HERE'S THE PITCH

Are The Gremlins Messing With Tales Of Their Origins?

Pitch — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:01:56 GMT

It's clear that the term "Gremlin" came into use during the early 20th century, even though earlier lore about the broad category of fairies includes beings with particular affinities for technology, making, and handicrafts. And it looks like the term arose somewhere in the community of British military pilots and/or those with ties to that community. The term seems first to have appeared in print in an April 1929 number of "Aeroplane" published in Malta. At first, gremlins concentrated their activities on aircraft, breaking components, interfering with good operations of vital systems, altering the equilibrium of aircraft in flight, and beglamouring or distracting the awareness of air crew. Later, gremlins extended their activities into a host of different technologies, so that we may talk about gremlins afflicting trains, bicycles, cars, ships, computers, and devices using a variety of other technologies. Later, during WWII, the term and the notion of "gremlins" was disseminated widely through popular culture mass media. Roald Dahl, having heard of "gremlins" during his early R.A.F. war service, wrote a children's story, "The Gremlins." Dahl tells of gremlins appearing first during the Battle of Britain, but clearly some pilots knew of gremlins years before then, The full text of Dahl's story with the accompanying Disney Studios artwork is available online at Roald Dahl Fans.com: http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/gremtext.php In 2006, Dark Horse Books reprinted the book. More books featuring the Dahl/Disney gremlins are on the way. http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/10-665/The-Gremlins-HC That story led to cartoon art from the Walt Disney studio, including a variety of unit insignia designs. For example, the Minnesota Civil Air Patrol had a Disney deigned patch with a gremlin as their mascot. So did the Women Airforce Service Pilots, whose patch featured the female gremlin mascot,"fifinella." http://www.incountry.us/cappatches/MN/mnwg.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots In addition, Warner Bros studio produced well-known animated cartoons featuring gremlins. Both Falling Hare (1943) and Russian Rhapsody (1944) were produced by Bob Clampett. I probably first learned of gremlins when I saw these cartoons on TV. http://www.toonopedia.com/gremlins.htm Plus, the large and active military organizations of WWII undoubtedly developed or elaborated lots of organization/office folklore all on their own. Look at the efflorescence of aircraft nose art during this period. And this Royal Air Force Journal article "The Gremlin Question" by Hubert Griffith provides plenty of information about gremlins, including a poem filled with details. http://www.angelfire.com/id/100sqn/gremlins.html About the possible origins of the term, The Online Etymological Dictionary offers: gremlin "small imaginary creature blamed for mechanical failures," oral use in R.A.F. aviators' slang from Malta, Middle East and India said to date to 1923. First printed use perhaps in poem in journal "Aeroplane" April 10, 1929; certainly in use by 1941, and popularized in World War II and picked up by Americans (e.g. "New York Times" Magazine April 11, 1943). Possibly from a dial. survival of O.E. gremman "to anger, vex" + -lin of goblin; or from Ir. gruaimin "bad-tempered little fellow." Surfer slang for "young surfer, beach trouble-maker" is from 1961. --Online Etymology Dictionary Lycos iq offers: Although today's word first emerged during World War II, evidence suggests a predecessor was in circulation among the RAF a bit earlier. In the 1920s it was used to refer to anyone saddled with a menial task but that sense never quite caught on. Charles Graves wrote in 'The Thin Blue Line' (1941) that the word referred to goblins that clambered out of Fremlin beer bottles, a popular beer among RAF pilots in India and the Middle East before World War II. Get it? Goblin + Fremlin = gremlin. No one has proposed a more convincing or authoritative explanation. --at Lycosiq beta From: http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/wotd.pl?date=2005-12-0 Yes, this Lyco iq origin is persuasive, not conclusive. There is a rare English surname, "Fremlin." They were brewers before and during WWII. According to "The Directory of UK Real Ale Breweries," Fremlins Ltd was located in Maidstone, Kent. http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/739 This page from the Royal Engineers 37 Armoured Squadron web site provides some photos of the Fremlins Brewery building, beer labels, and coasters. Fremlins featured an elephant called "Noddy" in its graphics. To my eye, there's nothing about the graphics that would inspire gremlins as they're described. http://www2.army.mod.uk/royalengineers/org/35regt/37sqn/traditions.htm Coining a new term by combining part of one that rhymes with the corresponding part of the other and maintaining the second word part is typical, a portmanteau word. "Frem" shifts to "Grem," keeping the "lin." Interestingly, "gremlin" inspired another portmanteau word which has itself become recognized in popular culture--"Femlin." The Femlin is a character used on the Party Jokes page of Playboy magazine. Femlins were created by LeRoy Neiman in 1955 when publisher/editor Hugh Hefner decided the Party Jokes page needed a visual element. The name is a portmanteau of "female" and "gremlin." They are portrayed as mischievous black and white female sprites, apparently ten to twelve inches tall, wearing only opera gloves, stockings and heels. They are usually drawn in two or three panel vignettes, interacting with various life-sized items such as shoes, jewelry, neckties, and so forth. Femlins have appeared on the Party Jokes page in every issue since their creation, and were featured on the magazine's cover numerous times, either as drawn by Neiman or in photographed tableaus which utilized sculpted clay models. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femlin So what have I got here? Gremlins were first recognized by name early in the 20th Century by British airmen as unusual beings who did things to hinder aircraft operations and flight. The term may have come from an Old English dialect survival or an Irish word. Or the term may have been coined as a portmanteau word tying together the name of a popular brewery and a diminutive. (For no particular reason, except that I like good beers, I favor this origin story.) The functions that gremlins perform, however, involving handicrafts, technology, and trick-playing reach back further into old lore. Elves, pixies, sprites, dwarves, goblins, imps, and other mythological beings took an interest in human technologies and makings. So while gremlins fiddling with aircraft strikes us as a new activity, maybe its more our human new activity that called forth the gremlins and gave us that term. And a little later, a popcult term for a sexy magazine mascot. Maybe gremlins are beings we earlier called other names.

Android Babes In Robot (Sex?!?)Toyland!

Pitch — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:28:08 GMT

Japan is fascinated by robots and robotics, and the nation is a leading manufacturer of both industrial and recreational robots. So they developed a girlfriend-who-is-a-busty-little-robot/busty-little-robot-who-is-your-girlfriend. EMA--Eternal Maiden Actualization--from Sega. http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKT8462420080618 "She's very lovable and though she's not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend." I have a few small toy robots and remote control toys (proto robots) that I got back in the 80s, when the robot craze had one of its peaks. At the time, I worked for a cutting edge comics retailer. One of my jobs was to buy Japanese robot toys--mecha figures, transforming figures, a few "cute" figures, some monster figures. I look at this little robot as continuing the Japanese fascination with recreational robots, toys that can tickle a playful fancy. Its design and repertoire of actions link up with several decades of popular culture entertainment (comics, animations) in Japan centered on robots. Plus a Japanese pop culture fascination with the theme of "cuteness." As the article suggests, these little robots are mostly aimed at fans of robot characters/toys and collectors of gadgets. Of course, the robot girlfriend also intersects the half-underground erotic robotic movement that flowered sorta in parallel to the fannish, sci-fi comic, book, toy movement. Robot girlfriends are EroBoto Action figures! HOT! NUDE! ANDROIDS! Additional links to Erotic Robots resources: Fogonazos--Fotos of robot eroticism in the movies and comics. Lots of "Forbidden Planet" plus nude girls hugging Daleks (Daleks are semi-robotic.) http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2006/12/la-ertica-del-robot_26.html Abortion, Robots, and The Labia Majora--posted on Susie Bright's Journal. Who else would know lots about Robot Erotica? Read the blog post. Click the links. Lust and learn... http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2008/02/abortion-robots.html Sorayama: Robots & Gynoids--The artist who made shiny metal babe bots so popular! http://www.sorayama.net/categories.html Real Dolls--the body part of the Erotic Robot. Awaiting the robotic works to re-animate the flesh-like doll. http://www.realdoll.com/cgi-bin/snav.rd?action=viewpage&section=frealdoll&category=dolls grafik from: blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/ automaton/robot_love.jpg

Nasty & Forbidden--Sardinian Cheese!

Pitch — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:06:40 GMT

Hey! I've always liked goat cheese, but this is X-treme!!! The story about deadliest foodstuffs is on the Forbes Traveler web site. I guess that some extreme eats types will now go to Sardinia...for the cheese! Heaven forfend that it get on the menu at the neighborhood casual dining retaurants--all your can eat forbidden cheese! ;-P <<World's Deadliest Delicacies>> Italy: CASU MARZU <<One of the world’s few illegal cheeses, Casu Marzu looks scary, has an almost un-acquirable taste and may have catastrophic, long-term health results. The Sardinian delicacy is made from rotten goat’s milk and served coursing with live maggots. If you can handle the idea and tactile sensation of eating live larvae, you’re rewarded with a strong sour taste that can reportedly stay with you all day. Unfortunately, the human body has difficulty processing maggots, and in some extreme cases the little guys bore through the small intestine, causing bleeding, vomiting and other cheerful moments.>> http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/deadliest-delicacies-slide-10.html?partner=playlist&thisSpeed=25000 Musing They're My Food Classifications--And I'm Sticking To Them! Rose, Pitch less curious about cross cultural dining experiences for cross culture's sake as he ages

Comment On Blogickal's The Holy O

Pitch — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:48:09 GMT

[I'm posting this comment here because of glitches in the comments on Blogicakal.] Even though Feri is, in principle, a sex positive Neo-Pagan Craft Trad, it is also, on the ground, a constellation of human practitioners. Some of whom are more sex-positive, some of whom are less sex-positive, any one of whom may act in a sex-positive manner one day and a sex-negative manner another day. I think that each practitioner emerges from a sex-negative culture and finds her or his way into a sex-positive realm that seems both enchanted and enchanting--because it is so different in the living of it. But this way crosses through many varied experiences and understandings and refleactions and visions. Only some, perhaps even a few, of these may grow from Feri practice. Others may come from the rough and tumble of relationships and not-relationships. Others may come from sources of guidance involving other Trads and spiritualities. And other may come from finding that your bliss is yours.

If Only There Was A Culture Left To Poach!

Pitch — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:10:56 GMT

In the little part of the world where I grew up--North San Francisco Bay Area--there was once not so long ago, maybe 150 years or so ago, some Native Americans with religions of their own, just as good--or maybe even better--than Christianity and cultures that suited the land. Groups of Coastal Miwok, Suisunes, other Patwins, and Karkins. Between the Franciscan missions, the Spanish/Mexican governors, the Gold Rush, statehood and its politics, smallpox, and good old greed for land, you'd never have a clue. The few from these small Native American groups who didn't die were shipped off or ran far from the new and European civilization. Nobody was left to ask about their indigenous religion or their indigenous culture. I couldn't have poached it, no matter how much I tried. The only Native American from my little part of the world I ever met was a bronze statue of the Suisune Chief Solano, Sem-Yato. A photograph of the statue, sculpted by William Gordon Huff, may be viewed on CaliSphere: http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb3f59n88k/?layout=metadata&brand=calisphere Solano County Seal from: http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/grass/solano/seal.gif

Is My--Or Anybody Else's--Metapantheon Cultural Poaching?

Pitch — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:16:58 GMT

Look at my blog post about Metapantheon. My personal metapantheon includes Deities and figures from quite a few pantheons. Some represent disparate historical cultures, others literary sources or pop culture upwellings or occultural discoveries. It's a true post modern assemblage, not a legacy of continuous tradition passed on to me by my ancestors. I put it together. It speaks for me. And it's probably an assemblage unique to my practice and my world view. A work of Neo-Pagan occultural art. And it's crossed my mind more than once that this sort of assemblage relies on cultural poaching. It mashes up cultural elements, subsystems, and realms that probably would not happen within the domain of any particular historical culture. Or only in the course of culture contact and acculturation. That's for the historical cultural sources. It's a little tougher for me to say that borrowing from literary sources or the heaps and harmonies and holocausts and and hordes of pop culture that englobe me across so many media and modalities is poaching much of anything. Yes, we have copyrights, trademarks, and intellectual properties by the digital millennium. But the fannish adaptation is to pay homage more than steal outright. When I get down to it, that's how I see my personal metapantheon. It's a fannish homage to the multi-layered and inter-connected culture I live in and live through and live around. It's the sort of culture where everything makes sense and nothing makes sense and this current makes sense for a moment then that impulse makes sense for another moment and this impulse is skewed from that one only they converge without dissonance over here and everybody has to believe five impossible things just to get to work. Fannish because I gotta have some enthusiasms to survive and prosper, express what inspires me and do my best to smother what alienates me. Fannish because the many ways things fall together or do not is often funny, occasionally ha-ha but more likely according to other dimensions of incongruity and contrast. Fannish because there's a continuing series of new events, issues, matters, interests, discoveries, knowledge, forms, formlessness, models, episodes, tales, lore, tunes, gossip, technologies, rules of thumb, identities, mysteries, versions, angles of view, summits, nadirs, discourses, panels, paginations, storyboards, scenes, styles, and who knows what more on the horizon or sinking beneath it. Besides, so much of the sorts of things that make up my metapantheon were already within my own culture before I was born. I didn't have to mount much bigger an expedition than to get to school, the public library, turn on the TV or the radio, listen to a folksong or a concert, walk down the street, or talk with other people to learn about most of what's in my metapantheon. Culture went global a long time ago. Culture got more global in my lifetime. If it's cultural poaching, we're all of us cultural poachers.

The Cthulhu Mythos Is Me!

Pitch — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:35:35 GMT

Ia! Ia! I took the Quiz Farm quiz: Which Cthulhu Mythos character/God are you? You scored as a Nyarlathotep You are Nyarlathotep! You are different from others in a dark way... You like to get your own way and go about getting it by manipulating people. You like to disguise your self to go about your duties and sometimes you are even mistaken for the devil..... Nyarlathotep--100% Yog-Sothoth--90% Shub Niggurath--70% Azathoth--65% Nodens--60% Hastur--55% Cthulhu--50% http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=40207N

I Will Never Imagine Ancient Egypt The Same Way Again!

Pitch — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:44:26 GMT

Over at Entertainmentwise I stumbled across this little bit of celebrity interview/publicity seeking. Honestly, I find it blissfully Pagan, nurturing of my practice, a wonderful poetic description of a deep and dark mystery, suggestive of connections with forces of life and death, and something that, 20 years ago, mostly cutting edge lesbian artitsts were daring to expose. Speaking to Allure magazine, the Underworld actress reveals: “I've only ever had about three boyfriends. Only a handful of people have seen into the Pharaoh's Tomb!" http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/40836/kate-beckinsale-my-best-feature-is-my-tw*t A tip of the beret to Kate Beckinsale, who has transformed my appreciation of Ancient Egypt. In a very good Starry Wisdom way. Even so, I still find Denise Levertov's poem "Hypocite Women" more powerful in its description, and more Pagan! "No, they are dark and wrinkled and hairy, caves of the Moon ..." http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171227 Note: grafik of Nut and Geb from KingTutOne.com

Getting Behinder The Web Worlds

Pitch — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:01:40 GMT

I like computers. I like using computers. I like that computers are now communication tools, because I also like the publish it yourself/small press movement. But I am getting so behinder the worlds of the webs. Only a few days ago did it fall together that aggregators worked for blogs. A Homer moment! Doh! So I've been adding a bunch of Pagan and Pagan friendly blogs together on an aggregator so that I could the more easily keep up on that orbit of the blogosphere. And I'm stumbling across more blogs. It's being an insubstantial concrete experience of de-cyber-ment. Trying to get less behinder and getting more...

Metapantheon

Pitch — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:18:36 GMT

Here's a term that I've used for several years in discussing Neo-Paganism and its postmodern tendencies to aggregate deities creatively and usefully from a range of disparate sources. If you're a Neo-Pagan, chances are that you work with deities or figures from more than one pantheon. These pantheons may originate with a historical culture, a literary source, or with recent and novel inspiration--Greek, Celtic, Norse, Mayan, Iroquois, Sioux, Hindu, Polynesian, Tolkien, Lovecraft, Star Wars, Harry Potter, a local landmark, peculiarities of technology and how we use it, filk, subcultures with interesting slants on the world, poetic inspiration, and a host of others. But not with each and every deity or figure from each and every one of these pantheons. Neo-Pagan practitioners (like me) collect together a small roster of individual deities and figures from several pantheons that we work with--our personal metapantheon. Mine, for instance, includes: Kali, Shiva, Ganesha, Nimue, Morgan Le Fay, Cernunnos, Lugh, Hecate, Aphrodite, Gawain, the Green Man, the Faery Queen of the Border Ballads, the Queen of Night, the Muses, Titivillus patron demon of calligraphers, Coyote, Raven, Odin the Wanderer, Hiiaka, Pele, Ku, Krishna, Radha, a bunch of local mountain spirits probably known to some Native American tribes, Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, Wile E. Coyote, figures that associate themselves for me with Devil Duckies, tree presences much like Tolkien's Ents, spirits who've found new opportunities for perplexity in the sport of mountain biking, figures something like the Shadows from Babylon 5, and some others. They all work pretty well together for me, and I expect that more will join as time goes by. I also use this term metapantheon to mean the sum total of all the pantheons Neo-Pagans work with. Or to refer to any subset of this agglomerate of pantheons that a Neo-Pagan group, trad, or organization works with.

Landscapes--A Synchroblog

Pitch — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:36:34 GMT

Over at Between Old and New Moons, Mahud has put together a synchroblog about Landscapes. Closing on 1 March, Particpants include some interesting bloggers. Take a look! http://mythology.ourgardenpath.com/2008/02/10/syncroblogging-on-mythology-anyone/

Lefty Psychedelic Spawn Of The The San Francisco Renaissance--Introduction

Pitch — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:56:56 GMT

Planning out the series of posts about how I learned magic, what led me to sink my roots deep in Neo-Pagan Craft practice, and why I participate in the world this way but not that, it became obvious that my spending teen aged years in the San Francisco Bay Area, immersed in its vibrant local culture, accounted for a lot. But that it was going to be difficult to describe. I was in the middle of these many important influences, and they were pulling me one way and another all at the same time. Plus, they were happening, and they had--and were sometimes making--history. What's more, today many of these then new and vital influences have lost their luster, been turned from their once daring origins to the ends of marketing and weary recitations of the old days. As a sort of introduction to themes and subjects that I'll return to in later posts, here's a bare bones introduction--Lefty. Psychedelic. San Francisco Renaissance. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area when I did helped make me the Neo-Pagan Craft practitioner that I am today. I am a lefty psychedelic spawn of the San Francisco Renaissance, shaped by a diversity of local and regional cultural influences that may have culminated in the 1960s and faded away by the 1980s. Strictly speaking, the San Francisco Renaissance generally refers to a group of avant garde poets active in and around San Francisco from the immediate post-WWII period through the 1960s. They were active presences in the local Bay Area culture, and their influence went beyond the poetic and literary into the overall popular culture. The San Francisco Renaissance, more broadly, encompasses a number of currents and movements in poetry, literature, music, studio and performing arts, philosophy, metaphysics, environmentalism, humanistic psychology, print and broadcast media, science and technology, cross-cultural awareness, and progressive politics. Avant garde. Innovation and experimentation in art, politics, and culture. That's what the San Francisco Renaissance meant to me. That's the seed that the San Francisco Renaissance planted in me. Make it up. Test it out. Learn from what works. Or from why it doesn't. Go on based on what you've learned. Creativity is better than reiterating received custom. Change may be better than abiding by that legacy of tradition, particularly if that legacy squelches things to retain its dominance. Wholeness is better than things, places, people in parts, and it's worth making the effort to regain wholeness and to keep it whole. Psychedelic. In the 1960s altering ordinary consciousness, often with drugs, gained in popularity. Musical forms and styles and modes of presentation came into being to sustain, or to promote, the insights and obstacles altered consciousness encountered, So did art styles, fashions, eroticism, politics, criminality, and other aspects of life style. My consciousness got altered. Lefty. The San Francisco Bay Area has a history strong in progressive politics. So does the region of the West. I thought then, and continue to think now, that a good deal of this grows from the character and the beauty of the Land. The mountains, valleys, rivers, sky, and what lives there want to be free. They want you to be just as free. Note: photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from ClipartGuide.com

Who Is Dangerous? Cthulhu? Or The MAD Nuclear Physicist Who Lives Down The Road?

Pitch — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:54:15 GMT

I grew up at one of the Cold War's ground zeroes, close by (a mile or so) a shipyard that built and repaired nuclear submarines. Compared to the multiple megatons of Soviet warheads aimed at my hometown, Cthulhu and the other Mythos entities actually didn't seem so bad--in real world destroying terms. I was more terrified of the MAD nuclear physicist who live down the road. Although he was not literally my neighbor, he did reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and was, for a long time, one of the directors of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where a great deal of nuclear weapons stuff went on, and a physics professor at UC Berkeley, home of the other, first, Lawrence National Lab. He was instrumental in the development and planning for nuclear weapons from WWII well into the 1980s. After his retirement from LLL, he moved across the bay to the Hoover Institute at Stanford. He was a local celebrity, and often appeared in Bay Area media. Informed speculation is that he was a model for the memorable character *Doctor Strangelove* from the movie about global thermonuclear war of the same name. I'm talking, of course, about Edward Teller. In my teen aged eyes, Teller became a living symbol of the crazy world view that proposed to preserve the world from nuclear holocaust by doing everything possible to be able to bring about, on less than an hour's notice, nuclear holocaust. With me and my hometown hostage to Mutually Assured (thermonuclear) Destruction. Compared to actual people like Teller, the fictional devastation of Lovecraftian entities offered a kind of bleak, cheerless, ichorous relief.They tapped into occulture/horror themes.They had a patina of verisimilitude, with their references to books locked up in libraries and a creepy New England countryside. They got into questions of cultural decadence and biological devolution.They poked around in matters of sanity vs. losing it as one's exposure to bigger/deeper/meaner occulture matters irreversibly increases. And they were heaps of fannish fun. From Lovecraft's horror stories to occulture was short step. But it felt a long way away from the land of MAD scientists. "The Official Cthulhu Mythos FAQ": http://www.necfiles.org/mythos.htm Take a look at Bruce Gottlieb's "Who Was Dr. Stangelove" at: http://www.slate.com/id/1002029/

My Only And Best Science Fiction Fan Story

Pitch — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:24:01 GMT

On 20 July 1969 in Bonny Doon CA, in the company of a number of his cats, while he talked about the event with Walter Cronkite in Florida, working as a TV commentator, I watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon on Robert Heilein's TV set at Robert Heinlein's landmark round house.

Walking Labyrinths: Learning The Art & Beginning The Practice

Pitch — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:20:07 GMT

Walking labyrinths got added to my toolkit of practice in the early 90s. The Oakland, CA, Parks and Recreation Department commissioned Alex Champion to design and build a small Cretan labyrinth in Lake Merritt Park. Lake Merritt is a large urban lake in downtown Oakland, home to the USA's first national wildlife sanctuary and first theme park, Children's Fairyland. The labyrinth, dug into the ground, was located near a grove of cork oak trees on the northern shore of the lake. The southerly view looked out over the lake into, for a city, fairly unobstructed sky. An invitation to the opening day maze walking, guided by Alex Champion himself, was posted in my local Pagan shop, Glenn Turner's Ancient Ways, and a bunch of us, including me, turned up that sunny morning to meet Champion, learn how and why he had constructed this labyrinth, and get some hints about walking it. Alex Champion turned out to be a wise, charming, insightful, earthy labyrinth maker. Although I didn't know it then, he's also one of the world's leading labyrinth designers and builders. Before he puts in one of his labyrinths, he dowses (he's a traditional dowser) for two sorts of energy lines, an kind of earth line and a Water line. He sites his labyrinths to include these lines, their intersections, and where they create eddies and vortexes. This little labyrinth at Lake Merritt certainly did. After Champion explained his siting and layout plan to us, he offered some guidance on walking the labyrinth. He suggested that we do it several times, as a group, individually, rapidly, very slowly, with eyes open, and with eyes closed. All the while paying close attention both to the movement pattern as the labyrinth wound inward, outward, and, finally, to the center. And paying close attention to the energies patterned beneath and through the labyrinth. It was remarkable to walk the labyrinth in these various ways. The effect of the pattern and the energies changed according to how rapidly or slowly we walked, according to eyes open or shut, and according to how attentive to the site and pattern we were. We could just walk the labyrinth like it was a plain old path. Or we could walk the labyrinth like it was a gateway into a different and magically illuminating realm. Over the next several years, this labyrinth in Lake Merritt became one of my regular ritual places. I'd walk it on my own whenever I could. But more tellingly, several groups I hung out with did many working there, mostly at night. Always the effects on awareness were direct and notable. And we weren't the only magically minded folks who did work there, either. This little Cretan earthwork became a city park altar. The following years, hard use, and weather took its toll on the labyrinth. The flowers atop the mounds died. The mounds get worn by many, many feet walking over them. The stone borders disappeared. The earthwork became plainer. The energy pattern remained, but the earthy pattern faded. It got more difficult to work in the place. At least as far as my working there went. I learned a lot about place and patterns in places, energies and moving within and through them from Alex Champion and from working with his little Cretan labyrinth. Maze walking has become an important skill in my overall practice. We can get to know the Earth and its wonders quite well by walking in curves, weaving ways, and circles on it, with it. Here's a link to Alex Champion's web site, Earth Symbols: http://www.earthsymbols.com/ Here's a link to a very good article on Champion and his outlook on labyrinths from SF Weekly: http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-12-01/news/a-winding-path/1 Here's a link to a site with some photos of the Lake Merritt labyrinth: http://www.sacred-land-photography.com/Champion.html And here's a link to Labyrinthos, the best overall labyrinth site: http://www.labyrinthos.net/ Note: grafik from ClipArt.com

Transcendental Experience Out Of Doors Opens The Gateway To Magic

Pitch — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:52:28 GMT

Magic Out-Of-Doors In his wrote book on nature-poor upbringings, “Last Child in the Woods,” author Richard Louv writes: “Studies show almost to a person that people with an environmental consciousness had a transcendent experience when they were kids.” Well, I sure did! Once. Twice. Ultimately, any, many times, as I got used to what being outside involved and how to get along with the little bit of nature where I found myself. Partly, I built up some skills for moving and not moving and breathing and not breathing so much and watching and listening and keeping attentive to what's happening or likely to happen around me. Partly, I felt the land and what lived on the land around me and how it moved or flowed or rose or fell or changed appearance or turned something up while I was occupied with other tasks. Partly, I learned how, sometimes, in the natural world, to shut up and listen, listen deep inside with serious quiet, the kind of quiet that goes along with awe, reverence, connectedness, vital energies, and inspiration. I loved--loved--the out-of-doors and doing things, discovering things, in nature. And I liked to imagine that nature, just a little, loved me back. Mostly in the way that nature does let you live, in spite of all the mistakes, slips, falls, failures to notice when you ought to's, and errors of judgment you make. My earliest connections to magic, to living in a magical world, to experiencing magical awareness, were forged out of doors. Almost all of them involved--powerfully and directly--other living things, not human, but not visionary or spirit-presences, either. Experiences like looking eye to eye with a real live bobcat. Like wandering through coastal redwood groves and standing within the decaying but probably still possessing a glow of life stumps of sawed down trees. Like watching a raven eat the eyeball of a dead lamb. Like trolling for salmon off the Northern California coast on a gray day and seeing, in a moment, a shark, probably a great white, appear, most of its body above the waves. then just disappear. Like being stuck very near the top of a 50-60 foot high beachside cliff, holding for dear life on to a plant, hoping its roots were tenacious enough to bear my weight until a helpful hand reached down. In my backyard grew four trees. A kumquat, a pomegranate, a fig, and an almond. In kind of a big semicircle around the edge of the yard. I learned to tell the seasons by these trees and when they fruited, from almond blossoms buzzing with bees in the Spring, through fig and kumquat in the Summer, to pomegranates around Halloween. This little tree cycle offered me a measure of time rooted in living things, different and far more fragrant and, if you liked the fruits and nuts, tasty than the conventional calendar. The Northern California coast, the surf, enthralled me. Standing on a sandy or pebbly beach, the breakers towered over my head. They crested green, blue, white. They broke and rushed in, in, up, up the beach toward me, promising to take me if they could--beautiful, beckoning, and foaming with peril. I felt the breaking waves move, and I felt them move me, way down inside, with a power and rhythm that I could not, because it was so immensely greater and beyond me, comprehend. Here, on this little patch of beach, was me. The waves breaking in the surf came from everywhere on Earth. Surf on the sandy beaches was enticing, yet dangerous. Surf on the rocky, rough coast was glorious, magnificent, inspiring, fixating of full attention--and lethal. One wave that looked so quiet in the distance, rising and falling, could rear up in a flash, high and roiling to haul you in, away, never to draw breath again. And there, in those waves, that surf, things lived. Worms, fish, sea anemones, sea plants that held fast, clams, mussels, shore birds that dived into the waves or ran along the upcoming and falling back water's edge, gleaning their prey. Wave battered, sturdy, daring life. I felt that I, and all the rest of us humans, were part of all this, but probably the most clueless part. We, after all, pillaged it. Plundered it. Polluted it. Poured our refuse and rot into it. Cared so little for it that we would only preserve it when a profit might be had. Not because we realized that all that it was and could be had value in itself. Not because we understood that we were here, part of it all, not separate and apart from Nature like we kept, crazy for the stuff that goes solely with people, telling ourselves. Some evenings, I stood on one of the beaches and watched the sun go down. On a few occasions, when conditions were right, the setting sun flashed brilliant green for a second or two. In this green flash, and from it, I sensed that here was a chance of magic, for magic. Later, I did some, and shared it. Reviewing my early transcendental experiences out of doors, it may appear that all of them were. That's not so. Most of my time passed in nature was just plain, ordinary fooling around, messing with this or that, hiking here to see a pretty place or a sit around with friends. The sort of time that, as you have more and more of it to enjoy, if only in recollection, takes you into nature from anywhere and allows you to be there. Growing older, if no wiser, I have come to realize that, while there are a number of reasons I've become a Neo-Pagan Crafter and remained one, the most important reason involves how I connected to the out of doors and what lives there and what that connection has brought me, taught me. The Earth, the planet whole and entire, lives. Living, the Earth provides energies both plain and subtle, energies that we, as living beings may access, direct, and use. We may, by learning to enhance our connectedness to the Earth, become more skillful in how we use these energies, and why, and what we do in using them. We may grow Crafty in our magic, because using these energies is, the way we see it, doing magic. And magic, in the doing and what comes after, carries us to places and to insights and to connectedness and to stillness and to lusty warmheartedness that we wouldn't suspect beforehand, but would never abandon after. Note: grafik of crashing wave from FunDraw.com http://dclips.fundraw.com/zobo500dir/johnny_automatic_crashing_wave.jpg

Still More What's My Problem Over Sharing Craft With Christianity?

Pitch — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:11:13 GMT

I begin with a simple observation--real differences exist between today's Christianity and Neo-Pagan Craft. Neo-Pagan Craft is not a movement within Christianity, but a separate movement that holds tenets other than Christian tenets, proposes spiritual insights and transformations other than those Christianity proposes, and offers ways of living on the Earth other than those Christianity offers. Even when, as is sometimes the case, the two share common ground. If such differences did not exist, then nobody from the Neo-Pagan Craft side, including me, would bother saying that he or she is not a Christian. Some Crafters, me included, have no affiliations with any Christian denomination or movement. We realize that, whatever a Christian might be, we are not Christians. We are Crafters. When I try to describe some of the differences that I note, the schema of Christianity compared with Craft is fairly simple. That's because the tenets, insights, and ways of living are fairly basic ones--monotheism vs. polytheism, sin vs not-sin, salvation vs. not-salvation, clergy vs. not-clergy, mediated experience vs. direct experience. A schema like that will not account for all the variation within Christianity or within Craft. Every Christian denomination or movement may not hold identical understandings of monotheism. Every Craft trad or movement may not hold identical understandings of polytheism. That sort of thing does not show up in my simple schema. Still, real differences between Christianity and Neo-Pagan Craft remain. Even allowing for ranges of interpretation and understanding in both Christianity and Craft. Christian polytheism--to the extent that such a notion can be discussed--does not resemble Craft polytheism. Within Craft, some trads may not hold to polytheism, but monotheism, duotheism, or non-theism. I think that my schema is correct in general, even when it does not serve well in every instance of detailed variation within Christianity and Craft. I admit that some Christian denominations and movements may share more with some Craft trads and movements, that overlaps of understanding and observance exist, and that adherents do mix and blend elements of Christianity and of Craft. And, as I've said in an earlier post, direct spiritual experience and changes it brings about may overwhelm differences in a sense of unity, oneness. Something I've noted as I've taken part in this blog carnival is that I appear to be less taken by Christianity than many of the other bloggers. My habits of practice do not overlap much with Christian ones. I don't follow Christian history, commentary, or literature closely, and don't see much there to nurture my own spirituality. I resist assimilation of Craft by Christianity. I think that assimilation happens when many small, seemingly harmless changes, once accepted, emerge as some bigger, harmful ones. So I'm suspicious of small, apparently harmless changes. In addition, I think that if or when bigger, harmful changes emerge, Neo-Pagan differences will be submerged in some sort of Christianity. That Neo-Pagan Craft is in much greater jeopardy from accumulating little changes in its subculture than Christianity is. And that I, a Neo-Pagan Craft practitioner, value the independence and uniqueness of Craft.

Another Top 10 List...

Pitch — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:52:44 GMT

Evilbible.com offers this: <<Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian>> This list sort of ricochets off several topics from the blog carnival on Paganism and Christianity. I've included one sign below. The entire list is worth a look. <<10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.>> Evilbible.com appears to be an atheist web site. The author is, if I need to say it, actively hostile to Christianity. Click on the page <<Why I Am Not A Christian>> if you're curious about what strikes the author as deceptive, double-thinking, and dissonant about Christianity. http://www.evilbible.com/Top_Ten_List.htm

Big Forests To Patches Of Trees

Pitch — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:18:35 GMT

Take a look at these four maps of tree canopy height in the eastern US from NASA's Earth Observatory. The time period encompasses 1650 to 1992. Modern data comes from satellite observations, older data is estimated from various records. You can easily see that we and our ancestors cut down and cut down and cut down the forests that used to cover the eastern US, resulting in a wide variety of ecological, climatological, and sociocultural effects. For myself, I note that between 1850 and 1920 Michigan was pretty much clear cut. I remember visiting a small state park on the Lower Peninsula that preserved the last small stand of old growth white pines. All the rest of the LP was a mix of farmland and scrubby growth that had established itself after the pine forests were extinguished. I can scarcely imagine what Michigan looked like pre-logging. But I'm sure it wasn't the Michigan that I recognized. More and more, this is what gets to me about logging and all the rest of the industrial extractive technologies we--spurred by capitalist imperatives--apply to strip the Earth of its resources. After a little while, the birth of a new generation or two--a brief span by an old-growth forest's clock--we humans simply have no idea of what the living Earth looked like unscarred. <<Tree Canopy Height from 1650 to 1992>> http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17913 Note: Lone pine grafik from: http://webclipart.about.com/od/flowers/l/bltree4.htm

Undersea Cable Breaks--A Submarine Mystery

Pitch — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:46:29 GMT

Beginning in late January 2008, several undersea communication cables have broken. Communications services between a number of nations has been interrupted or slowed down markedly. Reports vary between four and eight breaks. All the cables except one (off Malaysia) are located in the Eastern Mediterranean or in the Persian Gulf. The first explanation was that dragging ship's anchors broke the cables. But four to eight cable breaks in a matter of a couple weeks strikes me as oddly coincidental. I mean, years and years go by without news reports of any cable breaks, after all. And breaks seem to happen in areas where there has been little or no ship traffic. Of course, there could be a other explanations for this spate of undersea cable breaks. Maybe the cables are defective in some manner, and degrade fairly rapidly on the sea bottom. Maybe marine creatures are attacking or consuming the cables. Maybe a cluster of geological events broke the cables. One other explanation crossed my mind when I read reports of undersea cable breaks. Submarines, remotely contolled undersea vehicles, divers--they can break or disrupt undersea cables. Some of the stories of he US Navy/CIA's intelligence operations against Soviet undersea cables in the Pacific have been revealed. Submarines carried divers and equipment to the cables, and signal traffic was monitored or recorded. Submarines and divers returned periodically to get recordings, repair equipment, and do other things. This went on for years. Now I don't have any idea whether submarines are actually involved in this recent spate of undersea cable breaks. I don't know whether any nation's military is involved. I don't know whether some private agencies are involved. But I'm certain that several navies and private agencies could put submarines to sea and cut undersea cables if they chose to. I'm also certain that submarines could cut undersea cables without most of us knowing about it. Here's a report that summarizes all the reports of cable breaks. and speculates about some of the reasons certain nations might have done such things. <<Connecting The Many Undersea Cut Cable Dots>> by Richard Sauder Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. 4 February 2008 http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm And here's an interesting discussion of the cable breaks focused on the US Navy's *USS Jimmy Carter* SSN-23, a submarine specially built and equipped for special missions, including cable tapping, etc. At *The Galloping Beaver* blog. The US Navy, as a matter of established policy, will not tell us where at sea one of its submarines might be. We might see it dockside. And it need not be the *Jimmy Carter* that did the imagined mission. I think that most US Navy submarines could. <<Where is the USS Jimmy Carter?>> Sunday, February 03, 2008 http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2008/02/where-is-uss-jimmy-carter.html And here's another discussion, with photos of cables. (Some articles have stated that these cable are buried several meters deep beneath the sea floor, tp safeguard them from anchors, trawls, etc.) <<Unexplainable Cutting Of Internet Cables Points To Sabotage>> <<Is the undoubtedly deliberate damage to communications throughout the Middle East and Asia a warning, or something even more deadly?>> Steve Watson Infowars.net Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008 http://www.infowars.net/articles/february2008/060208Cables.htm

More What's My Problem Over Sharing Craft With Christianity?

Pitch — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:55:37 GMT

My chief concerns have to do with Neo-Paganism, and with supporting Neo-Pagan Craft as an autonomous spirituality movement. I favor sustaining the distinctive principles and qualities of Craft. In my earlier blog post, I focused on the differences between Neo-Pagan Craft tenets and philosophy and those of creedal Christianity. I think that they are different, and so different that the tenets and philosophies do not mix easily or well. That's an intellectual, discursive conclusion. My intellectual conclusion about mixing tenets, however, does not address the entirety of Christianity, nor the effects of direct mystical experiences, nor all the ways that folks mix Christianity with Craft. Coming from the Neo-Pagan Craft corner, I think that it's doable to include aspects of Christianity into a Craft practice. Neo-Paganism offers a meta-pantheon that is, in principle, complete and exhaustive. A practitioner may work with the Deity or figures from Christianity in much the same way as with Deities and figures from any other pantheon. But I still think that doing this brings along some cognitive dissonance that working with other pantheons probably doesn't. As a polytheist, monotheism in my working meta-pantheon gets scratchy. It hinders my enterprise. Christianity is such a huge cluster of denominations that an adherent can take up just about anything and still qualify as *Christian* somewhere. So, yes, an adherent could be a *Christian* and a *Witch.* An adherent could put together a framework that sheltered the two together. But it looks to me like this wouldn't work at all in any of the Creedal denominations of Christianity. And if what I'm reading in this blog carnival about some of the other denominations, which may give less weight to creeds, identifying as *Pagan* causes difficulties and rejection among some Christian-identified adherents of those denominations. Pagans are not considered adequately *serious* about the *Christianity* they also claim. There's no answer to this dilemma. Some folks feel strongly enough about holding to the values, practices, or values of these Christian (but not creedal) denominations that they put up with criticism of their sincerity and doubts over their expressed faith. My only concern in these cases--and it's a minor one--involves what compromises these folks might make vis a vis Craft in order to demonstrate that they are *real* Christians in the eyes of their critics. Taking part in this blog carnival has reminded me of another dimension where practitioners may mix up Christianity and Craft--direct mystical experiences of Deities or Guardians or entities from the Neo-Pagan meta-pantheon, or of a Deity or figures from the Christian pantheon. (It's tricky for a polytheist to talk about the monotheistic Christian pantheon, recognizing that in terms of that pantheon most entities are not the one recognized Deity but demi-deities or sanctified humans.) Mystical experiences have all sorts of revelatory, illuminating, wisdom-uncovering, profoundly connecting, or dissolving into oneness effects. In trying to convey these effects, or how they came about, or why they energize transformation, or other qualities and insights, a practitioner may turn to any means to hand. Such a means to hand may be a familiar Christian vocabulary and set of notions. Especially if that practitioner grew up around that vocabulary and set of notions, or if it was an important aspect of that practitioner's spirituality, or if it is currently an active part of that practitioner's Pagan/Christian mix. In these cases, all bet's are off. It's probably uncharitable to point out intellectual disagreements or philosophical discords when a practitioner is talking about her or hsi mystical experiences. they are putting a far more spiritual and poetic vocabulary into play, one that hints more and denotes less. They may not care at all that some term they've used to circumambulate ineffable wholeness reverberates with--in a more ordinary language--creedal Christian implications. Implications dissonant to my Crafty Neo-Pagan ears, for instance. Still, I'm concerned about even a mystical vocabulary drawing on Christian terms whose philosophical implications include references to tenets that don't mix well with Neo-Pagan Craft. Others, reading or hearing those Christian terms may not be moved by the mystical experiences that overwhelmed those implications for the practitioner who uttered them. I favor using a different vocabulary, drawing on terms from sources that don't organize around a dynamic of sin, salvation from sin, and discovering the optimum agency or salvation. It does matter what words we choose, what they denote, what they imply, and whether we believe that some words advance conversation while others stifle it.

Schrodinger's LOL Kat

Pitch — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:32:57 GMT

Quantum mechanics is peculiar. Erwin Schrodinger interpreting it hints at paradoxes that may not, deep down, be paradoxical. I don't know until I take a look. But the cosmos looks kinda blurry. LOL Katz R funie. Srodingerz LOL kat iz funie. Cn live Sroodingerz LOL kat hv cheezbrgr, pls? Cn ded Srodingerz LOL kat hv cheezbrgrz ghst, pls? There is an online Scrodinger's cat in a bowling bag--The Well-Intended But Not Quite Interactive Schrodinger's Cat--at: http://www.phobe.com/s_cat/s_cat.html I made a single observation. I saw a Live Cat! My 2 cats do not have any interest in quantum mechanics. They observe mechanical can openers and substantive food appearances in bowls. Note: grafik found on Dancing Down The Moon blog, appropriated... http://diannesylvan.typepad.com/dancing_down_the_moon/ten_things/index.html

A Poem Of Tukaram's For The Brigid In Cyberspace Poetry Festival

Pitch — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:50:30 GMT

Tukaram was a 17th Century bhakti (devotional) poet from Maharashtra. Writing in Marathi, he celebrated his devotion to one of the incarnations of Krishna, Lord Vitthoba. Tukaram rooted his devotion in everyday living and in the expression of love for one's fellow humans. He is called *Sant* for his thoroughgoing saintliness. Words are the only Jewels I possess. Words are the only Clothes that I wear. Words are the only food That sustains my life. Words are the only wealth I distribute among people. Says Tuka: Witness the Word, He is God. I worship Him With my words. --Translation by Dilip Chitre (Says Tuka) Note: translation from the Tukaram web site at: http://www.tukaram.com/english/english.asp Note: clip art of Krishna from About.com Hinduism site

3 Haiku--For The Third Annual Brigid In Cyberspace Poetry Event

Pitch — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:57:44 GMT

Across The Way Waterfall in mossy glen, rainbow in the mists-- bridge of poison tears. Night On Mt. Shasta Sea of bright stars froths and surges at mountain's crest-- nightspray stings my soul. Good Aim One slender shaft of sunshine pierces grey storm clouds-- light of the heart.

Psathyrella aquatica--Mushroom Grows In The Rogue River, Oregon

Pitch — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:31:04 GMT

In 2005, a new mushroom species called *Psathyrella aquatica* was discovered growing in the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. Nobody imagined that mushrooms grew underwater--I certainly didn't!--but there it grows! Nobody expected to find such things in Oregon, either. Living things keep on surprising us. How and where they live. We keep on not knowing all there is to know. This mushroom look so delicate, but it has to be strong and tenacious to remain anchored in a flowing river, even if it's out of the main currents. And the Rogue is a cold river fed from snow fed mountain springs. There's something deeply *faery* about this mushroom growing underwater that nobody mentioned for so long (if they noticed it). Sorta like the upside down tree. A combination of location and position that alters and emphasizes the magical powers and spiritual relationships of elements and living beings. An emblem of Earthy/Starry alchemy! More details at College of Arts & Sciences, Southern Oregon University site: http://www.sou.edu/cas/connections/index.html Photo at: http://mushroomjournal.blogspot.com/2008/01/underwater-mushroom.html Note: There are a number of sites with this photo. Some of them do not reliably come up in your browser. If the link I've provided does not, just do a search and click a few sites. You ought to get an image from one. Mushroom grafik--not the underwater one--from Clipart at About.com. Thanx!