July
  2007   

Dragonfly perched on a tomato plant stake. 

Valley Spirit   
Author  
Contact 
Home  
Purpose   
Archives  
Green Way Blog
Green Way Gallery 
Valley Spirit Center    
Cloud Hands Blog   
Valley Spirit Journal   
          
   

Websites
Spirit of Gardening 
Cloud Hands 
Cuttings: Haiku Poetry  
Green Way Research   
Zen Poetry 
    

     

July 1,  Sunday,  2007

Up at 8am.  Reading and writing.  Post to Green Way Blog. 

Finish horseshoe pit, watering, cleaning up work areas. 

"The World Is Too Much With Us"
(William Wordsworth)

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon:
The Winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. --Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Midnight Muse
http://www.midnight-muse.com/poetry.htm

This is what I believe:
That I am I.
That my soul is a dark forest.
That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.
That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing
of my known self, and then go back.
That I must have the courage to let them come and go.
(D.H. Lawrence)

The ivy falls with the Bacchanal's hair
  Over her eyebrows hiding her eyes;
The wild vine slipping down leaves bare
  Her bright breast shortening into sighs;
  The wild vine slips with the weight of its leaves,
  But the berried ivy catches and cleaves
To the limbs that glitter, the feet that scare
  The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies.
(Charles Algernon Swinburne,
from "Atalanta in Calydon")

In Roman mythology a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted as a snake. In contemporary usage, "genius loci" usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere, or a "spirit of place", rather than necessarily a guardian spirit.

Usage: "Light reveals the genius loci of a place."

Examples of this can be found at the church of St. Giles, Tockenham, Wiltshire where the genius loci is depicted as a statue in the wall of a Norman church built of Roman material.

Alexander Pope made the Genius Loci an important principle in garden and landscape design with the following lines from Epistle IV, to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington:

Consult the genius of the place in all;/That tells the waters or to rise, or fall;/Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale,/Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;/Calls in the country, catches opening glades,/Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,/Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines;/Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

Pope's verse laid the foundation for one of the most widely agreed principles of landscape architecture. This is the principle that landscape designs should always be adapted to the context in which they are located.

In the context of Modern architectural theory, genius loci has profound implications for place-making, falling within the philosophical branch of 'phenomenology'. This field of architectural discourse is explored most notably by the theorist Christian-Norberg Schulz in his book, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture.

Categories   
Search  
Archives   
Blogs     
Gardening  
T'ai Chi Ch'uan  
Qigong  
Indexes  
Photography   
Biographies  
General   
Months  
Mysticism  
Webmaster   
Mike Garofalo  
 
   

   
  

July 2,  Monday,  2007

Up at 4 am.  Reading and writing.  Post to Cloud Hands Blog. 

Work at CUESD from 7:00 - 10:00. 

Work at home on RBUESD grant application for EETT6. 

Ordered drums online. 

TFFC:  Weightlifting then teach spin for 30 minutes. 

I have heard the elders say that everything in nature has its own spirit and possesses a power beyond ours. There is no way to prove them right or wrong, though the beauty and interrelatedness of things should be evidence enough. We need not ask for shining visions as proof, or for a message from a golden deer glowing in the sky of our dreams. Above all else, we should assume that power moves in the world around us and act accordingly. If it is a myth, then spirit is within the myth and we should live by it. And if there is a commandment to follow, it is to approach all of earth-life, of which we are a part, with humility and respect.

— Richard K. Nelson

http://www.wildernessdrum.com/html/instructional_videos.html

here is something in the nature of nature, in its presentness, its seeming transience, its creative ferment and hidden potential, that corresponds very closely with the wild, or green man, in our psyches; and it is a something that disappears as soon as it is relegated to an automatic pastness, a status of merely classifiable thing, image taken then. ‘Thing’ and ‘then’ attract each other. If it is thing, it was then; if it was then, it is thing. We lack trust in the present, this moment, this actual seeing, because our culture tells us to trust only the reported back, the publicly framed, the edited, the thing set in the clearly artistic or the clearly scientific angle of perspective. One of the deepest lessons we have to learn is that nature, of its nature, resists this. It waits to be seen otherwise, in its individual presentness and from our individual presentness.

— John Fowles

There’s a different beauty of the land, a deeper and far more lively beauty, that we have largely forfeited. To know this beauty requires more than eyes alone and can’t be done at a distance. It takes legs and sweat, hard breathing and time. It requires that we approach the land on its own terms, that we enter it respectfully and yield ourselves to its presence. The beauty I mean is not prettiness or sublimity, not grace or loveliness of form necessarily, but simply the land as it is in its singular wholeness, as nature made it and is making it now. . . All of us feel some stirring for it, some twitch or flood of yearning. On film or in words like these, it fades and cheapens. Only the wild land itself can give us its full measure, and renew our love for it, and show us how it lives within ourselves.

               — John Daniel

The heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.

—Joseph Campbell

Caught up in a mass of abstractions, our attention hypnotized by a host of human-made technologies that only reflect us back to ourselves, it is all too easy for us to forget our carnal inherence in a more-than-human matrix of sensations and sensibilities. Our bodies have formed themselves in delicate reciprocity with the manifold textures, sounds, and shapes of an animate earth – our eyes have evolved in subtle interaction with other eyes, as our ears are attuned by their very structure to the howling of wolves and the honking of geese. To shut ourselves off from these other voices, to continue by our lifestyles to condemn these other sensibilities to the oblivion of extinction, is to rob our own senses of their integrity, and to rob our minds of their coherence. We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human.

—David Abram

f we are here for any good purpose at all (other than collating texts, running rivers, and learning the stars), I suspect it is to entertain the rest of nature. A gang of sexy primate clowns. All the little critters creep in close to listen when human beings are in a good mood and willing to play some tunes.

— Gary Snyder

Coming into contact with a wild animal is like this. It rips us open and brings our world into that of the animals. We feel ourselves looking back at ourselves through those wild eyes. It is as if we are the ones – covered in fur, feathers and scales – gracefully and quietly moving through wilderness. In the peak of these unusual meetings, we recognize ourselves as kin to the very animal we are beholding. There is no separation between us and them; it is the meeting of two as one that stands out prominently in our mind’s eye.

— Cass Adams

For a great tree death comes as a gradual transformation. Its vitality ebbs slowly. Even when life has abandoned it entirely it remains a majestic thing. On some hilltop a dead tree may dominate the landscape for miles around. Alone among living things it retains its character and dignity after death. Plants wither; animals disintegrate. But a dead tree may be as arresting, as filled with personality, in death as it is in life. Even in its final moments, when the massive trunk lies prone and it has moldered into a ridge covered with mosses and fungi, it arrives at a fitting and noble end. It enriches and refreshes the earth. And later, as part of other green and growing things, it rises again.

— Edwin Way Teale

Perhaps if we had the wings of an eagle, or the body of a juicy peristaltic worm, or the swift sure-footedness of a jungle panther, then meaning would merge with experience. These papery symbols would be unnecessary. But we do not. We have language and our imaginations. We live in a self-created world of symbols and interpretations. If accurate, they blend gracefully with the rhythms and fluctuations of the larger ecosystems from which they emerge. If inaccurate, this inaccuracy cascades down into the sea of troubles we are currently experiencing as ecological crises and cultural autism in our relationship to nature.

— Renee Soule

The bare vastness of the Hopi landscape emphasizes the visual impact of every plant, every rock, every arroyo. Nothing is overlooked or taken for granted. Each ant, each lizard, each lark is imbued with great value simply because the creature is there, simply because the creature is alive in a place where any life at all is precious. Stand on the mesa edge at Walpai and look west over the bare distances toward the pale blue outlines of the San Francisco peaks where the ka’tsina spirits reside. So little lies between you and the sky. So little lies between you and the earth. One look and you know that simply to survive is a great triumph, that every possible resource is needed, every possible ally – even the most humble insect or reptile. You realize you will be speaking with all of them if you intend to last out the year. Thus it is that the Hopi elders are grateful to the landscape for aiding them in their quest as spiritual people.

— Leslie Marmon Silko

What distinguishes wilderness from other environments is a wildness that is intimidating and, for that very reason, appealing to some visitors. Lose the dark, frightening, dangerous qualities, and you lose the essence of wilderness. A generation or two has been prepared to regard wilderness as a sort of paradise, a sanctuary from the stresses of civilization. This is an illusion. Wilderness has its own stresses associated with the absence of civilization. They are essential to its value. Honesty is essential. The necessary philosophy is one that emphasizes that if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the wilderness kitchen. The alternative is to have designated wilderness that is not wild and wilderness users for whom myth replaces reality.

—Roderick Nash

After sharpening the knife, I slit the deer’s skin along the whole length of its underside and down each leg to the hoof. Then I peel the soft hide away, using the blade to separate it from the muscles underneath, gradually revealing the inner perfection of the deer’s body. When the skinning is finished, I follow an orderly sequence, cutting through crisp cartilage, severing the leg joints, brisket, ribs, vertebrae, and pelvis, following the body’s own design to disarticulate bone from bone. Everything comes apart smoothly and easily, as deer becomes meat, animal becomes food, the most vital and fundamental transformation in all of living existence. There is no ugliness in it, only hands moving in concert with the beauty of the animal’s shape. While I work with the deer, it’s as if something has already begun to flow into me. I couldn’t have understood this when I was younger and had yet to experience the process of one life being passed on to another.

—Richard K. Nelson

There is a great deal of talk these days about saving the environment. We must, for the environment sustains our bodies. But as humans we also require support for our spirits, and this is what certain kinds of places provide. The catalyst that converts any physical location – any environment if you will – into a place, is the process of experiencing deeply. A place is a piece of the whole environment that has been claimed by feelings. Viewed simply as a life-support system, the earth is an environment. Viewed as a resource that sustains our humanity, the earth is a collection of places. We never speak, for example, of an environment we have known; it is always places we have known – and recall. We are homesick for places, we are reminded of places, it is the sounds and smells and sights of places which haunt us and against which we often measure our present.

— Alan Gussow

n America lately, we have been carrying on two parallel conversations: one about respecting human diversity, the other about preserving natural diversity. Unless we merge those two conversations, both will be futile. Our effort to honor human differences cannot succeed apart from our effort to honor the buzzing, blooming, bewildering variety of life on earth. All life arises from the same source, and so does all fellow feeling, whether the fellows move on two legs or four, on scaly bellies or feathered wings. If we care only for human needs, we betray the land; if we care only for the earth and its wild offspring, we betray our own kind. The profusion of creatures and cultures is the most remarkable fact about our planet, and the study and stewardship of that profusion seems to me our fundamental task.

— Scott Russell Sanders

"The first peace, which is the most important, is that
which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship,
their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that
at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center
is really everywhere, it is within each of us."

by Black Elk

True Friendship

Come to the mountain,
Where we stand,
Above a sea of clouds and soil high.

Come to the mountain ,
Where we hear,
The symphony of praise from winged musicians.

Come to the mountain,
Where heights is immeasurable:
In stillness we feel the earth move beneath our feet.

Come to the mountain,
My friend,
Where we can close our eyes and see our dreams.

Come to OUR mountain,
My sweet friend,
Where together we will speak of all we may become!

By Anne Radmacher

Home Depot shopping with Karen at night. 

"The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all
the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art."
-  William Morris

T'ai Chi Ch'uan  
Yang Style  
Sun Style  
Sword  
Staff  
Saber 
Cloud Hands 
Valley Spirit Center  
Qigong 
Links  
Chen Style   
Bagua  
Yang 24  
Sun 73 
Cloud Hands Blog   
Bibliography  
 

July 3,  Tuesday,  2007

Up at 5 am.  Work outdoors in the early morning: mowing, weeding, watering, transplanting potted plants to ground or larger posts.  Reading and writing.  Post to Green Way Blog. 

Temperatures in the upper 90's by midday. 

Researching and reading.  Working on Green Wizard's Reading List, Drumming, and Shamanism. 

TFFC:  3:30 pm Weightlifting, teach Pilates for 45 mintues, teach yoga for 75 minutes. 

Home Depot shopping and banking. 

My nephew Chris and niece Olivia spent the night.  

Another form of specific techniques is the body of work known as Shamanic Trance Postures. They take the form of certain precise bodily postures. These postures are gateways to an altered state of consciousness, and visionary experiences. This body of knowledge originates from ancient civilisations and many indigenous cultures throughout the world. Rediscovered in the 1970's by the renowned anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, these postures are a piece of living history from our heritage of spiritual tradition.

It involves holding non-strenuous, but precise physical positions together with an accompanying rhythmic sound eg. Shamanic drumming or rattling. There are a number of specific postures for divinatory purposes, for example the Nupe people in sub-Saharan Africa, use these ritual postures, and in the one that their divinatory shamans work with gives the experience of detachment and a dispassionate persepective of the question.

An Exercise - Nupe Divination Posture

Once again meditate or focus on your question, as with this work it really helps if the question is sharp, no 'ifs', 'shoulds' , 'but' and so on, get your question as razor honed as possible.

Sit on the floor, leaning toward your left and supported by your left arm. Hold your left arm rigid, with your hand at a right angle to your body. Place your left hand at a spot three to five inches to the left of your body and just behind a straight line drawn along the back of your buttocks. Bend both legs at the knees with both feet pointing to the right, positioned so that your left foot is resting just to the left of your right knee. Place your right hand on your lower left leg, where the muscle indents about halfway down your calf. Move your head slightly to the left, so you are looking over your left knee, and close your eyes.

If possible listen to a shamanic drumming or rattling tape, as this will enhance the visionary potential and makes the experience smoother, and more powerful. Allow the visionary imagery , or just simple 'knowing' to take place, when you have a sense of an answer (even if you do not understand it rationally) just gently release yourself from the posture, and come back fully into the present. If an answer is not immediately understood, incubate it, play with it, draw or paint it, this is important as the answer is not always addressed to the rational mind. Being with the imagery or vision will often lead to a deep and profound revelation.

http://www.content4reprint.com/religion-and-spirituality/shamanic-divination.htm

Howard G. Charing

Bernard S. Mason, How To Make Drums, Tomtoms & Rattles, reprinted in 1974 by Dover Publications, Inc., and is presented here with permission:

“My drum is full of mystery, full of Voices. They are heard in its deep rhythmic reverberations, these Voices, and they speak always of olden things, yet in the same breath they seem to speak of youth and more youth to come. They tell of children–millions of them in all the tomorrows, radiant, joyous, dancing–yet they seem to say, these drum Voices, that these same children must know the simple life, the romantic life of the woods; that men will live the modern life better if as children they come to know the ancient way.”

July 4,  Wednesday,  2007

Work outdoors from 5:30 am till 11:30 am.  It was 100F by noon, and it reached 111F in the afternoon.

We relaxed in the cool dark indoors all afternoon and evening.  The evaporative "swamp" cooler in the middle of the house, a gable fan, and two indoor fans help keep the indoor temperature at least 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature.  Our roof is insulated.  All the windows are shaded.  Trees and screen shading on the west side help cool the house in the afternoon. 

December 2007  
November 2007  
October 2007  
September 2007  
August 2007  
July 2007  
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007 
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007 
December 2006   
November 2006 
October 2006 
September 2006 
August 2006
July 2006  
June 2006   
May 2006    
April 2006    
March 2006    
February 2006    
January 2006   
December 2005     
November 2005  
October 2005  
September 2005   
August 2005  
July 2005   
June 2005   
May 2005   
April 2005  
March 2005  
February 2005   
2005   
2004   
2003 
Index  

July 5,  Thursday,  2007

Work outdoors from 5:30 am till 11:30 am.  It was 100F by noon. 

Grant writing from 1 - 4 pm.  Reading and writing.  Post to Green Way Blog. 

TFFC:  Teach Pilates at 4:30 for Tonya for 45 minutes, then teach yoga for 75 minutes. 

July 6,  Friday,  2007

Work outdoors in the morning, reading and writing in the hot afternoon. 

"The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapors weep their burthen to the ground.
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn."

-  Alfred North Tennyson, Tithonus

http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TITHONUS.HTML

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section5.rhtml

Immortal, Tithonus, aged and infirm, tired of the world, regrets asking his lover, Aurora, Goddess of the Dawn, to make him an immortal.  Ay me!  Ay me!   

"We come out at night. We love the night.
We know it's all downhill from here. ...."
-   Floater, "Excile"

Yes  ... 

The Druidry Handbook: Spiritual Practice Rooted in the Living Earth.   By John Michael Greer.  Forewod by Philip Carr-Gomm.  San Francisco, CA, Weiser Books, 2006.  Bibliography, index, 272 pages.  ISBN: 1578633540.   VSCL. 

Biographies    

Reginald H. Blyth  
Han Shan
Sun Lu-Tang  
Chang San-Feng  
   

July 7,  Saturday,  2007

Up before dawn.  Watering and painting.

TFFC:  Taught Tai Chi and Yoga class.

Reading in the afternoon heat.

Karen and I go into town to watch the River Rats band.  One of our yoga class participants, a teacher, Cathy, is the lead singer for the band.  She introduced me to her husband, Norm. 

July 8,  Sunday,  2007

Up at 4 am.  Writing and reading.  Watering and painting in the morning.  Grant writing in the hot afternoon indoors. 

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames--
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.
 
Robert Louis Stevenson

Birches

http://www.doorbell.net/lukes/a022396.htm

Trees as sacred also plays an important part in Greek and Roman mythology with particular trees aligned symbolically with gods; Zeus-oak, Adonis-myrrh, Daphne-laurel, Artemis-forest groves. Further motifs between Greco-Roman and the Norse can be seen with the dryads, the nymphs who live in trees and die when the tree is cut down. In Northern Europe, the Faeries who inhabit the trees, take revenge on humans who destroy their habitats. In other stories, the faeries mourn after the destruction of their home and when they die, the beauty and magical soul of the land die with them. Other parallels exist with the tree trolls of Finland and Norway. In Sweden, the swor skogsfru (wood wives) are seductive and utterly beautiful from the front. From the back, these faerie women are made of bark and are hollow as logs. In Italy, the silvane (wood women) mate with silvani (wood men) to produce the folleti, the enchanting faeries of the land. In England, brownies and pixies make their homes in oak tree roots, and each kind of tree has its own faerie to tend it and enable its growth. Men made of bark seduce young maids in the fairy tales of eastern Europe. Some of the men are dangerous, while others make tender lovers. The forest of Broceliande (now known as Paimpont) in Brittany also possesses tales that range from the benevolent to the malign.

Celtia Board - The Green Man

I created this graphic for my Druidry webpage.

Worked on Green Man webpage.

Up at 4 am.  Writing and reading in predawn hours.  Watering and painting and new projects in the early morning.  Grant writing in the hot afternoon indoors. 

TFFC: Weightlifting, then teach spin cycling class.

Grant writing at night. 

Up at 4 am.  Reading and writing. 

Joining various Yahoo groups has increased my correspondence load considerably. 
Interesting.

My Green Way Blog is really acting funning.  Parsing errors.  I wrote to Lilac Pixels to get some help.
Shit! 

Walking and taijiquan at 5:30 am.

Meet with William McCoy, Principal at Vista School, and Karin Matray at 9 am. 

Grant writing in the afternoon. 

TFFC:  Weightlifting (squats and bench presses, bicep work); teach Pilates and yoga class. 

Start taking my blood pressure. 

Reading "The Druidry Handbook" by John Michael Greer. 

Some blogs I like to read on Druidry

Walking and taijiquan at 5:30 am.  Watering, grant writing, reading. 

Take Karen to Redding. 

TFFC:  Weightlifting, teach Power Yoga. 

Get home office supplies at Staples, gas up car.  Eat dinner, grant writing, and water plants along Debbie's fence. 

“No way of doing or thinking, however ancient, can be trusted without proof”

(Walden, Henry David Thoreau). 

Deo, non Fortuna (”by God, not by chance”)

Up at 5 am.  Walking and Taijiquan at daybreak.  Watering. 

Writing grant.  No eating - fasting blood sugar test at 8 am.  Pick up Native American drum at post office. 

Return and pick up books from CSU Chico Merriam Library.  Shop in Chico. 

TFFC: 

"Many of the Anglican meditation manuals used by Druids in the early years of the Revival gave special instructions for meditating while walking in a garden or some other quiet area.  To meditate while walking, choose a route over level ground where you won't have to bend, climb stairs, duck around trees, or do anything else that will interrupt your thoughts.  A paved or gravel path in a garden is ideal.   It should lead in a circle, so that you can keep walking as long as necessary.  Walk slowly and smoothly, taking relatively small steps at a steady rhythm.  As with the seated posture, you spine should be straight without being stiff, the crown of your head level, and your eyes lowered.  Let your arms move easily and naturally at your sides."

The Druidry Handbook: Spiritual Practice Rooted in the Living Earth.   By John Michael Greer.  Forewod by Philip Carr-Gomm.  San Francisco, CA, Weiser Books, 2006.  Bibliography, index, 272 pages.  ISBN: 1578633540.   VSCL. 

Walking Meditation: Links, Bibliography, Resources, Quotes, Notes
http://www.egreenway.com/meditation/walk.htm

Up at 5 am.  Reading.  Walking and Taijiquan at dawn.  Watering plants in the garden. 

Home Depot: cement, bricks, mortar, bark mulch, wood.  Purchase two bails of hay.  Shop at Raleys.  Get car oil changed.  Clean van interior. 

Write RBUESD EETT6 grant.  This is my main focus today! 

TFFC (5-7):  Weightlifting, Kickboxing. 

Watering. 

Unraveling out of seeds,
bursting forth from Gaia's darkness,
tomatos vines and squash bushes
filled with flowers and fruits aplenty.
We dance around Chaos,
praying for life,
wanting the future,
wanting the taste on our tongues,
wanting, wanting ... Eros in our hearts. 
-  Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

"Chaos was born first and after her came Gaia
the broad-breasted, the firm seat of all
the immortals who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos,
and the misty Tartaros in the depths of the broad-pathed earth
and Eros, the fairest of the deathless gods;
he unstrings the limbs and subdues both mind
and sensible thought in the breasts of all gods and all men."
-   Hesiod, Theogony, Verses 116-122, Translation by Athanassakis.

Chaos, Gaia, Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History.  By Ralph Abraham.  San Francisco, Harper, 1994. Notes, bibliography, index, 263 pages.  ISBN: 0062500139.  
 

Up at 5am.  Walking, taijiquan and watering.

TFFC:  Teach Taijiquan and Yoga. 

Grant writing in the afternoon.

"Carl Jung, the pioneer psychoanalyst, discovered special meanings for the concept of Four in his therapeutic practice.  In dream and fantasy material, he found four to be an ordering principle in "a chaotic assortment of images."  In his numerological scheme,

one = unity
two = duality, conflict
three = union of opposites
four = completeness

Jung found triads rare and associated them with chaos.  He viewed quaternities as psychic images of wholeness, with the climax of the therapeutic process represented as the center of a cross or square.  He regarded the four as three plus one, the emergence of order from chaos, and associated this transformation with alchemy."
 

Chaos, Gaia, Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History.  By Ralph Abraham.  San Francisco, Harper, 1994. Notes, bibliography, index, 263 pages.  ISBN: 0062500139.   p. 95

 

Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind.
- Louise Nevelson

So goes the Occult, Hermetic teaching of all ages and cultures, for not only is it a case of "As above so below" but even more pointedly "as within so without" and both axioms are subsumed in the Tantric proverb, "What is here is elsewhere and what is not here is nowhere!" (Visvasara Tantra)

There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
- Pablo Picasso

I shut my eyes in order to see. -Paul Gauguin

Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.
-Pablo Picasso

Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.
-Francisco Goya

Seven Hermetic Laws

http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31456

Writing.  Walking and Taijiquan.  Watering.  Grant Writing.  Gardening.

Our love reminds us 
that faces which resemble earth 
have great green futures. 
And that our own hesitant designs 
are part of a universe’s garden,
And will echo always with that quick green  
laughter of surprise.
-   Anelle Kloski

"Myths are things that never happened, but always are."
-  Sallust

Two rattlesnakes in Oklahoma. 

"America is the Great Satan, the wounded Snake."
-  Ayatollah Khomeini 
Beware of wounded snakes, Ayatollah Whomever. 

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat
To drink there
- D. H. Lawrence

Work for CUESD.  Teaching Linda Lucero about web publishing, Acrobat, and blogs. 

TFFC:  weightlifting, teach spin cycling for 45 minutes. 

Meet with Karin at RBUESD HQ to go over grant application.

Medical appointments with Dr. Swaim and Dr. Okonski. 

TFFC:  weightlifting, teach Pilates for 45 minutes, teach yoga for 75 minutes. 

Reading ADF literature. 

I woke up this morning at 4 am.  Hard to believe, on July 18, in Red Bluff, but it was pouring rain outside.
Rain in July!!!  Rain in the summer!!  Yes!!!

Taijiquan practice, walking, reading, writing. 

The Way of harshness greeted with kindness, fear greeted with fortitude.
-  Siddhartha Gautama

"Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one." Friedrich Nietzsche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyOtxGKzo98&mode=related&search=

Amazing Grace:  Native American Flute version of "Amazing Grace" by Jay Red Eagle, and a slide show of American landscapes and historical sites. 

Odell Borg's Native American Flute Lessons

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tCU5CQ_Os&mode=related&search=

Part 2   Getting an Even Sound 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySQV_XgWa0s&mode=related&search=

Part 3   Creating Melody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn57CVBxd28&mode=related&search=

Part 4   Advanced Breath Control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gFO_d_OevE&mode=related&search=

Part 5   The Flute Fetish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy0q2iOZy5I&mode=related&search=

Ghost Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOtrYIK0jqs

Native American Flute - Wind Walker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXLg1X1WX8M

Walking and Taijiquan at daybreak.

Watering trees and shrubs from ditch water.

Go into CUESD for work in Corning.

Drop off finished grant work at RBUESD. 

Pick up Karen at Redding Airport at 4:30.  She is returning from a week's visit with our children and grandchild in Portland.  It was Katelyn Alice Flinn's 1st birthday on 7/13. 

Dinner and bookstore browsing in Redding. 

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summertime_(song)

It is widely believed that "Summertime" vies with the Beatles' "Yesterday" as one of the most often covered songs in popular music, with an estimated 2,600 different versions recorded.

Walking, Taijiquan, and watering in the early morning.  The ditch was running full force today.  We had four pumps running 9 hoses starting at 5 am. 

Finish working on EETT6 grant for CUESD.  Email final version to them and bring CD of files to HQ. 

Massage at 1:30 pm with Sally.  Nap in the afternoon. 

Reading lots of Druidry literature from OBOD, AODA, and ADF. 

"Specialization is for insects." Robert A. Heinlein

 

Recent posts by Vi, kryngletree, and JMG have mentioned the practice of martial arts (e.g., taijiquan, push hands). They also talked about conflict resolution processes, and the value of martial arts.

There are times when we need brave warriors to defend hearth and home from real enemies intent on harming our kinfolk. We may need to fight for our survival, and/or for the truly just cause.

Chinese history offers us models of Shaolin warrior monks, and Taoist scholar warriors, who were decent spiritual people who devoted the time and effort to master martial arts skills. Legendary warriors like King Arthur are still an inspiration to millions. More in my time, the brave actions by many of our American soldiers, have brought tears to my eyes. Setting aside the political arguments about where, when, and why we should fight ... I still can respect, but don't over value, the ethos of the warrior.

As for internal martial arts, like taijiquan, I think we mainly practice for exercise, learning to relax (sung) while moving, meditation, stress reduction, learning complex choreography, fun play, group friendships, cross-cultural exploration, self-discipline, beauty, succeeding in accomplishing physical-mental challenges, spiritual satisfaction, and self-defense.

I advise my Taiji students that want to learn to "fight" that they must train hard to be strong, fast, conditioned, skilled in techniques, tough, willing to hurt and be hurt, and wise enough to know when to stop fighting. Concepts like yin and yang balance, realizing nothingness, harmonizing Qi, being soft as water, etc., are not, for me, very useful explanatory or teaching models when it comes to real fighting. Most taiji players I see could not punch or kick their way out of a paper sack. They are too weak, too slow, and too timid to fight successfully. This reality, however, does not mean that Taiji does not have great value for the aspiring Taoist Scholar Warrior, or folks playing Taiji for one or more of the reasons cited above.

I may be mistaken, but the ancient Druids were not part of the warrior class/caste of their time. Likewise, Brahamans were not Kshatriyas. Buddhist Shaolin Monks could only fight in self defense, and were to avoid killing. Taoists did not highly value military men, instead praising statesmen who brought peace to the people.

Internet Archive: Text Archive

Internet Archive

Key Truths of Occult Philosophy (Paperback)
by Marc Edmund Jones (Author)

Walking and Taijiquan in the morning.

TFFC:  Teach Taijiquan and Yoga. 

If you don't pick them, the get too big to be flavorful or edible.

Pumpkins are Coming!  Pumkins are Coming!  Pumpkins are Coming! 

On this hot summer day, this bat was resting in the shade on the side of the house.  There is some dust on his furry coat.  Bats are the only mammals that fly.  Hopefully, he will move on out.  Anybody know what species of bat this is??  He is too big for a Califronia Myotis, but kind of looks like one.   

Work from daybreak till noon.  Mowing, watering, sacred circle construction project, painting. 

Relax and read in the hot afternoon. 

Exactly what I needed!  A pot at the end of the
rainbow.  Everything it was cracked up to be. 
all it was cracked up to me. 

Gardening in the morning.  Work on setting bricks in the Sacred Circle.  Painting. 
Work for CUESD for 2 hours at Maywood. 
Relax and read, and practice my flute, in the afternoon.

Talk with a nutrition expert.

Teach Pilates and Yoga.

Shop at Home Depot. 

Attend Technology workshops at STLC at Chico State from 8-5. 

Attend Technology workshops at STLC at Chico State from 8-5. 

The Full Moon in July heralds in the time of thunderstorms and the hottest days of the year, called the "dog days of summer." In ancient Egypt, the dog star, Sithor, rose with the sun the most extreme summer heat. This star was considered a second sun, which they believed added to the heat. Egyptians celebrated the "dog days" because, when the star rose with the sun, the Nile's annual flood would commence and bring life back to the land. In this time, it's easy to have short tempers and little patience. Under this Thunder Moon, you could work for patience, peace, and , or course, a cooling summer shower.
-  Damias-Vine Yahoo Group, 7/26/07

Few details = Few limitations.

I found this "map" analogy quite appealing. 

Some folks do try to convince me that everyone would best be served by following one set of directions.  There is One Way to get to ....  The Best Way to get to ...  God (i.e., Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha) has show us the Right Way to get to ...  First, many of us are not trying to get to the SAME place.  Second, there are many ways to travel to the same place, some shorter and some longer, some easy and some difficult. Third, we all know boneheads who don't bring a map and are reluctant to ask someone else for directions.  Fourth, a few of us free-spirits like to travel to places off the map.  

Many of us are less concerned with "truth" than with beauty, joyfulness, loving, happiness, and living productive lives.  Yes, truth is always an important part of a wise view of life; because ignorance, stupidity, false beliefs, and lying are frequently counter-productive, problematic, or destructive.  However, when it comes to religion - flexibility, open-mindedness, playfulness, and a tolerance for complexity are more appealing to me that those endless and tense arguments about "the truth" or "truth." 

I favor the AODA and OBND style of Druidry.  Big Mind!  Nature Lovers!  Beauty!  Respect for the Druid Revival Period.  Celtic Roots!  I also enjoy the ADF thrust into the stand up tall Druid Fellowship events, and all those Greek-Roman-Germanic-Vedic explorations; but find some of the their "Authentic Indo-European Druid" dogmatists boring.  

Someone once said, "the map is not the territory." 

Highcross Quarter.

That is the name given by witches to the four most important periods in the "wicca" calendar.

My definition of (modern/revival) Druidry is that it is not a
specific definition of truth so much as a system of finding our way
to truth. I like to compare Druidry to a map as opposed to a
specific set of directions. We are all starting from different
places. If we all used the same directions to get to truth we would
all end up in different places because we started in different
places. Druidry lets us create our own path from wherever we are to
truth. Therefore Druidry for you shouldn't be exactly the same as my
version of Druidry. All of our views of Druidry share many
commonalities but they are relative to the individual. We are all
driving a car and following a map and we all are heading towards the
same goal but we are coming from different places.
Tragyn Whitestar, AODA Group List , 7/27/07

Up at 4 am.  Reading and writing. 

Walking and taijiquan at daybreak. 

Work in garden and on home projects.  Finish 1st circle of SC.  Woodworking and painting.  Watering.

Lately, I have been reading the following books:

Ceremonial Circles: Practice, Ritual, and Renewal for Personal and Community Healing.  By Sedonia Cahill and Joshua Halpern.  Harper San Francisco, 1992.  199 pages.  ISBN: 0062501542.  VSCL. 

The Magickal Year: A Pagan Perspective on the Natural World.  By Diana Ferguson.  New York, Quality Paperback Book Club, 1996.  References, index, 224 pages.  VSCL.  

Native American Flute books and instructional manuals

http://www.egreenway.com/mediation/music.htm

The grain to harvest's cutting falls
to make the bread for banquet halls.
We'll save some seeds where life's waiting,
and plant a new field come next Spring.
We shared the work we needed to do,
and now we'll share the eating too!
Thank you, fruit, and thank you bread,
for making sure that we are fed.

The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest's sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.
-  Asleen O'Gaea, Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon

Interesting information on Tree Spirits and Tree Worship on an Asian paranormal site:

http://www.spi.com.sg/spi_files/tree_spirits/main00.htm

http://www.spi.com.sg/spi_files/tree_spirits2/main00.htm

 

Reading, writing, watering, and project work in the morning.

Teach taichi and yoga. 

Work on projects between indoor rest all day. 

Reading books on Druids. 

Work outdoors, home repairs, watering, reading, writing, staying cool indoors, listening to music, painting.

Intertwining Threads

9 Books  ....  3 suggestions. 

I focus on the North Sacramento Valley in California.  We have clay soils, a Mediterranean climate, and work in USDA Zone 9.  Here are some books we have used many times:

"Oaks of California."  By Bruce M. Pavlik, Pamela Muick, and Sharon Johnson.  Cachuma Press, 1993.  184 pages.  ISBN: 0962850519.  Nicely illustrated.  We live near a vast blue oak forest. 

"Sunset Western Garden Book."  Edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel.  Sunset Books, Revised and Updated Edition, 2007.  768 pages.  ISBN: 0376039175.  I think we own every edition of this excellent reference book.  Exploring your backyard and local area in detail are an excellent research project for an amateur naturalist.  We keep track in our Red Bluff Notebooks: http://www.gardendigest.com/rbn4.htm.

"Weeds of the West."   By Tom D. Whitson, Editor.    Authors:  Tom D. Whitson, Larry C. Burrill, Steven A. Dewey,
David W. Cudney, B.E. Nelson, Richard D. Lee, and Robert Parker.   Newark, California, The Western Society 
of Weed Science, 1992. 630 pages.   ISBN:  0941570134,   Revised in 1992.   
Excellent color photographs of all the plants described.   

9 Virtues - 1 Suggestion

Charity would not make my list of top ten virtues to practice.  Undoubtedly, generosity, kindness, and human compassion have significant practice value - when returned to us, tit for tat.  I know that Christians like to make much of "charity" in sermons, and they influenced the Druid Revival movement somewhat.  Nevertheless, an overrated virtue, seldom practiced beyond charity at home, and/or for one's favorite hobbies and projects.  People like Mother Theresa are touted as "Saints;' while most of us ignore that Catholic hype.  Most of us work for a living, appreciate a helping hand, give a helping hand on occasion, and spend most of our time cultivating other virtues. 

My favorite charities - a coworker in need of help; a university or humanistic school that cultivates and grows minds; helping people help themselves; and,  random acts of kindness. 

An interesting topic is the role of "charity" in the Neo-Pagan and Druid virtues.  The older Druid Revivalists and Freemasons always had some outreach efforts for charities, benevolent societies, and helping fellow followers.  However, correct me if I am mistaken, but charity is not usually listed among the Pagan virtues to cultivate.  The ADF lists 9 virtues: wisdom, piety, vision, courage, integrity, perseverance, hospitality, moderation and fertility.  AODA would probably ditto the ADF's: piety, vision, wisdom, fertility (ecology, producing food, arts).  I don't know which Gwer of the OBOD discusses the topic.  Overall, I think a Druid would place Work (i.e., Effort, Diligence, Perseverance, Determination, Duty) over charity.   Maybe my own Germanic heritage is unconsciously filtering my views on this matter. 

Maybe those Druids who are sitting on their butts are just hard working folks taking a well deserved rest; who appreciate a helping hand, and give a helping hand on occasion; and spend most of their free time cultivating more important virtues than charity.

 OBND, I'm sure, would give us a list of virtues in, say, Gwer #15 - I just don't have the extra $400 right now to find out.  Does charity make these lists?     

Simple Radio - Complex Programming

Whether simple mini-watt locals or complex mega-watt national networks, the bottom line is still creating and producing content.  Most people can't do a good 1 hour podcast every month.   What are we going to say?  Think of all the teamwork and money it takes to bring us Prairie Home Companion once a week on NPR.  All kinds of Web 2.0 communication tools exist now, that few can use very effectively. 

Divination

Science, technology, media, medicine, business, and government have all developed complex and effective tools for predicting the future.  Statistics, computer models, probability theory, and numerous predictive tools abound ... and people are willing to wager millions of dollars on the predictions of these tools.  Of course the future can be "known" now, planned for, scheduled, targeted.  Who needs the Tarot to see into the future when science and technology are more useful?  I do - for beauty, for inspiration, for thinking outside the box, for stimulating new non-rational modes of consciousness, for fun, for fuzzy logic, for guessing, for helping others, for wondering ...  It would be quite valuable aside from really being able to "see into the future."  I like to think in terms of "maybes" because of free wills, group dynamics, accidents, and death. 

I now use the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless, and the Thoth Tarot by Aliester Crowley.  I've used various Tarot decks and books since 1975.  Tarot is well worth the investment.   It is the talking that makes the reading. 

Druidry on UTube

The video links were really worth viewing.  Very interesting.  I ought to gather and organize these links on one webpage.  There are probably some interesting podcasts on the subject.  Good stuff!

Druidry as Religion or Initiatory Tradition

A a zen teacher once said:  It is the first and the second, not the first, not the second, and neither.  Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both.  I hope it is more than either.  Overall, I see it as being a way of living, a lifestyle. 

ADF and AODA ritual reminds me of my Catholic school days - tolerable, lovely, charming, sometimes inspiring.   I'm ancy ( I wonder why?)  about the white robes and hoods - seems like Druids would favor green, no matter what an ancient Greeks or Romans wrote about their dress.

I like the non-dogmatic and non-authoritarian style in Druidry - which is NOT a quality of most organized religions I've seen in America.  RDA and Discordians carried intellectual freedom to the edge.  Druids, thank the Goddess, don't carry around "The Book" (Bible, Koran) in their hands - what a relief.  We can respect and benefit from the words of our Kindred of Yore and The Shining Ones, but these words and deeds are not 100 pound stones chained to our heads that we must drag around all the time to express our piety. 

Something to Consider:  The Pot at the End of the Rainbow

Take a look:  http://www.egreenway.com/vsjournal/images/rainbow.jpg

Rising Rattlesnakes

Cute little furry bats ...  We see bats flying around at dusk, eating their own weight in, hopefully, mosquitoes over the pond.  

Yes, I think the rattlesnakes were mating when the walker interrupted their frisson.   I'd damn well hiss then too.  But, who, excepting herpetologists, can love those scaly, cold-blooded creatures, with fangs the size of manly fingers?  Gulp, yikes ... I'm outta here muy pronto.  I favor the macho of snakes, working with what they have, like Lugh with his long spear ready to defend hearth and home ... don't tread on me!  Afterwards, Lugh puts down his spear, recites a poem, carves a wood statue, lights the small campfire on August 1st, and then sneaks off to The Lady's Bed for some joyful merrymaking. 

Cheers Druids,

Mike     

Work in the morning on outdoor projects and home repairs, watering, mowing.

Work for CUESD for 3 hours. 

Teach spin class.

Watering, reading, and writing at night.

Pulling Onions:

As I mow, some birds think of eating bugs.

Fortunately, creeds and dogmas don't help you become a good gardener.

By the time you peel off five layers of reality, it's hard to recall the first. 

I tend the Valley Spirit Garden.  Does your garden have a name?

Shoveling dirt, the ecstasy sweated away.

The seed is the plan; earth, sun, air and water execute the plan.

We make a garden for food, medicine, and wellbeing.

It is best to shut one's mouth in face of the sacred.

Religion is intimate with awe, anxiety, fear, danger, and death.

The Sacred Circle is the Seasons. 

When we think of the fifth fact, we have forgotten the first. 

History has its own history.   

The inner world mirrors the outer world, the laws of life apply to both.

-  Pulling Onions, by Mike Garofalo

Work on sacred circle, watering, and projects in the cool morning. 

Reading, writing, playing flute and relaxing in heat of day.

Meet with Dr. Plett in the afternoon.

TFFC: Teach pilates and yoga classes. 

Reading and music making at night. 

Feedback from Readers in July, 2007:

"Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Remember me to one who lives there,
For she once she was a true love of mine.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
Without any seam or fine needle work,
And then she'll be a true love of mine.

Choose when you can an acre of land
As every plant grows merry in time
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
And then you shall be a true love of mine.

Plough it up with an old ram's horn,
As every plant grows merry in time
Sow it all over with one grain of corn
And then you shall be a true love of mine."
-  Pagan Library of Poetry and Song
http://www.paganlibrary.com/music_poetry/scarborough_fair.php

Feedback from Readers:

July 2007
http://www.egreenway.com/vsjournal/z200707.htm#Feedback

June 2007
http://www.egreenway.com/vsjournal/z200706.htm#Feedback

May 2007
http://www.egreenway.com/vsjournal/z200705.htm#Feedback

April 2007
http://www.egreenway.com/vsjournal/z200704.htm#Feedback

Awards and Positive Feedback for the Spirit of Gardening Website
http://www.gardendigest.com/awards.htm

Awards and Positive Feedback for the Cloud Hands Website
http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/kudos.htm