Together in the Forest

 

The Hunt Master

jagermeister, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

Fascinating. Ive recognized an emergence of a new animal: the antlered one. Now I remember I was drawing pictures of myself with antlers since at least Korea where I saw the crowns of the ancient Silla kings that were always antlered. And then at folkfest I felt a lot like an elk or deer and Anita was wearing that necklace. And At the peak of it I felt a lot like an elk during the rut. Running around with a swollen neck and bloodshot eyes. Snorting with my head lowered.

And then Jose told me the story of St. Hubert:

Hubert sallied forth to the chase. As he was pursuing a magnificent stag, the animal turned and, as the pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix between its antlers, while he heard a voice saying: "Hubert, unless thou turnest to the Lord, and leadest an holy life, thou shalt quickly go down into hell". Hubert dismounted, prostrated himself and said, "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?" He received the answer, "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you."


And here after studying with a celtic shaman I learned of Cernunnos:

Cernnunos, as The Horned God, Lord of the Animals is portrayed as human or half human with an antler crown. Though he wears a human face his energy and his concerns are non-human. He is protector of animals and it is Cernnunos who is the law-sayer of hunting and harvest. While He is recognized most often through his connection to animals and our own deeply buried, dimly recalled, instinctual animal natures, Cernnunos is also a tree, forest, and vegetation god in his foliate aspect of The Green Man, Guardian of the Green World. His branching antlers symbolize the spreading treetops of the forest as well as his animal nature. As Master of the Sacrificial Hunt, His is the life that is given in service of new life. His wisdom is that the old must pass away to make way for the new. In his Underworld aspect Cernnunos is The Dark Man, the god who dwells in the House Beneath the Hill, the Underworld. He is the one who comforts and sings the souls of the dead to their rest in the Summerlands of the Otherworld. Cernnunos, as Master of the Wild Hunt, who pursues the souls of evil doers, is not associated with a biblical or even modern morality, but with the protection and continuance of the Land and Nature and the spirits that dwell therein.

All this correlates further to the song Ive been singing:

Chase the Chaser through the valley of death.

This antlered god seems to be both the hunter and the prey.

Calling All Artists!

Here's your invitation to draw!

Further on the Blake/ Wisdom files

to further our discussion on Blake, Wisdom, excess, and so on, i have posted these pictures of (l-r) Donny Wisdom and Blake Tedlock of the Commerce High School Tigers football team, Commerce, Oklahoma.

perhaps they are Smoky Tigers?

Dancing

Conjuror, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

According to some, one common element of shamanism and Buddhism is the attainment of spiritual realization, at times mediated by entheogenic (psychedelic) substances.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living.

To become a shaman, a person had to "receive the call", to suffer a religious experience, and would then be initiated into the mysteries of the art. By symbolic death and resurrection, he acquired a new mode of being; his physical and mental frame underwent a thorough change. During this period of initiation, the novice would see the spirits of the universe and leave his body like a spirit, soaring through the heavens and underworld. There he would be introduced to the different spirits and taught which to address in future trances.

The episode often marks the beginning of a time-limited episode of confusion or disturbing behavior where the shamanic initiate might sing or dance in an unconventional fashion, or have an experience of being "disturbed by spirits".

My Name In Pictures

Ignore Fact and Reason!

Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age.

- Bertrand Russell

Watch

Ticking Watch

Dried, Vacuum Packed Proof of 'Life's' Resilience! Just Add Water. 

Shamanic Journey 2

sil_elk1_moon, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

The drum begins beating. I am running naked and high to the hill at folkfest. It's night time there's a full moon. At the top of the hill there's an Elk with the wings of an owl. There's mist and the elk snorts out steam. I mount the beast and it begins a gallop down the back side of the hill in the direction of the moon. We gallop through the mist toward the moon and then take off and fly to the moon. We soar through the sky. The surface of the moon is white and there is a white pyramid or temple complex with a long stairwell. I am going to meet my teacher. I climb the staircase and at the top there are two figures. One is a short wiry man in his 50's with shaggy hair and wild eyes reminding me of charlie manson combined with my old fencing master Manuel Belmonte and also a bit asian and also a bit native american. The other figure is obviously the Mysterious Lady of Mystery. I want to talk to her but she's frozen. The other fellow tells me I can't talk to her until Ive trained more. And that I talk to her in the middle world and that she is manifest through my lovers. I look down and can see the earth in the distance. He takes out a bat and I lie down and he beats me with the bat as one tenderizes a steak. That being done he leaves me with the Mystery and I of course kiss her. She wakes up and is like a vampire and I lay back prone and she is hissing and ravaging my throat. My neck and throat being completely torn open I manifest into the dark tiger and the tables are turned. Everythings just a messy violent blur. This being all done Im alone on top of the white dias and now there is a pool. I dive in and float for a bit and when I surface Im at the lake at bird's hill.

Shamanic Journey

ClanSmokeJaguar-Alpha, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

The drum begins beating. I am running naked and high through the folkfest campsite during folkfest. I run to the hill across the bridge. At the top of the hill I find a latch and a hole I climb into the hole and there is a descending staircase. I run down the staircase until I arrive in the underworld. There I see the Smoke Tiger. An enourmous cat like a tiger or lion with long hair and mane. Black smoky colour streaked with dark green. Red smouldering eyes like a demon. It circles around me. Ive met it before and it is my gaurdian and guide. Ive observed it before. Ive allowed it to devour me before. This time I allow it to sink it's jaws deeply into my shoulder. Next I am watching it walk proudly down a road in a terrible desert like hell. The sky is red. There is a pyramid. It is like Egypt everything is black and red and gold. At the top of the pyramid the Tiger sits on a throne and sitting next to it is it's mate the Siamese Cat.

Response to blaming the terror.

I'm very aware of my own frailty when people talk about the collapse of society. The reason? I'm type one diabetic. Without the benefits hospitals and Medicare that are provided to me daily I would die. Really, natural selection has chosen me to die. I'm only alive due to the medical treatment our demonized society provides. I think that when we talk about being better off without society as is, it's important to be aware of the unbelievable diversity of conditions that exist within the human race. Are we talking survival of the fittest? Is that what you’re suggesting in the original post Andrew? That’s an interesting approach – but I hope you remember that 2 of your closest friends would not be alive today under that type of world scenario. Life on this planet is a giant ball of string – wound so tight over thousands of years that it’s impossible to see the end to all actions or to sort out all of our past mistakes. There is good that has come from human advancement, much of which I believe we easily take for granted. I don’t know the solution to the problems we as a race are facing (which I’m not denying are rampant) but I do know that the total and utter collapse of all the hard work and sacrifice that has come before us is not it.

Oh... Canada :(

This Globe and Mail article discusses the 'brand' of Canada, and how the fact that it is the third highest ranked nation (after the U.K. and the E.U.) in the world doesn't measure up in terms of actual tourism and other economic factors.

They discuss, among other things, that Canada needs to shed it's traditional imagery such as "Neil Young riding on a buffalo."

My favorite quote: "People say Canada is a place I have to go before I die, or perhaps after that."

Emergence

I bit injecting venom
I flew to guide the talon

But I did not view

I grew for sheer dominance
I hit to feed my nascence

But I did not view

And now

Now I confuse
now I accrue

The damage in my view

I confess what I can't see
shaped and escaped

From what I used to be

Why not? 

Different Visions of the Future 

Positive Vibe 

How to Protest? Tune in, drop out.

Plague, originally uploaded by The Stranger.

Not to be a downer and all, but I can feel the fall coming. Last night we all watched a movie about Howard Zinn. He's an outspoken historian who wrote a book called The People's History of The United States which attempts to tell the story from the point of veiw of those her were downtrodden and defeated rather than the victorious. This movie led to a sort of round table discussion of our current global situation. After awhile we all agreed that the world is most definately going to shit. The question of the most effective way to protest or act effectively amid the turmoil was raised.
My own views were crystalized:
The present relationship of humankind to the planet is one of a cancerous cell to the organism. The situtation has reached a level that can not be reversed or changed. Not by mass demonstration, media campaigns to save the environment, or even by the election of more responsible leaders. I beleive that we've reached a point were it is impossible and a terrible waste of energy to attempt to change the system from the inside. The time has come to prepare ourselves for the inevitable collapse. But don't worry. I see this all as good news. Now is the time to make our community stronger because it is this community that will be our saving grace. We need to learn to live outside the system. Disconnecting ourselves from the monetary system, the media system, and the political system. Like when a thunderstorm is coming you need to unplug your computer so that it doesn't get blown out. We've got a few years left but not many.
But honestly, there's no need to worry because in fact after the big she-bang we will all be in general happier and better off. A lot healthier. Although many of us will be dead. Skies are turning black and seas are turning red.

this is where my mind goes when love is absent.

Come and Gone (after Rankin)

Everyone with hunger
he cried no, child no

Overlooked and the beauty
he cried no, please no

There is nothing
and you follow her around

No, please no

Don't (after Rankin)

There are holes
in that hunger

Dirt and lipstick
right as gold