Of The Sun,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Fairest Of Plants,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Wild Boar,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Salmon in The Water,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Lake In The Plain,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Word 0f Knowledge,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The Spear-Point Of Battle,
Ah-ro-he!
I am The God Who Kindles Fire In The Head,
Ah-ro-he!
Who makes wise the company on the mountain?
Who makes known the ages of the moon?
Who knows the secret resting-place of the sun?
Ah-ro-he!

The Milesians gave a victory-shout at the end of the rann, and Amergin said:

“We will go forward now, and when we reach the place where it seems good to rest we will light a fire and put Three Names of Power on the Land so that it may belong to us for ever.”

They went forward then and they saw no one till Brigit took the shape of a woman that has known hardship, and came to try them. She wrapped herself in the cloak of Sorrow and sat by the roadside. She made a great keening.

“O woman,” said Amergin, “why is there such heavy sorrow on you, and why do you make such a shrill keening?”

“I am keening lost possessions, and lost queen-ship, and a name cried down the wind of change and forgotten.”

“Whose name is cried down the wind?”

“The name of Banba that was queen of this land.”

“Her name shall not be whirled into forgetfulness. I will put it on this land: it shall be called Banba.”

“My blessing on you, Stag with Golden Horns, and may the name-giving bring you luck!”

So Amergin gave away the First Name. They went on from that place, and Brigit took the shape of a fierce beautiful queen that has lost a battle, and came again to try them.

“O Queen,” said Amergin, “may all the roads of the world be pleasant to you!”

“O King,” said Brigit, “all the roads of the world are hard when those who were wont to go in chariots walk barefoot on them.”

“O Queen,” said Amergin, “I would fain better your fortune.”

“Grant me then a queen’s asking.”

“Name your asking.”

“I am Eriu, wife of Mac Grian, Son of the Sun, and I would have my name fastened on this land for ever.”

“I will put your name on this land: it shall be called Eriu.”

“My blessing on you, Sun-Crested Eagle, and may the name-giving bring you luck!”

So Amergin gave away the Second Name. They went on from that place, and Brigit took the form of an old wrinkled crone bent double with age, and came again to try them. She was gathering sticks, and the bundle was heavy.

“O woman,” said Amergin, “it is hard to see you lifting a bundle when age has bent you so low already. I would fain better your fortune.”

Brigit raised herself, and said:–

“Though I am an old crone now, bent and withered, yet I was once a great queen, and I will take nothing less than a queen’s asking from you.”

“What is your asking? ”

“Let my name be on this land: I am Fiola.”

“I will put your name on this land: it shall be called Fiola.”

“My blessing on you, Silver-Spotted Salmon of Knowledge, and may the name-giving bring you luck!”

So Amergin gave away the Third Name. It was after that they made a fire for themselves, and when the smoke of it rose against the sky, Ogma, Nuada, and the Dagda, came to try them.

“What people are you? ” asked Nuada, “and from what country have you come?”

“We are the sons of Milesius,” they answered; “he himself is the son of a god–even of Beltu, the Haughty Father. We are come from Moy More, the Great Plain that is beyond the horizon of the world.”

“How got you knowledge of Ireland?” asked Ogma.

“O Champion,” answered Amergin, “from the centre of the Great Plain there rises a tower of crystal. Its top pierces the heavens, and from the ramparts of it the wisest one among us got sight of this land. When he saw it his heart was filled with longing, and when he told us of it our hearts too were filled with longing. Therefore we set out to seek that land, and behold we have come to it. We have come to Inisfail, the Island of Destiny.”

“And ye have come to it,” said the Dagda, “like thieves in the night; without proclamation; without weapon-challenge. Ye have lighted a fire here, as if this were a no-man’s land. Judge ye if this be hero conduct.”

“Your words have the bitterness of truth in them,” said Amergin. “Say now what you would have us do.”

“You are a druid and a leader among your people,” said Nuada. “Give judgment, therefore, between yourselves and us.”

“I will give judgment,” said Amergin “I judge it right that we should return to our ships and go out the distance of nine waves from the land. Use all your power against us, and we will use all our power against you. We will take the Island of Destiny by the strength of our hands, or die fighting for it!”

“It is a good judgment,” said Ogma, “Get back to your ships! We will gather our battle-chiefs for the fight.”

Ogma, Nuada, and the Dagda, went away then from the Milesians.

The Milesians began to put out the fire they. had kindled, and as they were quenching the embers, Brigit threw her mantle of power about her and came to the Milesians in her own shape. When Amergin saw her he knew that she was the Mighty Mother, and he cried out:

“O Ashless Flame, put a blessing on us now, that our luck may not be extinguished with these embers.”

“O Druid,” said Brigit, “if you had wisdom you would know that before the First Fire is extinguished the name-blessing should be pronounced over it.”

“O Mother of All Wisdom, I know it, but the name-blessing is gone from me. I met three queens as I came hither, and each one asked the name-gift of me. They were queens discrowned: I could not put refusal on them.”

Brigit began to laugh then, and she cried:

“O Amergin, you are not counted a fool, yet it seems to me that if you had much wit you would know the eyes of Brigit under any cloak in the world. It was I, myself, who asked the name-gift from you three times, and got it Do not ask a fourth blessing from me now, for I have blessed you three times already.”

She stooped and lifted a half-quenched ember from the fire. She blew on it till it became a golden flame–till it became a star. She tossed it from one hand to the other as a child tosses a ball. She went away laughing.

The Milesians went back to their ships. They put the distance of nine waves between themselves and the land. The Tuatha De Danaan loosed the Fomor on them, and a mighty tempest broke about their ships. Great waves leaped over them and huge abysses of water engulped them. The utmost power of the Milesians could not bring the ships a hair’s breadth nearer to the shore. A terrible wind beat on them. Ireland disappeared. Then Amergin cried out:

“O Land, that has drawn us hither, help us! Show us the noble fellowship of thy trees: we will be comrades to them. Show us the shining companies of thy rivers: we will put a blessing on every fish that swims in them. Show us thy hero-hearted mountains: we will light fires of rejoicing for them. O Land, help us! help us! help us!”

Ireland heard him, and sent help. The darkness cleared away and the wind was stilled.

Then Amergin said:

“O Sea, help us! O mighty fruitful Sea! I call on every wave that ever touched the land. O Sea, help us!”

The sea heard him, and the three waves that go round Ireland–the wave of Thoth, the wave of Rury and the long slow white foaming wave of Cleena. The three waves came and lifted the ships to the shore. The Milesians landed. The Tuatha De Danaan came down to make trial of their battle-strength. Hard was the contest between them. The Milesians held their own against the gods. When they saw that the Milesians could hold their own, the Tuatha De Danaan drew themselves out of the fight. They laughed and cried to the Milesians:

“Good heroes are ye, and worthy to win the earth: we put our blessing on you.”

Nuada shook the bell-branch, and the glory that the Tuatha De Danaan had in Tir-na-Moe before they ever set themselves to the shaping of the earth–that glory–came back to them. They had such splendour that the Milesians veiled their eyes before them.

“Do not veil your eyes!” said Nuada, “we will draw the Cloak of invisibility, the Faed Feea, about us. We give you Ireland: but, since our hands have fashioned it, we will not utterly leave the country. We will be in the white mist that clings to the mountains; we will be the quiet that broods on the lakes; we will be the joy-shout of the rivers; we will be the secret wisdom of the woods. Long after your descendants have forgotten us, they will hear our music on sunny raths and see our great white horses lift their heads from the mountain-tarns and shake the night-dew from their crested manes: in the end they will know that all the beauty in the world comes back to us, and their battles are only echoes of ours. Lift up your faces, Children of Milesius, Children of Beltu the Haughty Father, and greet the land that belongs to you!”

The Milesians lifted up their heads. No glory blinded them, for the Tuatha De Danaan had drawn the Faed Feea about themselves. They saw the sunlight on the grass like emerald fire; they saw the blueness of the sky and the solemn darkness of the pine trees; they heard the myriad sound of shaken branches and running water, and behind it echoed the laughter of Brigit.
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The Poetry of Gabriel Rosenstock

Le Breis is Míle Bliain

Mo ghrá Thú!
Gach soicind.
Nuair a chorraíonn an ghaoth an féar
Lingim Chugat ionam
Id bharróg dhorcha soilsím
Is mé Aimhirghin – cé eile? –
Mholas T’ainm thar chách

For More than a Thousand Years

I love You!
Every second
When wind rustles the grass –
Now and tomorrow –
I leap to You in me
In your dark embrace I shine
I am Amergin – who else –
I have praised Your name over all.

As gach póir Díot

As gach póir Díot scallann an ghrian
Ar Do dhamhsa gan chríoch
Taobh dorcha na gealaí is geal
Má osclaíonn Tú Do bhéal
Éalóidh réaltaí, canfaidh iomainn Duit
Is Tusa iadsan
Ealaí ag eitilt go gasta ar gcúl
Conas a shamhlóinn barróg Uait
Mura bpléascfainn Id réaltbhuíon?

From Each And Every Pore

From each and every pore look how the sun beams
On Your eternal dance
The dark side of the moon is bright
If You open Your mouth
Stars will escape and chant their hymns for You
You are they
Swiftly swans fly backwards
How can I imagine Your embrace
Without exploding in Your galaxy?

slowly like Venice I am sinking (from Uttering Her Name)

Dar Óma
slowly like Venice
I am sinking
into Your beauty

Your grace
lapping at my door

when will I drown
in the spume-bright story of Your smile?

the grace showered on me (from Uttering Her Name)

Dar Óma
unbelievable
the grace showered on me
in my darkest hour
I didn’t know above from below

were grace to fall
it would beat on closed casements

in crazy crystals it came
Your disembodied love

I no longer whimper
for Your touch

a tree of love is growing
I sit in its shade

the night sings
ghazals to the absent moon

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Liza Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy – Amergin’s Invocation

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Of all social theories Anarchism alone steadfastly proclaims that society exists for man, not man for society. The sole legitimate purpose of society is to serve the needs and advance the aspiration of the individual. Only by doing so can it justify its existence and be an aid to progress and culture.
– Emma Goldman

Stream Of The Week

Happy are those who find fault with themselves instead of finding fault with others.
– Muhammad

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The Stream of the Week…

Tuesday: On The Music Box: Hildegard Von Bingen
Hey There..
Summer finally opened up it’s doors today in Portland. Up past 80f and not a cloud in the sky, except for the clouds of Mosquito’s that all the damp weather has left us with. Clouds of the little monsters, and I am starting to look like an insect pin cushion. We have set up the back yard most comfortably, but need the citronella candles, and a bag of dry ice to keep the micro-vampires away.

Wednesday: On The Music Box: Harold Budd
Up past 90 today, out doing bids, working on the magazine, and floundering around as usual. I am perhaps the most incompetent person I know. I just flounder harder it seems, generating art and noise out of the mayhem. I am pulling the cord on the internet soon, and removing my main computer from our network when I am working on art and the publications. I fiddle whilst my personal Rome burns. Time seems so short, and on the other hand, everything seems to get done when it is supposed to. I feel art works pressing up against my mind, wanting to come in to be exposed. It is all part of the process….

Mary and I took the Sophie for a walk yesterday evening early, and the subject of the dreams from the previous week somehow came blurting out. With such coolness, she calmed my heart down. I am moved by the grace that surrounds her, and how it touches everyone who gets to know her. It is amazing really how just a few words can quiet a fire of the heart. The heart work is the hardest it seems. (except of course getting off of ones arse on projects) The hearts gateway is the door to another world. I am not looking for enlightenment as I once did, I feel that is an illusion with all of the rest. Everything fades before kindness, and caring inpov. Through the heart work, all changes are achieved, from what I have seen.

I want to turn you all on to an artist/friend: Richard Hoyen. His Blog addy is: Richard’s Blog and you can see more of his work at this gallery: Richard’s Gallery I think you will be pleasantly surprised. We went to a show last year, I’d seen his works previously, but he is going in such a fine new direction. Check it out!

This is an interesting edition (at least to me!), please especially check out the poetry. The Coyote stories are chock full of wisdom, and the quotes from Mircea Eliade and the music from Erik Satie rounds off everything nicely especially with the art of Louis Welden-Hawkins.

Hope this finds you well, with people you love, and who love you.

Blessings,
Gwyllm

On The Menu:
Erik Satie – Gnossienne No.4
Mircia Eliade Quotes
Coyote Tales
The Poetry Of Love And Devotion
Erik Satie – Gnossienne No.5
Art: Louis Welden-Hawkins
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Erik Satie – Gnossienne No.4

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Mircia Eliade Quotes


The great cosmic illusion is a hierophany…. One is devoured by Time, not because one lives in Time, but because one believes in its reality, and therefore forgets or despises eternity. (Images and Symbols)

“Do what he will, he [the profane man] is an inheritor. He cannot utterly abolish his past, since he himself is a product of his past. He forms himself by a series of denials and refusals, but he continues to be haunted by the realities that he has refused and denied. To acquire a world of his own, he has desacralized the world in which his ancestors lived; but to do so he has been obliged to adopt an earlier type of behavior, and that behavior is still emotionally present in him, in one form or another, ready to be reactualized in his deepest being.” (The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion)

“The Experience of Sacred Space makes possible the “founding of the world”: where the sacred Manifests itself in space, the real unveils itself, the world comes into existence.” (The Sacred and the Profane)

“It was lunar symbolism that enabled man to relate and connect such heterogeneous things as: birth, becoming, death, and ressurection; the waters, plants, woman, fecundity, and immortality; the cosmic darkness, prenatal existence, and life after death, followed by the rebirth of the lunar type (“light coming out of darkness”); weaving, the symbol of the “thread of life,” fate, temporality, and death; and yet others. In general most of the ideas of cycle, dualism, polarity, opposition, conflict, but also of reconciliation of contraries, of coincidentia oppositorum, were either discovered or clarified by virtue of lunar symbolism. We may even speak of a metaphysics of the moon, in the sense of a consistent system of “truths” relating to the mode of being peculiar to living creatures, to everything in the cosmos that shares in life, that is, in becoming, growth and waning, death and ressurrection. ” (The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion)

“The crude product of nature, the object fashioned by the industry of man, acquire their reality, their identity, only to the extent of their participation in a transcendent reality.” (The Myth of the Eternal Return)

There are, above all, urgent rectifications to bring to so many clichés still encumbering contemporary culture, for example, Feuerbach’s and Marx’s celebrated interpretations of religion as alienation. As one knows, Feuerbach and Marx proclaimed that religion estranges man from the earth, prevents him from becoming completely human, and so on. But, even if this were correct, such a critique of religion could be applied only to late forms of religiosity such as those of post-Vedic India or of Judeo-Christianity – that is, religions in which the element of ‘other-worldness’ plays an important role. Alienation and estrangement of man from the earth are unknown, and, moreover, inconceivable, in all religions of the cosmic type, ‘primitive’ as well as oriental; in this case (that is to say, in the overwhelming majority of religions known to history), the religious life consists exactly in exalting the solidarity of man with life and nature.” (The Quest, History And Meaining In Religion)

“In imitating the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythic hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time.” (Myths, Dreams and Mysteries)

“Neti! Neti! cries the sage of the Upanishads: “No! No! thou art not this; nor art thou that! In other words: you do not belong to the fallen cosmos, as you see it now, you are not necessarily engulfed in this creation; necessarily – that is to say, by virtue of the law of your own being. Now, nature has no true ontological reality; it is, indeed, universal becoming. Every cosmic form, complex and magestic though it may be, ends by disintegrating; the universe itself is periodically reabsorbed by “great dissolutions” (mahapralaya) into the primordial matrix (prakriti).” (Yoga: Immortality and Freedom)
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Coyote Tales

Yaqui: Coyote and Rabbit

ONE DAY rabbit was out on a plain eating when Coyote came up. “I am very hungry,” said Coyote. “I am going to eat you.”

“No, wait here and I will bring you a really good meal of chicken. They are cooking it over there.” Rabbit ran off toward the monte and Coyote happily waited, singing in anticipation of a fine meal. He waited a long time. At last he became angry and followed the tracks of Rabbit.

He found Rabbit in an arroyo standing by the cliff wall holding his forepaws against the cliff. “What are you doing?” asked Coyote.

“I am holding this cliff up,” said Rabbit. At that moment a little rock fell and he held the cliff up harder than ever. “Here,” he said to Coyote, “you hold it up while I go and get the food I told you about. It is almost ready.”

Coyote put his paws against the cliff, pushing desperately while Rabbit ran off. Another rock fell and Coyote pushed all the harder. He waited for a long time. He was very tired and terribly hungry. Suddenly he let go of the cliff and ran as fast as he could. Nothing happened. He followed the tracks of Rabbit.

‘Now I really am going to eat you!”

“Just sit down,” said Rabbit. “They are going to bring that food right here. They’ll be here soon.” So Coyote sat down, looking hungrily at Rabbit. Rabbit jumped up saying, “I’ll hurry them. You wait here just a minute.” He ran off. Coyote waited.

Meanwhile, Rabbit set fire all around the edges of the thicket. Then he ran back to Coyote. “Hear the cohetes?” he shouted to Coyote. “The fiesta is coming. They are bringing you a wonderful meal.” Then Rabbit ran away as fast as he could to avoid the fire. Coyote happily danced and sang as he waited for his meal. The fire soon surrounded him and he was burned up.

Shoshoni: Coyote And The Bear Cubs; The Death Of Wolf

One day Wolf said to his brother, Coyote. “I would like some seeds. I like them better than meat. Go to your aunt’s place and get some for me.” Coyote said, “We have no relatives.” Wolf said, “Yes; we have. You go over there and see.”

Coyote went out to find the seeds and met two girl cousins, two bear cubs. They looked like twins. They were gathering seeds. Coyote talked to them for a little while. Then he choked both of them; they died. He laid them side by side and covered them up with a rabbit-skin blanket. Then he started to gather seeds.

About sundown, Coyote’s aunt, Bear, came to where the girls were. She was carrying seeds. She said, “What are you doing there, sleeping at this time?” She walked over to them, and pushed and pinched them, trying to wake them up. When they didn’t move she looked under the blanket and saw that they were dead. This made her angry. She ran to Coyote and clawed all the meat off his back with her fingers. Coyote howled, “Wheeeeee.” Then he ran away.

Coyote covered his back with a blanket and went home without his seeds.

When he arrived at his home, Wolf asked for the seeds. Coyote said, “I did not see any.” Wolf, who knew everything, said “Yes, you did. Why do you cover your back? I know you killed those girls and your aunt clawed you.” Coyote admitted that this was so.

Wolf wished Coyote asleep. He had this power. Wolf then went out hunting and killed a very small fawn. He cut the meat off its back in thin strips. It was very smooth and tender. When he got home, Coyote was still curled up asleep. Wolf slipped Coyote’s blanket off and mended his back with the fawn’s back muscles. He made it smooth, just like new.

In the morning, Coyote stretched himself and felt his back. He said, “My back meat has returned. Last night it was gone and there were just bones back there, but now it has come back. It is fine and smooth!”

Wolf said to Coyote, “Now you be good. You are always fooling me. Don’t go back and bother your aunt. But, if you do, be sure to skin her and cut up all the meat and bring it home. Don’t leave any of it.”

Coyote said he would not go back, but he went nevertheless. He met Bear and cut her throat. He skinned her and cut up all the meat and wrapped it in the skin, but he forgot a piece of tripe. On the way home he remembered the tripe, and what Wolf had said about bringing all the meat home, so he went back for it. The Tripe had moved to the north. Coyote chased it but could not catch it. He asked, “What are you doing?” Tripe said, “I am well now. I am going to tell my people what you have done to my daughters.” Coyote said, “Go ahead. I am glad.”

When Coyote returned to the camp with the meat, he told Wolf he had brought it all home. Wolf said, “No you didn’t. You had better watch out. When you see your people, you will find out why.” Coyote said, “There are no people here. What is the matter?” Wolf only said, “In a few days you will see.”

In a few days Wolf said to Coyote, “Stand away from the fire and look to the north.” Coyote said, “Why should I? It is cold.” But he looked, and in the north there was a crowd of people. They looked black in the distance. There was lightning. Finally Coyote said, “It looks like people coming closer. I can see arms and legs. You look, Wolf.” Wolf would not look, but he said to Coyote, “You had better pack everything, and move away.” Coyote said, “Why should I move?”

Wolf went out to see the people coming. The men in the crowd shot Wolf and he died. Then they skinned him, and taking the skin with them they went back to the north. Coyote was afraid, but he followed their tracks until he came to a big camp. The people had made things ready for a circle dance around a fire.

Coyote didn’t dare go into the camp, but stayed on the outside, watching them. An old woman came up to him there and said, “Maybe you are Coyote.” Coyote said “What is this Coyote?” The old woman said, “He lives at Tin Mountain (i. e., Charleston Peak), Coyote said, “What is he, a bad Indian?” She said, “I think you must be Coyote.” He said, “I come from the north, but my grandfather told me about Coyote’s brother, Wolf, who lives on Tin Mountain. Have you ever heard of him?” The old woman said, “Yes, my son has killed Wolf. My people have Wolf’s hide. At sundown we will dance all night.” The old woman then told Coyote that during the dance she tended the children of the dancers. She gathered them all around her and covered them all up with Wolf’s hide. She said that was why she was crying. She told him that during the night while the children slept she, too, could dance a little, but in the morning the children would cry, “Mama, mama, come and take care of me.”

When Coyote heard this, he had an idea. He killed the old woman. He beat her and beat her and broke all her bones. He then made a little opening in her skin and pulled all the bones out and made a sack. He climbed into this sack and looked just like the old woman. He took her stick and hobbled into the camp. The children all cried, “Grandma is coming.” After sundown, the people all said, “Mama, look after the babies while we dance.”

While the people were dancing, Coyote quietly choked the children to death. He held their noses, and choked them. The people thought the children were asleep and they asked him to dance. Coyote said, “All right.” Then he jumped out of the old woman’s skin and put on Wolf’s hide. He ran out of the house shouting, “I am the man you killed,” and then fled from the camp.

The people followed him, but he ran, ran, ran, ran, and finally came to a wooded mountain. Here the people lost the track and returned home. Coyote walked back to the place where Wolf had been killed. Wolf’s carcass was all dried up and stiff like wood. Very carefully, he fitted Wolf’s skin over the carcass.

In the morning he went out to look and saw that the nose had moved a little and was slightly wet. The next morning Coyote was awakened by hearing Wolf howl. He got up to look, but found that Wolf had gone to the northeast. Wolf was alive but he was very angry.

He left Tin Mountain and never came back. That is why there are no wolves or bears on Tin Mountain now.
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The Poetry Of Love And Devotion

The whole world is a marketplace for Love,
For naught that is, from Love remains remote.
The Eternal Wisdom made all things in Love.
On Love they all depend, to Love all turn.
The earth, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars
The center of their orbit find in Love.
By Love are all bewildered, stupefied,
Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.

From each, Love demands a mystic silence.
What do all seek so earnestly? “Tis Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts,
In Love no longer “Thou” and “I” exist,
For self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine inmost soul
Behold the Friend, Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love.

– Farid ud Din Attar
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Come,
let’s scatter roses and pour wine in the glass;
we’ll shatter heaven’s roof and lay a new foundation.
If sorrow raises armies to shed the blood of lovers,
I’ll join with the wine bearer so we can overthrow them.
With a sweet string at hand, play a sweet song, my friend,
so we can clap and sing a song and lose our heads in dancing.

The sun
Won a beauty contest and became a jewel
Set upon God’s right hand.

The earth agreed to be a toe ring on the
Beloved’s foot
And has never regretted its decision.

The mountains got tired
Of sitting amongst a sleeping audience

And are now stretching their arms
Toward the Roof.

The clouds gave my soul an idea
So I pawned my gills
And rose like a winged diamond

Ever trying to be near
More love, more love
Like you.

The Mountain got tired of sitting
Amongst a snoring crowd inside of me
And rose like a rip sun
Into my eye.

My soul gave my heart a brilliant idea
So Hafiz is rising like a
Winged diamond.
– Hafiz

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You’ve no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.

What’s the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.

It’s no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.

So- I’ve brought you a mirror.

Look at yourself and remember me.

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.
Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.
Escape.
Walk out like someone suddenly born into color.
Do it now.
You’re covered with a thick cloud.
Slide out the side. Die,
and be quiet. Quiteness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.
Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.
– Rumi
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Erik Satie – Gnossienne No.5

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