Tuesday, February 21, 2012
FAT & ASH
Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. I searched my old blogs for "mardi gras" "lent" etc. I am surprised I haven't written more about this time of year. Not only do I generally like and approve of annual drunken, orgiastic, public rites, the roots of these two days are very old.
The year, like a person, is composed of many different elements and cycles. There are the seasons, a solar cycle that accords climate and weather. There are lunar cycles. Each has their place. The sun is steady; the moon fluctuates and changes.
And then there are the tides. Not the oceanic tides, but the agricultural and pastoral tides. (From whence comes the rites of most religions, in my opinion.) The tide of sowing, the tiding of reaping, the tide of resting, the tide of destruction.
I believe the need for Lenten type fasting came from the need at this time of year, in the past, to let the calves have the milk, and the earth have the seed. Spring was swift approaching, and new green things- like sorrel- were beginning to appear. That bit of promising tartness could sustain the a person through the last of the moldy, winter-long stored apples and potatoes.
And there would be foods that would need to be eaten, before they spoiled, sweets and treats carefully hoarded, and what finer way to celebrate then a party before the next six weeks of labour and sacrifice would take place?
Moreover, we are ending the Age of Pisces, the Sacrificial Fish, the All Powerful Father and the Sacrificed Son. Now that we are coming to the Age of Aquarius, or the Age of Avatars, as I call it, we will be our own saviours, but the Piscean Age was dependent on the past and tradition, and it will not let go so easily.
And even Avatars and Messiahs need a reason to celebrate, whether bread and wine, or beads and boobs.
;o)
The year, like a person, is composed of many different elements and cycles. There are the seasons, a solar cycle that accords climate and weather. There are lunar cycles. Each has their place. The sun is steady; the moon fluctuates and changes.
And then there are the tides. Not the oceanic tides, but the agricultural and pastoral tides. (From whence comes the rites of most religions, in my opinion.) The tide of sowing, the tiding of reaping, the tide of resting, the tide of destruction.
I believe the need for Lenten type fasting came from the need at this time of year, in the past, to let the calves have the milk, and the earth have the seed. Spring was swift approaching, and new green things- like sorrel- were beginning to appear. That bit of promising tartness could sustain the a person through the last of the moldy, winter-long stored apples and potatoes.
And there would be foods that would need to be eaten, before they spoiled, sweets and treats carefully hoarded, and what finer way to celebrate then a party before the next six weeks of labour and sacrifice would take place?
Moreover, we are ending the Age of Pisces, the Sacrificial Fish, the All Powerful Father and the Sacrificed Son. Now that we are coming to the Age of Aquarius, or the Age of Avatars, as I call it, we will be our own saviours, but the Piscean Age was dependent on the past and tradition, and it will not let go so easily.
And even Avatars and Messiahs need a reason to celebrate, whether bread and wine, or beads and boobs.
;o)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
MOTHERLESS ADVENTURES AND NANNY POPPINS
http://press.emerson.edu/ploughshares/2012/02/17/knocking-off-mom-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-g-rated-murder/
I enjoyed this article, but the author misses a fairly obvious point (in addition to the one that I make in my comment on the article-- that all children dream of the adventure and freedom of being an orphan, and that is why so many kids books feature orphans as the hero/ines): mother dying is also a metaphor for leaving behind both the completeness of the womb and coming into this world, and also that the death of childhood is the murder of mother and the safety she represents. Mother herself may not need to die literally, but the idea-- the comfort, the safety-- of her must die in order for the child to find his/her own strength and become his or her own person.
Reading this, I was also reminded of that in encountering the supernatural and out-of-the-ordinary does not require the death of mother. Harry Potter's parents death is not just necessary so that he can defeat Voldemort-- in fact it is his mother's love that creates the power over Voldemort that Harry has-- it is necessary because otherwise he would have grown up in a magickal household. He would have been more like Ron. Or if he had grown up in a muggle household, Hermione. And then there is a whole other post that could be done on the fantasy of the black sheep child, the child that is, in fact, Harry Dursley, and how he wishes to learn that one day he is an orphan, born of supernatural parentage, etc.
Take for instance Mary Poppins (both of these are from my old Conjurings blog).
http://conjurings.blogspot.com/2007/10/mary-poppins-spoonful-of-sugar.html
http://conjurings.blogspot.com/2008/06/pl-travers-magickal-mary-poppins.html
I enjoyed this article, but the author misses a fairly obvious point (in addition to the one that I make in my comment on the article-- that all children dream of the adventure and freedom of being an orphan, and that is why so many kids books feature orphans as the hero/ines): mother dying is also a metaphor for leaving behind both the completeness of the womb and coming into this world, and also that the death of childhood is the murder of mother and the safety she represents. Mother herself may not need to die literally, but the idea-- the comfort, the safety-- of her must die in order for the child to find his/her own strength and become his or her own person.
Reading this, I was also reminded of that in encountering the supernatural and out-of-the-ordinary does not require the death of mother. Harry Potter's parents death is not just necessary so that he can defeat Voldemort-- in fact it is his mother's love that creates the power over Voldemort that Harry has-- it is necessary because otherwise he would have grown up in a magickal household. He would have been more like Ron. Or if he had grown up in a muggle household, Hermione. And then there is a whole other post that could be done on the fantasy of the black sheep child, the child that is, in fact, Harry Dursley, and how he wishes to learn that one day he is an orphan, born of supernatural parentage, etc.
Take for instance Mary Poppins (both of these are from my old Conjurings blog).
http://conjurings.blogspot.com/2007/10/mary-poppins-spoonful-of-sugar.html
http://conjurings.blogspot.com/2008/06/pl-travers-magickal-mary-poppins.html
Saturday, February 4, 2012
SUPERBOWL PSYCHIC PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
Four years ago, at 4 minutes to nine on the Saturday night before the Superbowl, I sent out an email to 19 people, predicting the exact score and winning team of the game to be played the next day.
The email is actually date and time stamped with California time-- 6:58PM February 2, 2008-- as my sbcglobal.net email address was through a guy I'd been living with before coming back to St. Louis. I no longer have access to the email address-- in fact, I think the account itself is now gone. And SBC Global has not been at all helpful in giving me any verification for it.
Of the 19 people that received, roughly 8 did not even read it before deleting it, seeing it as another of the rambling prediction emails I'd been sending out that year. Several more I am not even on speaking terms with anymore.
There are five people on the list that received it, read it before the game, and will, if asked, verify that it was sent before the game and that the prediction stunned them. All will also add that I have not been able to reproduce those results since then. (You can view the contents of the email here, although I have erased the header and recipient info.)
One of the people that received the email (but has never responded to any of my emails about it) has every right to think I am "voices in the head" schizoid that needs to be heavily medicated and locked up. Hearing the thoughts of other people is very rarely the gift the non-psychic thinks it is. When I am wrong, I am horribly, irrevocably wrong. And often I have to make the choice between living with being wrong, or being tortured by not knowing whether I am hallucinating or not. (And usually, I am right, but as I said, when I am wrong, I am horribly wrong.)
Choosing to confront someone based on "the voices in my head" is always risky business. And even when I am trying to do the right thing, it can have a terrible outcome.
This year, I was that crazy person. Or perhaps that unsung heroine. Who will ever know? Not even me.
So, when a few months ago it came to me that this would be another year when the possibility of predicting the Superbowl was an option, I was elated. Finally, a chance to redeem myself. This time, I could post on facebook, which has an unalterable time stamp (unlike a blog), and which anyone can see (unlike an email).
All those people that think I am a big liar, or crazy, or delusional, well, finally I could prove it to them once and for all that I am at least sometimes right. And right in a way that few people ever are. Even if the score wasn't going to be as insane as that 17-14 score in 2008. (I rarely watch the game at Superbowl parties, preferring the jello shots and commercials and halftime show, but that year I watched and I kept asking "is this a good game?" I know so little about American football.)
So, it did seem strange to me, that it is the same two teams. And I have that feeling again. That "you can do it" feeling. But I am sitting here, having some sort of crisis of faith.
Or maybe I just don't give a fuck anymore. I am not betting. I won't be getting any money from my prediction. Any fame that comes from it will just be annoying and disrupt my hermit-like existence. There seems to be only two reasons I am interested in doing it again: to confound the non-believing muggles, and to redeem myself for the terrible psychic "wrongs" I committed this year.
I'm giving myself until 5:15 PM CST tomorrow. I will be posting on my facebook Lady Rae page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LADY-RAE/151678961529234?sk=wall
Will I be right? Will I care? No one knows. Not even me.
EDIT: The post on Facebook. Don't know why the fonts are all crazy.
The email is actually date and time stamped with California time-- 6:58PM February 2, 2008-- as my sbcglobal.net email address was through a guy I'd been living with before coming back to St. Louis. I no longer have access to the email address-- in fact, I think the account itself is now gone. And SBC Global has not been at all helpful in giving me any verification for it.
Of the 19 people that received, roughly 8 did not even read it before deleting it, seeing it as another of the rambling prediction emails I'd been sending out that year. Several more I am not even on speaking terms with anymore.
There are five people on the list that received it, read it before the game, and will, if asked, verify that it was sent before the game and that the prediction stunned them. All will also add that I have not been able to reproduce those results since then. (You can view the contents of the email here, although I have erased the header and recipient info.)
One of the people that received the email (but has never responded to any of my emails about it) has every right to think I am "voices in the head" schizoid that needs to be heavily medicated and locked up. Hearing the thoughts of other people is very rarely the gift the non-psychic thinks it is. When I am wrong, I am horribly, irrevocably wrong. And often I have to make the choice between living with being wrong, or being tortured by not knowing whether I am hallucinating or not. (And usually, I am right, but as I said, when I am wrong, I am horribly wrong.)
Choosing to confront someone based on "the voices in my head" is always risky business. And even when I am trying to do the right thing, it can have a terrible outcome.
This year, I was that crazy person. Or perhaps that unsung heroine. Who will ever know? Not even me.
So, when a few months ago it came to me that this would be another year when the possibility of predicting the Superbowl was an option, I was elated. Finally, a chance to redeem myself. This time, I could post on facebook, which has an unalterable time stamp (unlike a blog), and which anyone can see (unlike an email).
All those people that think I am a big liar, or crazy, or delusional, well, finally I could prove it to them once and for all that I am at least sometimes right. And right in a way that few people ever are. Even if the score wasn't going to be as insane as that 17-14 score in 2008. (I rarely watch the game at Superbowl parties, preferring the jello shots and commercials and halftime show, but that year I watched and I kept asking "is this a good game?" I know so little about American football.)
So, it did seem strange to me, that it is the same two teams. And I have that feeling again. That "you can do it" feeling. But I am sitting here, having some sort of crisis of faith.
Or maybe I just don't give a fuck anymore. I am not betting. I won't be getting any money from my prediction. Any fame that comes from it will just be annoying and disrupt my hermit-like existence. There seems to be only two reasons I am interested in doing it again: to confound the non-believing muggles, and to redeem myself for the terrible psychic "wrongs" I committed this year.
I'm giving myself until 5:15 PM CST tomorrow. I will be posting on my facebook Lady Rae page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LADY-RAE/151678961529234?sk=wall
Will I be right? Will I care? No one knows. Not even me.
EDIT: The post on Facebook. Don't know why the fonts are all crazy.
LADY RAEOkay, well, I think 2008 was just one of those things that was pretty well set in stone. Every year since then, even this one, it was not a consistent set of numbers. I will say this, until the second half of the third quarter everything happened as I'd seen it. The only thing that I wondered about was, I did not see the Patriots going from 17 to 26 with three field goals, it was another touch down and then something else, and when they didin't make the touchdown I wondered about that 26 score-- had I seen something wrong? What is two points? I don't know enough about football. Anyhow, I was hoping this would redeem me, now I think, well, maybe I don't need to be redeemed. I am a psychic, I do make mistakes, oh well. And predicting the future is tricky, as Yoda said "future always in motion" especially during professional sports.5 February at 22:19 ·
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