Wednesday, May 30, 2018

STONEHAVEN AND ANDORRA ... CONNECTED ... O_O ...

I am inordinately happy about this, considering I've never been to either place.
And yet ...
Yet ...
I am not the least bit surprised (not that you'd be able to tell that from my immediate reaction when I saw this article; I literally gasped, sat up straight from my relaxed position, and stared).
Nor does it surprise me that the two festivals are so close to Summer and Winter Solstices - Summer in Andorra; Winter in Stonehaven.

Here's the text only. PLEASE click on the link just below for the original article!!




https://www.mearnsleader.co.uk/news/andorra-impressed-by-stoney-fireballs-1-4746334

Andorra impressed by Stoney fireballs 
The Stonehaven fireballs caught the eye in Andorra 
Published: 11:19 Tuesday 29 May 2018 
Share this article 

Stonehaven’s fireball swingers have found unlikely counterparts - in Andorra. 
The small principality between France and Spain hosts a similar festival but during the summer. 
Later this month three representatives from Stonehaven Fireballs Association have been invited to share in the Andorran experience. 
And a return visit by their hosts for the New Year ceremony in Stonehaven is a possibility. 
Fireball swingers in Andorra had seen the local ceremony online and decided to get in contact. 
Stonehaven committee member Martin Sim, who will be accompanied on the trip by Raymond Penny and Jean Houghton, said: “We got an email from them last December to say that they had seen our website and wanted to have some communication. “They gave us their website details and there would certainly seem to be similarities between our two communities because of what we do." 
I replied to the email and there has been a lot of communication since then. They seem to be keen to form some sort of link. 
“The enthusiasm coming from their side was quite significant.” 
The Andorran fire festival is held in June and the Stonehaven group will spend four days there with the event itself on June 23. 
Martin, a former fireball committee chairman, added: “There seem to be different parts to the festival and I think it happens late in the day. It’s not just fireballs but sticks with fire - a bit like the torches that they use at Up Helly Aa. We are very much looking forward to the trip and it is exciting to be sharing in their celebrations. They did invite us to take part but I felt we couldn’t offer them the same opportunity in Stonehaven as the spaces we have are taken up by local folk.” 
A reciprocal visit has not yet been finalised but discussions will take place during the group’s visit.


Read more at: https://www.mearnsleader.co.uk/news/andorra-impressed-by-stoney-fireballs-1-4746334

Procrastinating



Additional research is popping details that are going to come in mighty handy in the writing of RICIMER, I have to admit.

I also have to admit that I'm indulging in additional research because I'm procrastinating about the writing of RICIMER.

Why?

Because it's hitting just too close to home at the moment.

Last year's set of Alianora Books COME HELL AND HIGH WATER almost didn't go into print because they were hitting too close to home as we were dealing with our own hell and high water at the time.

But they were almost done already so ... out they went.

This is different.

For one thing, I've only just begun the writing of the manuscript itself.

For another, RICIMER is essentially about setting up the initial forging of the strong independent individual nations of Europe out of the ashes of the Western Roman Empire. The forging of steel into the spines of the peoples of Europe, or perhaps the forging of the steel that was already there into what they would need to survive as nations, peoples, cultures that share a common basic belief system despite differences among them.

The end of the Western Roman Empire forced those related peoples, to make of  themselves distinct nations, some already in the building stages, some only just forming.

And they had barely gotten themselves halfway situated before the onslaught began.

How in the name of all that's Holy am I supposed to write about THAT with things the way they are right now over there?

HOW!?!

The past has always been tied to the present and both tied to the future - but this ... this bothers me. Am I writing about the past, today, or the future? The centuries are different, the technology is different, the players are different, but the Story Lines are eerily not so very different.


Monday, May 28, 2018

THIS. Memorial Day is a Day for Grief and Gratitude


















As we honor our fallen, it's impossible not to remember 
what they lived, fought, and died for.

THIS is what it's all about, what it has been all about from the beginning.

Faith
Family
Friends
Freedom
Future

The United States of America
















Feel free to read on if you choose, but the above pretty much says everything that's in my heart on this day.


Add THIS to the mix:

I pledge allegiance
to the Flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic
for which it stands - 
one nation under God
indivisible
with liberty and justice for all.



If you can say the above, and mean it heart and soul, you are welcome here.


This next bit is for the Illegals among us, and for We the People of the United States of America.

We are not 'out to get you' unless you are out to do harm to us or anyone else within our borders, including each other. 
We realize that for the most part you were sold a bill of goods by some charlatans using you as a puppet population. 
Please know that We the People of the United States of America were NOT behind that. 
Please know that one of the reasons we've now chosen an entirely new and different administration for our nation is the result of at last seeing and recognizing what has been going on behind our backs and in front of our faces for a long time, including the lies told to you and the injustice perpetrated on you as well as on us.
No, we did not invite you to come here illegally. Somebody did, but it was not We the People of the United States of America. You, and we, have been used by the same charlatans.
We want you to know that the 'innocent' among you are NOT the babies we want thrown out with the proverbial (and in this case SWAMPY) bathwater.
The bad seed, yes. We want them gone from among us all, including you the 'innocent'.
No, you are not entirely 'innocent' because you broke our law by coming here illegally. For that yes, a penalty must be paid. 
But, once paid, let that be the end of it. Work here, live happy lives here, contribute to our culture and our society here, earn your way the same as the rest of us - and you will find your way to the welcome we were not expecting to extend but which we will extend if you do your part too. 

That Flag up there, that Pledge of Allegiance - they mean something. 
They represent what our families came to this continent to build for us, the Legacy they lived, fought, and died to protect and to preserve. 
And so I say to you: One day your own families will be able to say the same, if YOU give them the chance. 
Our families did not sneak - there is no pride to be taken in ancestors who snuck in through the back door instead of using the front one. 
Give your descendants pride in you. Fix what you have broken so they can live with pride instead of shame. 
You took a big risk in coming here. 
Take another, for the sake of your generations to come - the ones who will be proud Americans who know the meaning of that Flag, that Pledge, with their whole hearts and souls because you choose now to give them a gift. It's the same gift we Americans all share: a common Legacy.

For me, having Faith means not only Faith in the Creator, but in the Creation as well. In us, in you. Because my Faith has three parts I myself think that those three parts are important: Justice, Mercy, Peace - in that order.
Many of you have already paid a steep price to the charlatans who lied to you. They encouraged you to break our law and they are guilty. But you went along with it. Another price, a penalty, must be paid. Mostly by them, but also by you as you are also culpable. 
That's the Justice part, and Justice must come first.
Mercy can only come after Justice has been served.
Then, and only then, will there be a chance for Peace.

To my fellow Americans who might not agree with me on this particular issue I say:
It's all a matter of perspective.
To those who would welcome all and sundry, including the bad apples, I say a very blunt NO.
Period.
To those who would remove all and sundry, including the 'innocent', I say an equally blunt NO.

We can and we will find our Balance here, friends.

All things considered, our good neighbors wish us no harm. The bad neighbors, those who DO wish us harm, will be sent back home. 

We in the United States are among the fortunate of the world. Although we have had, now have, and will have charlatans among us, we have also a Legacy of which we can be proud, a Legacy that gives us the tools we need to do what we have to do when we have to do it.

I refer of course to our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

We cannot blame those less fortunate for wanting to share in what we take for granted. 
We can and we do blame them for making rotten choices if they break our law in their quest to share the Legacy our own families have lived, fought, and died for. 
Hence Justice before Mercy.
But our ultimate goal is PEACE. 
Without Mercy there will come no PEACE.


God Bless the USA!

Welcome Back to Danann and Sidhelagh of Dunnottar!



Seriously enjoying being back at the familiar south hearth of the Dunnottar roundhouse, I tell you true.
Mamm has begun telling the Ricimer Story and I honestly can't wait to 'hear' more of it.
See, this is the fun part of the whole thing: research as done as it's going to get, document files formatted, endless sorting and filing and organizing of information (you would NOT believe it; this is way 'worse' than Alaric, holy cow), so all that stuff is settled into place in the appropriate niches of my mind.
Being as Mamm and the others can read my mind (🙄) and take it from there, all I have to do is watch the Charactors play out the RICIMER Story Line, so to speak, and try to keep up with them as it unfolds.
A very special bonus, at least for me, is that this story is being told shortly after Alianora, Drustann, Merri, and Dothann get home from their long years of travel, during that gap of time between 487 Spring Equinox and May Day when SONG kicks in. And THAT means guess who get to have living breathing parts in the Dunnottar story line ... Danann and Sidhelagh!
As usual I have no idea what any of them are going to be getting me into. That bunch of Dunnottar Characters tends to ad lib stuff as we go along, so we shall see what we shall see. The *good* news is that I don't think there are going to be any major crises among them (I hope). At least the RICIMER Cast of Characters is somewhat predictable. :)
[note: the image at the top was chosen because it kind of reminds me of Danann of Dunnottar, some of whose tools we see here ... so it's a 'welcome back' image for him and Sidhelagh]
THIS one is for Everyone :)


Think About It ...


Thursday, May 24, 2018

They've Already Told This RICIMER Tale

The histories have already SPOKEN, the story-tellers have already HAD their say, the documentaries have already been DONE, and the movie-makers have ALREADY addressed the issue. The verdict is in.

All I'm doing is presenting a different point of view (and a fictional one at that), not arguing with the experts.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, in their right mind, in any of those industries is going to want to touch this story's point of view with a ten foot pole, not in the world in which we live in today.

At the very beginning of writing the books of SONG I thought I might make the Catholics and the Baptists mad but so far they've not been critical of the 'truth' as it seems to me: by definition you CANNOT have a Father and a Son without a Mother - so how can that third Person of the Holy Trinity be anyone except the Mother? It's pretty obvious who a person's mother is at birth. There have been cases where fathers' identities haven't been all too clear, though. Female lineages are a lot more clear and easier to track, if you ask me. That's a scientific fact: mDNA is way easier to work with. It's consistent and accurate, relatively speaking. Point being that women are at least as important as men. If you find that threatening in some way, oh well.

Be that as it may be, I take the Mother's place in the Trinity as a given, something patriarchal ideologies could take exception to so I guess I'm lucky to be ignored.

And the women of Celt ancestry still bow to no-one. Ever.

So there's that to not worry about.

Not being overly fond of ideologies that go around trying to shove their beliefs down people's throats, and separating said throats from bodies and heads if opposed, yes I've taken a dim view of Rome's usurpation of the Faith they could not manage to eradicate in 300 years of trying. That they then weaponized it while denying half of the human population equal representation doesn't set too well with me, either. Being a descendant of the ones who held out, never gave up, never gave in, and won in the end, maybe it's something in my DNA that refutes the right of any to dictate to any other, let alone all.

Maybe it's because the church came to its senses in the end, after too long a time and too much brutality, that my condemnation of the early practices of the Roman church isn't being lashed out about.

Maybe it's because the peoples of Europe did, in the end, form themselves into strong independent nations once Rome's boot was off their throats - again, not quickly and not easily and with too much brutality - but they did it. And the very peoples who had held Europe for millennia before Rome came calling were back in control of their Continent. Fussin' and fuedin' an't nothin' new, folks. The factions of the Celts had been perfecting it for thousands of years already. That they'd HAD thousands of years TO perfect it says something about the stability of their culture, appearances to the contrary be damned. They were fussin' and fuedin', not trying to own everybody else body and soul.

So there are two more things to not worry about since who's gonna argue with what's already done and over with, right?

Right.

So far, so good.

The kicker here is that while I'm writing all this stuff about the past, there are a few things going on in our present that are liable to become obviously connected to said past. That's what's gonna keep me safe from media, from politics, from religion, and from invasive ideologies. Ain't nobody gonna want to go out on THAT limb I tell you true.

Writing fiction about ancient times is one thing. Connecting it incontrovertibly to current events is not gonna fly. So it's a good thing I just want to tell the Story and am not ambitious.

Because what motivates Ullin of Iona, RICIMER, and all the rest of our Characters is what lies at the heart of our current situations.

These Circles mean something:


That center Circle is FAITH
The rest of them represent
FAMILY
FRIENDS
FREEDOM
FUTURE
They're our Legacy.


This symbol, which you haven't seen as much of, means something too:


It's a pretty design, this is true.
It's also a warning.
This is the way it is NOT supposed to be.
It will not work.

Here is a representation of the underlying design by which our world is governed:

I call it the Father Phi Spiral.
That's for a couple of reasons.
One is that the line through the middle makes the Spiral look more like the symbol we recognize as PHI.
Phi is the blueprint of our world.
You can look it up if you doubt me.
The second reason is that it's one of the oldest of all symbols preserved by humankind. 
It means something.
It has always meant something.
It has always meant the same thing.
CREATION
GOD
1.618
BALANCE
And you know what the building blocks of the Spiral consist of?
TRIANGLES

What I'm about to suggest might make every religion except for maybe Buddhism and Hindu mad as hornets but I don't particularly care.

[WARNING: SIDETRACK]
Because it's not 'just' that the Holy Trinity has to have a female function if creation is to continue to procreate, which it most assuredly will, with or without humankind.

It's not 'just' that I find it personally offensive, what has been done in the name of 'religion' for all this time.

As a matter of fact it doesn't have much of anything to do with 'religion' at all, because people get to choose what (if anything) they want to believe.

What it has to do with is that attempts to twist the Spiral out of balance have caused, are causing, and will cause literal harm to innocent folk.

Half of us can't be heading in one direction and the other half heading in the opposite direction, and any of us expect balance to be maintained. It hasn't worked yet and it ain't gonna EVER WORK. Our universal - literally - governing principles will not allow it. [sidetrack inside sidetrack: speaking of governing principles, the Constitutional Republic government of the United States of America is fundamentally based on PHI.]

Look again at this warning symbol:


Say you're on one side of this 'twisted spiral' thing and I'm on the other, just walking along.
Where are we going to end up?
We'll either hit a dead end
or collide in the middle.
Either way we lose.
Plus, that spiral ain't gonna stay twisted like that because by design it CAN'T stay that way.
One side or the other is gonna flip back around so it's all in balance again.
So what in the heck do we think we're DOING?
May as well stick with the PHI thing and not lose our balance in the first place, if you ask me.
Which I realize you didn't.
[END SIDETRACK]

I think that maybe, just maybe, the significance of triangles and spirals and such clear back as far as we can track humankind has to do with something we ALL instinctively KNOW somehow.

There's no conflict between Science and Faith. They're the same thing.

Which is another thing to not worry about because Science is zipping right along to prove it and Faith is plodding reluctantly to accept it.

So what's the worry?

Me, I'm not worried because I'm just a little old lady with no real stake in much of anything - nothing to lose that I haven't already lost or don't care if I do lose.

But there are folks in our world who would likely not appreciate having people's attention drawn to parallels between historic fact and current events.

The divisions caused by 'identity politics', for example, mean that twisted Spiral is already out of balance. And I don't have to tell you who's been pushing that for a while now. I doubt they know what they're doing, but maybe they're hoping that when the time comes it will be the other side of the twist that will swing around and the Spiral will balance itself in their favor.

On the other end of the spectrum, but on that same side of the twisted Spiral, are the folks trying to shove the EU down the throats of the peoples of Europe. They don't want anyone reminded of how that ended when Rome tried to do it - twice - once via military and once via ideology. Neither ended well for Rome although Europe, once recovered from the ravages inflicted by the attempts, came out of it with those strong independent nations that Ullin and RICIMER and the others were betting on. Rome struck out twice trying what they're trying now.

Yet another loser in this equation is an ideology that can't seem to wrap its head around either the Holy Trinity OR that a Mother is required if there are to even BE a Father and a Son - OR that what they're trying to do has already failed more than once.

None of those people want to be challenged to explain how on earth they think they're going to take two failures and turn out a success by trying the exact same things. It's not like math where two negatives can produce a positive.

Honestly.

What did they do, look at history and say, 'Hey, check this out! This thing here FAILED spectacularly, and that thing over there FAILED just as spectacularly! Let's put them together and they'll be GREAT! We'll rule the world!'

Considering that the goal of both examples had been to 'rule the world', and both FAILED spectacularly, success by combining the two doesn't exactly seem very promising.

My point here, and in the books, is that our fictional folk (some not quite all the way fictional) SUCCEEDED in what they set out to do, not because they themselves were masters at what they did (although they were) but because their goal was WHAT THE COLLECTIVE, INSTINCTIVE, WILL OF THE PEOPLES AFFECTED WANTED.

So the moral of the Story is: the EU is doomed, and so is that invasive ideology. One is trying what Rome tried first; the other is trying what Rome tried second. Against the exact same populations of people. For that matter, some folks in the States are trying to do do what Rome also tried: pitting folks against each other. That, if you recall, resulted in something called the Barbarian Conspiracy, which didn't work out so well for Rome in the end did it?

Mamm of Dunnottar, fictionally speaking, asked Attila, "How stupid are you?!?"

Me, I would never think of asking anyone any such thing.

Out loud.

I might wonder it to myself, though.

If you're going to try stuff, you might want to first do a little homework so you know a little something about the people you're up against.

Not to be a spoil sport or anything, but at least three quarters of the citizens of the United States of America are probably descendants of the peoples Rome FAILED against - twice. The percentage in Europe is likely higher yet.

Fussin' and fuedin' is one thing Rome thought was more than it was.

Leave off the crap and leave our Legacy alone. 

Our instincts are still intact.

Believe me.


Go play in the rest of the world, and quit tryin' to mess with our Circles.

RICIMER MIGHT COME BACK.

And see how you like them apples.