*laughing* While We're At It ...

Since we're focusing on the books of SONG for the moment, we may as well go the whole nine yards.

Here are the Alianora Books: COME HELL AND HIGH WATER

What with one thing and another, the natural disasters of 2017 seem a lifetime ago.

Yet, as they unfolded I almost pulled HELL AND HIGH WATER from the 2017 publishing list. The events in the books were just hitting too close to home, so to speak.

Then it dawned on me what I was seeing before my eyes.

For many, 2017 was a time when push came to shove, when bad went to worse and from there right on to worst.

So what was I seeing that grabbed my attention?

Nothing.

NOTHING got in the way of people stepping up and helping other people.

That's what I saw.

I didn't see folks giving a hoot about color, didn't hear them asking about religion, or social status, or lifestyle choices. For a time the 'identity politics' we've all become so familiar with flat out did not exist.

So, besides the NOTHING, I saw HOPE.

I bet a lot of those video news clips are still available on line. We should all go watch them.

Meanwhile, ponder on this for a bit: WE are the descendants of the folk who survived that other time of HELL AND HIGH WATER. Apparently a lot of us have inherited at least some of what got them through those times.

Did the regular folk of Earth back almost 13,000 years ago know that their world was going to literally explode under their feet and over their heads?

No.

Did the advanced culture in the middle of the North American Continent think for an instant that their technology would be rendered useless in the blink of an eye? Did their Star Folk see anything coming ahead of time?

No.

When a new Keeper of the Faith was born in the year 500 CE (AD) did Alianora and Drustann of Dunnottar know what they were getting themselves into when they wanted to assure themselves that the Faith they cherished was still on the right track - and arrangements were made for them to go back in time to find out for themselves?

No.

The Story, and the Warning, they bring back with them changes a lot of things.

Meanwhile, we have our own version of the Arthurian Tales going on. The battles that Hart fights are based on those tales (easy enough for an Arthurian Scholar to figure out) but are also purely our own interpretation. Gotta love fiction!

Did the regular folk of Earth in the 500s CE (AD) have any inkling of what was about to descend on them? A few did - and their choices, their actions, made all the difference.

ANCIENT SYMBOL IS PHI SPIRAL

This symbol represents the concept of Creation, Life, Death, Eternity. It is a symbol for the part of the Song of the Holy Trinity that is Sung (generally) by the Voice of Danann of Dunnottar.

More specifically, it is a PHI Spiral symbol and has been around since who even knows when. It is found in the earliest 'art' of humankind. Odd that, some may think, because we're only just now unveiling some of the mysteries connected to the science behind it.

The Spiral is literally ubiquitous - it is maybe the fundamental LAW that defines and maintains our entire world. A friend of mine uses the word 'fractals' and as it suits I'll try to explain it to you. A fractal is a small part of a bigger whole that, in and of itself, is identical to that bigger whole. At least that's the way I understand it. Keep that in the back of your mind.

It's become clear that everything in our world, the things we know and those we don't yet know, are all - ALL - comprised of Energy. Energy, which can be neither created nor destroyed, which 'definition' also just so happens to apply to God, the Creator, which may or may not be coincidence. Be that as it may be, Energy is eternal with no beginning and no end, and it is continually changing forms - from waves to particles and back again.

Then there's this phenomenon called entanglement. Einstein referred to it as 'spooky action at a distance' and wouldn't even 'go there'. Since his time people have 'gone there' and confirmed it. Entanglement is when two bits (electrons in the case of the experiments) of the same substance (e.g. the same atom) are separated by a distance, and even the minuscule amount of energy generated by the simple act of observing ONE of the electrons causes it to reverse its rotation, causes a simultaneous reversal of rotation in the OTHER one, although it is far away and not being observed (only electronically monitored). The two, having once been part of a larger whole, are permanently entangled. What affects one affects the other.

Going back to Energy for a moment, we know that it makes up Everything, including of course our little electrons that were snagged from the same atom. Over the course of Eternity past, present, and future, Energy has been, is, and will be Everything. Over the course of Eternity, the forms taken by Energy have absolutely NO limits to the ways they can combine, separate, recombine. Those two little electrons, their Energy, may well have been entangled from ANY part of Eternity, not necessarily just connected via the particular atom they were removed from for experimental purposes. Maybe at one time they were part of an atom in a cell of a mammoth, or a dinosaur, or a meteor, or anything else we can think of. In between they may have been Energy in wave form rather than particle form. We have no way of knowing, at least not yet.

Returning to fractals: every bit of the Energy in our world is a fractal of the all-encompassing design of the Spiral. That design is THE design of Everything. No matter how small we seek to discover, no matter how far we range into space ... the pattern simply repeats and repeats and repeats. Energy ALWAYS adheres to the perfect balance of the Spiral, no matter what, no matter when, no matter where. Everything is a fractal of the larger design pattern. Regardless of how different our perception of specific items are, they are bottom line identical, made up of Energy and adhering to the design of the Spiral - which we identify as Phi - 1.618... And the Spiral is made up of triangles, always, always, always. Which, again, brings us full circle, so to speak, back to God, the Holy Trinity, and to all of the more ancient belief systems that incorporated triangles into their teachings, the triangle frequently representing 'female'.

And we're only just now beginning to grasp the whole concept involved here.

How in the world does a symbol representing such complex (to us) concepts come to be so very ancient?

As for the line running through the center of the symbol, I reckon it's likely there for a good reason, probably to keep the whole thing in balance. I've made scores if not hundreds of spirals out of all kinds of stuff. Only recently have I begun trying to incorporate the 'Phi Line' into them, but I'm discovering that it is a stabilizing force that keeps the spiral from sproinging or unwinding. Ancient spirals abound around the globe, and that 'Phi Line' is present in many of them although not all.

Speculation continues as to the meanings or interpretations of the ancient symbols, and I think that a lot of them are probably 'right' even though they may not seem to agree with each other. Over the course of time, different 'meanings' may well have been ascribed to the same symbol, so that symbol may have been used in different ways. We flat don't know.

What we DO know is that they're ancient, and everywhere. Cultures all over the place, at different times, at the same times, with connections, without connections that anyone can identify ... so what is it about the Spiral, the PHI Spiral, that resonates and has resonated over a time span longer than we can wrap our heads around?

This symbol represents Mystery and at the same time the solving of all Mystery ... if we can only just unlock its secrets.

Reinventing the Wheel

Think about your own self for a minute. Now think through your family, friends, associates, co-workers, folks you meet on the street regularly enough to say hello to, folks you don’t know as well, people you know on line but not in person, people you might know something about via media … basically, everybody you know or know of.

You’ve just defined your own interpersonal spiral. It begins with you and spirals out from you to include all of the others. Because your spiral now has a definition, it has just become a cognitively recognized part of you and cannot ‘un-become’. It is now a permanent part of your memory. At odd moments for the rest of your life it will pop into your consciousness.

Each and all of us have these interpersonal spirals, all of which flow out from us as individuals to intersect and interlock with those of everyone else. This too is going to pop into your mind at odd moments for the rest of your life. The interactions of each can and do affect all.

Since it’s on your mind at this moment, think about the good, the bad, and the ugly that each of the above persons has in them, beginning with your own self. There’s some of each in all and well you know it.

Now that the thought is right here, so to speak, let’s reinvent the wheel.

You’ve no doubt got your individuals pegged into categories. That’s because we do that automatically. We like orderliness and will arrange patterns instinctively. When you think ‘good’, or ‘bad’, or ‘ugly’ a certain subset of individuals will come into your mind. Although you know full well that each of those individuals also has each of the other characteristics, the way you view them based on your experience is going to define their identity on your spiral.

You’ve just defined the spokes of your own interpersonal wheel, the one of which you are the hub. The strengths and weaknesses of all of the individuals included in your interpersonal spiral have designated their place on one of the spokes of said wheel.

And that wheel goes ‘round and ‘round, your life being the path on which it turns.

‘But,’ you say, ‘I don’t want some of those people to be a part of my spiral, or my wheel.’

Too bad.

They are there and there they will remain. You can try to remove them all you want; they will not leave you. Ever. Once included, they cannot be excluded. Ever. Once someone or something has become a part of your cognitive recognition, you cannot un-recognize them or it.

Sorry.

That’s just the way we’re designed.

On the plus side of this whole thing is that the negatives do play a vital role. Accepting that will help you reconcile their presence in your spiral, your wheel.

You see, not only do we seek and find patterns because it is instinctive to us, we also MUST have balance. That’s probably the most basic law of all of creation.

And so, as the wheel of your own individual spiral traverses the path of your life, each of those spokes in turn hits the ground. The impact travels up that spoke straight to you at the hub. The wheel is balanced, and balanced it must be – all the time. Each of those spokes is exactly as important as all of the others. Trying to get rid of any of them is a lesson in futility. We are absolutely unable to do it.

Your individual spiral and wheel are of the most importance to you; mine are most important to me; everyone else’s are most important to them. That’s the way it’s designed.

However, our individual spirals do indeed intersect, interact, and interlock with those of everyone else. The scale expands from us as individuals on outward to include our families, friends, associates, co-workers, folks we meet on the street regularly enough to say hello to, folks we don’t know as well, people we know on line but not in person, people we might know something about via media … basically, everybody we know or know of.

Because the individual spirals of all those others also intersect, interact, and interlock with those of everyone else’s, the spiral keeps expanding and growing. Our uniquely individual spirals are part of a much bigger one.

The pattern is set, immutable.

Science calls it PHI, the Golden Mean, Perfect Balance, whatever. Folks of Faith know it as God’s Plan. Either way, it cannot be changed. It is Law and we are governed by it. From the enormity of the Universes to the tiniest sub-particles we are able to identify, our world is governed by the spiral, the balance of energy that literally cannot be altered.

So when you, just like me and everyone else, would really love to just get rid of the ‘uglies’, remember that we flat cannot do it. That’s not much consolation, is it?

What we CAN do is try to fill our own spirals, our spokes with as many of the ‘good’ folk as we possibly can manage. By doing so, we may be able to collectively bind our own positive spirals more closely together which would force the negatives onto fewer spokes, so to speak.  Overall, there will still be the same number of positives and negatives, but maybe, just maybe, we can minimize how often our negative spokes hit the paths of our lives by focusing on developing the number of positive ones … which would have the effect of concentrating the negatives into a few powerful spokes rather than spreading them out into more, but less high-impact, ones.

Again, small consolation, eh?

We cannot change the Law. Balance will prevail, no matter what.

Choosing to throw the power of our collective energy in on the positive side of the equation, however, might just make more of a difference in our individual lives than we think it could.

The ugly is always going to be with us in equal proportion to the good. That’s kind of a given.

But we don’t have to be any more a part of it than we absolutely have to on an individual basis.

Choose to seek, find, and nurture the good that is all around you. Focus on the beautiful, the kind, the gentle, the strength of the good, because it is powerful indeed.

At the same time, do not neglect to recognize that the ugly is with us, as all around us as the good is. What good we choose to seek, find, and nurture will be our defense against the ugly.

So as you’re thinking about your interpersonal spiral and the wheel that rolls along the path of your life, think about how you can strengthen the positive spokes so that when the negative ones hit that path they will have less of an impact on you at the hub. By strengthening your own spiral, your own wheel, you are strengthening those of the folk whose spirals most closely intersect, interact, and interweave with yours. That bigger spiral too becomes stronger, and spreads faster and further than you can imagine.

It’s a bit of an irony, isn’t it, that the bigger and stronger the negative becomes, the more likely it is that the positive will react by coming to the fore to counter it. But so it is. So it has to be. Balance will prevail.

We can, each and all of us, choose whether to put our personal energy into the equation for good or for ill. It is already a part of the bigger spiral, but we really do get to pick which direction we are going to send the power of our individual energy.

I get to choose; so do you.

An Angel Story

I have a number of 'Angel Stories' but for today my focus is on a point that needs to be made about one of them in particular. The whole story will come in another post; for now the abbreviated version will make the point.

A recent topic of conversation was about angels; it reminded me of the reluctant angel I met when my vehicle overheated on I-25 between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, the one who drove a red corvette convertible. 

I needed help and he helped me, confused as all get-out because, as he told me, he just didn’t do stuff like help people because all people are inherently bad, hateful, and generally mean. Nevertheless he helped me in more ways than one and was on the receiving end of a blessing of his own.

He drove into the Springs to get the part my poor little beat-up S10 Blazer needed, leaving me with my vehicle because otherwise it probably wouldn't be there when we got back, and I was to stay IN the vehicle (doors locked and windows up). 

While he was gone, people pulled off of I-25 from both directions to check on me. I’m not even kidding you a little bit here. I started writing down plate numbers on the back of an envelope but stopped when I ran out of room and lost count. More than FORTY vehicles pulled into that little area, some of the folk choosing to stick around until my ‘angel’ got back with the part, which took better than an hour.

The point I want to make here is not so much that there are indeed an abundance of ‘angels among us’ (although that’s most certainly true and I’m here to tell you so) but ... 

Those angels showed up from all socio-economic backgrounds (going by their vehicles and clothes) and from all the ethnic-cultural backgrounds that the Front Range is home to, they were of all ages and both genders – and not a one of them gave any of the others so much as a sideways look, I’ll have you know. 

Each and all of them had pulled off of that highway urged by the exact same impulse, to help someone, and they all knew it. Grins and waves from each to the other and they were back on their own paths for the day. 

Few of them would have known how MANY they were a part of on that day, but I knew and so did a couple of the early stoppers who stayed to ‘stand guard’.

So it wasn’t just me who was blessed on that day, nor just my reluctant angel (who was shocked enough to find a group of folks waiting with me when he got back, let alone when we told him how MANY more had stopped), but also all those folk who took the time out of their days and made the effort to check on the well-being of a total stranger.

Do not ask me to explain because I flat out cannot do it. 

Such a thing may never have happened before and may not have happened since and may never happen again – but on that day it did I tell you true.

In today’s world we could have and would likely have recorded the whole thing and it would have gone viral on line. As it is, the memory makes me smile and having had the experience makes me believe very strongly in just the opposite of what my reluctant angel told me about people on that day.

Score one for the good folk!

From all walks of life, from all ages, from all ethnicities, from all cultures, male and female they stepped up to the plate and offered aid, support, good wishes, protection, and many a smile and/or hug as well. 

That I am still so impacted by that one short time speaks on behalf of everyone who was there on that day. 

I couldn’t tell you the name of a single one of them except that I remember Ric was the name of the reluctant angel. 

But I will never ever in my life forget the message they brought with them, each and all independently of everyone else. 

‘I care,’ they said. ‘I am here.’

*sentimental sigh*

I totally love remembering times like that.

Stephen Hawking - Black Holes - Science Comes In Handy For Fiction Writing

Stephen Hawking gives us something to think about, indeed he does. Click on his name to take you to one of the articles.

For our purposes, which is essentially a search for possible 'explanations' of some of the stuff presented in the fictional format of the Mamm Books and the rest of the books and stories associated with the SONG series, cold hard facts aren't required. Hypothesis will more than suffice.

There are scores of articles all over the place about this, so why did I pick this one?

I like the photo.

And really, it doesn't matter which of the articles you reference - they're all telling us the same thing.

Hawking's ideas might come in handy for us (which is entirely selfish but oh well) in terms of 'understanding' how certain elements of our books might be possible.

Like what?

Well, like ... what if black holes are 'memory banks' of what has been? All those deposits of energy-borne substance safely tucked away might be available for a withdrawal. What if someone comes up with the access code? Could that someone use the deposit slips (receipts) to replicate whatever the original deposit was, exactly and precisely identical to the original?

I'm thinking at the moment about Danann and Sidhelagh to represent the vague concept that's trying to form itself in my mind. Or when the Mother touches Dunnottar's Grove and Roundhouse, giving the far future exact replicas (or perhaps the originals?) of the far past's actual substance. The miracle is no less miraculous; it's just got a logical, mathematical, scientific basis for being able to occur.

For future reference in stories yet to be written, suppose some of our Characters are roaming around on the Spiral, doing what they do, and the Younglings happen on one of these banks (black holes), get curious, and want to reconstruct something that was once real but has been lost in the mists of mythology? 

It would be kind of like what they do from their Play Pretend Clearing, except those little jaunts into imagination are based on having a knowledge of the dimensions/realms of the times/places/persons/events involved in their adventures via the Clearing. In other words, they can only go to where and when they already know something about. 

Their educations would have included plenty from the past of their time, and their present, and included myths and legends we today have no idea about except for very ancient references and the findings of our archaeologists. That the dimensions of said myths and legends, fictionally speaking, were/are contemporary (embedded, so to speak) to our own realm on the 'timeline' of the Spiral makes them readily accessible to the Younglings.

That's a whole different scenario from them playing around on the Spiral, let alone traipsing along on the PHI Line that runs through the whole thing. They can't get 'lost' but boy can they run into unfamiliar territory. The Spiral covers a LOT more territory than even their extensive educations could possibly prepare them for.

See, this is what happens when somebody out there somewhere comes up with a concept we hadn't really thought about before.

Fictionally, our Characters can have fabulous adventures all over the multiverse as a consequence of one of the ideas coming from the mind of one of the smart people of our world.

The Characters don't have to understand the math or science behind the concept in order to put it to use in their fictional lives. The Younglings can get themselves into predicaments that they have to get themselves out of one way or another - and the same goes for the adult Characters.

Traveling the Spiral can take our Characters all over our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, our universe, and beyond. They have all infinity and eternity to roam around in - past, present, and future. 

Running into one of those black holes with their deposits of energy - which are observable to the Younglings (or others) - would most certainly spark their curiosity. Because these deposits of energy are different. They're not the living, moving, active dimensions and realms the Younglings use to navigate their way along the Spiral. Looking at them does not animate them. They are inert, in a sort of suspended animation, hibernating maybe, while the energy that once made them 'real' is out there in the rest of the Spiral contributing to the larger energy pool.

Something like that.

At any rate, these perfectly preserved but inanimate things would fascinate the Younglings to no end. What/who are they? Where did they come from? When did they come from? How did they get stuck there and why can't they get un-stuck?

The Younglings being the Younglings, they're bound to try to figure it out, and are bound to succeed. And of course they don't go to the adults (who would tell them in no uncertain terms to stay the heck away from those black holes) because they don't want to hear the warnings. They want to find out for themselves what these things are all about.

Yes they know it's dangerous.

They don't, however, know it's lethal.

Reconstructing one of the inanimate ghosts means re-energizing it - and the energy has to come from somewhere ... the nearest energy source would be the Younglings themselves.

This is a different scene from Danann and Sidhelagh resuming their physical forms after three thousand years. The two of them have been 'themselves' for all that time, their energy remaining intact within the Sidhe of the Ages and needing only to make the swap back into the form of energy that is their physical selves. Said energy can't be in both forms at once, you know. 

And so it is for all of the Sidhe. Their physical 'selves' are preserved around the perimeters of the black hole energy banks as de-energized forms while their life energy continues through and out again into the whole of the Spiral. Theirs, however, is not dispersed like most of the rest of the life-force energy but retains its individual identity. The Sidhe are exceptions to a lot of stuff.

Anyway, the de-energized forms the Younglings are looking at and curious about are not Sidhe. The energy required to reactivate them is not the energy of a Sidhe simply switching from one form to another. 

Now, the Younglings are not stupid. They know basically how all this stuff works. They choose one form from among the many they see, something really little and innocuous-looking, to try their experiment on. They figure it won't take much of their combined energy to 'bring it back'.

Luckily for them Brann the Honest tattles on them ahead of time so the Sidhe of the Ages are standing by, Danann and Sidhelagh among them. They let the Younglings proceed but stop them before they can get themselves into big trouble with the Holy Trinity.

Danann and Sidhelagh are there to tell them, remind them, about the consequences of meddling with stuff they aren't supposed to meddle with.

Since this happens to the original lot of Younglings, Danann and Sidhelagh are but Voices in the ears of the Younglings. 

When the Younglings want to argue the point Danann of Perth himself (Danann the Red as opposed to Danann the Gold of Dunnottar) threatens to transform back into his original mortal self and thrash the lot of them. And so he does. He doesn't thrash them but he scares them pretty good; fierce Warrior that he is, he's convincingly intimidating when he wants to be.

So they cease and desist.

Aduan and Loki, however ... ach, those trouble-makers! I have a feeling a lot of those de-energized things have been de-energized for good reason by the Will of the Trinity.

How it is that Aduan and Loki manage to not get themselves de-energized is something I haven't figured out yet but assume it has to do with the Keeping of the Balance.

*laughing*

Aduan and Loki  :  the Keepers of the Balance

Lord help us.

They'll want crowns.

Interactive Universe

What with all the stuff about quantum physics, and entanglement, and waves vs particles, and such ... which just about anybody knows more about than I do ... here's a thought that was passing through my energy field and sort of got stuck there.

What if science really does verify that there are entangling alliances from clear back to whenever/ wherever/whoever yada yada that really are active participants (of a sort) in our universe/multiverse, or perhaps 'passive' conduits of some kind that connect entangled energies every which way from Tuesday?

What if these entangled alliance webs are not quite really random - which of course they couldn't technically be anyway since PHI rules the whole of energy, right? What if they're (allegorically, just so I've got some kind of visual to go by here) spider webs of energy spinning themselves along in the greater whole of the general energy spiral-flow? Many and many of these web alliances, but in general either light or dark because the overall balance has to be maintained.

Hmmm?

Our brains are energy being put to use, just like the rest of all of our systems and everything else for that matter.

Thoughts are energy being put to use.

So ... what if when you 'send good thoughts' to someone (whether you know them or not, whether it makes any sense or not) you really are sending those good thoughts and not 'just' thinking about it? We don't generally 'send good thoughts' on behalf of someone we have absolutely no feeling about one way or another. We send them because something about them, or their situation, or whatever, somehow strikes a chord of some kind in us. 

Maybe that's because some little bit of our energy is entangled with some little bit of theirs. When or where or how or what (let alone who and why) got that entanglement going is kind of moot and doesn't really matter for our purposes. What if that bit of our energy is connected to that bit of theirs via one of those web alliances? It would then make all the sense in the world for us to want to 'send good thoughts' their way - and for said good thoughts going from the energy of our brain(s) to follow said web of the entangled alliance to whoever we're 'sending good thoughts' to. 

Not telepathy exactly because it's 'only energy' after all, not specific once it's in its travel mode (wave vs particle of energy). When the thought is active in your brain, it might be considered a 'particle' because it has a specific definable form, so to speak (or think). When you release it by 'sending it out there' it goes into 'wave' mode. When it gets to where it's going, it might again take on 'particle' status. Say the other person feels a bit of a change somehow right then, might smile for no real reason or some such. Their 'noticing', or reacting, or whatever, makes the connection complete between those entangled bits of energy. Your 'good thoughts' are delivered.

See, the thing about this whole concept is that the energy we 'spend' on positive thoughts and actions gets released into that entangled web alliance. We as in all of us. 

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed - it can only be redistributed and be 'redirected', manipulated if you will, to produce an effect we want (like burning wood for heat, for example). Because our thoughts are energy, they too get redistributed as we release them (spending our bits of energy). Entangled web alliances within our universe/multiverse would mean they would be picked up by the right web and on their way. 

We don't have to understand exactly how or why it works, and that's a good thing because we don't, not even the 'smartest' of us. That those smart ones are actually providing us with concrete examples of the concept of entanglement and all that other stuff is surely a good thing. 

One day people might figure it all out, like they've figured out how to make the internet work (which I personally could never in this life explain but I use it all the time) but for now it's only playing 'What If' ... but what a fun sort of 'what if' it is to play, at least for me. 

All the energy in the world ... think of how much of that there is - lots and lots of energy - and what if entanglement does play a role? What if bits of us are entangled with bits of lots of others, maybe with everything? What if those entanglements really are connected and interactive?

Hmmm?

We're likely to figure out the what, and the how, and the when, and the where ... it's the WHO and the WHY that are liable to give a lot of us fits when the time comes to figure out that part.

Meanwhile, it can't possibly hurt a darned thing to 'spend' as much energy as we can on the positives of the light. There are plenty of the dark negatives - let's not add any more than necessary to them.

A Merger of Galactic Proportions

When two galaxies merge ...

This is a link to IFL Science's article about merging galaxies Hubble photos.

One of the comments asked why we aren't moving away from Andromeda, the galaxy nearest to our own Milky Way if everything's supposedly always expanding outward ... 

I have no idea of course, since I'm not an expert or anything - but I have a feeling it might be the expansion of the galaxies, doing their bit of the outward thing, that brings them to the point of intersection; hence the merging. 

It wouldn't affect the outward expansion of the whole; the two would continue on that path as a larger unit.

At least that's the way I see it.

When the joint Milky Way/Andromeda merged galaxy gets settled down some it will likely go through the whole procedure again with whatever solo or merged galaxy is close enough for its expansion to intersect with ours.

We of course aren't going to live to see any of it. Even if we did live long enough to be around for the occurrence we probably wouldn't notice it much, if at all. That's one reason the Hubble photos are so great - in a way we CAN see it!

Balance Required

The other day I had a nightmare, the first 'real' nightmare I can remember ever having. Dreams where mysterious things happen, or dreams of huge waves threatening to overwhelm but always escaped - those don't count as nightmares because they are essentially not creepy. The nightmare I had was creepy.

So it was a great relief to me to have a dream that at least was calm and peaceful, if inexplicable.

Here's what I wrote down a while after I woke up:

"And of course, unlike the nightmare, this one is fragmentary now that I’m awake.

All I’ve got is a sphere of energy with a central core and the concept of okay now you reach in like this see? And the center core is tugged down out of the center of that sphere which pulls the whole into the shape of a tornado sort of, just to demonstrate that the sphere is a spiral … then the center is again centered … and the implication seems to be that you could tug that center out into any direction and unique spirals would result … although, except for purposes of demonstration, the center remains centered and all of those spirals are an integrated part of the whole sphere.

That center is the origin of all of the spirals … they come out from it every which way from Tuesday to make the sphere. They’re all spinning like crazy in their energy fields, wholly complete each in themselves – but also so integrated that they cannot be separated. That’s why the whole sphere got ‘tornado-ized’ by the demonstration.

One spiral was ‘stretched out’ so I could see it but the whole kind of came right along with it and then resumed the sphere shape when the center was back in the center.

It wasn’t like, for example, if I stretched out one of the curls of my own mop of curly hair to see how long it was and then turned it loose to spring back into the rest of the curls …

Yeah I know it’s a mite strange but that’s the gist of the dream as best I can describe it."

And that's the dream, what I can remember of it.

To add to the strangeness, and to frustrate me further that my remembering isn't better, I was a distinct 'audience' to this dream, not an active participant. I was watching ... and I knew it ... and told myself, 'I have to wake up and write this down.'

Did I? No, I did not.

Why not?

Eliphino.

So I'm stuck with hints only, sigh. If I can remember telling myself to wake up and write stuff down, how come I can't remember of what those spirals and the whole of the energy sphere were comprised? How come I only remember a blue white instead of all of the colors my dreams usually have? How come I can't remember exactly what all those spirals are, or represent, or how they originated from that center? Stuff like that would be pretty helpful.

Ah well. Maybe the dream will come again, or another.

For the record, no I do not use drugs of any kind - at all - save tobacco, and the caffeine to be found in coffee and Pepsi. I just don't. And I am certifiably sane, fairly intelligent, and generally well-rounded.

So I really don't have any excuses, let alone explanations. Cope as best  you can.

I'm not a mathematician or a scientist or anything like that, either. I intuit things that the smart people of our world figure out in technical ways, which is fine by me as it consistently 'proves' I'm not totally off my rocker and that my emergency backup marble is functional.

*laughing*

I get lots of questions about this little necklace I wear always. If you know me, you already know that no it's not an ancient crystal with some kind of esoteric meaning. It's a plain ordinary simple marble and I wear it as proof positive that no I have not lost all of my marbles.

As for interpreting this dream, it's pretty well self-explanatory. A 'visual' of what my mind has been struggling to describe - entanglement.

But it also brings a host of questions.

What are the spirals? 

How many are there? 

Are they individuals or cultures or universes or all of the above? 

If each and all are complete within their own energy fields how do they merge? 

Do they affect one another and if so, how? 

How much of that energy is wave and how much particle? 

Is it possible for the energy of one spiral to 'move' to another, aside from that overall 'connectedness', that inviolate integration? 

Do the 'separate' spirals interact with purpose and design and if so, how and why? 

Is there communication as we might be able to understand it within the whole and/or the parts? 

Are some of the spirals bad and some good? It must be so else there is no balance. What defines the 'bad' and the 'good'? 

Are each and all of the spirals eternally spinning outward? 

Are they all continually exchanging energy? They must be, to maintain the integrity of the whole of the sphere. 

If that's the case, how can they each and all be complete in and of themselves even while being an integrated part of the whole?

And so on and so on and so on ... 

Yep.

This is a part of what goes on in my mind all the time. 

The whole thing kind of reminds me of the Circles of Dunnottar only taken to the umpteenth power.

It Fits, Yes It Does! Who Woulda Thunk!?!

photo credit - www.nancysantana.com

The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy".


Here are more informative photos discovered by a simple web search. There are lots - go looking!!

Yes, this is what caught my eye. I saw it as a painting someone had made digital images of to print onto all sorts of things and thought What The HECK!!

So, me being me, I went looking to find out exactly what the heck.

Japan of all places! 

Considering the symbol that caught my eye is quite very ancient, to find it in a relatively 'new' context is kind of fun - and it means exactly EXACTLY what I have it meaning in my own context, which is more fun yet!

I've only just begun, but essentially it focuses on the 'life energy' that surrounds us totally, kind of putting it to use to relax us so our bodies can do what they do without the interference of external (or internal) stressors. 

It seems to be a sort of meditation thing.

Balancing Mind, Body, Spirit makes all kinds of sense. 

"Reiki (/ˈreɪkiː/) is a form of alternative medicine developed in 1922 by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui."

^^^ That's ^^^ a Wiki quote ... 

I have a strong hunch that this guy wasn't the very first of anybody in the whole wide world to figure this out.

I might get back to this later. 

Right now I'm heading for my bed; as this Long Dark advances, hibernation seems like a wonderful idea - but I can't hibernate so will sleep for a while as an unsatisfying substitute. 

Short Stories,Tall Tales, and Such : Live on Kindle : Amazon

CLICK

(or get it on Kindle!)

Rua and the Brownies take on some Pesky Pixies in this book of short pieces.

*laughing*

Got that one finished and thought,'Well, this book is about ready to go now!'

Then had a horrifying thought: I had promised somebody a Tall Tale about Paul Bunyan and Babe - and it wasn't written, let alone in this book. 

So I tagged it on at the end of Rua's story since that file was already open and fomatted for this book. Hurried to get it in, and went to work getting it published.

It was only during the final on line editorial preview that I found I had put Rua's story in twice and Babe's love for salted herring and subsequent thirst was nowhere to be found.

*sigh*

So back into the book's working file I went, got it straightened out, changed the name of the file to avoid confusion, and re-submitted it.

This little book has a lot in it, truth be told.

Elves, 

the first adventures of Renegade, Rebel, Rogue, and Riley 

(and introducing Reckless and her horse Roger), 

thoughts on religion, spirituality, and mysticism, 

a bit of family history, 

some Shakespeare, 

a modern day Sass doing what Sass does, 

a couple of esoteric pieces, 

Giant Worms and Skeeters, 

some French History presented by Sass, 

a bit of an introduction to the PHI Line when Brann meets up with Danann of Perth on the Spiral ... 

and of course Rua's Pesky Pixies!

I'm finally getting a few of these projects filed into the 'Finished' folder, trying to clear my desktop for what's coming up next.

Being as I have a couple of days off from shift-work here, now's as good a time as any to get on with getting on!

And so back to editing I go ... this time I think the poetry book. I keep putting it off because I keep writing poems. That's not really a sensible reason to not get a book published when it's ready to go, you know. There are ALWAYS going to be poems coming, one after another after another. I may as well go with what I've already got, and let the new poems go into a book of their own. What the heck. 

I'm just about back 'on schedule' ... getting closer!

Anyway, look for poetry next I think. Then maybe SNARK if I can come up with enough Snarky things to go into it. I hope I can because the next books of SONG (all of the rest of them, when it comes to that) have to have bad guys in them. Seriously bad. I'm not used to writing such things but ... all I can do is the best I can do with what I have to work with at any given time. I'll give it my best shot.

Grist For The Mill

The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine

A guy back in second or third century Greece named Sextus Empiricus, a physician and philosopher, is the first we know of to have used this phrase.

All it means is that things often take a long time to come to pass.

For today's post I'm focusing on a different, although related, phrase.

The meaning of this one is also pretty well understood, although literary connotations are prevalent in its interpretation as a general rule.

This one refers to the fact that everything any of our senses has ever encountered is on the table for use in any way we see fit to use it. 

Every experience of which we have been a participant, in particular. 

Every word spoken to us. 

Every look directed at us and intercepted by our own eyes. 

Every time we have been touched. 

Every step we have taken. 

Every thought in our minds. 

Every feeling we have had.

All of the above and then some ... it all belongs to us ... it is all fair game. We own it and can do as we please with it.

As writers/artists, we can come up with all kinds of ways to present our interpretations. Interpretations always and only. We cannot interpret or present anything that has never touched our lives in any way, shape, or form. So every word that we write, every piece of art we generate, is an interpretation of something that belongs to us by dint of having at one time been in some way a part of our relationship with our world.

We can 'make stuff up' in terms of putting different concepts, experiences, interpretations together into different patterns, but it's all based on what our senses have gathered and stored in our minds over the course of our life.

Having said that, every day provides plenty of grist for the mill of any author or artist. Every person we meet and interact with in any way is a potential character or part of a painting. Everything we witness might turn up in one of our works in some way or other.

I was recently reminded that everything and everyone I've ever known is indeed grist for my mill. 

I own the experiences of my life, all of them.

Not all of those experiences have been perfectly positive.

Those are the ones I hesitate to 'bring to life again' by using them in writing or artwork.

Yet there they are.

They are the balance.

Life is not solely good.

The reminder included a thought which often escapes our attention: 

If they wanted you to write warmly about them they should have behaved better.

That made me smile.

If ever anyone wanted to write bad things about me, they'd have a tough time sifting through them all - there are plenty and plenty, believe me.

Me, I don't have to write any such things. I can be the hero of my life, not the bad guy. 

And wouldn't that make for a boring Character!

At any rate, the current project I'm working on is going to take a good while to get written as it's literally a work in progress.

It's also a project that I'm somewhat ambivalent about.

However, it's only just begun and has a long way to go.

Meanwhile, along this same line, I've been writing some SNARK pieces - to balance out the Mamm Books' generally positive attitude.

Almost exclusively I've tended to focus on the good, and that's fine and dandy, but it leaves a person without the balance that blending in the bad brings. Sad but true, there's plenty of bad that's got to start showing up in the next books of SONG - so I have to begin wrapping my head around the need to be able to write them.

Happy endings are all the more poignant if you go through the nasty stuff in order to get there.

So.

It's going to be SNARK time for a while here I think.

Luckily for me, the Younglings can run into lots of Snarky stuff on their adventures, and prevail, so those little stories might be what gets me through the writing of this other project. The same goes for the rest of our Characters. As I'm writing the SNARK things, the Characters of SONG will have the task of keeping me balanced by winning out over the Snarky things they run into on the Spiral. Thank God for Warriors.

When it comes to Fiction, remember that it is entirely based on Fact. The 'fact' part of the 'fiction' is likely to be woven all but invisibly into the fabric of the piece, but it is the foundation of the whole thing. 

Our senses have provided us with enough material, enough grist for our mills, to write for a very long time, believe me. Fictionalizing people, places, events, experiences, encounters, reactions ... it's only changing bits and pieces of the facts as we know them.

Just sayin'.

The good guys and the bad guys might not exactly be precisely as a person expects. 

If you're looking at my books wondering whether or not you are in them, chances are that if you've interacted with me in the course of my life YES you will be represented in some way. It can hardly be otherwise, can it?

I based the main Characters of SONG loosely on people who are dear to me, and they're good strong Characters on whom I can depend always.

Not everyone with whom I've interacted in my life has that same distinction; that's a fact it would be senseless to deny.

We've got the good guys defined.

Now it's time for some of the bad guys to start showing up. They'll NOT be based on specific individuals as are the SONG Characters. 

Bad guys are bad guys, remember. 

By definition they are not nice. They will bite you if you let them.

There have been more than enough in my experience to not have to be any too specific; their characteristics will blend and morph and reverse to the point that no individual will be identified as such. 

So if you've done me wrong, or anyone I've had contact with, don't worry. You'll most likely be the only one able to recognize yourself in the pages of the books. If by chance you do, GOOD. 

You'll probably be wrong and that character is more likely to be a mix of good old-fashioned historic bad guys, but hey - if you think that's your shoe, go ahead and put it on!