FOGS MIDWinter Newsletter’ December 2003/ January 2004: Volume XV-1

Sine umbra nihil

Well-wishing for a new year is what we do in the Northeast when the calendar points to January. It was always so. Or was it?

In Gregorian, we count this 2004. It is already 5764 Jewish time. In a month (February 2004) it will be the Chinese year of the Monkey; on February 22 Islam moves into 1425. For Sikhs, new year (536) comes just before vernal equinox when Hindus (2061) and Persians (1383) celebrate, just as we used to before the Julian calendar adjusted new year from March to January.

Ethiopia still runs on the Julian calendar, which served most of the western world until 1752 or thereabouts, depending on one’s allegiance. Russia was slow to make the change, but that is no surprise to the Clavie Crew of Burghead (Moray) or to the fireball-swingers of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire. They still run on Julian time.

Burning clavie atop flaming 'Doorie' (fire altar) at Burghead; running on Julian calendar time

On Hogmanay night Steenhivers have a street party to end all street parties. Whereas Burghead (annually January 11) only spills combustible materials over the shoulders of Clavie-bearers, Stonehaven delights in spinning fire in clumps into the unwary crowd.

When Scotland changed calendars in 1752, there was much misunderstanding in the country districts – the loss of 11 days seen as having robbed them of important events. At that time, clavie-burning and local celebrations to mark the return of the light after midwinter were commonplace in all the northern and northeastern ports. Now only two remain holding to tradition from an earlier time, Burghead most precisely still counting its lost 11 days.

Fire for the clavie is ritually kindled from a peat ember – no match is used. Clavie king and crew dispense flaming brands from burning tar-barrel as tokens of abundance to important burghers, publican included! They circle the town sunwise and the final free-for-all happens after the clavie has been fixed to its fire-altar, the doorie, on a rib of the old Pictish ramparted stronghold, and left to die. Julian indeed.

Yggdrasil:the world tree

Every culture, beginning with the Polynesians, had its ‘world tree’, a great being of life and knowledge which connected through its forever-turning axis the heavens, earth and the nether realms.

It is to Norse myth that we owe a debt for transmitting the name Yggdrasil: an ash, at whose three roots were sacred fountains ‘of wondrous virtue’, and in whose branches sit an eagle (international symbol of visionary power), a squirrel (symbolic of activity and preparedness), and four stags (innocence and return to wilderness).

In our original state of grace the world and the heavens, time and space, were one, held in hologram by this great turning spindle, but then chaos intervened.

In Scandinavia, this great gyroscope or ‘mill’ was thrown into the deep, now forever grinding sand and stones, creating whirlpools and hurricanes. Greek Kronos/Chronos the Titan, child of heaven and earth – Ouranos and Gaia – after emasculating his father and throwing the great pole into the sea, became father of the gods. Romans separated the two into Saturn and Time, but the original dual concept was intentional.

It was left to subsequent generations who believed their ancestors to have been gods, to try to make sense of a universe spinning progressively out of kilter, a fact seen in the Greek ‘royal science’ of astronomy in the steady precession of the equinoxes: a cosmic mill forever churning stars which no longer return to their ‘right time’. The tree had been uprooted by giants and only heroes with like powers might replicate the act.

In Finland and India, it is called a mill from Sampo, Sanskrit skambha, in England it is an oak or mythic Excalibur extracted only by a ‘true’ prince.

In Northeast Scotland until at least 1945, sacred wells were still complemented by the presence of an ash, though uprooting it appears not to be part of the legend until the coming of bulldozers in modern development. That aside, if the discovery of ‘Seahenge’ in 2003 off the East Anglian coast connects us to our ancestors at all, it is through the ritual of a massive oak, carefully-placed upside-down, huge roots exposed to the heavens, within a sacred precinct of guardian tree-stumps at a place where earth and ocean meet.

Might we not be seeing some vestige of that ancient rite conceived by man to right his Universe and return it to that golden age (Virgil’s Saturnia regna) before the fall, when time was eternal and heaven-and-earth were one?
©MCY2004-2009

Winter Wonders

Several years occur when midwinter full moon does not completely tie in with solstitial sunset: 2003 was one of those years*. Full moonrise nevertheless was an impressive sight at two recumbent stone circles on either side of the Garioch plain: at Easter Aquhorthies (NJ733 208) and the Barra RSC (older country name for Bourtie, NJ801 249) where FOGS stalwarts braved the winter’s first storm to witness a lunar prelude to the darkest days. On December 8th, nearly two weeks before the shortest day, the full moon rose, regular as a cosmic clock, at the moment of sunset over the whitened slope of Crocker hill (compare our solar eclipse point in June n/l XIV-2). It is the same point for each circle, as both appear to be aligned on this double axis of solstitial summer sun and winter moon.
*at 2009 archive transcribing; full moon rose at same point on December 2nd

While the sunset is obscured at Aquhorthies by the lie of the land, it has full view of rising moon. In contrast at Barra, sunset is fully visible over Mount Keen (at latitude 57ºN this is 223º), but moonrise takes another five minutes to materialize on the Crocker (at 43º or NNE).

There may be another link between the two RSCs which time forgot. From the Easter Aquhorthies recumbent an alignment towards Barra and moonrise leads the eye directly over the huge red-jasper sentinel at the modern ‘entrance’. It is not a large leap in imagination to connect its fiery red with a dyiing sun.

What has not previously been noted is the presence of pink quartz in a NNE vector-like scatter in the two fields leading from the Barra circle upslope to the ‘moonrise’ rock (the ‘Bellman’, also sunrise rock in our previously noted summer newsletter) at 600 ft/185m, Barra has substantial quantities of white quartz stones ringing it radially in all other directions, but the NNE scatter is decidedly more pink: a synchronicity perhaps unnoticed by many of us, but not without apparent significance to the circle-builders.

©2003-2009 MCYoungblood

Sacred Journey
Lawrence Main, peripatetic extraordinaire, is making a sacred journey throughout Britain. He plans to spend three nights on Bennachie in Aberdeenshire as part of his communion with the earth, thanking the Mither for her part in holding a vision of what this ancient stronghold and Pictish kingdom meant to its people. We do not publish his dates, for privacy, but wish him well on his pilgrimage.

I went through a very difficult journey the past few days.  I was dealing with old energies from my childhood. I made some unhappy realizations like my inner child is so far incapable of believing that being molested didn’t ruin her and that she is absol-freaking-lutely TERRIFIED by masculinity. I had no idea…. I had to work with some very painful emotions and energies and I know I’m not done, just out on another spiral of my journey. It’s hard.

As if to make me feel better after that, I was meditating and was climbing Yggdrasil, the World Tree, when it suddenly turned into a bridge I was walking across… and into Asgard. I met with Odin and Thor and they helped me with my fear and my pain and told me what I needed to hear and then they blessed me. I fell in love with Thor all over again, recognizing how my deep love of thunderstorms is all part of my love for him. That was a surprising and blessed experience.

Now, on a completely different topic, if you don’t mind me self-selling a bit, I have self-published my first book of poetry, called Truth, Love, Blood and Bones. You can read more about it on my other blog, if you’ re interested.

In our Internet Education class last week, our class had a “talk” with Mrs. Connie Veneracion, or simply Tita Connie. Tita Connie has a wide experience when it comes to blogging. She started blogging since 2003, and currently blogging in her House on a Hill (which can be found on my Friends list on the right).

I remembered the term she used. It was independent blogging. If you are an independent blogger, you can write anything you want. You can write your opinions and feeling about anything you want. With the independent blogging, you get to write at your own will, and at the same time…writing things without a boss around. It’s just you, your notebook and your mind. It’s how free an independent blogger could have.

I was able to remember this because of one thing. Riana and I were assigned to make an article in our club (which is called Yggdrasil…). The subject had to be related to “jealousy”. And because of this, we can relate Shakespeare’s Othello with this article.

Well, as we all know, the most wonderful villain Shakespeare has done is in the story of Othello. Iago, the great villain can manipulate all of the characters in the play. With his mind trickery and reverse psychology, he can set up anything in order to get what he wants. Plain villain, I can say. But at the way he sets something? It is truly unbelievable. I’m sure writers of this generation are inspired with Shakespeare’s masterpieces.

Well…let’s get back to the story. It’s jealousy. Well, our club moderator suggests putting it in our blog site and giving the link to him. Well…he can check the blog entry anytime and could go for proofreading. Well, I understand that. But I just remembered Tita Connie’s concept of independent blogging. So what is bothering me?

A lot of things are bothering my mind when it comes to this one. I was able to create the article, but it didn’t pass my standards. You heard it right. To me, it was a hideous article. Currently it’s in my “drafts” folder, and I have no plans on publishing it online. So in this case, I would delete the hideous article. After all, Riana’s blog entry was WAY BETTER than mine. I can’t believe she can make that article. I can’t get any inspiration when it comes to writing about jealousy. Therefore I didn’t resume the plan on publishing it online. But that’s not all.

My site is a free blog site. I would mean it as a blog site full of independent blog posts. Blog posts that are mine, and truly written with love and inspiration. Yup, it can get as cheesy as that. But even if I reach the very cheesy level, I would still want my blog site to be an independent blog site. I won’t be posting something which was assigned by someone. Well, I could work with that. I cannot work when I don’t have any inspiration for it. I blog when something inspires me.  Since it’s all about jealousy, I can relate to that. But it’s not enough for me to write a very long article for that. I don’t know. I’ll just make up for it. I’ll just help Riana in her blog entry.

Now that I’ve said it all, I can feel that I exerted a lot of pressure expressing my thoughts on independent blogging. Thanks to Tita Connie, I’ve got the power to broaden my thoughts…especially when it comes to blogging it.

O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.

~William Shakespeare, Othello

Jealousy is an emotion often used as a synonym for the emotion envy, but I have to point out that these two are actually different. Envy is what a person feels when they want something that another person has or hopes that the other person will lose whatever they envious person lacks. In contrast, jealousy is when a person may feel anxiety because they have fear of losing something that he or she possesses to another person. I just wanted to point this out before you read the post. In our English class, we’re taking up one of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, Othello. The story is basically about love, hate, jealousy and betrayal. The antagonist of the story, Iago, basically thrives on the trust of his boss, Othello, in order to destroy him.

One of the masterpiece characters of Shakespeare is Iago, the epitome of true villainy in the literary world. The villain with the most lines in all of Shakespeare’s plays is a perfect example of a person who lacks that conscience which stops or at least serves as a hesitation to people who may want to do the things that he does in the story. But enough about Iago, the main subject of this post is his drive to do these kinds of things.

The wrath of jealousy affects a lot of people. It eats away at your self control until you somehow explode… or not, depends on how you may want to deal with the problem. Although not a lot of people could deal with these problems as masterfully evil as Iago can.

Sometimes jealousy can happen without any reason whatsoever. That in itself maybe the scariest thing about it. It could also be the hardest kind of feeling to pinpoint which makes it all the more dangerous. It will subtly take over, but not a lot of people who experience this emotion will admit to it which will just make it worse for both parties, those parties being the person jealous and the person he gets mad at because he is jealous (see how complicated things could get?). The buildup of these negative emotions will result badly if the people involved decide not to deal with the problem accordingly.

Jealousy could also result from misinterpreted actions done by a person. Let us say that a man and a woman are romantically involved with each other (a perfect example being Othello and Desdemona), and another person comes in, that person posing as a possible threat to one of the people within that romantic relationship. The man (or the woman) may misinterpret small actions by the possible third wheel to their lover, such as a fleeting touch or friendly hug, and so the feeling of anxiety will soon build up to another emotion. This is not exclusive to people in a romantic relationship, but also to good friends who may seem to be veering away because of another person.

Although jealousy may not always be a bad thing. If it’s a protective reasonable kind of jealousy that doesn’t do anyone any harm and in fact may show how much a person cares about you then it could be perfectly fine. It’s just how a person plans to do with the emotion that may matter to it being a normal kind of thing or not.

And that concludes this post.

Just some random bands, take it or leave it…

Bump of Chicken

The members first met in kindergarten and were classmates throughout their primary and secondary education. Bump of Chicken’s first performance was in 1994, during their ninth grade cultural festival,  playing a cover of The Beatles’ version of Twist and Shout.   In 1996, their song, Danny, won an award on 96TFM.

In 1999, Bump of Chicken released their first album, Flame Vein, on High Line Records. Later that year, they released their first single, “Lamp”. In 2000, they released The Living Dead, their final release on High Line.  They also held their first live tour, “Tsuaa Pokiiru (ツアーポキール^?)”, during March and April.

Later in 2000, the group switched to Toy’s Factory, releasing their first single on the label, “Diamond”, in September.   Bump of Chicken’s first big success occurred when their single, “Tentai Kansoku”, appeared on the Oricon Weekly Charts in 2001.   They held two live tours, “Star Porking Tours (スターポーキングツアーズ Sutaa Pookingu Tsuaazu^?) 2001″ beginning in March and “Surf Porkin’” beginning in July.   In October, they released “Harujion”. 

They released their first album on Toy’s Factory, Jupiter, in February 2002 and was their first number one on the Oricon Weekly Charts. In the summer of 2002, their music was featured on the Japanese TV drama, “Tentai Kansoku”, giving them more exposure. At the end of 2002, the group released the single “Snow Smile”. 2003 saw the release of the double A-side single “Lost Man/sailing day”.   ”Sailing Day” was used as the ending theme to the animated movie, One Piece: Dead End Adventure”. 

The beginning of 2004 saw a slew of re-releases. “Arue”, from their album Flame Vein, was released as a single in March. They re-released their first two albums in April. Flame Vein received an extra song and was re-released as Flame Vein +1. The Living Dead received no modifications. In July, the group released “Only Lonely Glory”,  which became their first single to chart at number one on the Oricon Weekly Charts.   A month later, they released their fourth album, Yggdrasil, which was their second album to reach number one on the Oricon Weekly Charts.   Shortly after, they released “Sharin no Uta”, from Yggdrasil, as a single.

In 2005, Bump of Chicken released two singles, “Planetarium” and “Supernova/Karma”. Karma was used as the theme song for Namco’s “Tales of the Abyss. The band’s next single, “Namida no Furusato” was used in a commercial for Lotte Airs.   It became the group’s second number one single. In 2007, they released the singles “Hana no Na” and “Mayday” on the same day. The two singles reached number one and two respectively on the Oricon Weekly Charts.   Bump of Chicken released their second latest album, Orbital Period, on December 19, 2007. Their latest album is “present from you”, released on June 18, 2008. This album is a compilation of b-sides and other non-album tracks.

They will release double A-side single “R.I.P./Merry Christmas” on November 25, 2009, becoming their first single in two years.

Motoo Fujiwara （藤原基央）

Motoo Fujiwara is the composer, lyricist, guitar, and main vocalist of the group, also acting as the leader of the band. He has written most of the music, and has also drawn the artwork for their albums ‘The Living Dead’ and ‘Yggdrasil’. He was born April 12, 1979 with blood type O. He enjoys doing laundry, cannot eat spicy foods, has poor eyesight, likes to eat chicken, and enjoys playing the harmonica. In March 2006, he released a solo album titled “Song for Tales of the Abyss,” which included “Karma” and instrumental versions of songs from the game Tales of the Abyss. Uses Gibson 1960 Les Paul Special Single Cutaway, Sonic fender, Gibson J-45.

 Hiroaki Masukawa （増川弘明）

Hiroaki Masukawa is the guitarist of the group, and also writes most of the hidden joke tracks for albums. He was born December 20, 1979 with blood type A, and is left-handed. He is referred to as the shy member of the group, and calls himself pessimistic. His hobbies are largely anime and games. His nicknames within the band are “Hiro,” “Hose,” (meaning “very thin”), and “Nikke”. Uses Gibson Les Paul Standard, Fender Stratocaster.

 Yoshifumi Naoi （直井由文）

Yoshifumi Naoi is the bassist of the group, and is referred to as the “crowd pleaser”. He was born October 9, 1979 with blood type A, and jokes that he “falls ill exactly four times a year.” He also calls himself an anime and game otaku, and a “rare genius”. His hobbies are photography and drawing; he has released an artbook containing his works, and helped with some of the album artwork. His nickname within the band is “Chama,” a play on the Japanese phrase “Obotchama” referring to a rich family’s son. Uses Sonic Bass, Fender Jazz Bass 65.

 Hideo Masu （升秀夫）

Hideo Masu is the drummer for the band. He was born August 10, 1979 with blood type A, and describes himself as an introvert. He also mentions that he has good eyesight, cannot write kanji well, likes to go outdoors, and often gets headaches. Uses Canopus Maple Shell.

Shocking Lemon

Shocking Lemon first formed in 1996. In 1999, they released their maxi-single Pastel Room and went on a tour named after the single later that year. The next year, Shocking Lemon switched to Alinosrecords and released their second mini-album. Since then, the band has continued to release more music and is now working with One-Coin Records. They also got the chance to do the opening for the anime Hajime no Ippo.

Ass Baboons of Venus

The Ass Baboons of Venus are a duo that combines the innocent cuteness of Japanese pop with the ridiculous toilet humor of Los Angeles trash rock. Comprised of comedian Naoko Nozawa and punk rocker Bob Limp, they tend to cross the boundaries between new wave and twee pop with their humorous sound. After releasing several singles, the Phucket a la Bum Bum compilation was released in the summer of 2002. ~ Bradley Torreano, All Music Guide

Green Milk form the Planet Oarnge

Green Milk From the Planet Orange formed in Tokyo, Japan, in July 2001. Combining prog rock, psychedelia, jazz, and indie rock, the band was formed after the breakup of No Rest for the Dead. The bandmembers are known by the monikers of Benjian (bass), A (drums and vocals), and Dead K (guitar and vocals). The band lists Miles Davis, Sonic Youth, Soft Machine, My Bloody Valentine, and Tortoise as influences. ~ Stephen Cramer, All Music Guide

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Galactic Cross or Maya Sacred Tree, the point where the Milky Way meets the Ecliptic

Twelve constellations lie along the ecliptic, their symbols used by generations of world civilizations, both as night-time guidance by sextant and, in astrology, to predict character traits and the future.

In both astronomical and astrological terminology, the sun passes through all twelve constellations or zodiac signs on the ecliptic during the course of one year. The path of the ecliptic can be seen to cross over the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius. Where this happens, it forms a cross with the Milky Way, and this cosmic cross – also known as the ‘crossroads’ – was called the Sacred Tree by the ancient Maya.

It has names in other cultures, too: most famous among them is that of the Norse, where it was called the World Tree, or Yggdrasil.

The Milky Way with its Dark Rift seen at a 60º angle to the Earth

The center of this cosmic cross, at a point where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way, is coincidentally the precise centre of our Galaxy, a nebulous area of the Universe where stars are born and our own cosmic womb, from which we, as stardust emerged. This Galactic centre is exactly where the December solstitial sun will stand at noon on December 21st, 2012. This alignment occurs only once every 25,800 years.

The Maya called this dark-rift the Black Road, or the Road to the Underworld. They seem to have imagined it as a portal to another world, and their prediction that the December solstice sun would re-enter its ‘birth canal’ in 2012 now appears to be fairly accurate. This special time, in Maya numbers, occurs at the end of one Great Cycle or 13 baktuns: the date 13.0.0.0, from an origin in 3114 B.C. Each baktun numbers 144,000 days and 13 baktuns equals 1,872,000 days since the beginning of Creation.

In the Old World, myth was the language of the heavens.

Oldest civilizations like Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian and Greek culture all saw the movement of the stars within a context of time, rather than space. This is a direct connection to ancient knowledge of the movement of the stars along the band of the ecliptic in a contrary direction to that of the zodiac. The earth was seen as laid through the ecliptic passing through the celestial equator at an angle of 23.5º which divided the zodiac into two halves: the ‘dry land’ northern half of the zodiac reaching from vernal to autumnal equinox; the other half representing the ‘waters below’ the equinoctial plane, or the southern arc of the zodiac stretching from autumn equinox, via the winter solstice, to vernal equinox. These mythological concepts dealt with Man’s measure of time, rather than quantifiable space.

And over time ancient wisdom noticed that the equinoctial points, as well as the solstices, appear to move backwards through the constellations every 2,200 years, thus marking a phenomenon called the Precession of the Equinoxes. In Classical mythology, this movement of the heavens was thought to be the cause for the rise and fall of civilizations and Ages of Man. Each Age was named for an astrological sign and a time when in astronomical terms a particular constellation in the heavens appeared to rise at dawn on equinox.

So as precession made its inexorable journey through time and the heavens, Man and civilization generally moved from the Age of Taurus (the Judaic era of the Golden Calf) through Aries (which Moses heralded on descent from Mount Sinai as ‘two-horned’) or the start of the new Age of the Ram; into Pisces, the Age of Christianity whose symbol was the fish; and now, from February 14th this year, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

The Ouroboros or cosmic serpent eating its own tail

Crop circle July 2008 depicting serpent eating its own tail

While Mythology has stood the test of time in many world cultures, it may be a surprise to learn that science has also discovered a new twist to the old tale/tail.

For generations our acceptance that we are part of the Milky Way galaxy was unquestioned; yet this pathway in the heavens appears to rise from our earthly horizon at a 60º slant: odd if we are one sun within its great spiral of stars. It now emerges that the Solar System belongs to another galaxy which is currently colliding with the Milky Way.

This fact was discovered when astrophysicists recently pursued investigations into the existence of ‘dark matter’ to account for fluctuations in energy which are measurable but invisible. By using infrared wavelengths of light below eye and optical telescope visibility, they detected the presence of a huge sister galaxy circling the Milky Way and colliding with it at – you guessed it – its point of centre near Sagittarius. It’s called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, or SGR. And its collision may be the source of a huge gravitational pull which influences the 11-year solar coronal mass or sunspot cycle.

So, we really are stardust, colliding with our nearest neighbour, returning to the stars from which we came. And world mythology from our greatest civilizations, like crop circle designs from the cosmic consciousness, were trying to tell us this all along.

Adventskalendergeschichte – Antonia Stahn – Die Reise vom gläsernen Baum zum blauen Planeten – Weihnachtssaga – Teil 1

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Es ist Abend. Auch heute braust ein starker Wind um die alte Villa. Lucas sitzt mit seiner kleinen Schwester Laura in der Fensternische der Bibliothek. Im Kamin prasselt ein gemütliches Feuer. Dennoch haben sich die Kinder in wärmende Decken gehüllt. Lucas erklärt Laura die Sternzeichen. Am heutigen Abend sind sie besonders gut erkennbar. Laura hört aufmerksam zu.

“Und was ist das für ein Stern, Lucas? Er strahlt viel heller als die anderen Sterne.”

“Dieser Stern wird Venus genannt. Manche Menschen nennen ihn auch Abendstern”, antwortet der Bruder.

Zum zwölften Geburtstag hat Lucas von Opa ein Teleskop und ein Buch über das Universum geschenkt bekommen. Bis dahin hatte der Junge sich nicht sonderlich für leuchtende Himmelskörper interessiert. Inzwischen begeistern ihn die Sterne mehr und mehr. Besonders der Abendstern. Über diesen Planeten denkt er häufig nach.

Lucas versucht, mit möglichst einfachen Worten seiner kleinen Schwester die Namen der Venus zu erklären. “Schau, Laura, auf diesem Bild sieht man es sehr deutlich: Die Venus ist der zweite Planet im Kreis um die Sonne. Steht dieser Planet im Osten der Sonne, wird er Abendstern genannt. Wenn er jedoch im Westen der Sonne steht, nennen die Menschen ihn Morgenstern. Weißt du, der Name ist gewissermaßen Ansichtssache: Es kommt nämlich darauf an, von welcher Seite wir uns den Stern ansehen.”

Nachdenklich schaut Laura sich das Bild an.

“Wenn du möchtest, Laura, erzähle ich dir eine Geschichte über unseren Lieblingsstern. Eine Geschichte, die aus meinen Träumen entstanden ist. Mit diesen Träumen werde ich seit dem ersten Adventssonntag jeden Morgen wach.”

“Jaaa”, freut sich Laura. “Ich mag deine Geschichten so sehr. Du weißt doch, Lucas, Traumgeschichten höre ich sowieso am liebsten!”

Erwartungsvoll lehnt sie sich an Lukas und kuschelt sich noch ein wenig tiefer in ihre Decke.

“So wie uns beiden macht es vielen Menschen Freude, den Abendstern zu betrachten”, beginnt Lucas seine Erzählung …

“… Und genau wie wir begreifen die Menschen diese Freude nicht. Die neugeborenen Kinder wissen es. Sie können aber noch nicht sprechen. Daher bewahren sie das Wissen in ihren Träumen. Die Fähigkeit, sich an das Leben vor der Geburt zu erinnern, verliert sich mit dem Älterwerden. Daher weiß bis heute niemand, woher wir kommen und wohin wir gehen werden.

Unsere Vorfahren – die Germanen – haben sich viele Gedanken über die Welt gemacht. Sie glaubten an einen riesigen Baum, den sie Weltesche nannten. Der Sage nach wuchs die Weltesche YGGDRASIL auf dem Planeten Venus.

Mit den Bäumen, die wir kennen, ist dieser Baum nicht zu vergleichen. Sein wuchtiger Stamm, die unzähligen Äste und Zweige, selbst die kräftigen Wurzeln sind aus Kristall. Dieses Kristall glitzert und strahlt so hell, dass wir sein Licht mit bloßem Auge von der Erde aus wahrnehmen können.

An jedem Ast, am kleinsten Zweig hängen winzige gläserne Körbchen. Sie werden durch einen leichten Wind stets sanft geschaukelt.

In jedem Körbchen liegt ein winziges, zartes Wesen. Herrliche Musik, die von einem weit entfernten Planeten herüberklingt, begleitet seine Träume. Der Schlaf der kleinen Wesen dauert meistens tausend Jahre. Tausend Jahre! Unfassbar lange für uns Menschen und doch nur ein Augenblick der Weltallzeit.

Allein sind die kleinen Wesen aber nicht. Jedes hat ein helles Licht an seiner Seite. Dieses Licht kann jede beliebige Form annehmen. Es kann seine Größe verändern. Die Gestalt von Menschen und Tieren annehmen. Seine Leuchtkraft, wenn nötig, grell oder sanft einsetzen.

Manchmal nehmen Menschen ein solches Licht in ihrer Nähe wahr. Sie nennen es Engel …”

“Sehen sie vielleicht wie unsere Weihnachtsengel aus?”, fragt Laura aufgeregt.

“Das weiß ich nicht. Im ersten Traum habe ich nur das Licht gesehen. Nun lass mich bitte weiter erzählen. Träume vergisst man so schnell, weißt du doch Laura.”

“… Also: Die Engel kümmern sich sorgfältig um die winzigen Wesen, die sie liebevoll Seele(n) nennen.

Unter der Weltesche Yggdrasil sprudeln drei Quellen:
Hwegelmir, die Quelle des Urwerdens
Mimirs Quelle, Brunnen der Weisheit und des Wissens
und Urd, Quelle des Schicksals.

Jeden Morgen steigen die Engel zu den Quellen hinunter. Sie füllen einen goldenen Becher mit dem Wasser der drei Quellen. Eine Morgengabe für die kleinen Seelen. Es muss immer die richtige Mischung sein.

Engel unterscheiden sich nicht sonderlich von den Menschen. Ja: Auch Engel machen Fehler! Manchmal mischen sie den Morgentrunk nicht gewissenhaft oder schöpfen das Wasser aus nur einer Quelle. So manch kleines Wesen, das nur Wasser aus der Quelle Urd zu trinken bekam, hatte dann auf der Erde ein schweres Schicksal und sein Schutzengel reichlich Arbeit.

Einige der Wesen schlafen länger als tausend Jahre. Sie bekommen dann nur noch Wasser aus Mimirs Brunnen zu trinken. Daher gibt es immer wieder Menschen, die uns mit ihrem Ideenreichtum, ihren Erfindungen, ihren Anregungen, positiven Phantasien und anderen Dingen Freude bereiten …”

“Kann ich dich etwas fragen, Lucas?”, unterbricht Laura.

“Ja klar, vergiss deine Frage nicht. Ich muss mir erst mal etwas zu trinken holen, mein Mund ist vom Reden ganz ausgetrocknet.”

Als Lucas zurückkommt, reicht er Laura eine große Tasse mit heißer Schokolade.

“Danke, Lucas. Aber jetzt verrate mir bitte, wie die kleinen Wesen zur Erde kommen. Denn dort sollen sie doch wohl hin.”

“Das ist ziemlich einfach”, stellt Lucas fest …

“… Entsteht auf der Erde ein neues Menschenleben, löst sich ein Körbchen vom Baum. Langsam gleitet die Seele in dem Körbchen durch das All zur Erde. Selbstverständlich wird die kleine Seele nicht schutzlos auf die weite Reise geschickt. Sie wird von ihrem Licht – einem Engel – begleitet.”

… wie die Geschichte weitergeht, erfahrt Ihr hier im Teil 2 der Weihnachtssaga …

***

Antonia Stahn
Die Reise vom gläsernen Baum
zum blauen Planeten.
Eine Weihnachtssaga.
ISBN 978-3-939937-02-9

Das Buch
*** bei Amazon bestellen
*** beim Verlag bestellen

I took to my vacations some books to read in the (few) moments where I wasn’t doing anything (like when we couldn’t go to the beach at 13:00). I read several books, nut this time I will be speaking about the first volume of the “The secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel” saga, called “The alchemyst”, from Michael Scott.

This book tells the story of two apparently normal twin brothers, Sophie and Josh Newman which are introduced to a magic and mythological world through the hard way when the book store of Nick Flemming and his wife, where Josh worked, is attacked by a magician called John Dee. Nick and Perry Flemming (his wife) defend the store with magic arts and lose the battle, allowing John Dee to steal the a very old book called the Codex (or Book of Abraham) from them and kidnapping Perry. This book contains ancient spells, amongst with the secret potion that kept Nick and Perry alive for hundreds of years. With the aid of the twins, Nick Flemming, which is an alias for Nicholas Flamel, starts an epic battle to recover the book and his wife, Perry (who is actually Perenelle Flamel), while they find out that the twins are actually two important pieces of an ancient prophecy, having powers that even they cannot imagine.

The story is incredible and very well written, with some amazing and unexpected twists. When the reader thinks that something is quite predictable, the story takes our mind in a 180º spin and everything is once again impossible to predict. However, some people may find the writing style oriented to children. In my opinion, it is not, it just gives a false sense of simplicity that allows the reader to understand the whole story, but makes us think at the same time.

The only problem I found with this book is that it assumes that the reader knows a whole bunch of things about both mythology and  technology. It was not a problem for me because I actually love both of these topics, but I don’t think that everyone knows what is a Golem, or who are Hekate, Scathach and Morrigan, or even the story of Yggdrasil (the tree of the world, whose roots cross the nine underworlds and keep a legendary monster (Nidhogg) in closure in the dark underworld of Nilfheim). However, the book provides some footer tips that can be quite helpful to understand it, if you have the basic knowledge about mythology.

I really liked this book and its sequel (The magician). I keep waiting for the third volume, called “The Sorceress”. I classify it as a must-read!

i ord og bilder

Y for Yggdrasil

Jeg har desverre ikke bilde av yggdrasiltreet. Men det er vanlig i kryssord.

Yggdrasil er navnet på verdenstreet i norrøn mytologi, en ask med grener som rekker ut over hele verden og opp over himmelen. Yggdrasil-asken bæres av tre lange røtter. Disse går gjennom tre forskjellige verdener, og ved hver rot ligger en brønn. Den ene roten er hos æsene. Her ligger brønnen Urdarbrunn, hvor nornene holder til, og hvor æsene daglig holder ting. Den andre roten er hos rimtussene. Her ligger Mimesbrunn, som er kilde til vett og visdom, og som eies av den kloke Mime. Den tredje roten er i Nivlheim, og her ligger brønnen Kvergjelme. I Kvergjelme ligger en mengde ormer, anført av den fryktelige Nidhogg, og gnager på roten. De truer slik med å ødelegge treet.
En rekke forskjellige skapninger holder til i grenene til Yggdrasil: Fire hjorter beiter i trekronen, disse heter Dåin, Dvalin, Dunøyr og Duratro. Det sitter en ørn (Vidofnir) i toppen av treet, og mellom øynene på den sitter hauken Vêrfolne. Ekornet Ratatosk løper opp og ned stammen og bærer sladder og vondord mellom ørnen Vidofnir og ormen Nidhogg. (Wikipedia)

Det er mange trær som er virkelig vakre der de står i naturen. Her kommer bilder av noen av de.

My last post focused on using the Ubiquiti Wifi Access Point as a gateway to connect a SunSPOT to the internet (in this case, Twitter).

But we can also use the Ubiquiti as a sensor. The immediate utility that appeared to me was to use the Ubiquiti to scan for wireless networks and to get their signal strength. So let’s get started.

If you’re using a Linux box at home, you can scan for wireless networks using the command

root@localhost:~# iwlist scan

You’ll see an output something like this:

          Cell 01 - Address: 00:1E:4E:AB:CC:DF
                    ESSID:"Sun"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:1
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=97/100  Signal level:-29 dBm  Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    IE: Unknown: 0007426967526F6F6D
                    IE: Unknown: 010482848B96
                    IE: Unknown: 030101
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 2F0100
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32080C1218243048606C
                    IE: Unknown: DD0700039301660000
                    IE: Unknown: DD06001018020100
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=00000017288f01d0
                    Extra: Last beacon: 3492ms ago

Now there are three lines in this that we’re interested in. The first one states the MAC address of our access point. Next, we want the line describing the ESSID (the “name” of the network), and, finally, the line showing us how strong our signal is, in dBm.

Now whenever I have a bit of text parsing to do, I always go to Perl. Unfortunately, I haven’t got enough space on the Ubiquiti’s measly 4 MB of flash to install Perl. Instead, I’m writing all of this in Bash. So I wrote a small shell script in Bash that parses the output from our iwlist command and prints only the useful information: ap_scan_and_format.sh.

#!/bin/bash

aplist=$(iwlist ath0 scan|grep 'Address\|Signal\|ESSID')

IFS=$'\n'
for line in $aplist; do
	if [[ "$line" =~ Address ]]
		then
			echo $line | sed 's/://g' | sed 's/.*s //g'
	fi
	if [[ "$line" =~ ESSID ]]
		then
			echo $line | sed 's/.*:"//g' | sed 's/"//g'
	fi
	if [[ "$line" =~ Signal ]]
		then
			echo $line | sed 's/.*Signal level=//g' | sed 's/ dBm.*//g'
			echo
	fi

done
echo "done"

Alright, let’s walk through that really fast. First thing I do is grab the output of our iwlist command and extract the useful lines (the ones containing Address, Signal, or ESSID), and put all of that into variable $aplist. I then step through the lines one by one and extract only the most useful information.

So the output now would look something like this:

001E4EABCCDF
Sun
-29

Neat. Now I’ve got to come up with a clever way to send it back to our SunSPOT.

head -n 1 /dev/ttyS0 > /dev/null
./ap_scan_and_format.sh > /dev/ttyS0

So now I just wait for the serial to hear a new line character ‘\n’ and then I can pipe the nicely formatted list back to my SunSPOT. Perfect.

Now I need a bit of logic over on my SunSPOT side of things.

        out.write("\n".getBytes());
        do {
            byte[] buffer = new byte[in.available()];
            in.read(buffer);
            read += new String(buffer);
        } while (read.indexOf("done") == -1);

That’s all we need to send the newline character and read in our list of APs.

Now to get that data back to sensor.network. I’m running a project called Yggdrasil on my Spot so that I can report my sensor readings back to sensor.network.com.

A bit of code later and I can get a nice look at how my wifi signal strength varies over time.

How about for all of the access points in the building?

The cool thing about using sensor.network is that I can now, say, try to correlate these readings against humidity, or other sensor readings in the area.

So it has finally been released, and the outcome it truly pleasing me, for those who hasn’t watched it or wants to see my translation, this is the link to the torrent I’m sure that everyone will be as pleased as I am with it.

While you’re at it please visit Nire-subs webpage or/and on IRC: #nire-subs@irc.rizon.net

Regards,

Yggdrasil

Full-length, Det Germanske Folket
2009

Un album de folk metal ce nu ar trebui sa lipseasca din “biblioteca” nici unui fan a genului. E fix asa cum trebuie sa fie, suficient de saltares si rapid incat sa nu plictiseasca si suficient de dark si melancolic ca sa dea atmosfera specifica. Yggdrasil inseamna “copacul vietii” in mitologia nordica; de altfel tematica e inspirata asa cum era si de asteptat din mitologia nordica.

originalitate – 6

tehnica – 7

productie – 7

melodicitate – 8

forta – 7

artwork – 7

Nota: 7/10

Happy Thor’s Day, everybody!

The number nine in Norse mythology is a recurring symbol. Symbolic of what, I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps transitional events — like birth or death. Or transitional things — like Yggdrasil, the tree which touches both heaven and (Nifl) hel. The transitional meaning supposedly comes from the fact that the number nine is the last single-digit number before we reach double-digits with the number 10.

But for dummkopfs like me, the number nine in Norse myth is most useful for giving me a head’s up, like: Yo. Pay attention. This part is really important.

Here follow some famous nines in Norse myth:

• The Nine Worlds
• Heimdall had nine mothers
• Nine thralls Odin incites to killing each other so he could take their place in the fields and learn from their master where to find the mead of poetry.
• Hermod rode for nine nights before reaching Niflheim and there attempting to bring Balder back from the dead.
• Nine — the number of days and nights Odin hung on the World Tree, Yggdrasil, in order to learn the secret of runes.

There are more instances of nine in Norse myth, but its use in the story of Odin and the runes is probably the most important. Want to know what he learned those long nights on the tree? Some powerful magick, that’s what. Check out the following passage from Havamal, a section of The Elder Edda by Benjamin Thorpe:

ODIN’S RUNE-SONG.1

140. I know that I hung, on a wind-rocked tree, nine whole nights, with a spear wounded, and to Odin offered, myself to myself; on that tree, of which no one knows from what root it springs.

141. Bread no one gave me, nor a horn of drink, downward I peered, to runes applied myself, wailing learnt them, then fell down thence.

142. Potent songs nine from the famed son I learned of Bolthorn, Bestla’s sire, and a draught obtained of the precious mead, drawn from Odhraerir.

Did you catch that? Another instance of the number nine, this in stanza 142 and telling how many magical songs Odin learned from drinking the mead of poetry. (But I’ve also read that Odin learned these nine songs from the giant Suttung himself rather than through the mead Odin stole from him.) Could it be that in stanza 141 Odin’s “wailing” indicates he might have sung these songs in order to call forth more powerful runic magick whilst hanging on Yggdrasil? Without further ado, here are the spells he learned those nine nights on The World Tree:

148. Those songs I know which the king’s wife knows not nor son of man. Help the first is called, for that will help thee against strifes and cares.

149. For the second I know, what the sons of men require, who will as leeches live.

150. For the third I know, if I have great need to restrain my foes, the weapons’ edge I deaden: of my adversaries no arms nor wiles harm aught.

151. For the fourth I know, if men place bonds on my limbs, I so sing that I can walk; the fetter starts from my feet, and the manacle from my hands.

152. For the fifth I know, if I see a shot from a hostile hand, a shaft flying amid the host, so swift it cannot fly that I cannot arrest it, if only I get sight of it.

153. For the sixth I know, if one wounds me with a green tree’s roots; also if a man declares hatred to me, harm shall consume them sooner than me.

154. For the seventh I know, if a lofty house I see blaze o’er its inmates, so furiously it shall not burn that I cannot save it. That song I can sing.

155. For the eighth I know, what to all is useful to learn: where hatred grows among the sons of men—that I can quickly assuage.

156. For the ninth I know, if I stand in need my bark on the water to save, I can the wind on the waves allay, and the sea lull.

157. For the tenth I know, if I see troll-wives sporting in air, I can so operate that they will forsake their own forms, and their own minds.

158. For the eleventh I know, if I have to lead my ancient friends to battle, under their shields I sing, and with power they go safe to the fight, safe from the fight; safe on every side they go.

159. For the twelfth I know, if on a tree I see a corpse swinging from a halter, I can so grave and in runes depict, that the man shall walk, and with me converse.

160. For the thirteenth I know, if on a young man I sprinkle water, he shall not fall, though he into battle come: that man shall not sink before swords.

161. For the fourteenth I know, if in the society of men I have to enumerate the gods, JEsir and Alfar, I know the distinctions of all. This few unskilled can do.

162. For the fifteenth I know what the dwarf Thio- dreyrir sang before Delling’s doors. Strength he sang to the ^Esir, and to the Alfar prosperity, wisdom to Hroptatyr.

163. For the sixteenth I know, if a modest maiden’s favour and affection I desire to possess, the soul I change of the white-armed damsel, and wholly turn her mind.

164. For the seventeenth I know, that that young maiden will reluctantly avoid me. These songs, Lodd- fafnir! thou wilt long have lacked; yet it may be good if thou understandest them, profitable if thou learnest them.

165. For the eighteenth I know that which I never teach to maid or wife of man, (all is better what one only knows. This is the closing of the songs) save her alone who clasps me in her arms, or is my sister.

166. Now are sung the High-one’s songs, in the High-one’s hall, to the sons of men all-useful, but useless to the Jotuns’ sons. Hail to him who has sung them! Hail to him who knows them! May he profit who has learnt them! Hail to those who have listened to them!

So there you have the 18 rune-songs Odin learned upon The World Tree. (I probably don’t need to point out that 9 x 2 = 18.)

Thanks for stopping by! See ya Tuesday.

This year was my 18th birthday. Exciting? I guess. Nothing changed too much. Don’t we all grow up expecting there to be some miraculous change when we turn 18 just becuase the government tells us that that’s when we are of legal age? Weird.

Anyways, I wanted a tattoo. I’ve wanted a tattoo for the longest time. But I strongly dislike (and disagree with getting) tattoos that hold no meaning to the canvas they lie on.

So.
I waited.

I’ve known for about a year that I wanted to get an Ouroboros, but with my new spiritual journey, I felt it had to be more. It needed to be more than just the snake, it needed to have something else with it, something that I could look at and help me feel at peace and remember what I beleive.

To be honest, I’m still figuring out my spiritual side, but I knew a few things and I knew that they were right.

(this photo was taken the day I got it done, March 20th, 2009)

The Ouroboros is the image of a snake (sometimes depicted as a dragon) devouring it’s own tail. This symbolizes the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, Life out of Death. The ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. While I’m not sure if I beleive in reincarnation or not yet, it’s something that’s always been on my mind as I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell in the slightest.

I took an astronomy class this year in school. There was a theory about the growth of the universe and that, while it is currently ever expending and moving outward, eventually it will contract back on itself and start over again. Which is why it doesn’t matter where the mythical “center of the universe” is or what happened to create the universe, it just keeps happening over and over again. I can’t remember what the theory was called but I feel like it had a name.

Anyways, when I heard that it struck a cord with me, it made sense within the ideas expressed with the Ouroboros.

At the same time…it made me…sad. How pointless we already felt, as humans, on this little planet in a universe so big most of us can’t even imagine it’s size, and here we are…making a big deal about the smallest events in the concepts of the universe, and what’s it matter…this might have happened before, in a different time and a different way. And it might happen again, different scenerio, different people, probably even a different planet…but still…think how small you feel if that were true. How small and insignificant you feel even if it’s not and the universe is just a giant thing that will forever and ever expand to lengths unknown?

Maybe that makes us more unique really…just because this could happen over and over or already happened…that doesn’t make us any less ourselves. It makes our time more precious, in some ways. We are here for a fraction of a second. The universe has been around for what…close to 14 billion years. The earth about 4.5 billion years. People have only been around for about 2.5 million years, humans as they look today have only existed for about 200,000 years. A fraction of a second comparativly wouldn’t you say?

I think I’m rambling….

Back to the tattoo…

In alchemy, the Oroboros represents the eternal, cyclic nature of the universe. It combines idea with action, efficiency with power. The Oroboros is grasping the whole by the conception of the opposite, the divine process of creation and the evil backlash of destruction.

Inside the Oroborus is the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is often a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet. In Norse Mythology (Heathenism), the Yggdrasil is the world tree. Yggdrasil is the tree which Odin sacraficied himself to for 9 days to gain the knowledge of the Runes.

From the Poetic Edda (translated by Henry Adams Bellows)
“31. Three roots there are | that three ways run
‘Neath the ash-tree Yggdrasil;
‘Neath the first lives Hel, | ‘neath the second the frost-giants,
‘Neath the last are the lands of men.”
Below the tree lies the well of Mimir (to whom Odin lost his eye so he could gain the knowledge stored in the well).

In my Tree of Life there are 4 branches/limbs representing the elements.

Earth (green) is the feminine element. The earth is often linked with fertility, nurturing, and strenght.
Air (yellow) is the soul and the breath of life. Air focuses on wisdom and communication and helps bring positive thoughts.
Fire (red) is the masculine element. Fire both creates and destroys, it is associated with new life and death.
Water (blue) is also a feminine element. This element is used for healing, cleansing and purifying. It is often associated with passion and emotions.

That’s my tattoo.

Why did I feel the need to write a post about it?
This is a blog of growth, and this tattoo is a reminder of my spiritual growth. Without the spiritual path I’ve come to know and love, I would never have gotten where I am today, and this is a constant reminder.
This post was more for me than for anyone reading it. It was to help me write down every little thing this tattoo means to me, and I’m sure I missed some of it, but it’s here, it’s down and I can come back to it.

Après de longs mois de recherches, les membres du collectif  “Sylphe qui pleut” ont  décidé de s’envoler vers d’autres horizons…

Le projet “Yggdrasil” se repose donc quelque part dans la forêt de notre imagination commune… Peut-être viendrons-nous le réveiller un jour prochain

En attendant, nous tenons à remercier tous ceux qui ont contribué de près ou de loin à faire évoluer le projet grâce à leur soutien, leurs conseils avisés et leur intérêt.

Nous ne manquerons pas de mettre à jour ce carnet de bord dés que le navire sortira à nouveau les voiles.

Que votre univers soit empli de créativité,

Pour les “Sylphes qui pleut”

Isabelle Patoux