Seeing its the season I thought I would post one of my recent uploads to flickr on here - it is a tribal mask encased in glass that we have in our living room. Suffice to say tis mask has a personality all of its own which has left a fair few people on edge….I won’t say why ;o)
Just to add - this post has also been made at my new blog - http://www.ohk.org.uk/astralpilgrim
All my old posts are there also and I will slowly make a transistion from this blog to that - you will just why when you get there - much more creative clout i.e - I can add my own stuff!
Friday, 31 October 2008
Monday, 13 October 2008
Social Failure: The Need for Change
Our society is failing to work and it is time we started to accept this as a fact. When you take a good look around you will see failure of our society on every single level, affecting every single class, in fact all forms of social stratification are being let down by "the system". At the lower ends of society humans are being let down by being forced into slavery under the guise of "honest hard work" whereas the top ends of society are being let down by living in a system that encourages them to abuse the position of power that they are in. Our society is exploitative by design, not by human failure. The greedy select few at the top are only that way because we live within a social system that encourages competitiveness. Often this competition is promoted as good, encouraging free trade and control of market prices when in fact all it does is promote greed, corruption and exploitation. This is achieved through scarcity and the control of resources to ensure the lack of abundance and perpetuation of profit based market systems.Our society is one governed by money, and a monetary based society is one founded on the need for profit and gain. In this kind of environment, coupled with intentionally created competitiveness we end up with greed and those seeking "more". This is one of the root causes of crime, as those worse off consistently seek to compete with those via criminal methods as our society cannot support everyone competing through a work/slave market. A lot of these topics are going to be published in a future blog but for now they serve to highlight some of the basic issues of our society which support my current topic - politics and law.
The issue I wish to bring up at this time is our approach to a solution. We need to begin to rethink how we tackle social issues and the failures of the current system, and more importantly how we no longer need those people who currently uphold the system as it is. Politics has long been held as a system that provides a voice for the people, allowing the wishes of the masses to be made manifest through political discussion and the creation of law. This system has critically failed. You only need to ask yourself this simple question - what is currently improving my life? Are the decisions made by politicians actually improving your life? No. Many say that to not vote is to support the status-quo when in all honesty voting supports the status-quo as no matter who you vote for nothing integrally changes. Thatcher was not responsible for poll tax, the system was responsible for it. If she hadn't of done it someone else would have in some other form, be them conservative, labour or anyone else.
Please bear with me as I try to explain this as I will attempt to not go off and a thousand tangents!
It is very easy to establish that we live in a monetary based society that can only function off the basis of profit and the use of money as a form of wage and payment. How does a company make profit? By ensuring that it's product trumps any other on the market and that they control supply so as not to saturate availability and therefore water down costs subsequently reducing profits. Many south African diamond mines for example destroy a large portion of the diamond stock so as not to reduce the value of the unit. This process leads to scarcity - the primary cause of high prices and high profits. This failure is not caused by groups of people or individuals, they are merely the symptom - the problem is the social system that practically encourages it to happen. This is system is perpetuated by the political and legal process as we often try to control social systems through law and the governing politics of a law yet this has consistently failed to deliver.
Example
When we consistently see something wrong happening such as cars crashing into each other and killing people because they are going to fast what does our social system do?
It creates a law...
What can this possibly do? Some abide by said law, others don't. Some people still die and some are locked up in prison for their trouble. This is not a solution, it is a patchwork, a social plaster that doesn't amount to much.
Do we have the same problem with planes? No - and why is that? We have applied that which humans do best, problem solving and technology. Ever since we designed tools to help remove the skin of an animal or to help build something we have applied our ability to create and design.
Why is this not being done today?..
PROFIT
The monetary system and subsequently the political system that supports it is socially paralysing our development both socially and technologically. New technology is only being encouraged on the basis it will increase productivity and profit. No profit = no funding = no design. Our profit based social mentality cannot allow cars to be designed that require almost no service maintenance and that don't crash or collide. This would hammer the profits of both the service industry and insurance industry too much - and the people who are at the head of such industries across all of society are people with a lot of money and a lot of political persuasion. This inevitably causes us to look at those who claim to govern our society, this society which has failed to deliver...politicians.
A politician is someone who claims to get things done. Have a problem? Write to your local MP. Want to see change - vote for the party who stands for what you believe.
This is a social fallacy.
What does your local MP have the power to do? Absolutely nothing. Any and all social change cannot be governed any one single individual, and even a single political party can only cause nominal change to occur. Why is that? It is simple really...politicians do not create anything other than legislation and law, and attempt to cause change to occur through the maintenance of the national monetary system - and this is where we are let down. A political party is no different than a corporation - it lives within a monetary system and therefore must work and create within a monetary system following the same route as everyone else - competitiveness and greed cause by intentional scarcity and the drive for market share, or in the case of political parties - power and the drive for voting share.
There is another way. Outside the control of a monetary system our technological and additionally social advancement would not be stifled and paralysed by the governance of profit. We have the technology and the ability to design new technologies that can significantly improve our society and improve the global society as a whole. It may seem far fetched to think of a world devoid of the monetary system but it isn't. We have not always lived within this system and I believe there is a future for us beyond the system we are in now. We all need to change the way we think - we all need to make a difference to ourselves and in turn make a difference to our society. This archaic and useless system of politics and law cannot last forever and a change in these will take us one step further towards freeing humans from the grip of profit, greed and the corruption it creates.
People need to stop seeing these qualities as something inherently human. You are not born greedy, corrupt or bigoted. These are conditions caused by social functions, socialisation and cultural conditioning. They go to show the failure of our society and the failure of humans create a social environment that works in cohesion with our natural environment allowing us to live more healthy fulfilling lives. The time is now to start changing your life and working towards changing our society for the better.
What are you waiting for?
Friday, 10 October 2008
A Little Drop of Information: Tax is illegal
I thought I would start adding an element to my blog entitled little drops of information. If you read my last blog you will appreciate I sometimes find it hard to keep people up with what I am on about and dropping little snippets of info helps keep things going.
Tax is illegal
Yup, and no it's not just wishful thinking. Within the bounds of the legal system, there is not one law anywhere that says you have to pay tax. There is case after case in America being put forward to the courts from people who are not paying their tax to the IRS on the basis that there is no law that says the government is allowed to tax you. It is a social assumption. One of many.
The ironic part is....these people are winning these cases. The courts are going in favour of the defendant in these cases each and every time. The same applies to the UK. No law for it.
Heh...thought you might want to know.
Tax is illegal
Yup, and no it's not just wishful thinking. Within the bounds of the legal system, there is not one law anywhere that says you have to pay tax. There is case after case in America being put forward to the courts from people who are not paying their tax to the IRS on the basis that there is no law that says the government is allowed to tax you. It is a social assumption. One of many.
The ironic part is....these people are winning these cases. The courts are going in favour of the defendant in these cases each and every time. The same applies to the UK. No law for it.
Heh...thought you might want to know.
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Society, Psychosis and the Shaman
I have what the medical community term Schizo Affective Disorder. Some of those who know me know this already, the vast majority don't. The doctors came to this conclusion many years ago during an ongoing period of depression I was going through. After many meetings I talked to them about the things I see, the things I hear and some of the things I do. As a practising pagan this included the use of magick.
The response was interesting and the line of logic used by the psychiatric community is concerning as it is simply linear. In their book this is the occurrence, without question.
1. Visual Hallucination
2. Auditory Hallucination
3. Belief in Magick
4. Differing perception of reality
5. Non-conformist view of day to day living
1+2 = Psychosis in need of diagnosis
3+4+5 = Diagnosis of schizo affective disorder with the presence of 1+2
I have seen various people over many years. CPN's (Community Psychiatric Nurses), Psychologists, Counsellors and Psychiatrists. With each person I have seen I have always started by asking them the same thing. How do they know that the things I see and the things I hear are not real. More to the point, how do they know that magick is not real and what is so wrong with viewing our world in a different way because you feel that it is wrong how it works now.
Not one of them was able to answer.
They were not trained to think outside the box, they were trained to know exactly what the box is and how to spot those taking a walk outside it.
I will admit to taking great offence to this. Conform to the system or get hit with a diagnosis, get labelled and pre-judged. No thanks!
Only once was there someone who I think understood me to any extent. I lady I saw during a psychological assessment. We talked for many weeks and she pointed out that in regards to social events around me she believes that I am right, but I am what she called "super-sensitive" to these events which causes me to get very worked up about them. Nevertheless she said, I am still right. That was a great boost to have someone acknowledge that I wasn't just bonkers!
Over the years I have taken a good long look at my life, at myself. Asked those all important questions...
Who am I?
What am I?
Where am I going?
What am I doing?
Where should I be?
For me to understand the answers to my questions I needed to understand what was going on with me. The things I see, the things I hear. To me, they are real. I have reached the point of easily being able to distinguish the difference between what is real (vision) and what is not real (hallucination). With vision I can distinctly tell the difference of separation, that the event is detached from me and an external event, responsive to external stimuli and beyond any control of thought I might try to apply without the use of magick - an entity or event unto itself. With hallucination it is very easily to tell this is a mental event, something occurring within me that is slightly externalising itself. This of course led to questions of wondering how any of it can be real, how can someone be hallucinating, yet also have something real going on at the same time? I found the answers to this from Bobcat, also known as Emma Restall Orr. We corresponded via email for quite some time, sharing aspects of our lives as they seemed so similar. She had been through the same process as me with the medical community. She pointed out that you can't have one without the other. For the brain to be open to vision, it must also take the hallucination as the processes are linked, almost like a side effect. After many years of working with this now I can very much see this is the case.
I have never been a social creature believe it or not. I can be in a room full of people, I can smile and talk to everyone, but often I am detached. I find it very hard to socialise simply because my mind is often doing a thousand things at once, but I get by. Social detachment seems to be an intrinsic element of people like myself, and Bobcat went on to point this out as the modern shamans. Much like ths shamans of times past social isolation was a factor. Our social life does not comprise just of human interaction and so that human interaction has to play only a part of our social life. I suppose I have never approached this as an affirmation but it seems appropriate.
I am a natural Shaman.
In heart, soul, mind, body and spirit - with all I am. Since I was a child I guess I have walked with a foot in either world and nothing much has changed in 30 years. Some of my earliest memories are filled with the vision of that which the others could not see. As a teenager my mum thought me odd for practically living in the tree in my back garden because I kept saying someone might break into the house. Little did they realise that people I was talking about are not the kind you can call the police about - thankfully the boggarts from my grandparents house who had come with us when we moved where up to the job.
(Just to add, I have read sooo many things and heard so many people say what they think boggarts are, and only ever known two people ever actually get them right - a search on wikipedia for a boaggart will give you a whole load of information on what a boggart is like when you piss them off, but on the other hand they are great to have in the house. We have one in our house at the moment who I believe has come here again from my grandparents house. another common myth of boggarts is that they are tied to a locale, the truth being they are often linked to a family and often move with a family but not always).
My world is one quite different to most, one that at times can be quite hard to cope with. Sometimes people get frustrated thinking that my responses or opinions are bit far out or obscure. One other thing that was pointed out to me by the woman I saw who said I was super-sensitive was that sometimes people can find it hard to follow my point as I link events which to me are clearly linked yet for others it apparently can be difficult to see a link without taking half an hour to explain it. Audio Pixie (my wife) has this problem to cope with on a day to day basis and I sympathise with her a lot on that one. I often used to blurt out what to her was strange comments to things happening with her not realising I was lilnking the phrase to obscure event inthe past, or a quote from a movie relevant to what is going on, or sometimes the link goes two, three or four deep so it becomes a complete "in-joke" between me and me. These days I try to explain how I link things together as I go along, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Thats just me I suppose...
The response was interesting and the line of logic used by the psychiatric community is concerning as it is simply linear. In their book this is the occurrence, without question.
1. Visual Hallucination
2. Auditory Hallucination
3. Belief in Magick
4. Differing perception of reality
5. Non-conformist view of day to day living
1+2 = Psychosis in need of diagnosis
3+4+5 = Diagnosis of schizo affective disorder with the presence of 1+2
I have seen various people over many years. CPN's (Community Psychiatric Nurses), Psychologists, Counsellors and Psychiatrists. With each person I have seen I have always started by asking them the same thing. How do they know that the things I see and the things I hear are not real. More to the point, how do they know that magick is not real and what is so wrong with viewing our world in a different way because you feel that it is wrong how it works now.
Not one of them was able to answer.
They were not trained to think outside the box, they were trained to know exactly what the box is and how to spot those taking a walk outside it.
I will admit to taking great offence to this. Conform to the system or get hit with a diagnosis, get labelled and pre-judged. No thanks!
Only once was there someone who I think understood me to any extent. I lady I saw during a psychological assessment. We talked for many weeks and she pointed out that in regards to social events around me she believes that I am right, but I am what she called "super-sensitive" to these events which causes me to get very worked up about them. Nevertheless she said, I am still right. That was a great boost to have someone acknowledge that I wasn't just bonkers!
Over the years I have taken a good long look at my life, at myself. Asked those all important questions...
Who am I?
What am I?
Where am I going?
What am I doing?
Where should I be?
For me to understand the answers to my questions I needed to understand what was going on with me. The things I see, the things I hear. To me, they are real. I have reached the point of easily being able to distinguish the difference between what is real (vision) and what is not real (hallucination). With vision I can distinctly tell the difference of separation, that the event is detached from me and an external event, responsive to external stimuli and beyond any control of thought I might try to apply without the use of magick - an entity or event unto itself. With hallucination it is very easily to tell this is a mental event, something occurring within me that is slightly externalising itself. This of course led to questions of wondering how any of it can be real, how can someone be hallucinating, yet also have something real going on at the same time? I found the answers to this from Bobcat, also known as Emma Restall Orr. We corresponded via email for quite some time, sharing aspects of our lives as they seemed so similar. She had been through the same process as me with the medical community. She pointed out that you can't have one without the other. For the brain to be open to vision, it must also take the hallucination as the processes are linked, almost like a side effect. After many years of working with this now I can very much see this is the case.
I have never been a social creature believe it or not. I can be in a room full of people, I can smile and talk to everyone, but often I am detached. I find it very hard to socialise simply because my mind is often doing a thousand things at once, but I get by. Social detachment seems to be an intrinsic element of people like myself, and Bobcat went on to point this out as the modern shamans. Much like ths shamans of times past social isolation was a factor. Our social life does not comprise just of human interaction and so that human interaction has to play only a part of our social life. I suppose I have never approached this as an affirmation but it seems appropriate.
I am a natural Shaman.
In heart, soul, mind, body and spirit - with all I am. Since I was a child I guess I have walked with a foot in either world and nothing much has changed in 30 years. Some of my earliest memories are filled with the vision of that which the others could not see. As a teenager my mum thought me odd for practically living in the tree in my back garden because I kept saying someone might break into the house. Little did they realise that people I was talking about are not the kind you can call the police about - thankfully the boggarts from my grandparents house who had come with us when we moved where up to the job.
(Just to add, I have read sooo many things and heard so many people say what they think boggarts are, and only ever known two people ever actually get them right - a search on wikipedia for a boaggart will give you a whole load of information on what a boggart is like when you piss them off, but on the other hand they are great to have in the house. We have one in our house at the moment who I believe has come here again from my grandparents house. another common myth of boggarts is that they are tied to a locale, the truth being they are often linked to a family and often move with a family but not always).
My world is one quite different to most, one that at times can be quite hard to cope with. Sometimes people get frustrated thinking that my responses or opinions are bit far out or obscure. One other thing that was pointed out to me by the woman I saw who said I was super-sensitive was that sometimes people can find it hard to follow my point as I link events which to me are clearly linked yet for others it apparently can be difficult to see a link without taking half an hour to explain it. Audio Pixie (my wife) has this problem to cope with on a day to day basis and I sympathise with her a lot on that one. I often used to blurt out what to her was strange comments to things happening with her not realising I was lilnking the phrase to obscure event inthe past, or a quote from a movie relevant to what is going on, or sometimes the link goes two, three or four deep so it becomes a complete "in-joke" between me and me. These days I try to explain how I link things together as I go along, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Thats just me I suppose...
Sunday, 14 September 2008
The Art of Mastery
Just what is mastery? What does it mean to become so adept at something that you could consider yourself at the top of your game?
When I bring this up I bring it up in relation to magick and also music but I guess the concept could be applied to pretty much any field. A while ago during a discussion with friends it became apparent that the popular opinion was that mastery of an instrument meant that you where fully aware of each of your actions, each slight movement of your fingers and each change of note in all it's entirety. Whilst this would indicate to most a high level of competence and understanding of your instrument, for me personally this is not mastery of it. For me, mastery of an instrument is when we have surpassed the mental processes of form and structure, when we have moved on from the physical process itself, when all that is left is the flow of awen (inspiration) and nywvre (energy). The physical process of playing an instrument is just that - a physical process, it has an end - that point where anyone can reach with the right time, training and skill. Yet there are those who go beyond this, those who mesmerise a room with the simplest of tunes played just the same as anyone else. There lies the clue - they practice the physical process the same as any other musician but they have mastered it to the point where they do not need to consciously think on it at all, only the flow of awen.
The same I find is very true when it comes to magical practice. When we create a circle, call on elements, raise our athame and call upon the various forces of nature what we are doing is a physical process. The calls come not from our lips but from our intent - the physical process is just a distraction, a means of occupying that most annoying of human functions, the conscious mind. That niggling element of your brain that will have you pondering if you unplugged the phone when you are trying to raise energy. Those who have mastered this process, this physical distraction can reach the point of needing it any more. Essentially a ritual can be held deep within the mind of the master without walking the circles edge or spending time painting pictures in our mind to try and help "imagine" an element. The functions work to a limited degree but they should only serve as a means to an end not the end product itself.
Mastery is fulfilling ones complete potential. Beyond that envisaged by the people around you or what is expected or governed from the pages of a book. In martial arts there are many coloured belts that you work through, white, yellow, blue, brown etc...until you get to black. It is said that until you reach black belt you are not learning karate, you are preparing yourself to learn karate. Only once you have mastered the physical processes can you really begin to master the spiritual process and subsequently the whole process. This applies to everything we do from music to magick and everything in between.
When I bring this up I bring it up in relation to magick and also music but I guess the concept could be applied to pretty much any field. A while ago during a discussion with friends it became apparent that the popular opinion was that mastery of an instrument meant that you where fully aware of each of your actions, each slight movement of your fingers and each change of note in all it's entirety. Whilst this would indicate to most a high level of competence and understanding of your instrument, for me personally this is not mastery of it. For me, mastery of an instrument is when we have surpassed the mental processes of form and structure, when we have moved on from the physical process itself, when all that is left is the flow of awen (inspiration) and nywvre (energy). The physical process of playing an instrument is just that - a physical process, it has an end - that point where anyone can reach with the right time, training and skill. Yet there are those who go beyond this, those who mesmerise a room with the simplest of tunes played just the same as anyone else. There lies the clue - they practice the physical process the same as any other musician but they have mastered it to the point where they do not need to consciously think on it at all, only the flow of awen.
The same I find is very true when it comes to magical practice. When we create a circle, call on elements, raise our athame and call upon the various forces of nature what we are doing is a physical process. The calls come not from our lips but from our intent - the physical process is just a distraction, a means of occupying that most annoying of human functions, the conscious mind. That niggling element of your brain that will have you pondering if you unplugged the phone when you are trying to raise energy. Those who have mastered this process, this physical distraction can reach the point of needing it any more. Essentially a ritual can be held deep within the mind of the master without walking the circles edge or spending time painting pictures in our mind to try and help "imagine" an element. The functions work to a limited degree but they should only serve as a means to an end not the end product itself.
Mastery is fulfilling ones complete potential. Beyond that envisaged by the people around you or what is expected or governed from the pages of a book. In martial arts there are many coloured belts that you work through, white, yellow, blue, brown etc...until you get to black. It is said that until you reach black belt you are not learning karate, you are preparing yourself to learn karate. Only once you have mastered the physical processes can you really begin to master the spiritual process and subsequently the whole process. This applies to everything we do from music to magick and everything in between.
Monday, 25 August 2008
Poem: The Human Tree
I wrote this one about nine years ago now. It came about from a dream I had where I found myself waking up in the dream as a tree and spending most of the year not realising that's what I was. I was looking at the world through my human eyes not understanding how things where for me as a tree.
The Human Tree
All comes into question, a new perspective
A change of dimension
New sides showing their faces
Their colours confusing but warm
I am enveleloped within this new world
Like a newborn child I gaze unknowing
Unaware of what is to become
And so the wheel turns again
Changes loom on the horizon of life
Fear ebbs away as realisation dawns
And happiness rises to it's full glory
Those illuminating rays that shine down on me
Purify my leaves reaching out
My roots instilled with new life
And so I grow
Green shoots reach out
Soothing tendrils of flame engulf
Entwining within unforseen harmony
Dischordant doubts take flight
My boughs now free to sway
And beside me the lake
Tranquil and shimmering
My collection of tears happy in release
I shed another as I gaze down
To peer across the lake I see other trees
And so I understand, I feel
I am awake
What are these beasts that reside below me?
Are they my thoughts
Fears, emotions, what are they?
My fruit nourishes them, they are content
At harvest, time of fall
Where will they go, will they leave?
Or do other purposes hold them to me?
Why won't they speak, why do they stare?
What are they waiting for, ahhh I see
I creak as I smile, as I let go
And so the first leaf falls
And so the wheel turns again
The Human Tree
All comes into question, a new perspective
A change of dimension
New sides showing their faces
Their colours confusing but warm
I am enveleloped within this new world
Like a newborn child I gaze unknowing
Unaware of what is to become
And so the wheel turns again
Changes loom on the horizon of life
Fear ebbs away as realisation dawns
And happiness rises to it's full glory
Those illuminating rays that shine down on me
Purify my leaves reaching out
My roots instilled with new life
And so I grow
Green shoots reach out
Soothing tendrils of flame engulf
Entwining within unforseen harmony
Dischordant doubts take flight
My boughs now free to sway
And beside me the lake
Tranquil and shimmering
My collection of tears happy in release
I shed another as I gaze down
To peer across the lake I see other trees
And so I understand, I feel
I am awake
What are these beasts that reside below me?
Are they my thoughts
Fears, emotions, what are they?
My fruit nourishes them, they are content
At harvest, time of fall
Where will they go, will they leave?
Or do other purposes hold them to me?
Why won't they speak, why do they stare?
What are they waiting for, ahhh I see
I creak as I smile, as I let go
And so the first leaf falls
And so the wheel turns again
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Poem: Stonehenge
I thought I would start to publish here some of the poetry I have come up with over the years, as a kind of "gap filler" between my anti-social rants found on here! (they aren't all lilke that, honest).
So, without further ado...
Stonehenge
I hesitate before the epitaph
My mourning is deep, a chasm
A longing for peace, still undiscovered
Rents the very temple of spirit asunder
A presence
Another clambers upon the altar
A spill, a swaying aluminium can
A mocking libation for those of old
I shed a tear
As violence ensues beyond
i find a moment of clarity
The Boy
Cowering within the stone, bears witness
His cries going unheard, uncared
Those eyes look upon me with pity, remorse
How small I must seem
Gone
I must leave, go
To be respectful through disassociation
Surely the only way
I shudder upon departing, and smile
The boy follows close behind, I can feel
Happiness surrounds him
He is content in release
All homes must crumble
And so we ever move on
So, without further ado...
Stonehenge
I hesitate before the epitaph
My mourning is deep, a chasm
A longing for peace, still undiscovered
Rents the very temple of spirit asunder
A presence
Another clambers upon the altar
A spill, a swaying aluminium can
A mocking libation for those of old
I shed a tear
As violence ensues beyond
i find a moment of clarity
The Boy
Cowering within the stone, bears witness
His cries going unheard, uncared
Those eyes look upon me with pity, remorse
How small I must seem
Gone
I must leave, go
To be respectful through disassociation
Surely the only way
I shudder upon departing, and smile
The boy follows close behind, I can feel
Happiness surrounds him
He is content in release
All homes must crumble
And so we ever move on
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