Dances with wolverines

Its New Year gone and I don’t think the planet noticed.

This said I also wonder what people actually notice at all. You see I have just had three days Summer Holiday and enjoyed the delights of the Eastern Coast of our Island in glorious Summer garb.

It matters not if you believe in God or Gods, but perhaps I do think part of the journey is seeing the world through the eyes of our ancestors, through the eyes of an inhabitant of a rolling ball of earth in an infinite sea of space, an intellectually, spiritually aware soul. To see the world through eyes that can marvel at the magic of a sun set, fully aware of the detail, equally aware of the beauty, the transience of a moment in time ans space, unique to that world,that space, that time, that revelation. In this way one can perceive how the aspects of Thunder Gods, Weather Gods, Nature Spirits, of Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and so on could be seen in the landscape by our ancestors. If you do this, then imagine the power of a Thunderstorm. A 1953 study found that the average thunderstorm over several hours expends enough energy to equal 50 A-bombs of the type that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during World War Two. Consider the complexity of storm patterns. Thunderstorms may line up in a series or rain-band, known as a squall line. Strong or severe thunderstorms may rotate, known as supercells. While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that they occupy. Vertical wind shear causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to the wind shear direction. Thunderstorms recreate, have complex electrical circuitry and form beyond this global weather patterns. They interact through wind and weather systems into a global network. This may or may not be a living thing but it looks like it .

Extreme complex systems that are not entirely understood run the earths central core that is as hot as the Sun. The temperature of the inner core can be estimated by considering both the theoretical and the experimentally demonstrated constraints on the melting temperature of impure iron at the pressure which iron is under at the boundary of the inner core (about 330 GPa). These considerations suggest that its temperature is about 5,700 K (5,430 °C; 9,800 °F), (wikipedia). This system generating the planets magnetic field not only protects all life on the planet but interacts with all life on the planet in ways that are not entirely understood either.

I am not hypothising that these systems are Gods, any more than suggesting that Man is God because he would be perceived as such by lesser folk; small mammals and politicians for example. But I do believe in the understanding of the enormity of what in the Universe are such tiny things one can grasp the impossibility of  rationalising all things. If rational thought struggles with making sense of the arts and yet these things are often the images that make the most sense to us, why then should we not explore the emotional experiences of beauty in science? After all mans artistic endevours are the symbols of our own reality. The arts are a creative urge of self expression and it is certain that the Universe creates, evolves, destroys, and recreates as any human or living being does. Is this Universe therefore Sentient? Well, my answer is two fold, if it where we could not comprehend its intelligence, and secondly does it matter? The point is can we appreciate the beauty and the possibility of the Gods ?

For me Happy New to the Gods, may you long be a conundrum, may we long have experiences that we identify with you, however they may be.

Gods Bless and Bless the Gods

Wild Bill

I have for a long time sat on my work to send to the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids because I am reluctant to complete a qualification that seemed to signify an ending rather than a continued journey. This also I felt signaled some need in me to call myself something other than just to be. However requests from fellow travelers for me to run workshops, help in their studies, work in healing, divination, public speaking and so on has made me realise that I need to demonstrate that I have worked through a formal form of study. This as well as the work of a journey man has encouraged me to complete my work.

The interesting thing has been that I have been putting something off, now that I have begun working on the documentation of my journey, this was most pleasurable.  How often do we suffer because of our own frustrations by simple procrastination?  Is this not also true of working to master; meditation, magic, healing, divination, public speaking, tools of craft or other things that in us are important to complete, we then stand back awaiting the motivation or inclination to do so?  In my case I was letting my perceptions of what others may or may not believe affect my own actions rather than completing something for its own sake.

This does not for me now mean that I need a title, simply that I have found surprising relief in taking action to complete something for its own sake and enjoying the process in my own time and celebrating what I have learnt along the way. Although I still feel that the more one learns the more one realises how little one knows.  A good friend used to remind me an expert was made up of two words. Ex meaning “in the past” and “spurt is a drip under pressure” perhaps I am both these things in the end. For all beginnings are already in the past and the Journey Person is always the Tarots fool stepping blindly in faith on a journey into the unknowable. The journey is about smelling the flowers and you only get to do that if you constantly begin the journey again and again.

Lots of laughter to all fellow travellers

The game of life is to play. Nature is magical for it does not ask permission to play. It is not aware and does not question its own nature. When we become “civilized, we seek permission to behave before we act, because we need to normalise our behaviour. Sad is it not that we need to ask permission so we normalize our actions to make others comfortable?

I don’t propose destructive behaviour just because we can, animals seldom do this because it is indeed destructive and therefore to be avoided. However neither do they ask permission to dance, sing, fish, swim, sleep, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy food, water, air, smells, touch of things about them. They celebrate every moment blissful in not knowing it can end at any moment, full in enjoying it.

We have the benfit of consciously being able to create and formulate ideas, make things and be creative, and the advantage of knowing life in this world at least is finite. Yet we are tied by constraints from within and without.

My reminder today is dance: to the earth, the sun, the moon, the rain your lover, your passions, and be the maker of change.

Wild Bill

In my “Shamannic” way life and the world is about seasons.

A dear friend and I solve the problems of the world and ask the what if questions over coffee on most Sunday mornings . In these discussions he and I with a mutual passion for history ask, what might have happenned had one small thing or two been changed, or what might have been a better choice, or look at alternative histories.  He as a Professor of History and my self as myself .  He would argue my passion for things in life makes me a student of history and for that compliment I am greatful.  It is interesting when look at times past that we percieve there was indeed specific times in history but history is never still.  It is a timeline and in fact millions of time lines from millions of view points at any moment and from many parts of globe and cultural and personal perceptions.. None more true than another simply perceptions, all equally valid, and interesting. 

So when in history would be your Eutopia? Is this  really a  Eutopia or do we create our own Eutopia?

The seasons are similar. In our small country  there were many distinctive weather systems, summer sun rain, high winds, calm humid days and even snow at high alltitudes early in the week in the mountains. These are all Summer , in fact for me the joy of life is the weathers constant change. Like Cunstable and Turner I am passionate about the changing sky.

In my spiritual way one could call on any of these energies to bring peace, harmony and healing or other emotions or energies at any time, as indeed one could/can from the energies of past and future.

The challenge is to celebrate life and connect with is landscape in this one can find oneself and also reflect these things to bring joy and pleasure health wealth and contenment in others, this may be all a perception too .  However somehow being creative is also about being part of the Universe and part of being Human.  Perhaps this is service…..

Love and Laughter and of course Change

AP

Did you know wolverines are native to Europe? Strangely, they are largely known only in North America. They are also known in the shamanic tradition as a powerful spiritual totem associated with the energies of Loki, The Trickster, and change. For myself, the powers of change and the transience of power and magic are exemplified in the wolverine.