Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts

Monday, April 10, 2017

Full Pink Moon 2017

'Full Moon for April 2017' (The Old Farmer's Almanac)

I had wanted to write something about the last two full moons, as we were blessed with beautiful clear evenings for them here on the central California coast... as well as an amazingly bright and large Venus.

On the back trails on those evenings, one can discover a perfect lunar moment. For me it was a trail sandwiched between an industrial area and a hillside. On the industrial side there is a building with a large open field... with large trees covering the parallel street. There was a place to sit and just look at the bright moon right above the trail, illuminating it in a special way.

The moon rays also illuminated everything; the grassy hills, the trees, the concrete, the field. There's something magick-like about moonlight. It was such a perfect time and place, I didn't want to leave. In the same manner that we need the sun's rays for our physical health (vitamin D), I think we also need the moon's rays for our spiritual health. Of course, the source is the sun... but filtered by the moon... sort've like a father and mother.

This full pink moon will occur this Tuesday, April 11 at 2:08 AM est. In other words, "Monday evening"... tonight.



A mini-tribute to true crime "reenactment" actresses and actors (i.e. Investigation Discovery)

These people are great! Some portray absolute scoundrels, and we look at them with anger and scorn... as if it's really "them"... but it's not. They're just actors doing a great job. Thank you!!






Ancient Egyptian Lost City & Buddha Statue Discovered in The GRAND CANYON?!

Beyond Science





'Is Our Entire Universe An Atom In A Different Dimension?'

Nuretic - AboveTopSecret.com - February 9, 2013

Is it possible that our entire universe is just one of trillions and trillions of other atoms that make up a whole new dimension?

If size (like time and space) is relative, then if we are able to go well beyond our universe, would we be able to view it in a way that's similar to looking at the Earth from the moon? Just because the universe may seem unbelievably big to us, doesn't mean it's big to beings from another dimension. Perhaps to them, it is actually the size of an atom. For all we know, our universe could be an actual atom that is part of a blade of grass on a planet of another realm entirely...

The same thing can be said about things that are incredibly small. Take a nucleus of an atom for example. That nucleus can be cut into halves, then quarters, and eventually you can wind up with one millionth of a nucleus... yet that one millionth part of a nucleus itself can then be cut into halves, then quarters and so and so on... It never reaches a point of absolute nothingness.

Since size is relative, even the most gigantic stars in our universe are just tiny specs of light when you go out far enough.

con't....





Flying humanoids

I don't really cover mysteries here unless it has another tie-in to something else more on-topic, or if it's something very consequential and under reported. However, individually, I think we should look into everything. The "flying humanoids" phenomenon could be explained as people using "power packs" which have been around for decades, and are probably all the more advanced now. These flying humanoids could merely be rich adrenaline junkies who are playing with their toys. It's not all that much different than bungie jumping or parachuting out've an airplane. This one photograph from Mexico City some years ago is very odd looking, and in full color, but could fall under the same explanation. This person appears to be wearing a heavy suit and riding some sort've small vehicle/device. Anti-gravity and magnetics are among new technologies being developed by the military industrial complex, and are always a good twenty years ahead of the mainstream.






Fleetwood Mac - Over My Head (Lyrics)

Daniel Mitchell

"Over My Head" by Fleetwood Mac was released as the second single from their 1975 eponymous album and was a #9 hit in Canada. It was also their first Top 40 success in The US, reaching #20 on Billboard. 






I couldn't resist another mystery....

....especially since it was such a clear photograph. Loch Ness is in Scotland, the same degree north as southern Alaska, which would seem to be far too cold for this to be a large water reptile. Also, unlike the alleged bigfoot, it's brain would be too small and not intelligent enough to "hide."

'Most Convincing Photo of the Loch Ness Monster Yet?' (Jason Storming - TheOccultSection.com - 9/16/16)





Where does Conan the Barbarian fit in?

On a couple of occasions, Stephen McNallen has said that Conan was one of his early inspirations. Conan the Barbarian was a great comic book which I remember very well from when I was a child in the form of Marvel Comics. Part of it was the concept of travel and adventure from our ancestral memory, which is largely missing from our lives today. Something like a heroic soldier of fortune; a free agent type of warrior. The character was also known as Conan the Cimmerian and other names, and lived in the Hyborean Age after the destruction of Atlantis. Conan is a Cimmerian. From Robert E. Howard's writings (The Hyborian Age among others) it is known that the Cimmerians were based on the Celts or Gaels. This fictional Cimmerian origin is left sort've of open-ended, as it loosely points of different corners of ancient Europe or to Indo-Europeans. The intensity of the character just leaped from the pages. You always knew that he was ready to meet the next challenge.

Conan the Barbarian
Conan (comics)
Conan (Marvel Comics)
Hyborean Age
The Hyborean Age
Cimmeria (Conan)
Cimmerians
Sword and sorcery
Thurian Age


Cimmeria is described as a "land of Darkness and deep Night", a gloomy place with dark woods, dusky silent streams and a leaden cloudy sky.





'Cimmeria' (poem by Robert E. Howard 1932)

I remember
The dark woods, masking slopes of sombre hills;
The grey clouds' leaden everlasting arch;
The dusky streams that flowed without a sound,
And the lone winds that whispered down the passes.

Vista upon vista marching, hills on hills,
Slope beyond slope, each dark with sullen trees,
Our gaunt land lay. So when a man climbed up
A rugged peak and gazed, his shaded eye
Saw but the endless vista--hill on hill,
Slope beyond slope, each hooded like its brothers.

It was a gloomy land that seemed to hold
All winds and clouds and dreams that shun the sun,
With bare boughs rattling in the lonesome winds,
And the dark woodlands brooding over all,
Not even lightened by the rare dim sun
Which made squat shadows out of men; they called it
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and deep Night.

It was so long ago and far away
I have forgotten the very name men called me.
The axe and flint-tipped spear are like a dream,
And hunts and wars are like shadows. I recall
Only the stillness of that sombre land;
The clouds that piled forever on the hills,
The dimness of the everlasting woods.
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.

Oh, soul of mine, born out of shadowed hills,
To clouds and winds and ghosts that shun the sun,
How many deaths shall serve to break at last
This heritage which wraps me in the grey
Apparel of ghosts?  I search my heart and find
Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.







A Gold Cauldron's Sinister Secrets

Smithsonian Channel

The discovery of a golden cauldron in a Bavarian lake may be evidence of a secret Nazi cult formed by Heinrich Himmler.

From: NAZI TEMPLE OF DOOM

Chiemsee Cauldron

The Chiemsee Cauldron is a gold cauldron found at the bottom of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria in 2001. The cauldron is decorated with figures reminiscent of the style of the Gundestrup cauldron. It has a diameter of 50 cm and a height of 30 cm, and is made from 10.5 kg (23.15 pounds) of 18 carat gold.

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The Gundestrup caldron--with its clear depiction of Cernunnos--was of Gaulish cultural origin, although discovered in northern Denmark. It may have been brought there at another time, or it may have been a gift from a Gaulish chieftain to a Teutonic chieftain. I don't think there was any absolute historical border that separated the Gauls from the Teutons in northern Europe. That particular interaction is a curious one to me.

'Nazi Temple of Doom: The Chiemsee Cauldron' (Travis Simpkins - artcrimeillustrated.com - 10/8/15)

Cernunnos: The Gundestrup cauldron and the Pillar of the Boatmen







'Rare black bobcat confirmed in Canada' (idoubtit - DoubtfulNews.com - 12/28/16)

There has never been a confirmed case of a black mountain lion, although photographic evidence comes along from time to time.






Julie Zauzmer - WashingtomPost.com - 3/15/17

On Monday, Aug. 21, in the middle of the day, the sky will go dark. The temperature will suddenly get several degrees colder. Birds will stop chirping and retreat to their nests. And tens of millions of people, crammed into a 60-mile-wide path that crosses from Oregon to the Carolinas, will stand in America looking up at the sky.

It’s easy to understand why many people will view this as an act of God.

The total solar eclipse that will cross America this summer — an event that last happened 99 years ago — will be an important moment for scientific observers and a massive nationwide spectator event. It will also, for many people of faith, be evidence of God’s majesty — and even, to a few, a harbinger of the coming end of the world.

con't...






Joan Jett - I Love Rock And Roll

Canal de Josegeraldofonseca







Vintage Maureen O'Hara





Bloodsport - "American Football BC"

The "Barbarian Horde" scene from the film 'Gladiator' is like a football game. Monday Night Football: Rome Legionnaires vs. Carthage Barbarians. They wore helmets, different colored uniforms... the gold/red team vs. the blue/silver team. The Roman Colosseum could have been the Los Angeles Colosseum... maybe this was USC vs. UCLA? In particular, the part where one guy pitches Maximus the sword; it was like the quarterback pitching the football to the halfback! When he then barks out commands, this was like a quarterback (the "field general") calling an audible or a defensive captain calling out a coverage. Then when he takes off on horseback and slashes through the opposing side.. it was like a ball carrier "slashing" through the defense. When "Carthage" finally won, the fans, coaches, and winning teams celebrated just like an American football team would.






Gadiator Barbarian Horde Battle Scene (HD)



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Then there's the opening battle scene, which is much like a modern battle with air strikes, howitzer blasts....





Nebra, Nebraska

The word "Nebraska" is of Amerindian origin.


Nebraska's name is derived from transliteration of the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge, pronounced [ɲĩbɾasꜜkɛ] (contemporary Otoe Ñí Bráhge), or the Omaha Ní Btháska, pronounced [nĩbɫᶞasꜜka], meaning "flat water", after the Platte River that flows through the state.



Still, the "Nebra" sounds like Nebra, Germany; this is were the Nebra sky disk was discovered. Naturally this astronomically-based artifact is based on "the sky"... and probably the early Germanic sky gods. Also, the suffix "ska" sort've sounds like "sky." Some Russian and Polish surnames end with "ska"... and there were clear representations of "sky gods" in the very ancient city of Arkaim, and within the Sintashta culture in what is now Russia.

"Nebra-ska"... just a coincidence, but an interesting compound word in both instances. The state flag and seal portray "flat water" along with "the sky."




What god was Clavius giving an offering to in the movie 'Risen'?                                                    Mars - The Roman god of war





"Shadowhunters" rune                                    The runes from the book and television series 'Shadowhunters' are fictional. The main rune is to represent "Angelic Power."






Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning

MidnightOilVEVO

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I remember walking with a couple of friends one evening, probably about midnight, near Columbus and Bay in San Francisco quite a few years ago. Who comes walking down the street but an intoxicated Peter Garrett. They were in town that weekend. He was throwing and kicking every trash can and newspaper vending machine around him as he made his way down the street. As we came upon him, he stopped momentarily and looked at me... sort've like he wanted to fight, but continued on his merry path instead.






Page stated that he designed his own symbol and has never publicly disclosed any reasoning behind it. It has been argued that his symbol appeared as early as 1557 to represent Saturn. The symbol is sometimes referred to as "ZoSo", though Page has explained that it was not in fact intended to be a word at all. Page was known to be a devotee of Aleister Crowley and his sign resembles a magical sigil. The first three parts of the sigil or symbol also resemble the word "Zos" as found in the magical philosophy of Crowley's associate Austin Osman Spare known as 'Zos vel Thanatos'.

Bassist John Paul Jones' symbol, which he chose from Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs, is a single circle intersecting three vesica pisces (a triquetra). It is intended to symbolise a person who possesses both confidence and competence.

Drummer John Bonham's symbol, the three interlocking (Borromean) rings, was picked by the drummer from the same book. It represents the triad of mother, father and child, but, inverted, it also happens to be the logo for Ballantine beer.

Singer Robert Plant's symbol of a feather within a circle was his own design, being based on the sign of the supposed Mu civilization.

A fifth, smaller symbol chosen by guest vocalist Sandy Denny represents her contribution to "The Battle of Evermore"; the figure, composed of three equilateral triangles, appears on the inner sleeve of the LP, serving as an asterisk.




From Page 14 of 'The Old Farmer’s Almanac' 2017

By the Numbers

3.2 Million: total U.S. farmers
58: average age of U.S. farmers
110,000: number of farmers and ranchers under 35
28% of young farmers say that student loans impede their ability to grow their business
70% of young farmers rend land
78% of young farmers did not grow up on a farm







Little Girl Faces Lion at Zoo

ABC News

Three-year-old faces off with a fierce lion at a New Zealand Zoo.






From Page 11 of 'The Old Farmer’s Almanac' 2017
 
From Lab to Landscape

Bioengineering buffs are designing new plants by changing their genetics. In development: blue roses; plants that glow with DNA from jellyfish or fireflies; fragrant mosses to use as air fresheners.






Why bother with elections?

Maybe we should just appoint Lady Barbara Judge as Queen?








A new Crowley?

I don't know if it's true, but some who follow such circles closely believe that Alan Moore is the new Aleister Crowley.







Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - American Girl

MARiOhana96

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Saturday, February 11, 2017

'Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' - How seriously should we take it?

This is not a movie review, but I watched 'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters' last evening. I make notes if I'm going to review a movie, and it's always a movie which I'm undecided about... but that I will probably like. I'm not going to give any strong negative review of some fantasy movie, which probably wasn't meant to be taken seriously anyway. Still, it's always interesting how certain people are expected to grin and bear certain things, which others will howl at the smallest slight. This movie was an easy watch, as it moved along at a quick pace. It had both dark foreboding and enchanting qualities to it. By and large, it was a good fantasy movie.

I suspect that it was intended to take place in a rural wooded German-speaking region during the Middle Ages. The film pulled no punches, at least throughout most of it; "witches" were evil child murdering monsters who deserved to be killed... preferable by fire or decapitation." Wow... if this was in 2013 (a sequel is on it's way soon), I guess we can't be too surprised that Leo Martello founded the now defunct Witches Anti-Defamation League forty years earlier. Oh, but of course.. this movie was all just for fun!

One aspect of all of this which I was thinking about was that there's a shortage of genres for the "bad gals." The evil women characters of film history are usually just following the lead of the "bad guy" genres. However, with witches, the women are the undisputed rulers of darkness. Muriel, the "evil grand witch" portrayed here, was a very powerful and fearsome character. She was shown to be the ruler of the forest, yet displayed no qualities that one might expect from an adherent of a nature-based religion.

Only later in the film was there a character and references made demonstrating the presence of "good witches." Basically, this was a passive-aggressive film which glorified "the burning times." I do, however, believe that there are Satanic women who call themselves "witches" based on the popular Christian conflation of organic European spiritual traditions with Satanism. Still, we're not expected to ruin everyone's fun here. I can't help but grin when I think of all the possible movie titles: 'Hansel and Gretel: [place any religious group here] Hunters' (aka Killers). Ohhh... doesn't feel good, does it? Other than that, it was a good film with lots of powerful imagery. I confess, I rooted for the bad gal... or as a wise man once told me regarding movie viewing... "you can mix it the way you want to mix it."

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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Incontri Tra/Montani: Acknowledging the importance of our shared pagan past

As covered here before, Incontri Tra/Montani ("encounters between the mountains") is a meeting group between the main cultural organizations of both the Val Camonica and the Valtellina (Sondrio), for discussion regarding the logistics of forming a "Camuno-Valtellina province" including Val Camonica. It also forms a political voice for this rural mountain region.

This group formed in 2009, and their activities and ongoing meetings are covered on their website if you can either read Italian or wish to translate it. I have found it too difficult to actually translate word for word for posting here. I found one article regarding one of their 2009 meetings in which the shared pagan history of both valleys was considered. This short article was published by the Val Camonica Distretto Culturale, and also involved the Camunian cultural group Circolo Culturale Ghislandi.


This Camunian-Valtellinese shared cultural history is significant not only because it ties the two valleys together since time immemorial, but also in that there was a shared spiritual experience. I think it was at the Tonale Pass that the Pagans---Camunians, Valtellinese, Chiavennaschi, and Bergamaschi from the Alpine stretches---would all gather for the eight seasonal festivals. Presumably each would last for several days of rituals.

If I could time travel to witness one historical event, I imagine myself at perhaps a Midsummer gathering... maybe a thousand years ago. Standing with my ancestors along the high mountain pass, feeling the warm summer breeze blowing against me, amid the ominous colors of a golden glowing moon against a darkening blue twilight sky, and observing the rich colors of the high Alps as they are slightly illuminated by the dusk sun.

Perhaps this is the chief ceremony, and a high priestess is standing at a high point with an upraised staff with a small sickle attached to it. She is speaking loudly in an old dialect that I can't begin to recognize, but I somehow just know that she is of my family. I'm standing about 25 yards away. Her face is mostly shadowed, but I can see her beautiful long grayish hair draped over her robe. Although I cannot understand her words, I sense that it has something to do with the great Almother who is watching over us and this earthly paradise.


Back to 2009, this meeting was also attended by representatives from neighboring provinces, including the Swiss canton of Ticino. Among the subjects covered at this meeting was a new book entitled 'Ci Chiamavano Streghe' ("they called us witches") by Giuseppe Laterza. If I understand correctly, the idea of "duel awareness" regarding this and other shared history was emphasized.  This inquisition of the church against local native pagan culture was also present in the Valtellina.

From the article: Just remember that between May and June 1518 in Pisogne, Breno, Edolo, Cemmo and Darfo were prosecuted between 100 and 150 people, of which some 70 the judges of the Inquisition issued a death sentence, then regularly performed. Most of these people, about two-thirds, were women. It went on to say that "witchcraft" was really a scapegoat for a general fear of even the remotest speck of female "deviance" according to church doctrine. I'm guessing that could be something as simple as dancing, as pagans often did. The church and state worked together to this end. In this case, the Venetian state and local Vatican authorities.
 

This period was described as a "clash of cultures," between the urban (church and state) and the rural (Christian-Pagan harmony). Oddly, we see this cultural-political conflict in the United States even today. This internal crusade ("witch hunt") was a European cultural civil war. An estimated 110,000 "authorities," over the course of three centuries, conducted an estimated 60,000 executions. As we're beginning to see pretty clearly today, there are many millions of people today who would love to do this again worldwide... in the name of another supremacist religion.

Book details:
Title: 'They Called Us Witches'
Authors: Various Authors
Preface: Pier Luigi Milani
Curator: Andrea Richini
Editors: Giuseppe Laterza
Publication date: 2009
Price: Euro $25.00










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Friday, October 18, 2013

'Pan's Labyrinth' (movie review)



'Pan's Labyrinth' - From 'The Greatest Movies Ever' (#24):

"Goya meets Alice in Wonderland in this genre-obliterating tour de force," Kinn and Piazza write of the 2005 film directed by Guillermo del Toro. "Intermingling dark and shimmering special-effects imagery with an abiding respect for character, del Toro questions our notion of the polarity between reality and imagination." The director was next to author Stephen King at a screening of the film and saw King shifting uncomfortably at some of the gorier sections. Del Toro said it was the greatest moment of his life. Actor Doug Jones played the creepy Pale Man and the Faun that speaks with girl explorer Ofelia, and he was the only American involved with the production as well as the only person who didn't speak Spanish. He had to memorize his lines as well as those of star Ivana Baquero, who played Ofelia, so he would understand when he was supposed to speak.

The protagonist is a little girl named Ofelia, whose widowed mother has just married a high ranking Fascist officer in 1944 Spain. They are going to live with him in a remote wooded mountain location, while he administers a local effort to crush the anti-Fascist rebels. It's not clear to me as to whether or not the rebels are Communists, or merely resisting a dictatorship. Clearly, they are portrayed as the "force of good"; and the Falange-Fascists are portrayed as evil, and in particular her stepfather is shown as an amoral monster! I mean, this guy outdoes any "Nazi character" or "evil stepfather" ever portrayed on film! Personally, I don't believe that Communists--with their clear history of incredible mass murder of tens of millions--are any better than Fascists, but that's another issue for another time. Through the dark imagery of the film, there is a whole tense social situation there, with rebels on the inside, and this little girl is right in the middle of this darkness and violence.

She is slowly guided into the spiritual milieu of "Pan," a ram-horned underworld entity. Since the director, Guillermo del Toro, has directed numerous films with Satanic-themes... I suspect that, to him, Pan represented Satan. Del Toro even said that the character is not Pan, but a "faun." He was portrayed as "firm but fair" (similar to the God of the Bible) as opposed to Captain Vidal.. who was a brutal torturer and murderer. The faun did say that Ofelia was "born from the Moon," of which she had a crescent moon birthmark that he reminded her of. This hints at the ancient Euro-pagan "horned god" and the "Moon goddess"... in other words, "European Witchcraft."

Slowly, the noble-hearted Ofelia, an avid reader of fairy tales, is drawn to the faun though an old nearby "Labyrinth." On a side note, a Labyrinth is a particularly important spiritual symbol to the ancient Camunni... as well as with a lot of other ancient peoples around the world. After awhile, amid Captain Vidal's dark heart and brutality, the faun doesn't seem like such a bad guy. The faun never confronts Captain Vidal, even though he believes that Ofelia is the soul of his long lost daughter. Despite his power, he operates and interacts with humans within the concept of "free will"... similar again to the God of the Bible. Also similar to the Biblical God, he suggests mortal violence as a means to "test an individual."

One character, who slowly grows on you during the movie, is Mercedes, Vidal's head housekeeper and sister of one of the rebel leaders. She is a good-hearted, strong, and brave character who takes a strong liking to Ofelia, and helps give her at least some kind of support system in this mess. Within this struggle for the soul of that nation, I found myself--for brief instances--thinking of Mercedes as a figure like Juana Galán.. maybe a national symbol if events had unfolded differently, if one could muse about a fictional character. There are three Spanish actors--in particular--whose great performances really make this movie. Sergi López as Captain Vidal, Maribel Verdú as Mercedes, and Ivana Bacquero as Ofelia. This movie won a lot of awards, which you can see in the 'Pan's Labyrinth' Wikipedia page. The ending of this film is very dramatic, but I don't want to spoil it.

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