The Archetype of the Troubadour ... is Alive and Well ... all Over the World

... which is more than can be said for some 'archeypes' treated in modern movies and television shows.

Barry McGuire and John York

A few evenings ago I was watching PBS and caught Barry McGuire (with John York of the storied career, includig The Byrds) singing Eve of Destruction. And I thought to myself, since I wasn't thinking to anyone else at that moment, that the archetype of the 'troubadour' is alive and well. Which is a good thing. There are tens of thousands of troubadours singing all over the world, it just happened to be Barry McGuire that pulled at my reflective mind.

The health of our archetypes - i.e. how we treat and dress and give voice to archetypes in our cultural media consumables - is imortant to our health. Degrade our archetypes and we degrade our culture. Which in turn makes us less than what we could be. Since it is our archetypes that inspire and instruct (both of these) us that we are and can be 'bigger' than any of our 'ordinary' moments.

Boy, he has sung that song across a lot of Time, relative to how lasting, across Time, human beings can be.

A Bit of Recent History on the Medieval European Troubadours

"Astonishing in their diversity and grace, the circa four thousand poems of the Occitanian and Catalan troubadours survive by the foresight of a few enlightened patrons who, sensing the end of an epoch, began amassing these precious works in large manuscript codices. Yet the medieval hour was late; poems that had been sung for generations were collected and transcribed at the very end of their general currency in society. And only two hundred or so melodies (preserved in what degree of exactitude?) were ever written down at all."

Joel Cohen's liner notes to Lo Gai Saber: Troubadours et Jongleurs 1100 - 1300, 1991.

You can read more about this recording here.

New Archetypes are not Created

Of course, there were troubadours all over the world before the term was invented in the Middle Ages in Occitania. Then it was largely about 'love' - Divine and of this human plane. I include songs of activism in the troubadour archetype. The 60s and 70s were a rich time for troubadours. The 80s and 90s not so much. But ... the archetype is alive and well today. Hooray! Just as they love love, so we do, and must, love them.

There are no new archetypes created. (Just as there are no new spiritual teachings.) Yes, we can dress and disguise our archetypes, and so empower or disempower them, in the guises of our time and place and the persons around us. To degrade them for entertainment's purposes only is to lose them. To lose them is to lose part of what we are and part of what we can be.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Nora the Piano Cat ... Accompanied by Me Thinking About Animal Sentience

All of us are travelling an evolutionary arc, individually and As One. Many of us don't really know what we believe about many aspects of the fragment of the Universe that we live within. An inquiring mind is a normally functioning mind. For writers of fiction it's important to get to know our own inquiring mind. What do we really believe about this and that? I mean really believe.

Contemplation. Reflection. Hope. Dedication. Resolve. Planning. Intent. Creation ... What do we know about the sentience of some animal species? Elephants, whales, dolphins, horses, dogs ... littleCats? Really, not many of us know very much at all. If you are a writer of stories and your stories include animals as characters - important characters, minor characters, background charactors, it doesn't really matter - then you do need to be clear about what you believe about animals and their consciousness, before you write about them. In this way you can be true to you the artist.

... And So To Nora the Piano Cat

I've been thinking about Nora the cat a lot recently. (Full disclosure: I love Nora!) Nora 'plays the piano'. Which opens the question - are some animals artists? I have blogged about animals as artists.

And I particularly love Nora playing in a piece specially commissioned for her by the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, conductor and composer Mindaugas Piecaitis.

What if ... It's a Creation through Interaction?

Coming to know another species' sentience is complex and subtle. Legends tell us about the sentience of other species, other beings. So do fables and parables, teaching stories and true-life stories. So many. So, so many. So many stories. So many animals.

Honoring more full disclusure ... I have two cats here and now, and have had the privilege to have been the 'owner' of many cats over the years. With every one of these littleCats that came to share their life with me I saw an emergence of sentience. Not just a growth in relationship ... but a growth in sentience.

What if ... animal sentience in a littleCat, say, is partly created interactively by me and the littleCat together, and is not 'just there'? In which case ... if this is the case ... then ... what happens to me? For, surely, if the littleCat is growing in sentience then ... 'something' will be happening to me also. Right?

Reuben was His Name

By the way ... I once had a littleCat who wanted to play the piano. He was an older cat. Long life lived so not much of 'Time' left to him to live. I watched him tentatively jump up onto my piano stool and reach with a forepaw and touch the keys and make sound. Several times. Each time I saw him do this I felt in that space of reverant resonace within me a sense his 'intent to aspire'. Reuben was his name. 'Death' is not the end of the thread of life that each of us is. Thus 'aspiring' to be 'more' is evolutionary within the arc.

I never encouraged him or mentored him. I think now I should have. Reuben was the littleCat who also shared with me one of his dreams. I 'dreamt' it, but it was his. The shapes were 'spikey'. The colors were 'different'. As was the dance of movements together. Other littleCats, indeed all of them, have taught me the privilege of loving. Not the privilege of being loved ... but the privilege of giving love, of loving. That is a great teaching to be Given.

Whales ... and Crickets ...

Thousands of composers integrate songs of animals, and of Mother Nature Herself, into their compositions. Whale songs are pervasively popular. My favorite is Ocean Odyssey by Adam Goddard. Robbie Robertson, the great American musician and composer of Mowhawk heritage has slowed-down crickets on a track called Twisted Hair on his album Music for the Native Americans. You can listen to that below. His Facebook page explains a little of what was done to integrate the choir of the crickets - "... the crickets were recorded and pitched down/slowed down. Native American opera singer Bonnie Jo Hunt accompanies Robbie and the crickets."

And Back to Writers

Right now I have some characters who are animals come to visit me or find me. And so I have been thinking about animals and their sentience. For, I want the voice that I give them to be true to the story that came to find me.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

The Bay Psalm Book ... and Ends of Eras for New First Editions, and More

The End and the Future ...

On Tuesday a copy of the Bay Psalm Book was auctioned for $14.2 million. This is a new world record for any printed book. This little book (it is little) was the first book printed in what was to become the United States. It was published in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts - so soon after the Plymouth colony was established in Massachusetts in 1620. The print run was about 1700 copies. Only 11 copies survive in the world. It's full title is - The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. With a subtitle of - Whereunto is prefixed a discourse declaring not only the lawfullnes, but also the necessity of the heavenly Ordinance of singing Scripture Psalmes in the Churches of God. [all sics apply]

So Many Evolutionary Arcs

And then ... my mind began to 'think'. And so 'I' went along with it. (Why not?) It seems to me that the end of an era has already happened. I doubt that any 'first editions' of fiction published from today onwards will ever be sold at any auction for any price.

Works of fiction, stories, have travelled a long arc in how they are transmitted from the inspired (or not) author to the consciousness of the one being storyTold to. First there was oral transmission (and of course memory) only, to both storytellers and those being Told to ... and then handwritten script given to printers (oh what fun that iterative cycle must have been - just ask James Joyce!) ... and then we story creators had typewriters (hooray!) for both ourselves and those who typed for us ... then word processing (cool and now ubiquitous and taken-for-normal) ... publication outside 'paper' begins with audio and fiction on the early web ... then we have voice recognition on the input side ... and, on the production side digital books (and some digital books are digital-only, so the concept of 'first edition' is truly conceptually gone (going, going, gone, gone, gone)) ... and let's factor in that 'stories' were originally told (only told) ... and then told or read ... and then told, read or watched/viewed (bearing in mind that most of the latter stories have never been available in told or written formats) ...

... so ... what does the future bring? Virtual reality stories? May be. Where the experience will be storyLived as opposed to storyTold to. And then we will have joint creation, between the story receiver in the virtual world and the creators of the virtual world. Games are the joint creation of a story, because they are the creation of an outcome. We already have shared authorship of novels - especially in the SF/Fantasy realm. And, of course, multi-participent games create stories jointly. StorySourcing is bound to come, for some, if it has not already - an interative play on the games I played as a youngster where we would (drink) and write a line and pass it on to the next in the round at the party. Hah! That was fun at the time!

Story, Daydreams, and Culture

And steady state in all of this is Story itself and our 'need' for Story and stories. Just as mammal biology needs breath ... so consciousness (it seems) needs ... stories.

There are billions of stories told by ourselves to ourselves together, collectively, on Mother EAerth every hour. They are often called 'daydreams'. Because they never 'happen'. And the collective of daydreams, growing exponentially, is only one layer in the collective consciousness of thoughts that encircle us. Just as there is an atmosphere that is breathed ... so ... there is an aether (to deliberately choose to use an old-fashioned word for technical reasons) that is 'received' by each of us.

Once upon a time, long gone, stories were planted upon Mother EAerth to serve a purpose. The 'template' of Story was also planted. By Seeders and Caretakers. We do need to be careful of our consumption of Story. For, like all food and drink, we need to be careful of what we consume. Artificial ingredients create bad health. Consuming too much 'bad' food/Story causes ...

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

The Bridge - The Landfill Harmonic and the Irresistability of Creating

Music and the love of music does not necessarily by iteslf change personal issues of poverty or health (acknowledging the many exceptions that are shamanic and miraculous, where it does). But it does change consciousness. Watching people create is inspiring to us all for we are all innately, intrinsically, and Divinely (since we are all of the Divine) creative.

... and so to the Landfill Harmonic. ... once upon a time (in our time) ...

It has a name. Some might fnd that strange. But then, we name everything ... that we need to share or think about. So ... it is named Cateura, this place where creativity and creation bloom in the most unexpected place (on Earth). Cateura is Paraguay's largest landfill.

Luis Szaran, Director of 'Sonidos de la Tierra', was called (inspired) to a mission. He took his love of music and his understanding of what music gives to the children of Cateura.

So Many Children ... So Few Instruments

In the beginning there were only five violins and fifty children ... and so some talented and huge-hearted people began to make instruments from the garbage sent to Cateura. As one lad says ...

"The cello is made from an oil can and wood that was thrown away in the garbage. The pegs are made out of an old tool used to tenderize beef, and this was used to make gnocchi."

And it sounds beautiful ... since it is heartfully played.

These children know (truly know) what they are doing.

"For me, the music is the smile of the soul. ... I love it because you can convey everything with it. You can tell if you're angry, if you're happy, if you're sad, if you're in love. ... As Maestro Szaran says, we need to make intelligence hip, instead of clothes and cell phones."

Landfill Harmonic on Tour

... and here are these young people telling their story through playing orchestral music. And also telling the bigger story of the Bridge - the relationship to 'inspiration' - that we all have as our birthright, regardless of whether we dance with that partner-in-Existence or not.

The Bridge is Always Open

'Bridge' is the core concept, the core understanding. The Bridge is not especially/particularly an 'archetype'. Rather, and simply, it is a basic fact of life. The Bridge is a way, from 'Inspiration' (whatever you may want to call it, and define it to yourself) to each of us. The Bridge is always open. It is our end of the Bridge that is often not. Locally closed, one might say. There are a million ways for us to open to our end of the bridge. But the way of ways is simply to surrender to our desire to 'create'. Yes, there may be quieting down needed from us, and a learning to 'listen' to the choir that sings to us, unceasingly, from the other side of the Bridge.

What is true about music, as above, is also true of writing. This is the way it is and there is no other way.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Musicians Who Paint - Herb Alpert

Once upon a lo-ong time ago I was a musician. Once upon a time yet to come ... I will be an abstract painter. (As for "why abstract painting" ... it's a lo-ong story ... all to do with acknowledging that the universe that we 'see' is painted by biological perceptive organs and in its 'isness' it bears no relation to what we 'see' ... 'abstract' painting is one way to honor this Divine fact.)

This weekend just past there was a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal on Herb Alpert, who started painting in 1970, and his art.

Just fascinating ... and there was a gorgeous photo of his studio, by Annie Tritt, showing some of his paintings using organic coffee on gesso. You can read more on Herb Alpert's website here.

The Artist At Work - Honesty

Albert talks about his work on this video featured on Vimeo. (permissions don't let me embed it here - you will have to click to Vimeo to view.)

"There's a running thread to all good artists and it's 'honesty'. ... I don't have a goal in mind apart from form. I'm looking for that form that touches me. It's a real mystical art form. There's someting that feeds me internally. ... This sounds a little mysterious. There's a voice in me that tells me what to do. It definitely tells me when to stop and when to keep going."

For those who love watching artists actually at work there is a wonderful scene of him making one of his organic coffee on gesso paintings, pouring coffee on the canvas (beginning 5.23).

Oneness vs. Poverty Consciousness

Creation is a oneness thing. Music ... painting ... writing. All art forms aim and intend to manifest into our world something that was not manifest before. And the only thing worth creating is that which is from your own truth. Forcing yourself to copy or emulate - "otherwise I won't make it!" - is poverty consciousness. Honesty ... to the life that life that we have been Given.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

What Did It Sound Like? - To Play the Oldest Known Music Notation in the World

As a writer of stories, long and short, in the genre of historical fantasy I am fascinated by all the facets I need to create a world for my characters which seduces my readers. And more ... which bedazzles and successfully invites them inside. One of these facets is music. Music is integral to the world in my novel Alba - not only is it integral, it is a 'shamanic' doorway. Thus essential.

The oldest currently-known notated music in the world (or, this set of civilizations upon the breast of Mother EAerth) comes from Ugarit, on the coast of present-day Syria, and is dated around 1400 BCE. Acknowledging that there may well be older music currently played, today and even tomorrow, that was transmitted by lineage of teacher/pupil learning ... This music, known today as the Hurrian songs, was inscribed onto clay tablets. What has so far been discovered is incomplete - clay is a fragle material.

What did it sound like?

Well ... here would be no elements of today. No technobeats ... no sampling ... no overdubbing and multi-tracking ... no electronic instruments. The 'true' tones of Western music not at all necessary. Voices and ... handsonics ... and ... reeds, strings, skins and metals, No recordings. No greatest hits. No accompanying twerking (I strongly intuit/suspect, but cannot be certain). Optional hotpants very unlikely.

What did it sound like?

Well ... we will never know. But that does not stop us from enjoying the joyful wonder of the fact that way back then, in that tribe, musicians composed and notated their music so that is could be shared and so that it could endure, at least for as long as the culture did endure.

Malek Jandali

There are some inspirational extrapolations from these Hurrian songs. The Syrian-born Malek Jandali has an album called Echoes from Ugarit released a couple of years ago written for piano and Western orchestra.

Why is this important to writers?

Why is this important?

Well ... It is important to be able to access a state of 'personal' wonder about this creation upon this planet and these experiences that 'we' have. It is right and natural to have wonder about these ancient civilizations - that in the galactic scheme of time are just the last heartbeat away. A sense of wonder is natural. A lack of a sense of wonder is not.

Why is this important to writers?

Music is a huge part of every culture, down through all of 'history'. Sure, we can all write stories that don't need the facet of music to create the world in which the story takes place. However, for myself, the more I want to incorporate the essence of a culture in a story setting the more likely I will introduce music into that world. Of course, if I want to introduce any facet that is the slightest 'shamanic' then I likely need music.

For writers of historical fantasy and historical fiction it depends how far back in time you are setting your story. If you have gone back as far as the Baroque Period - 1600-1750, or so - then you are in reasonably well-documented territory. Though bear in mind that there are periodic huge controversies in the early music communities about what early music actually sounded like.

Once we are in historical settings that are way back, like the Dark Ages and before in Europe, and their equivalent periods in other parts of this world, then where are we going to find inspiration to be able to write and create the musical backdrops in our stories?

Over the next few months I will share some of the music I have listened to, and become drunk upon, in the quest to meet inspiration for the musical facets of my ancient worlds.

Malek Jandali is currently giving great Service to the world through activist work on behalf of all children caught up in the current conflict in Syria. You can read more about his work here

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light with you!

Learning from the Underrated Masterpieces of Sci-fi

On a personal note I consider myself a very technical writer (as in practicing scales on the piano ... endlessly) as well as an 'inspirational' (improvisational music and absract painting) writer. I love watching movies from the point of view of being a story writer (and not, most certainly not, a script writer.). As a writer I enjoy movies that not only please me but also give me food for thought in regards to my writing 'techniques' and writing craft. I enjoy honing the techniques I have and discovering new-to-me ones.

'Underrated masterpieces' for me are special. I just have that kind of personality. The underrated and forgotten is a great realm to travel to - to enjoy inspiration and, maybe, be inspired.

Steven James Snyder of techland recently released a list, with commentary, of "The Five Most Underrated Sci-Fi Masterpieces".

Two of them I have seen ... a very long time ago - Silent Running and Dark City. I'm not sure that I have even heard of the other three - Gottaca, Serentiy, Primer. But now I am very inspired to have a Watching Underrated Masterpieces weekend - with some of my favorite wines. And to see what I can learn as a writer.

Anyway, I commend the list to writers of fantasy and magical realism. And, maybe even more, the short list of twenty from which the five were distilled.

Interestingly, another list i found by 'serendipity' also had Dark City in the top five.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Enjoying Robert Graves (Again): On 'Being' a 'Poet'

I cannot say that Robert Graves influenced or inspired by writing, both stories and poems. I can say, with complete knowingness, that reading this kind of knowledge of his inspired me to trust and then follow my own inspiration - the touchCallingWhisperTug of the Source - in my writing.

This interview with Leslie Norris, also a great 'British' poet (acknowledging that poetry is universal), was published in The Listener 28 May 1970.

Here are a couple of questions from Norris and Graves' response.

Dharma

Do you consider yourself fortunate inhaving been a poet?

There's no alternative. If you're born that way, that's your fate - and you've got to do your best. It's a way of life. You have to be in the world, but not of the world, as the Sufis say. You can't cheat and you must only say what you have to say and not what people would like you to say.

I love this! No 'cheating'. Be true to 'you'. And ... Thy will be Done.

And ... a Poet is ...?

You've written that you write poems for poets. Do you mean you write poems exclusively for poets, or for people who live as poets do?

A poet is a person who lives and thinks in a certain way. A poet doesn't necessarily write poems. It is simply an attitude, and there are a great many more poets around than meet the eve. I think about one person in 20 is perhaps a poet. The ones who are not poets expect something of what they think is poetry, which I don't propose to give them. What I write is for people to understand who are on the same, as they say, wavelength as myself. I don't write for an audience at all really: I write for myself. But the audience is presumably there.

The Source (of 'Inspiration')

The Bridge is always open from meYouMe to the Source. The Source that touchesCallsWhispersTugs at us to write this ... paint this ... dance this.

Tending to our side of the Bridge is our Duty, our Dharma. The other side of the Bridge and what lies there takes care of Itself quite perfectly, thank you. Once we do our work on our side of the Bridge then Inspiration is AlwaysOn.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Soundless Music and Storyless Story: Yves Klein's Symphony and Idries Shah's The Book of the Book

Nothing quite says something as much as nothing does, sometimes.

There was a performance of Yves Klein’s Monotone Symphony in New York last month. Klein is a fascinating and disruptive artist. His Symphony is in two movements. The first movement is a sustained D major chord that lasts 20 minutes. The second movement is a 20 minute period of 'silence' - i.e. no musicians playing but just ambient sound.

The Beginning of the NY Concert

And ... In France they Kiss on Main Street

And here is a video of a 'Happening' with Yves Klein, the musicians, blue paint, the artist's models and audience. Quite different from 2013 ... hmm ...

You can also listen to the performance of March 9, 1960 here.

The Book of the Book by Idries Shah

Stories without story? Now THAT is hard to do!

I bought The Book of the Book in the late seventies (I was buying all of Idries Shah's books available at that time in my life). It was 'controversial'. The first 16 pages of the book has text - story within story without story about story - and the rest of the book was blank paper. Not even page numbers. Interestingly, and as an artist I am so grateful for this, you can read the complete The Book of the Book on googlebooks. It will take you about five minutes. Hah! Five minutes to read. But ... how long to digest?

I recommend The Book of the Book to all writers in the genres of magical realism and speculative fiction. In fact, I wholeheartedly recommend all of Shah's books to writers of magical realism and SF. For ... there is much there about 'causality', in both its hidden and obvious elements. For ... there is much in his books about building worlds. For ... there is much there about how observers (unknowing) create worlds and hide worlds from themselves purely by deciding what their perceptions 'mean'. For ... there is much there about the 'real' and the 'really real'. And, on a personal note, I take inspiration from his work to write to 'change the cultural world' by inviting my readers to think about what kind of life they really want to live in the really real world.

Stories are healing. This is the way it is. Stories are also, manifestly, the opposite. Readers are there for stories that heal. Something different this way comes.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Sirens Calling: Junk Phone Calls, Junkmail and Junk Stories

I get a small number of junk calls to my cell. I never answer them since I never answer a caller that is not in my address book. (It's simple to get into my address book - just leave me a message that appeals.) I get a lot of snailmail junkmail - I sort my mail in the garage so that junkmail goes straight into the recycle and never gets carried by me into the house. I work to keep my home a sanctuary of only the highest intentions. My two email providers do a fine job of filtering, and so I see little junk spam.

Odysseus on the journey home from the ravaging of Troy devised a way to hear the Sirens' songs and survive. Their songs were believed to be irrestistably 'beautiful'.

I get glanced by junk advertising from the ranks of TVs at my fitness center. I watch little television at home - it is a sanctuary of the highest intentions - so don't get tugged at by them. Little advertising seems beautiful to me. Much of it is apparently irresistable ... to many. Ho hum ...

... and then there are junk stories. SirenSinging into the individuals and the collective of our 'culture'. Few are 'beautiful', and so they are opposite to the beauty of the mythic Sirens. Thus ... their collective sirenSong is hideous ... and tsunamiaic. Oh well ... who cares about that?

You Become What You Read

Which almost certainly ensures that you become like what you write. The cause is to write the opposite of junk stories. Which is what many of us do. And ... I know with complete confidence, that there are so many who want, and seek out, stories that are not junk.

Since stories teach ... and inspire ... and remind ... and hearken ... and lead ... then ... you become in mindfulness what you read. The SirenSongs of stories that heal are beautiful. And are worth being touched by.

"We writers share in the godlike power of the shaman. We not only travel to other worlds but create them out of space and time ... Our stories have the power to heal, to make the world new again, to give people metaphors by which they can better understand their own lives." - The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

The Audience is There

The audience is there. They are those who want human beings to treat each other, animals and the whole Divine Creation 'better'. That is a wonderful audience to have ready to be written to.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Asking Are Some Animals Artists?

Can cats tell stories? Well ... lots of animals tell stories when they are in stories. But that is because people authors put words into their speaking mouths. I have not personally had the experience of one of our littleCats telling me a story. Though I once received a dream from one of our littleCats.

Once upon a time ... in 1997 or thenabouts we were peeps to a littleCat called Reuben. I was taking piano lessons and I practised for hours and hours each week at home. One day, in this Once Upon A Time, I watched Reuben jump up onto the piano stool and stare at the keybard and tentatively begin to reach out to it with his paws. And again a few days later. And then he started to tap the keys. Thoughtfully, as if ... "reaching".

I came to feel that he was "aspiring" ... in the sense of ... if there are previous lives (and thus lives to come in this vastness we call "Time") ... that Reuben was aspiring ... "reaching" to be "more" en-souled consciousness. And thus, as part of that yearning journey, reaching towards being an "artist". For art is Creation.

So ... it's a really interesting question to me as an artist. Can they be? Or, are they? What do Bozie the elephant and Suda the elephant and Cholla the horse and Justin the horse and Nora the cat have in common? And what might they have in common with me? And ... with you?

Well ... they are all artists - painters and piano players. They can all be communed with on YouTube. Along with many others.

Let us take a Little Communion with Some of the Fauves Wave II

Let us then commune with Justin the painting horse, Cholla the painting horse, Nora the piano cat, and Suda the painting elephant.

Cholla

Justin

Suda

Nora

The question remains ... are some animals artists? And if they are? Or, if they are not? What does your answer mean to you? And .. how final is your answer to yourself? Hah!

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Wheels within Wheels: the Mechanics of Story

Cog Wheels Turning the Story Onward Within the Book

I came across this beautiful piece of cut-out craft by Annemarieke Kloosterhof ... and just fell in love with (all) the (very many) metaphors and symbolic elidances that flowed out from it.

For ... is this not how stories are? Wheels of character and place and plot turning against each other and turning on (wound up by the writer) until The End?

This is how Annemarieke described her piece -

I found this beautifull old Charles Dickens book on Brick Lane down in London, for only 20 pence. The clock is crafted out of the cover and over 300 pages of the first story ("Edwin Drood"). The clock ends where the story "Master Humphrey's Clock" begins, so you can still read it. I didn't add or change anything to the book apart from cutting things away. The black wheels in the clock are cut out of the illustrations found inside the book.

You can visit Annemarieke's deviantart page to see more of her paper-cut craft. The images there are much larger and you can see in detail the fine fineness of her work. You can also visit her beautiful portfolio of work on her wordpress blog.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

A Small Masterpiece: The Blue Germ by Maurice Nicoll (Review)

This is a review that I wrote last year for Amazon. I'm publishing it again since I'm planning to review some fiction by 'Seekers of the Truth', as Nicholl most certainly was, and, indeed, by finders of 'The Truth'.

Do seekers of the truth write different kinds of stories that are 'healing' to culture, in a general sense? The answer is ... yes. That idea interests me, since I have a deep and passionate interest in how we, collectively, create 'culture/society', and how that creation in turn informs us or makes us ignorant and unthinking. Anywy ... enough preamble ...

Maurice Nicholl, who wrote this under the nom de plume of Martin Swayne, was one of the great Fourth Way teachers of the 20th century. Nicholl wrote fiction in the years roughly 1911 to 1924. This is "science fiction". And it is science fiction of the type and style written in this period in the UK. Its style is quintessentially "British", its pace Edwardian, its techniques simple yet setting up a protagonism between points of view spiritual and materialistic. And it is a flowing, compelling story. Except for the techniques used to make manifest the ending.

The story of The Blue Germ is simple and intriguing. Two doctors, one Russian and one English, discover a bacillus with powerful properties. The story begins with Dr Harden tripping over his black cat, hitting his head, and, in the consciousness shock that follows he comes to the perception of an immense scientific discovery. Together with his colleague Sarakoff they perfect the Sarakoff-Harden bacillus. The properties of which are ... to kill all other germs in the human body. And the consequence of this ... well ... human beings will be immortal. Unless they are actively killed, of course.

So, what better way for an Edwardian scientist to test his "theory" than to test it out ... in real life. And so the pair of them introduce the bacillus into the water supply of Birmingham in Midlands England. The bacillus flourishes and creates the "Blue Disease", since fingernails and eye whites turn blue. Together with the fact that all those who are currently ill have their illnesses removed at a fast pace.

Well ... huge changes in "society" will be needed ... and ... how will different characters and personalities react to the prospect of immortality? Hah!

The Blue Germ is actually a compelling story well told. The conciseness of it is pretty similar to that of Michael Crichton. Style too, stripping away the Edwardian-ness of Nicholl writing as Swayne. And the story ... well ... there are many stories about "germs" in our modern consciousness. We seem to love them! The Blue Germ would make a marvelous, Crichton-esque movie. The ending? Forgive the book the ending - it is "poor". But getting there is not! Enjoy it. No guns, car chases, electronic eavesdropping, mayhem-in-general. What would you do if you were told that you are now immortal ... exactly, exactly as you are (age, appearance etc.) right now.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

The Fallow Time

For the joyful fun of it ... dedicated to ... all writers everywhere waiting to hear back from an agent or an editor ... The magnificent Kinks and Tired of Waiting For You.

Acknowledging that seeking out fallowness, the Fallow Time, and waiting therein is important. Out of true stillness comes true inspiration on 'what to "do" next'. Acknowledging that 'unseen activity' is always there. Regardless of who has an opinion on that one way or another. Acknowledging that we must create 'cause' to experience any 'effect'. Some times, the cause we make has to be on our own consciousness - the feeling of the inevitability of 'success' for us and our writing is important. Some times, we need to be still and fallow to hear both what Story Tells us to tell, and, what we need to 'do' in the material world to create effect.

Or ... maybe ... it is just 'what to write next'. The Fallow Time is a good spaceTimePlace to be to come to know what that 'next' is.

Acknowledging that it is also a cool song from one of the most amazing periods, artistically, in the last few hundred year (in the West!).

As a writer I have found it simple and deep to follow in my writing journey the truism of Ibrahim Khawwas, the “Palm Weaver”, giving his definition of the Sufi path -

“Allow what is done for you to be done for you. Do for yourself that which you have to do for yourself.” (as quoted from “Tales of the Dervishes” by Idries Shah. page 147.)

This is a good Russian Doll maxim for those writers who want to work with it.

Usually I choose to have the last word here. However, here is a voice that is totally for the imagination and the imaginal - Carl Gustav Jung "The Power of Imagination". He is important because tellers of stories need to understand archetypes. Simply said.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

Finding One's Own Voice is a Journey

Finding one's own voice as an artist is a journey. If we don't begin that journey then we will not, not surprisingly, find 'it'. And the voiceless artist is ...?

My friend Sambhodi Prem recently posted this video on his FB page - about Osho answering a question in darshan about 'creativity'.

"If you want to create you have to get rid of all conditionings. Otherwise your creativity will be nothing but copy. It will be just a carbon copy. You can be creative only if you are an individual. ... You cannot create as part of the mob psychology. The creator cannot follow the well-trodden path. He has to be a drop-out from the mob mind, from the collective psychology."

I understand one of the facets of this rebellion is the fact that we are all (ALL OF US) innately creative, i.e. it is natural ... and to be 'natural' in this society is to be automatically rebellious ... because creativity is against both despotism and nonsense ... and stupor.

Being 'creative' is also a surrender - to that energetic that 'inspires' us, moves us. (Where does 'that' come from? And, what is it?) I know this to be completely true in my life. I write down what I am given to write down. Then ... I become a writer. Then ... I use techniques and craft ... and so on. I call it 'Polishing the Diamond'. I polish it. but I did not make it.

It is also one of my duties as an artist to not become submerged in the collective cloud of thoughts thought by the human race, as described by Ernest Holmes, most of them thought habitually. Otherwise, how can I be original, since I will be blindly (to mix a cocktail of metaphors) thinking thoughts that everyone else blindly thinks? Otherwise, how can I write 'healingly', counter-balancing the negativity and shallowness that is the stuff and fiber of many stories?

All that, and more, is part of finding voice. Finding one's own voice is a journey. Finding one's own voice is a rebellion. And then ... that rebellion must transform into a revolution.

And, rather than me having the last word, I will, with joy, give the last word to Lady Gaga.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

What Did Dialogue Sound Like Back Then?

We will never know how Handel's music sounded when conducted by Handel himself. Similarly we will never know how the soldiers in both armies talked to each other on the day before the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Or, what two senators sounded like as they walked together through Rome in 44 BCE; or indeed, what Latin sounded like in any regions of the Roman Empire. Same is true for the Picts, who halted the Roman invasion into what became Scotland. Same is true for Troy. What did Helen sound like when she spoke to Paris?

And going back ... and back ... and back ... into the little 'history' we really have. Buddha. And back ...

What if ... Well ...

"By the 19th century, linguists knew that all modern Indo-European languages descended from a single tongue. Called Proto-Indo-European, or PIE, it was spoken by a people who lived from roughly 4500 to 2500 B.C., and left no written texts. The question became, what did PIE sound like?"

There are two brief recordings of Proto-Indo-European, just published. Reconstructed by Dr. Andrew Bird, and for all to listen to at Archaeology magazine.

Here is one, a fable called 'The Sheep and the Horses' -

Both this fable and one called 'King and God' are described and can be heard at Archeaology magazine.

We write and read stories set 'back then' - before we have recordings. I write stories in the English language - it's what I know. I make my characters, 'back then', talk in a kindaEnglish. I do some technical stuff around dialogue. Change the names of concepts that we know and use. Introduce new psychological concepts. Play with spelling. Make dialogue more like the way we speak - breaks and repitations and non-semantic sounds and pauses ... and so on. It is still basically English. I can declare that the psychology, the very mind, of my characters is radically different. Which I believe to be both true and inevitable. I try and change the music of the language and dialogue in my stories so that it does not sound like what I hear around me in everyday life; so that it expresses more of what I believe minds were like 'back' then' in my stories.

And then the same is true for music that 'they' played 'back then'. What did the music of those who built Stonehenge sound like? I would love, just love, to hear it. Of course, for telling stories it only matters that we get to a sense of it imaginally, a sense that we can tell into the fabric of our story.

I'm writing a story about Stonehenge right now. And I am listening, amongst others, to Meredith Monk. She makes music with voices that is not of our everyday here-and-now time. And then I take off imaginally from herThere.

Namaste! I bw to and honor the Light within you!

Wheat Belly – Let Us Together Gut the Belly of the Beast of Hypercapitalism

I write fantasy and magical realism. Right now I’m reading a fantastical and terrifying science fiction story of the destruction of the human race. Except it is a true story. And that is even more frightening …

Yesterday I bought Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis. My chiropractor and healer (strongly) recommended it to me.

Wheat Belly is full of stories. The story of the author’s journey as an overweight and diabetic physician is inspiring. He is a physician who did heal himself. The stories of people he has cured, many with multiple and drastic symptoms, are impressive. There is a story telling of one of the many threads of hypercapitalism’s history - the quest for more of this stuff called ‘money’ regardless of the costs to peoples and planet. And then there is the story of the creation of frankenfood modern ‘wheat’ itself, put together, just as Frankenstein was, from bits and pieces of wheat and plant this-and-that.

And so … once upon a time … long before hypercapitalism … there was wheat. And it was good … And then scientists – and this is such a common motif in our hypercapitalst society – as is their wont (of ignorance) decided to make wheat ‘better’, and at the same time make LOTS of this stuff called ‘money’ for a small number of people. Who in turn became privileged and … but that is another story.

On page 25 Dr. Davis tells us – “… these products of agricultural research were released into the food supply without human safety concerns being part of the equation.” And the rest is history. “… over the past fifty years thousands of new strains (of wheat) have made it to the human commercial food supply without a single effort at safety testing.”

I personally believe all the stories in Wheat Belly are true. Including the one that modern ‘wheat’ is bad. I’ve been trending away from it for a long time – I am not very tolerant of gluten. But now I am done with it.

Of course ‘wheat’ is only one component of the American food lobby’s package that they bribe and bully the rest of the world into consuming. Their top-tier package is – wheat, cheese, tomatoes, beef, corn syrup, potatoes, sugar, milk. Just think of the last time you saw an advert for a pizza or burger. ‘Wheat’ holds or wraps it all together, of course.

In passing let me say … We are also doing the same to our archetypes. Exactly the same. Modifying them. Creating hybrids. Changing them … partly, I think, because we are scared of their purity and the purity of their balance, and the fact that purity is Guiding. And the consequences of that modification program, by writers for studios and games, causes much of the paralleled frenzy and deadness in modern culture. There are no effect-less causes. But all that is another story … to be told at another time …

Repeat: there are no effect-less causes. Feed a population a diet of ‘wheat’, and … Feed a population a diet of frenzied, flattened and mayhemic ‘archetypes’, and …

To be a true revolutionary one has to (at least partly, but most definitely) elect and actively choose to live outside some of the currents of the society that we live in. Quite honestly, there is no point wanting a ‘better’ society while financially supporting the entities and processes that create and sustain the factors in society that we want to change. So it is with the American food lobby – which, in sad fact, is the de facto food lobby for the whole world. We, collectively, do need many of us (we don’t need all of us) to fight hypercapitalism by using one of the most potent capitocidal (that which destroys capitalism) remedies that we have – Money. Or ‘Money’. By surgical withdrawal from one part of the hypercapitalist body and application to areas outside hypercapitalism. Funny huh? It's kind of like a fractalled homeopathy, where we take a diluted small dose of what the 1% love, and use it against them.

“Wheat’ is one good way to begin with the American food lobby. Which in itself is part of the larger Industrial-Military-Financial-Spying Complex.

And … but wait there’s more! Not buying the story of ‘wheat’, and plain not buying it, breaks what I call the White Rabbit conspiracy – “One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small”. And the White Rabbit conspiracy is … one part sells you stuff that makes you fat, and another part sells you stuff, they say, that makes you thin. One part sells you stuff that makes you look bad, and another part sells you stuff, they say, makes you look pretty and beautiful. And so on … What an elegant and perfectly balanced conspiracy, that is so easy to maintain, so elastic and cohesive, and so well-hidden because it is in plain view, lauded by terabytes of advertising per day.

The oppression of forced ill-health is BAD. As a writer it is good to fight. You may quote me on that. These stories from our ‘real world’ do impact me as an artist. It is time, I feel, to re-read 1984 and Brave new World.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the Light within you!

and below ... I still love this song, and their 'energy', after all these years ...

High Craft: Wonderful Stories of Yearning ... and More

I have just finished a wonderful collection of stories that have engaged me in all kinds of enjoyments of reading - "At the Mouth of the River of Bees" by Kij Johnson. I engage with stories - long or short - that resonate with that energetic space within me where lies the yearning and desire to Unfold and Become ... all that I Am and can Be. There are a couple of stories that I love, due to these terms of engagement, and all of them I enjoyed engaging with. Additionally, for writers and aspiring writers, there is much here to learn about 'craft' and 'techniques'.

In a nutshell, there are 18 tales, originally published across the span 1993 - 2012 (one published here for the first time) and their collective scope, taken together, is 'broad'. I like 'broad' in a story collection. That does mean that there are some stories that I may not 'like'. Which is true here. Even those ones I don't feel resonant with or enjoy as story I do engage with as writing, quality writing, and can learn from.

The standout story for me is "The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles". This story is a true treasure; and it would make a most wonderful (short) animated film. The central character is Small Cat, whose home (ideal for the tribe of cats who commune and dwell together) is destroyed by earthquake and fire. And so Small Cat embarks on a journey and a quest ... to find. Always yearning, and never giving up the heroic goal, through both danger and support, Small Cat does find what she journeyed a thousand miles for. My Spirit danced as I read. I cried a little. I can't and don't ask for more.

Similarly, the story "The Man Who Bridged the Mist" also enticed me to dance within and with it. It is set in "Empire", where all the people seem to me to be of goodness (this is not an explicit declaration of the story), and all communities are ones of goodness. Kit is the architect of the bridge that is essential for Empire and Rasali is a ferrywoman who ferries across the river of mist, inhabited by fish and "Big Ones" - very dangerous work. It begins 'quietly'. Then, it stays 'quietly'. It is long, and so I had time to wonder; "how will it end?". And the story progresses - quietly - and I wonder again the same question. Which intrigues me greatly. And so I let myself be drawn into the story. At the end of the story (which is told across five years or so) Rasali makes a commitment to her yearning - to further, And Kit also. Very beautiful. Plangent, with the wistfulness that sometimes accompanies our relationship to our own yearning.

Other stories are very different. Some edgier. Some 'experimental'. "Wolf Trapping", another high, is 'about' our understanding of other sentience. The morality of the scientist, Richard, conflicts with the yearning of Addie, who is developing a relationship with a pack of wolves way beyond the experience and comfort of science. The opening story is wonderfully Ray Bradbury-esque, and is its own trueness. I mean this as a compliment of lineage. "Ponies" scared me in the same feeling way that reading the classic "Mimsy were the Borogoves" did all these years ago. And more good reading besides all these named. I have focused on 'yearning'. I read it in other stories here too. But then, yearning calls to me. You may equally love and like these stories and not experience them as ones of yearning.

Finally ... to return to writers and aspiring writers. There is lots of craft and techniques here. I distinguish the two. One of the highest of the high, for me, is when a story is written such to tell itself and it seems like it is not through the intermediation of these things called words, but rather, it just flows into the imaginal mind. Frictionless. Telling. That is high craft. Both "The Cat Who Walked ..." and "The Man Who Bridged ..." were that for me. Straight telling into. Let me repeat. That such telling is high craft.

Be quiet and patient with these stories. And ... "The Cat Who Walked ..." is a treasure.

Namaste! I bow to and honour the Light within you!

Prayer, Art and Service are a Unity

Michele Théberge is a local artist that I admire greatly. I've seen her work - in di Rosa in Napa. But even more ... I truly appreciate how she understands what 'art' 'is'. Michele writes about art very deeply and inspirationally. You can visit her thoughts here - and I encourage you to follow her on twitter and commune with her on Facebook.

Michele recently blogged on 'Your art is your service'. I was inspired to write a 'brief' comment. And then ... the comment became longer ... and a bit longer again. I still posted it. And then ... after I re-read it I realized that I really liked what I had written. And so ... I copy it here below.

"Absolutely agree. Art is Service. Love is all there is ... across eternity and infinity ... or ... all there is is Love. (whichever one prefers.)

Myself and my 'environment' are a Unity ... since the Allness of All-There-Is is a Unity. Every manifestation (and all are temporal), from a galaxy none of us has seen to a blade of grass, is a manifestation of this Divine Unity. Thus ... when I interact with a manifestation of 'art', or it interacts with me, several things can happen - transmission, awakening something latent through resonance, and so on. Music, poetry, stories, art and more still me, uplift me, inspire me ... and more ... and always have since an early age.

True art is sacred service because ... we 'listen' (change our consciousness) to the Divine to create. And, in fact, it is really the Divine that is creating through us. The true artist is the flute, not the Breath that blows through it. And where does that Breath come from and what 'is' It? Our duties then - in the sense that 'duty' is used in the Bhagavad Gita - are to record what we are 'given', to 'polish the diamond' (using our techniques and skills), and to give this art on. (Getting paid is still Giving.) And, optionally, to become more and more what we are when we do 'listen'. Ultimately, prayer, art and Service are a Unity also.

Many artists these days, particularly in secular swathes of the West, 'disagree' with this understanding of the Universe. I honor each their understanding. The only point I will make is this - regardless of any conceptualization of the Universe that any one has, the true nature of the Universe is the way it is. Regardless. Thus, one can choose to 'understand' the Universe, or, one can choose not to. Both are paths. But almost certainly not equal."

Namaste! I bow to and Honor the Light within you!

Rennie

What if ... True Wisdom Does Exist ... Stories are Food for Thought

Activism has seven times seventy times seven hundred faces - there are so many ways to make this world 'of ours' (in fact, it's not 'our' world at all) a better place for all. For all tribes and groups, all ceatures and bodies of water, all souls and for Mother EAerth Herself. Activist artists, in all modes, are everywhere contributing to this collective endeavour.

My contribution as an activist artist, as a story finder and story teller, is to invite my readers to change their consciousness. Change your consciousness and the world around you will change. It can be no other way. This is the way it is. We are all individual expressions of an infinite and eternal Unity that is Existence itself. Thus when I change my consciousness, my environment, which is the set of all the closest-to-me individualized expressions of the Divine, also changes. Thoughts are things. Change thoughts and consciousness changes. Change consciousness and ... see the above ...

How do I do this? Let me count the ways ... Here is one ...

The novel Alba: The Great Dance of Leaving and Returning is 'A Mystic and Shamanic Fantasy of the Dawning of Scotland'. Alba is written on many levels. One of the Highest is that Alba, through its story, declares that true wisdom exists. 'True Wisdom' is the clear comprehension and understanding that a human consciousness can have of the universe and all its ways. Historical fantasy, where worlds are created, is a straightforward way to express this Highest.

If Alba declares that true wisdom exists then, there are only a small number of ways to react to this. One, 'I don't believe that this state of true wisdom exists!' Two, I believe that this state can exist in people, but I am going to do nothing about it in my life (right now). Three, I believe this and I am going to do something about it in my life (I may in the here-and-now know or not know what).

This story is an invitation to change. Not a demand. If you are in the third group then be reassured that all the ways in all traditions are explicitly available. That is good to know.

Stories of a particular kind can be our teachers. This has been known for a very long time. Since the beginning (oh when and oh where was that?) of this race of women and men. Food for thought. Stories are food for thought.

Namaste! I bow to and honour the Light within you.

Nook of Names - A Name for Every Story

This is the most wonderful resource - full of wonders, and traceries of wonders and webs that are resonant with RichAndTrue histories of this our race of women and men (and indeed, creatures). What is in a name, indeed? What is of a name? What is a name 'made' of? This nook is a realm of whispers and touches leading ... leading ... leading ... Well, it depends who you are and what you want (to know).

What a wonderful place to wander in if you are a poet, or poetically-hearted, a storyteller - particularly of fantasy and historical fantasy and wiccan tales ... In fact, it is a treasure!

Visit it. And bide a while. And still. And surrender to the journey.

Namaste! I bow to and honour the Light within you.

Activist Artists Don't Cross Picket Lines (and other ways to walk the walk)

I'm an activist artist. As an artist my focus is to invite people to consider changing their consciousness. I have changed my own consciousness "so much" since my upbringing in early 60s Scotland. Many boundaries expanded. Many concepts, understandings and ignorances discarded. Changing consciousness is the true revolution.

The Scotland of my childhood was a union country. There was still large-scale shipbuilding, large-scale coal mining. Even then, I noticed that our communities were intra-supportive.

And so to an entwined story about me and two of the local grocery stores I shop at.

I've been shopping at my local Nob Hill store for more than eight years. A short while back (November 2012) management decided they wanted to, essentially, get rid of the union. Short story version - There was a strike that lasted nine days ... the union won and the kinda clumsy management lost. The saturday (grocery shopping day for this family) in the middle of the strike I went to Nob Hill ... to shop. Pickets were out. My friends who serve me there were on the pickeet lines. We talked. I didn't cross the picket line. No way, for more than one reason. Including ... activist artists don't cross picket lines.

So on to January 2013 ... John Mackey, co CEO of Whole Foods Market, a corporation that espouses radical and very good ideas around shop local, fair trade, organic food and so on, denounces Obamacare as "fascist". Well ... I was horrified. I've been shopping at my local Whole Foods store for more than eight years.

I wrote to my local Wholefoods Market store denouncing this. And, received an acknowledging reply. Here is an extract -

"Thank you for contacting Whole Foods Market to share your thoughts on John Mackey’s recent comments in the media. We understand and are concerned about your feelings of disappointment. We are hearing from many of our customers about this, and we are sharing all of the feedback we’re receiving with our leadership team, that includes both co-CEOs. I want to acknowledge that we may not be able to provide a response that satisfies your comments ...Thank you for your feedback. Again, I understand this message may not win back your support, but I do hope you'll reconsider and please know that we are listening and working to make our stores (and our company) a positive part of your life."

I'm boycotting them now. It is sad and awakening, both, to realise that some people who claim to actively be for a "better" human civilization are actually one-percenter elitists at heart. The several large goods that Obamacare brings to the healthcare chaos in this country are huge.

Activist artists don't give their business to elitist one-percenter wolves in sheep clothing. No way.

And ... by the way ... my new current work (short stories) goes well. More on that and these another time.

Namaste! I bow to and honour the Light within You ...