Yellowstone Apocalypse, or What Worries Me Most

There is so much going on out there, so much mischief and madness being thrown at us, so many toys coming out of those DUMB labs and archonic think-tanks that I can hardly keep up with it all. Then there's nightmare in Austin that seems to have risen like Cthulhu from the deep, dragging a gaggle of potent symbols in its wake like tin cans behind a newlyweds' Studebaker.

The Holy Fool

The jingling of bells during the dance is meant to frighten evil spirits and the clashing of sticks represent the fight between good and evil. 

Secret Sunday: Beltane Edition

 

Well, Saturday was May Day and there was chaos and confusion all across the globe, including an alleged failed IED in Times Square. There were also several protests over the new Arizona immigration law. But you can read about all of that on any old website: let's go to Edinburgh for the yearly Beltane Fire Festival, which drew 12,000 people this year. 

A goodly number of them were nude and smeared in red body paint, I might add.

The Siren: The Lovely Bones

Like several other films before it, Peter Jackson's new film The Lovely Bones features one of the central mysteries of the Secret Sun-o-verse, Elizabeth Fraser's heart-ripping cover of Tim Buckley's 'Song to the Siren'. 

Atalante Rising

Sometimes you have to wonder if news items aren't sometimes made up of whole cloth and planted in the media to follow some weird ritual cycle, unknown to the general reading public. 

This is one of those stories that seems more Morals & Dogma than Christian Science Monitor...

Winter Solstice Sunrise- Live from Ireland

 

Winter Solstice Sunrise

the not live version 

Did you know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy? Timely, eh? Looks like there's a new push for science education as the Bush Era begins to fade. Or something.

 

Boards of Canada: Over The Horizon Radar

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Whatever the Montauk Project became, it started as experiments with OTH , or over-the-horizon radar. The sonic sorcerers known as Boards of Canada gave one of their most excruciatingly beautiful pieces that title and a talented fan made this heart-ripping video for it. 

This thing hurts like hell, but in a good way. It also takes on an added touch of melancholy as we near summer's end.

Warcraft and the Midsummer Fires

How is it that the more technologically advanced this culture becomes, the more pagan it becomes? Or that some of the most enthusiastic pagans seem to be the ones most immersed in technology?

The Atavistic Soul Rises Once More

OG Synchromystic Ben Fairhall blogged recently about Goths and Pagans reviving the Medieval ritual of the Morris dance. 

Siren Syncs: Brendan Fraser in the Underworld

The last great wave of music video revolved around the Techno movement of the late 90s. It was a musical revolution that never really came, but it marked the use of computer technology coming into its own in the service of video spots. 

Scottish Sunday: Gently, Johnny

 

I've been puzzling for weeks about which band I wanted to kick off Scottish Sundays with. Big Country, the band that ruled my late teenaged years? Pilot, whose hit "Magic" inspired me during the magical Spring of 1975? The Cocteau Twins? Pre-sellout Simple Minds? 

Latest Provocation from Druid Mole

Archdruid Williams recommends the establishment of Sharia law for the UK. 

People, this puppethead is a provocateur put in place to destroy the Anglican Church and revert its assets back to the Vatican. And he's doing a wonderful job of it. 

Not being an Anglican I don't care, but all these fools do is get the Fundamentalists all riled up - and now the Muslims - which makes life more unpleasant for everyone.

Mindbomb: The Leprechaun

One of my biggest influences is Graham Hancock, the pioneering British journalist and explorer. In my opinion, Hancock is a giant of our times and his influence on popular culture is as huge as it is unacknowledged.

 

Fire Festivals: Art is the Door

I posted this before, but you need to realize that this is how it all works. You start with this...

And it becomes this...

This is how these things manifest themselves into our reality. Things that few people notice at the time resonate with the motivated sensitives who use that inspiration to redefine the culture. Perhaps a motivated sensitive saw that music video and a process began that lead to a massive, annual Beltane celebration in the heart of Edinburgh.

Or this: Following a 1986 revival showing in San Francisco of the obscure British film, The Wicker Man becomes "Burning Man" and comes to define the lives of tens of thousands of people. In the end, there's only one criteria for the worth of an idea- its resonance.

I feel extremely fortunate to have been alive at a time when so many powerful forces were manifesting practically unnoticed into this reality through Art. There was a period during the early-to-mid 80's when all of this weirdness was slipping into this world and building itself a home.

The reason I fixate on the things I do is that they are ripe to the point of bursting with resonance and meaning.

2007 in Review: The Departed

 

Scorcese wins a long-overdue Best Director Oscar for The Departed, parts of which were filmed on my old stomping grounds. I can think of any number of other pictures that should have earned Marty the nod, but The Departed is certainly worthy. 

Wahlberg should have gotten Best Supporting though...

At the Edge of 17

In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was killed on the 17th day of Athyr, the third month of the ancient calendar. Though not acknowledged, 17 seems to be a very meaningful number in the Mystery traditions, sort of equivalent to the Cross in Christianity. It symbolizes an unjust death and the promise of rebirth. 

The Winter Bonfires

Mysterious Britain that explores the ancient European celebrations of Yule, from which we've derived many of our modern Christmas rites. Another essay explains how the ancients celebrated the winter solstice with bonfires. 

And a quick googling reveals that the practice of Solstice bonfires seems to be experiencing a bit of a comeback.

Family Mythologies

A recent DNA test put some longstanding myths in my family to rest, right in time for the holidays. But it led me to wonder what myths we will organize ourselves along in the future... 

  It's easy to rail against divisions, but the fact is that people have always needed to feel they are part of an in-group. But I've always been more interested in what people have in common than in their differences. The reason I believe we need new mythologies is because this chaotic world of constant creative destruction is going to require new alliances untied to our old ones. 

The center of economic power is shifting to China and India, and they don't care about our ethnic or religious differences, they're much more concerned with their own. The wish-dream that the world will all join hands and live as one is nothing but wanting- to-buy-the-world-a-Coke corporate propaganda...