Saturday, November 26, 2011

Loss and Recovery in the Stream of Life

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

May your noses always be cold and wet.

This posting is for all of you who have lost someone in recent times.

Another strange morning for me; they're all pretty strange these days. They're all pretty good too. Most of my mornings are influenced by the dreams that precede them. Those are also pretty strange. This morning I came to after a dream with a young lion. It just kind of appeared in an otherwise interpersonal scenario between me and people I've never met. I seldom dream about people I know. This lion was following me around and we would roughhouse a little. I was always aware that the lion had a certain power to harm me but it was nothing overt, just the sense of potential. It was around a year old and I was a mixture of delighted and apprehensive that it had keyed on me. I didn't know what it meant and I was aware of that. In any case, I woke up feeling the way I remember feeling years ago, when I would awaken to a world I hadn't had all that much to do with yet and there was this sense of all that possibility and promise that was out there somewhere. It's an odd thing when you suddenly find yourself feeling in ways you had forgotten over the passage of time.

Yet another wonderful person has passed on. There seems to be a lot of that recently. My friend David lost his Svetlana. Jabar and Marilyn lost Nastatia, Homer lost Frank. Esteban lost his mother. I lost Lily, who was more of a person than a pet to me and a teacher as well. Others have had pet friends departing of late too. It seems to me that we now approach a time of trial and tribulation on a grand scale. I do not expect the trial and tribulation to be that present in the lives of those who are more rooted in spiritual nature. I expect it more for those rioting over plastic garbage in big stores and those beating old people into the ground, sometimes killing them. I do expect some trial among us but that is a necessary testing. You can't grow strong without testing and trial. It doesn't happen any other way. So I think some of those who are leaving us now are a portion of a particular wave of departures. They are going to the bright side to await our eventual passing on as well.

This coming winter is going to prove to be off the charts in terms of change and transformation; fantastic change for those embracing the higher arc of it and devastating change for those magnetized by dust and the glimmer of fool's gold behind plastic wrap. It is as if there are two spirals going in opposite directions and pulling away from each other, as two separate planes of existence come more and more into view.

I do not subscribe to the idea that there will be global devastation or that most of us will be gone in a short time. I don't subscribe to most of what I hear being predicted by people. I don't know in a pretty deep way and that keeps me away from the prevaricating Ouija board of the susceptible side of the mind. It's enough for me to come into each day, looking to be informed and shown something within the events and conditions of what comes and goes within and without.

I find it amusing that I can make tentative plans to do certain things, while the whole planet teeters on a knife edge. It's times like this that a faith in the divine is a greater possession than anything I could imagine being in its place. I hunger for the qualities of the ineffable because of the ever present evidence of my shortcomings. I know they are kept in place now for a reason, even though I have seen a real diminishment in them over recent months. Some things are hard to lose and it isn't always about ourselves what causes them to remain. Sometimes they are a part of a larger drama and sometimes, often, they are for the purpose of demonstration.

Tying yourself to the ineffable comes with a certain order of complexity, until you can grasp the essential simplicity. We're condemned to make efforts on our own behalf, when the whole point of relying on the ineffable is to be free of that. Old habits die hard. The old and persistent, personal self that owns them, dies hard because we labor through a continuum of time. Time and gravity are siblings. Time varies due to location and perceptions. It's one thing watching a movie. It's another thing being in line at the DMV. It's one thing at a rave and another thing in a prison cell. It can vary in both directions, depending on the person involved; two different people in the same classroom, where one has a deep interest in the subject and the other has none. You can extend this concept on your own.

Love is the deepest and most primary generator of interest and that is why Love should be your singular and most important companion. In the deepest and most enduring part of ourselves, we are indistinguishable from Love. This is an extremely important thing to grasp. A part of us is separated from another part of us by veils that are composed of self interest, false self awareness and shortcomings we have embraced, to move through what we have allowed to become familiar to us. You might say we are hanging out with the wrong crowd. The terrible irony is that we sacrifice the priceless for the temporary and tawdry ...and fear... fear and its friends are a big part of the root cause. Some of those friends are; insecurity, uncertainty, lack of faith, AKA- doubt and you can probably extend that on your own too, because there are others.

People who dabble in philosophy and metaphysics are like part time lovers. Most of them arrive at one place or another with a relative comprehension of how things work and at that point they personalize it. Many of them like Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Hume and other word jugglers, create hopeless morasses of confusion. They'll have some grasp of a few things, along the lines of; just enough information to be dangerous and then they'll become pimps for their own celebrity, sunbathing in the admiration of their fellows and those fools who measure their own value and intelligence, according to their ability to expound upon and interpret them. All of them go to the grave, knowing less than they did when they started.

Some things you can't dabble in and be a part time lover about because you get exactly what you put into it. If you put your whole self into it that is precisely what you will get back, in more ways than one. You will also get your whole self, if you catch my drift. Certain sciences and fields of inquiry, as well as entities, where devotion is the measure of success ...are attended by angels who test the sincerity of the applicant. Without certain credentials at the onset (or gaining them as you go), you will only get so much and curiously, the majority of those, assume they got it all. There is ALWAYS something deeper than what you found and something deeper than that and that and that and that. This is what my friend, Mehemet Karagoz said and I doubt you can find much about him, if anything at all. He once lifted the top off of a mountain to make a point to some caliph or other. Once he was kidnapped by bandits in the mountains and he told the head of the gang that if he would release him then all would be well but if he did not release him he would be gone in the morning and the bandit chief would die at the hands of one of his own men before the next full moon. So it was.

There are people like Mehemet walking around today but you wouldn't know them unless they felt like getting your attention, which might happen if, let's say... you got their attention. I've got a certain amount of experience in respect of this so I can assure you it happens. In my experience, no one gets very far, in real terms, without the good offices of someone further on the way, so it behooves you to get in their way and that is easily done, or done with great difficulty, depending on how you understand it. Most of us see within the confines of a limited bandwidth. That is not the case with everyone. There are some who see us much more clearly than we see ourselves and others ...and there are things we can do to attract their attention. Sincere aspiration is one of them and you can also extend the list on your own.

There is a reason why all true teachers are possessed of a natural and true humility and that is not because they know it is the proper way to present themselves. It is because of what they have encountered and been shown. One would be hard pressed to be otherwise, afterward. None of us with any real talent, accomplish what we do on our own. We may have earned the right to do it but we don't actually do it. We have learned to get out of the way. There is only one real teacher and that teacher is highly selective about who hosts the presence. The classic relationship of Krishna and Arjuna should be taken for the cosmic guide. Of all the things we read and comprehend, no matter how much of that there may be, there is always far, far more that is unsaid and still to be comprehended. The journey does not end. It may plateau for a time but it does not end. I know there are those who become way stations and who may occupy positions for hundreds of millions of years but... you can extend on that concept also on your own.

For me, the highest and most desirable possibility is to be a friend of God and to have his/her favor. Each relationship with the divine involves things and conditions peculiar to it. You may not know that God often travels and walks about. Often he does this in the company of his friends and a great deal of teaching and fellowship occurs at these times. Can you imagine what it must be like to be named a friend of God? Can you imagine! Can you imagine what kind of a friend God is, in respect of what you know about friendship? Since this is a possibility, why would anyone be in pursuit of anything else? That is a real definition of insanity and... anything and everything you seek can be conferred on you by the divine, including all kinds of things you have no knowledge of and including the awareness of the PROPER USE AND ENJOYMENT OF THEM, without which, most of the time, it is a curse. Why is anyone doing anything else.

People have opinions on Rosicrucians who have never met one and there are many that pass themselves off as this or that. It's unlikely that a real one will claim to be one, except under certain circumstances for a 'very good reason'. People have opinions on different teachers and their relative position in respect of other teachers, without ever having met them. It is altogether possible that the greatest teacher of the last hundred years was someone's mother and no one even knows her name. The greatest teacher may be washing dishes in a diner and moving from one restaurant to another, or on to a warehouse or a library, serving as he goes. The idea of celebrity is lost on them. They know who the real celebrity is and have some idea of how that celebrity conducts itself, which is why The One is so choosy about where the presence goes. There is nothing more agonizing than to lose the presence, once you have experienced it. Sometimes this loss is not a punishment but only serves to accelerate the aspiration and longing to make it permanent because- and trust me on this- nothing compares, not even close. You can't even see the next thing from there.

For all those who have lost someone recently (and this is not limited to what we call death), or at any time, Know this, all separation of this kind is temporary. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. There are bright and shining worlds of reunion and that should be further inspiration to do our best. Of course we will fail time and time again but that is not the true marker of our enduringsuccess.


End Transmission.......

Visible sings: The Sacred and The Profane by Les Visible♫ Listening to God in the Morning ♫
'Listening to God in the Morning' is track no. 13 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album
'The Sacred and The Profane'

Lyrics (pops up)

The Sacred and The Profane by Les Visible


There will be radio show Sunday night.


In the spirit of this post, perhaps some of you might like to read this one. I will be reading it on the radio show tomorrow night, without a particular word that reoccurred a few times in the print version (grin). "Thank you for that", says James Jancik.

60 comments:

Visible said...

For those of you who may already have read this, I made an addition to the very end of the posting; another post from 2005 that I thought some of you might enjoy.

tmcfall said...

Beautiful Les, and motivating. Seems like I have so far to go.....
Tom in Tempe Arizona

Rebel 4E said...

Thank you Vis,
I love these Visible Origami posts.

(-___-)

Visible said...

The gulf is only as wide as our lethargy and fear and it is not ourselves who bring us there; "success is speedy for the energetic"; Krishna speaking to Arjuna.

gurnygob said...

Love is your deepest emotion, everything else is environmental.
I haven’t lost anyone close lately. I lost a brother many years ago in a drowning accident in an old disused factory dam. I remember the old black and white photos in the local paper of my dad and some firemen in the water looking for him. Welling up here as I write this, I never really got over that. Lost can be a hard thing to deal with. The strange thing is, I am not sure what hurts the most, losing my brother or seeing my dad’s face in those photos. Better stop now.

gurnygob.

Anonymous said...

'raise high the roof beams'.

Anonymous said...

via Homer..

"None of us with any real talent, accomplish what we do on our own."

Ha! I don't have any talent to speak of and I can't even accomplish that on my own..

Thank you Les Prabhu, for your very nice preaching and sentiment. You really are gifted with so much more than just a great sense of humor, which is quite a siddhi in its own right.

gurnygob said...

Question for you Les, or anyone else reading this.



Off topic, but can anyone provide a good reason why one shouldn’t go to see a spiritualist. I haven’t gotten all the details yet. Someone was asking my advice as they don’t want their friend to go see this person. I don’t know much, so any advice would be welcome.

gurnygob.

Anonymous said...

so are you throwing darts or have you sussed out spots to 'just show up'?

figure warm is in the equation.

mckenna's gold (inside out) or perhaps fishertarian to air eater?

forward motion no doubt is in the cards.

again, will be 'just down the road'.

Anonymous said...

"...pimps for their own celebrity..."

You nailed it. Ineffably.

Mandocello

Murphy151 said...

Hi Les,

Shortly before I came across this post, my Wife informed me that our good friend and neighbour Paul had lost his Mum this morning.

I am certain your words will be of great comfort to him, as they are to us.

Thank you very much, this post is magnificent.

Jim

Anonymous said...

Dear Les,

I discovered you many years ago through WRH or perhaps The Truthseeker. It has been so long I cannot recall. This is my first comment to you after all these years to offer my gratitude for all of the inspiration you have given through your writings.

Today’s post compelled me to write. My two dogs died a year ago within 9 days of each other. The eldest was 17 and the young’n was 15. They were my life … my teachers, companions, and a font of perpetual love and forgiveness. I swear I gave them more than I gave to all combined throughout my entire life … simply because they bestowed so much love and forgiveness upon me. My soul mate who has been traveling eternity road with me since the dawn of time died 7 years ago. I am still floundering from the loss of all three. Tears streamed down my face as I read your closing paragraph “For all those who have lost someone recently…”. I am so anxious to reunite with them.

I am blessed to still have my companion and cosmic traveler of 27 years with me. We live a quiet, humble life in a bus in the Mojave desert. At night when I miss my transitioned companions, I listen to Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and gaze at the heavens. Perhaps the most beautiful musical composition ever!

Love to you and all your readers.

Thank you so much …

Howard

Visible said...

If spiritualist is another way of saying psychic, then the drawback is that they are often wrong because the psychic plane is filled with deception and probably more than half the time they are also using certain arts for information extraction and so forth. That's the short version.

Anonymous said...

They are no longer here, but they are not far away. I've a long way to go and I'm a bit slow, maybe that's why I'm still here. I'll have to work on it because I'd rather not repeat this course. Thank you, Les. from Minnesota

gurnygob said...

Thanks Les, that’s a good start.

I think the spiritualist in question has something to do with contacting the dead????? Strange this question should come up considering your post today; maybe it’s not so ‘off topic’ after all.

gurnygob.

onething said...

Oh, Les you have brought me to tears today. What a friend you are, what a kindred spirit.
Your post from 2005 was beyond beautiful.
I want you to understand that I love you.
And you inspire me.
You inspire me.
You inspire me.

Once there was a mother, and her son was her handsome prince.
A man among men, gentle with animals, a lover and respecter of women. He wanted to protect and heal the world. Protected his sisters from the day they were born, first one when he was 2.

My hands are shaking.

As a tree trimmer he stopped his work and took the time to save tiny creatures if he found them in the trees, frogs and salamanders and such. He smelled of trees, fresh cut wood. His truck and all his clothes and his things smelled so good I used to sniff them. That smell is still in his hair, the dredlocks that he cut off and saved.

He never hurt a thing. His songs, his poetry had one theme only and that was love:

"We are angles of love, falling from the sky, here to spread the light. Light has fallen, into our hearts, into our souls, and we are now One Love."

The time has come
The time is now
Pray for love
Guide the light

"Ashes and bone
blood and rain
pleasure and pain
feel the love inside
the temple of love,
the temple of love."

Close your eyes, and feel: the love in your soul."

"When you rise with the morning sun
Remember to pray for love.
Ask the lord to fill your heart and fill your soul."

"Angels, raining down from the sky, show me the way tonight."

He sang about how vibrations of love and waves of light flow down from the universe on high, filling the oceans and mountain streams, harmony falling from the sky like a summer rain, spiraling and dancing in vibrations of love and filling the sea of light.

Isn't it funny that he sang of a beautiful night and sang "I feel sooo alive tonight." He was indeed, one of the most alive people I have ever known.

And isn't it fitting that in one of his songs he said,

As old as time
As deep as an ocean
Blowing in the wind
Free as a bird
Our souls shall not fall

When we lay down our body under in the ground
We shall rise like the sun
For our soul is eternal,
undying love

He called his mother on the last Mother's Day of his life and said, "Thank you for being my mother." And his mother said, "I am honored to have been found worthy to be the mother of someone such as you."

How was I worthy? I wonder about that.
*************************

He died violently. People heard his muffled screams and did nothing. And on Wednesday, I will look at the face of the man who decided to rob him, to kill him. I don't want to go but I have to.
It is surreal.

*************************
The greatest divine poet who ever lived was Hafiz, and his poems are compiled in The Gift. A true friend of God.
His poems are a great gift to humanity.

Anonymous said...

And holding back the flood
Just don't do no good
You can't unclench your teeth
To howl the way you should
So you curl your lips around
The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
That no one owns but you
No one owns but you

From the song Ruby and Carlos by James McMurtry

gurnygob said...

There’s a piece in the bible that talks of someone who ‘walked with God,’ can’t remember off the top of my head exactly who.
Walking with God sure sounds like friendship to me.

Mehemet Karagoz, I am reading something he wrote about love and why we are afraid to show it/ give it. If it’s the same Mehemet you are talking about he sounds like a wise man.

gurnygob.

amarynth said...

@gurneygob

'Spiritualists' come in all kinds of packages. Very few (in my experience) are real conduits between spirit and temporal realms. I've only met two dinkum, genuine and deeply spirit filled 'spiritualists' that could easily traverse the dimensions with integrity.

If it is one of those, it is worth while making contact, if not .. why not follow Visible's guidance ... Take some water, get separate from others for 3 days, and pray unceasingly for wisdom and light.

Thank-you for this blog Visible.

There are different kinds of loss. The physical kind ending in death and the the physical kind not ending in death but in a non-functional separation, is much harder to make peace with - almost like losing the connection with Universe/All that is/The Ineffable. There sure are hard lessons in this dimension.

So, I should follow my own advice and do the 3-day 'into the grave with a little water' yes (grin). It is planned for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I won't be answering emails and so on on those days. If you find trouble with a book download, or need to speak about Visible's Visit, I'll be back after Wednesday. Some serious 'speaking in mysteries' is needed before we all visit early next year. I expect to be back bright eyed and bushy tailed.

DaveR said...

Like Les just said about the 'spiritualist', and my bit too. What's a 'spiritualist?' Are they calling themselves that or is someone else? Does this person charge for the 'service' and this reflects upon, What is the seeker seeking to learn? Lastly, how do they know the 'spiritualist' has the answers they seek?

gurnygob said...

Where I come from, I would say the spiritualist in question is a bit of a cowboy, or girl maybe, could be both. It’s something of a fad over in these parts over the past few years. I would be wary of spiritualists as one has no way of knowing which kind of spirit they are in touch with and they could be dangerous. Some people can get real screwed up messing with this sort of stuff.

amarynth I hope you get through the fast and get many good blessing from it. God be with you.

gurnygob.

est said...

"Now and then there's a fool such as I
Pardon me if I'm sentimental came to say goodbye
Don't be angry don't be angry with me should I cry
When you are gone I will dream a little dream as years go by
Now and then there is a fool a fool such as I.

Now and then there's a fool such as I am over you
You taught me how to love and now you happened to be untrue
I am a fool but I love you dear yes I will until the day I die.
Now and then there is a fool a fool such as I.

Pardon me if I'm sentimental came to say goodbye
Don't be angry don't be angry with me should I cry
When you are gone when you are gone I will dream a little
I will dream as years go by
Now and then now and then there is a fool a fool such as I.

Now and then there's a fool a fool such as I am over you
You taught me how to love and now you say that we are through
I am a fool yes but I love you dear I will love you dear
Till the day till the day I die
Now and then now and then there is a fool a fool such as I.
Now and then there is a fool a fool such as I.
Now and then there is a fool a fool such as I."

bob dylan

Gregory F. Fegel said...

Another fabulous blog, Visible.

BTW, while I predict an approaching Ice Age, I do not predict the end of the world or an inevitable die-off of humanity. The severity of social disruptions will depend on humanity's success or failure in making intelligent and compassionate adjustments. New lands will emerge from the sea to replace the old lands covered by ice, and the population will shift toward the Tropics -- as it has done many times before during previous Glacial Maximums. The Great Winter is coming, and we would be wise to prepare for it, just like the annual winter. No amount of CO2 or geoengineering is going to stop the cyclical Great Winter from its natural course; at least not this time around.

Avinashjee, a blogger at Sulekha.com, is a Biology Professor who has made many trips to Kanha and other Nature Preserves in India, and Avinashjee's photo blogs of those visits are a real treat for those interested in tigers and other wildlife. Unfortunately, the photos on Avinashjee's older blogs have become Xs, but his two most recent blogs still have their photos intact. At Sulekha.com, see Avinashjee's blogs:

KANHA WITH APURBA: TIGERS AND MORE TIGERS

THE TIGRESS ON A KILL THAT…….........

est said...

'wherever two or more are gathered
i am also present'

ever wondered why
it takes two or more ?

i have

Gregory F. Fegel said...

P.S.: The nations that will be most adversely effected by the coming Ice Age will be the same ones that exerted international power during the past 500 years -- Europe, the USA, Russia, and Canada. Eventually all of Canada, most of Alaska, Iceland, Scandanavia, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, most of England, the Baltic nations, Belarus, the northern half of Russia, northern and southern Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and Austria will be covered by glaciers. All of New England, New York, Michigan, most of Minnesota and North Dakota, and large areas of many other northern States will be covered with permanent ice, like Antarctica. Just south of the European and North American continental glaciers will be wide bands of permafrost and tundra. The global dominance of Europe and the USA will end as those nations become uninhabitable, and the places of habitation will shift toward the Tropics.

During a Glacial Maximum, it may take 5,000 years of accumulation for the continental ice sheets to reach their maximum thickness of 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). However, permanent ice or snow only a few meters deep would be sufficient to render a nation uninhabitable, so it would not take 5,000 years to render the nations of the north uninhabitable. It could happen within a few hundred years, or even within decades. -- GF

neal said...

est- E=Mc squared. That's the two or more, Light squared, not really a number, but a description of a dimensional quality that is a relationship involving Divine Love, and the possibility of an alchemical marriage of the reflected with the Source of the reflection. That squeezes time, and gets curved, but that is what it takes between friends. You don't really need math to go there, pictures sometimes help energize the need to go there.

gurnygob, the living advertise the dead, and the dead advertise the living, the in between ones don't do anything without permission, and some thought.
If those who are easily found for this have other agendas, you could maybe go find a dog, or a cat, or a bird, or bug, they speak volumes as to the questions being broadcast.

est said...

-
g f

better to plan for tomorrow
at least you know

it might happen
[cross your fingers]

est
-

est said...

if anyone cares
it was not dylan

that wrote that
it was - william trader

Modern Day Metal Making Alchemist at Work said...

Opting for the spiritualist route is your acknowledgment to the cosmos that you will not own your own truth. You have access to everything and more than any spiritualist can offer you… The question is, are you prepared to own that and do the work?

My suggestion with all due respect is to quit the cop out and get of your lazy ass and get now….

Sovereignty

est said...

-
on the contrary
absolutely nothing

is required except
letting go of all the B S
-
yes
i know what
a capital is
-

Smyrna said...

These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the Twin recorded.

He said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."

Jesus said, "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds.

When one finds one will be disturbed.
When one is disturbed, one will be amazed, and will reign over all."

Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Behold the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds in the sky will get there before you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get there before you.

"Rather, the kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and embody poverty."

-Gospel of Thomas

amarynth said...

Spiritualists? Teachers? Gurus? Someone that can assist in one's lifepath? ... there was a discussion about Gurus a few blogs ago and I thought to let you know that bholanath did some follow up writing regarding this issue .. It seems very different when one can talk from deep experience:
Travelling Light with Guru's all around: http://pashupatisasana.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Dear brother,

Your post today and from Christmas 2005 are eternally internal.

I read a few responses to your 2005 eulogy to Pat Tillman and other heroes of the Human lead by Spirit team. Spirit and it's umbilical chord to God and God's groovy crew is the constant message I am filled with when I stop in. It is truly a miracle that we are planning peace and harmony in a time of chaotic illusion.

A poster stated they believed God is a fantasy. As the symbols flowed through my mind as the words were read and comprehended the movie in my mind was this: A person sitting at their stump reading your message and typing their response. They are in a clean environment and I see their back. They are dressed in a white turtle neck sweater, dark haired, short and messy, but the style, ya know? I am granted a scene from their movie and as it plays out I feel a Divine presence between my mind's vision of it and the persons back..., kinda like backstaqe during a scene. In my mind a giggle erupts and then this response, "When they understand that they are in my fantasy, our magic together becomes visible and without boundary; even if it is only for demonstration. You must continue to realize this my child." There was a pause and I was mulling the message over and the voice came one more time with deep affirmation, "You are my fantasy and not the other way around."

Your brother and friend,

Ghana

wv; purpsylm - the joint where they stick you when they realize you aren't elite, but actually Anti-human. Welcome to your new home, purp.

Rob in WI said...

Gregory F.,
You're right about an Ice Age overwhelming the place quickly. Would probably happen if, for a year or two, the winter snowfall didn't melt. The ice would pile up quickly then.
Visible, your linking to the archives is a great plan. Hope you continue. Many posts are as relevant today as they were in years gone by. Real food for newer readers. Be well in your travels.

Steve said...

@ amarynth

Very brave of you and a great lead.
I look forward to hearing the results
Many blessings

Anonymous said...

Stone Soup

Around the freezing point here in the far flung fringes of the Great Northwoods ~ soon enough to be reglaciated, i just read in the comments. Light freezing and then drizzly precipitation. Bit of a northwind.

Wood heating stove in middle of the house (one could call it True central heating) was made for me by a friend who happens to be a most gifted tinker. Bought it from him back in the early 80's. 24" steel pipeline pipe with a flat steel plate welded atop; a heavy collar, a foundry-cast door and sturdy legs were the components Fuzzy used building it. Not UL approved. Can't insure the house for fire because of that little factor shutting down backwoods enterprises.

Corporate-friendly laws we got, dontcha know.

Atop the front of that flat steel top rests a flat find from a farmer's rockpile, probably brought home in the B.S. Valley Special, a 49 Chev pickup i drove for quite a number of years. So even though the soup has no stone within, the presence abides. There's also a queer black stone at one corner of the flat one. Found at the site of an ancient Lakota village on Pike Bay of Cass Lake. Fingerholds abound. Many hands have held this stone. Grinding stone. Medicine stone when heated as it constantly is during our cold season. Bottom outline is a perfect rawhide stretcher to make a child's moccasin.

There's a couple beef bones with bits of meat and gristle basing the soup. Got them free from the custom butcher in a nearby village. People bring in their beef and hog carcasses and after the butcher does his transmutation, they bring home packages of meat. Also happens that there are many scraps which are accorded no commercial value and thus the butcher is happy to give them away, mostly to dog owners and some to cat fanciers.

So the soupbones came free, but i can't buy packaged meat at the shop, meat those beef and hog producers would love to sell me. You see, there is this Federal law promoted by the big meatpacking corporations back in the 70's. Commercially marketed meat can only be sourced from a U.$.D.A. approved and 'technically' inspected facility. Meatcutters unions signed off on the bill at the time too, so Democrat as well as Republican Congresscritters voted 'yea'.

Funny thing happened to the packinghouse unions. Seems a lot of plants got closed down and newer ones opened in smallish towns more handy to producer markets ~ generally in "Right to Work" non-union states. In the late 70's/ early 80's union meatcutters were averaging $17.50/hr. Today, the mostly undocumented immigrant workforce is happy if they can pull down $9.00/hr. "Remember, at General Electric, Progress is our Most Important Product" spake Ronald Reagan around 1960 when his gig was host for the boobtoob's G.E. Theatre.

Corporate friendly laws we got, dontcha know.

-----more in Part 2----- stickman

Anonymous said...

pierre said..

Dylan's would be "now and then, there's a tool such as I", and Chomsky, and Einstein, and Hawkings..

what would I know, it's just my Litmus tests, and lazy controlled name droppings from the MSM. meanwhile , in the Ghetto, Elvis sings " and his mumma cried".

wv: deminess. a demi god's meanness, tin pan alley spiritualists, at best chip's off the old block. go ask a frog.

Anonymous said...

Stone Soup -Two

Wonderful aromas wafting into the computer room from that soup aboil atop the woodstove. Shallots from a friend, onion from the over-the-hill garden; dried celery; sage; parsley; bell peppers and chilis were the first veggies to join the 'scrap' meat. All from the gardens and beds here on Echo Ridge.

Fresh veggies ultimately made their way into the blend: rutabaga, turnip and carrots were washed, peeled and diced. They grew in the stonebound north and south gardens.

A small, farm-based bulk foodstore is located close to that little neighboring village. Among the items i bought there was a hand-labeled bag of sea-salt. Unfortunately, there is no ready source of salt in my neighborhood. Though money was spent on the salt, perhaps a penny's worth in this case, this essential addition to my stonegirt garden and stone bearing stovetop soup most likely was not accessed via the usual corporate grocery networks.

True, there was chainsaw gas and oil involved in garnering the wood for the stove ~ and that amounted to feeding the BEAST. Also, most of it was hauled in from a few miles away in my pickup ~ also feeding the BEAST. So perhaps fifty dollars worth of gas and oil serves to heat and cook here in the old shack for a year or two. The price one must pay.

Funny thing about those corporate-friendly laws we got.

So except for buying that gas and oil, unlike the horsepower employed by the Amish families in the neighborhood, my total outlay for that large pot of stone soup beckoning me now to feed some more wood to the stove as the boil has devolved to a simmer; amounted to a penny.

Transformation begins within. At times the steps are feeble. But personal alchemy is possible ~ even with all those corporate-friendly laws they got.

-stickman

gurnygob said...

Talking of animals, I use to own a tortoise when I was younger. It taught me that hibernation was not the end and that life still went on. Unfortunately I only found that out after I buried it. I kept pigeons for a year or two and even seen a baby pigeon which is a rare thing, or so I’m told. Boy they are ugly. In the end, they flew away. I also had a dog called rebel, but he turned out to be a Brit loving traitor. Some Irish rebel he was. He died of old age but we withheld the IRA colour party and funeral on account of his collaboration with the British army and the RUC. He had the funniest wagging tail I ever saw. It went round like a helicopter blade. We had a dog called rover, he ran away, and a small trout that committed suicide by jumping out of the pond. My wife and I have a dog called Rosie. She jumped out the car window when it was doing 40mph when she was about 7 months old. She survived and is well, but she does not like to travel.

Anyone need their pet looked after??

gurnygob.

Anonymous said...

Visible - a pleasant, thoughtful journey, as always in this part of your (online) realm.

I have lost friends and family to life. And I have lost some to me, though they still live.

The edge of sadness for me is blunted in the knowing of the great journey for all.

My biggest loss/death has been the world (or my dark, shallow perception of it), and I miss it not so much.

I've moved some things I've written, in the past and in the now, to a fellow site on this blogspot/blogger (vanguardthoughts).

Thank you for your continued labor of love, which sparks and inspires energetic pursuit of the (true) friendship of God, and Man.

Gregory F. Fegel said...

Regarding my previous comment, the correct spelling is Scandinavia. The conventional etymology is that Scandinavia is named for the southernmost Swedish County of Scania. However, I cannot help but wonder if the word Scandinavia might actually be derived from the Finnish Sampo (the Cosmic Mill or World Axis), the Sanskrit Skambha (World Axis), the immovable spear (World Axis) of Skanda (Kartikeya or Murugan), Shambhala, the home of Kalki (the final Avatar of Vishnu), and the Sioux sky-god Skan (the Great Spirit).

Ancient geographers referred to Scandinavia as Ultima Thule (the Farthest North) and to the British Isles as Hyperboria (the Home of the North Wind). The Moskstraumen (Maelstrom) off the Norwegian coast has a celestial parallel in the circumpolar stars. Scandinavia could mean the Navel (Navia) of the Sky.

Scottish author Helen Bannerman spent much of her life in India, including 32 years at Madras, with her husband, William Bannerman, who was an officer in the Indian Medical Service. Helen Bannerman's book "The Story of Little Black Sambo" (1899) is about a south Indian or Tamil child named Sambo (Shambhu is a name of Shiva) who encounters four tigers (the four directions?). Sambo gives the tigers his clothes and his umbrella (the sky?). The four tigers chase each other around a tree (the World Tree or Axis?) until they turn into a pool of melted butter (sunlight?) or ghee, which Sambo's mother makes into pancakes. Many of Rudyard Kipling's stories came from Indian folktales. I would very much like to know how Helen Bannerman got her inspiration or idea for "The Story of Little Black Sambo."

"Shambo" (2001 to 2007) was a black Friesian bull living in the Hindu Skanda Vale Temple near Llanpumsaint in Wales, who had been adopted by the local Hindu community as a sacred animal. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambo

The story of Samson (Judges 16:4-31) is a Precessional myth. The wealthy Philistines (the Phils or Friends are the stars) bribe Delilah (the earth Goddess) with eleven hundred silver shekels (stars) to betray her husband Samson (the sun). Delilah ties Samson with seven bowstrings, and she weaves the seven braids of Samson's hair into a loom tightened with a pin. The seven bowstrings and seven braids represent the orbits of the seven planets, pinned by the World Axis. When Delilah shaves Samson's seven braids off his head, he becomes weak (the sun's rays are diminished). Then the Philistines seize Samson, gouge out his eyes (like Orion), bind him with bronze shackles, and set him to grinding grain (on the mill) in the prison of Gaza (the Akasha, or Kasi, the Sky). Samson's hairs (solar rays) grow back, and Samson pulls down the pillars of the Temple (advancing the Precession of the Equinoxes). - GF

See also: Parallelism in Sioux and Sami Spiritual Traditions, by Ben Baird.

MachtNichts said...

Can't keep up with your incredible output. Talk about production. The divine has you running on overtime.

I think the efforts we are making on our own behalf are meant as a constant reminder to stay with the game, shortcomings and all. You know, once you learn how to cross a certain threshold in the spiritual sense you can't really unlearn. 'It' keeps bugging you. So you take another step forward and another. And, of course, you're right, Vis, I don't know. All I wish for in these turbulent days is for inner peace. Then nothing else can faze and maybe I can pass it on.
And sometimes I wonder if the tears being shed are for the dear departed or oneself in pity.
Since I like to be expletive once in a while too: Double fucking Hallelujah! Aber es macht nichts (but it doesn't matter). So long, Silvia

Gregory F. Fegel said...

P.S.: The Hebrew Samson (which means the Man of the Sun) is the Greek Sampson, and the Tibetan "grist of the mill" is called tSampa. - GF

Smyrna said...

Gregory,

I don't know if this helps, but
Scandinavia is appropriate only to Norway, Sweden and Denmark who share similar culture and language (Northern Germanic).

The Finnish language is part of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family and the only other language of note that is Uralic is Hungarian.(Estonian also, but that is very close to Finnish)

These were tribes that came to Europe from Siberia. Some surviving but small Siberian languages like Samoyed (as in the dog) are Uralic.

Anonymous said...

Vis

I truly love you and these souls here.

It's time for you my friend to leave the circle jerk. I don't have a thought. I'm just a radio for the divine.

My god I hear you.

The world needs you brother

Guess i'm just bat shit crazy.

Much Love

Patrick V1.0

Visible said...

Smyrna;

I love Samoyeds. They are great companions; talk about four legged devotion and love.

Visible said...

Patrick; Thanks. So often I get this for videos people send me;

"Unfortunately, this UMG-music-content is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the respective music publishing rights.
Sorry about that".

Modern Day Metal Making Alchemist at Work said...

Hey Stickman....

I thought stone soup was a lost art... bless you my friend, wood fire is the vibrational key. We live in an electrical universe and our tofu friends should know that the only value our nutrition has for sustaining us is its electrical potential. Keep that soup temperature below a boil and you preserve its voltage. Our spiritual nature is also electrical. A good friend of mine Denie Hiestand wrote a book called electrical nutrition….. this is the real shit, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuNlsiNCj2I

Sovereignty

Visible said...

Sovereignty;

Interesting point, given what I just had to say at Smoking Mirrors.

Gregory F. Fegel said...

Smyrna:
Thank you for your comment about the origin of the Sami and their language, of which I was already aware. Just now I visited the Sami Wikipedia page, where I learned that the Sami migration into northern Europe is commonly believed to have occured at the close of the last Ice Age, soon after the Glaciers retreated from northernmost Europe. The evidence for that are Sami-style petroglyphs and artifacts that date back 10,000 years, and also archeological sites of associated settlements. There is no evidence for any other group occupying northernmost Europe in archaic times, so it is assumed that the Sami were the sole occupants of northernmost Europe until post-Medieval and modern times. It appears that while the Sami were migrating from Siberia into northernmost Europe, the people who we now call Scandinavians were migrating into Scandinavia from the south. There is also evidence that the Sami once occupied a larger share of the Scandinavian Peninsula than they do today.

It is said that among Anthropologists there are "lumpers" and "splitters," and I am definitely a lumper, because I believe that, like human genetics, human languages, cultures, and religions can be recognized as an interconnected tree with a common root-stock in very ancient times.

In "splitter" fashion, the dominant academic linguists have declared that languages form and completely disappear over a period of a half-dozen thousands of years. They disbelieve in the concept of relict words that have survived for many millennia and become cross-cultural. I swim against the current of mainstream linguistic theory in that I believe that many words are cross-cultural, going back many millennia.

Here is an example of a word that I believe to be extremely ancient and cross-cultural: the Roman genii, the Arabic jinn, the Vedic ganas, the Chinese shen (in Old Chinese djen or djin), the Japanese kami, the Ainu kamuey, and the Apache gans. All of these phonetically-similar words refer to ancestral or nature spirits.

One line of inquiry that I have been pursuing is the possible links between the Sami, the shaman, the Vedic Samana (Cosmic Atmosphere), the Vedic samana (an individual's vital air), the Buddhist samana sects (the Buddha was often referred to as ‘the samana Gotama’), Samadhi (Cosmic Consciousness) and some (a sum of) other possibly related words, including same, summa (whole, essence), summit, summer, and samhita (joined or collected), etceteras. - GF

Pete said...

Thanks Les,
It is so hard these losses. Endure, like you've said. I will endure, like you've said.

Modern Day Metal Making Alchemist at Work said...

Gregory:

Those Sami's have bandwidth... put them in a Cree Sweatlodge and they alreay know their way around the void.

Sovereignty

Gregory F. Fegel said...

Sovereignty: Yes to the Sami bandwidth. The article Parallelism in Sioux and Sami Spiritual Traditions, by Ben Baird on the utexas.edu website is quite informative in that regard.
Regards, GF

Gregory F. Fegel said...

P.S.:
Shyam is a name of Krishna, who is the Svayam Bhagavan (God Himself). A swami (svamin) is an idol or a guru, from the Sanskrit root-word sva-s (one's own). The Sanskrit word swadesh means "my country." The Sanskrit word svaha (hail!) means "So be it" in Tibetan. The name of the nation of Siam is from the Thai word sayam and the cognate Sanskrit word syama, both meaning "dark." Krishna means "black" and Shyam means "dark."

Sambo, Shambhoo, or Shambhu is a self-manifested black God. "Sambo, as an Indian word, is a modified form of Shambhoo or Shambhu the name for lord Shiva one of the major three deities in Indian mythology, who was self incarnated. Shambhu in turn is derived from Swayambhu which means someone who is self-manifested or created by its own accord. Also Svayambhuva Manu is the first man (analogus to Adam) in Hindu mythology as he is also self manifested." www.thefullwiki.org/Sambo_(racial_term)

The Celtic Sidhe (pronounced Shee or Shay), and the Vedic Swarga are the black Cosmos. "In Egypt, Shay was the personification of destiny and god of life-span, fate and fortune." www.maat.sofiatopia.org/ten_keys.htm

The Roman ghosts known as Di Manes or Umbrae (Shades) remind me of the Umbrella carried by Vaishravana, Vamana, and some other Asian gods. The Bhagavata Purana states that Vishnu assumed the Vamana (Dwarf) Avatar to restore Indra's authority over the heavens, which was taken away by Mahabali, a benevolent Asura King. Vamana's chief festival is Onam, which celebrates King Mahabali's annual visit from Patala (the Underworld). The south Asian Chattra (Umbrella) symbolizes Vaikuntha (the highest Heaven and abode of Vishnu). Which reminds me once again of the umbrella-toting Little Black Sambo. - GF

est said...

g f @12:04 a m
-
you my friend have a scholars
bent

if you are not teaching at an
advanced level-you should be

how the hell can you fit
all that stuff-in one mind ?

hah
i always like to give the answer
within the question
est
-

Visible said...

One thing;

I am very sorry I did not respond to your very moving tale of loss which brought me to tears and left me without the ability to say anything. I also did not realize you were talking about your son. I don't think anyone did. I still don't know what to say. The way you expressed it and what was contained in the comment, for some reason, just leaves me in a stunned silence.

My heart goes out to you.

It is very odd that the people I know who have departed recently and are connected to readers of the blogs are among the most sincere and beautiful of the people who come here, which is already of a high order across the board. The divine is harvesting these souls at this time because something is coming up and they are being promoted out of the necessity to be around for it. It's all I can think.

I'm a little surprised that no one else commented about what happened to you. Maybe they all had the same reaction I did. I do want you to know that it hit me right in the chest and took the breath of speech away, metaphorically speaking.

Much love to you and the assurance that something fine and wonderful is on the way to you.

est said...

onething
-
i would have to concur
with our esteemed host

i read the comments
very carefully

and i don't know how
that one got by me

i've had a bit of loss
of my own lately

and my concentration
has been compromised

please forgive me and accept my heartfelt condolences

est
-

onething said...

Thank you both.

Mo visible said...

"The divine is harvesting these souls at this time because something is coming up and they are being promoted out of the necessity to be around for it. It's all I can think."
I have had the same thoughts lately, and considering the people who have passed, as beautifully described by a mother in her eloquent post, my the spirit bless you and lift you dear lady.
Thank you Les, with my heart.

katz said...

OneThing,

I'm so sorry to hear of this horrible tragedy. I wish I could help. My thots and prayers are with you and your wonderful son.


I don't know you, but my heart is broken for both of you. Much Love.





BOOKS, MUSIC, VIDEO


FEATURED READ-




Visit the recommended reading page for many more.





FEATURED MUSIC-


'I Need More Light' from the Les Visible Album
God in Country



Visit the Blog Music Page
to stream all of Visible's music for free
(purchase is always appreciated but entirely optional)





FEATURED VIDEO-


A classic Visible post:



With gratitude to Patrick Willis.

Click here to watch and comment on Vimeo and here to read the original text.



Visit the Blog Videos Page for many more.