Approaching another #Stargate has us reflecting on 2012. Then we thought the world as we knew it was ending.
Thoth, Ibis god of writing & learning; god of the Moon; sacred scribe
A decade later we confront ourselves again now—humans becoming superhuman—Egyptians, Assyrians, Scythians knew this would happen—we are their gods.
Ancient texts, such as (much-maligned) Hebrew/Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls, and Egyptian ‘Knowledge of Thoth’, insist that we humans are destined to become gods; that from their Zep Tepi—Dawn of Time—literally First Time—we were programmed to evolve beyond our present terrestrial form.
The Egyptian god spoke of the Star Walkers—individuals who, like Enoch, traveled beyond the Great Eye of Orion [out of the program] and returned—to walk like gods amongst men. Such evolved humans are comparable with the ‘Lords of Light’ of the Maya, Sumerian Nephilim or Anunnaki—”those who from Heaven to Earth came”—and the Tibetan Dakini—Shining Ones.
Inca portal of Amaru Muru at Hayu Marca, which is believe to give access to the world of serpent wisdom and interdimensional travel Last weekend the sun stood, as it does on both equinoxes—March 21st, September 22nd—directly overhead on earth’s equator, before making its (apparent) journey southward towards the tropic of Capricorn, where it will stand on winter solstice—S.hemisphere midsummer—on December 21st, 2012. For one day and night, everyone on planet earth experienced a twelve-hour day* and twelve-hour night, with sunrise due east and sunset due west. From now on, days in the northern hemisphere will appear dramatically shorter. If that were not enough to make the most avid outdoorsman turn inwards for consolation, the end of the British crop circle season would appear to be a done deal.
*allowance is made for sunrays appearing before ‘dawn’, giving longer daylight at some latitudes.
CANTICLE FOR A LOST NATION
Unlocking the Ancient Interlace woven into Cultural Myth
Neolithic Carved Stone Ball, found at Towie, Aberdeenshire 3000BC, in Museum of Scotland Edinburgh
For a nation proud of its heritage, its oral tradition and roots–supported by faithful descendants in all corners of the globe–we Brittonic Scots are remarkably careless with it. In part this stems from a history of being conquered. But suppressed belief and myth have a way of being treasured: a precious relic to be hidden from secular eyes.
Twenty-first century culture today celebrates fifth-century Brittonic peripatetic monk, Patrick who ‘brought the Church’ to Ireland. They wave shamrocks, hold parades and declare green themes in diverse locales through New York, L.A., Dublin and Hounslow. Rio de Janeiro and Boston, too.
A little background may be in order.
Britannia was an island of subdued people, glad to be abandoned in AD420 when the Romans walked out, left to themselves in a rich land with its own ancient culture.
Many great historical documents have been lost in intervening centuries of ‘acquisition’ or political manipulation by other races since Patrick’s time. He preached when sacred secret knowledge of the Dark Age was kept dark–maintained in recesses of the cultural mind, secrets rehearsed in saga and song–known in the historic Pictish era–to all.
Brittonic Patrick sent as a Slave to Ireland
Illuminated Chi Rho Gk. first letters of name of Christ in A.D. 8thC Celtic gospel Book of Kells, held Trinity College, Dublin
Ninth-century church annals, the Book of Armagh, includes a work by Patrick, his Confessio, in which he describes his life at a Roman villa in Britain, his capture by Irish raiders, and his seven years of slavery in Ireland.
Recovering his freedom, he returned to Roman Britain, recording that he was educated and ordained into the priesthood. He eventually succeeded in being sent as a missionary back to Ireland. He concentrated on the north and west of the country, achieving strong connections.
Patrick never claimed to have converted all of Ireland. But tradition has it that his mission began around A.D. 432. It was C.7th biographers Tirechán and Muirchú who credited him with converting ‘all the Irish to Christianity’ and won for him the status of national apostle.
Confused chronology in Patrick’s life came about when tradition merged the work of two monks—continental Palladius and (‘Irish’) Patrick of the Confessio.
There is not enough evidence to support traditional date, A.D.432, for the start of his mission, but a date of 492/493 is given for his death in Annals and biographies.
Little is known of the first impact of Christianity in Ireland. Traditions in the south and southeast refer to early saints who allegedly preceded St. Patrick, whose missions may have come through trading within the Roman Empire. The earliest date is A.D.431, when St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul, with the approval of Pope Celestine I, proposed to send ‘Palladius to the Scots believing in Christ.’
After that, missionary history in Ireland is dominated by St. Patrick.
Caledonians Unsubjugated, Rome Withdraws
By A.D.368, just thirty years before Roman withdrawal from Britain, Ammianus Marcellinus describes tribes of the Priteni [Picts] split into two by the Mounth: northern Dicalydones and Verturiones in the south. To Roman authors, Priteni-Britanni were linguistically just another people of Prydein. By the post-Roman Dark Age, Caledonians had re-possessed their northern forests, the Fortriu people their rich lands of Perth and Fife.
Although Scots history is still untaught in schools, few deny knowing that Kenneth mac Alpin, c.AD843, united the kingdoms of Picts and Scots. Fewer seem aware that his dynasty–so bold and so desperate for fertile plains–carefully perpetuated the title of those he deposed, calling themselves Kings of Picts for another sixty years.
Alongside Pictish lands they annexed Pictish Law–a remarkable piece of diplomacy which survives in the basis of Scots law today.
Between the fifth and seventh centuries, the great forests of the Northeast were the domain of kings–Stocket, Kintore, Deer–a resource which ensured royal entertainment [the boar hunt] and feasts [deer and lesser animals] for warriors and entire communities, as well as wealth of timber and grain.
While none but the lordly burned wood in the fireplace of the great hall–most people cast peat for fuel–bounty of the forest—kindling—was available to all. This convention remains today in the understanding between tenant farmer and landowner/laird that while he may not cut down the laird’s trees, all windfall is his.
At least two royal strongholds survive.
These are not small domains like those confirmed in later medieval charters to royal burghs, but whole estates crowned by forests, nourished by rivers and centered round the ‘castle-hill’ [Brit.caer] of a noble family: in the south the Kingdom of Fife points to the king’s mound–Cinrimonaid, St.Andrews—made famous by Constantin king of Picts [789-820]; in the north the Kingdom of Forgue has its Place of Ferendracht–‘place’ in old Scots indicating a ‘peel’ or fortified mound of the heroic age.
There are others.
A.D.5th century pre-Christian Pictish carved stones in Aberdeenshire heartland Romans couldn’t sudue
In the North, earliest placenames give fairly good timelines, where the castle-hill [Brit/Pict. caer, castell] usually denotes early-historic occupation of the pre-Scotic Pictish period, like Kintore, Inverurie, with attendant royal chapels [Lat. capella, Welsh/Brit. eglys]-in the Northeast often seen in telltale ‘chapelton’ within ancient church boundaries, but separate from the later parish church. Compare rath/roth element at Rathmurriel, Rothney in Insch, which derive from 12th century settlements, like Flemings [Flinders] at Leslie.
Second early element Brit. eglys, easily identified south of the Mounth like Ecclesgreig in Mearns, ‘church of Giric’, is more elusive farther north, but does occur. There is one on the Banff coast–conveniently close to Pictish stronghold Dundarg–Strahanglis Point, ‘point of the valley of the church’.
Another clue to Pictish Christian foundations is the presence of a circular enclosed burial ground, like the one at Deskford within the precinct of the medieval laird’s Tower. At Fordyce on the North (Banff) Coast where remains of a Pictish tower dedicated to St. Talorcan stand, there is another. At Tullich-Aboyne one remains where the former church was dedicated to St. Nathalan, [d.679].
Language survival of Pictish Doric in Aberdeen
There are delightfully archaic, short, stubby single-syllable names in the language too, to satisfy our yearning for earliest beginnings.
It helps to remember that the parish system, discarded by modern mapmakers, transmits a clear layout of medieval churchlands, themselves descended from earlier chapels attached to Pictish strongholds.
By the seventh century, Pictish kings were fully Christian, educated from youth in the cultural milieu of a monastery. In the centuries before Gaelic became a court language, it was the language of the Northern Irish Scot [Americans have a convenient term for these Ulstermen: Scots-Irish]. More significantly, it was the language of Irish monastics, keepers of annals, copiers of sacred texts, educators of the nobility.
It is no accident that Iona came into prominence following the ministries of saints like Columba [d.597] and Adamnán [d.704].
The Church was common education for young nobles of ‘all four peoples’ of Britain, according to Northumbrian cleric Bede, writing at the end of the seventh century–Angles, Britons, Picts and Scots. By 690, there was a long tradition of wandering British monks, educated in the Irish church, returning to convert the peoples of their homeland.
Patrick, interestingly, is one of the few Britons who took the Christian message to Ireland [mid-fifth century].
Four apostles in simple illuminated manuscript endpages of Book of Deer, Aberdeenshire, c.f. Book of Kells below
British Ninian, d. c.432, founder of Whithorn in Galloway, is credited with inspiring several Pictish clerics of Northeast tradition. Drostan, Medan and Colm are sixth century saints, giving their names to foundations at Deer/Insch, Pitmedden/Fintray on Donside and St.Coombs in Banff.
Finnian and Brendan, both mid-sixth-century travelers, spread the word and their names to churches planted throughout Pictland; Brendan, known as the wanderer, did his conversions by sea; his name in Banffshire is Brandan or Brangan where his dedications run along the North Coast.
Ethernan patron of Rathen in Buchan died, according to Irish annals, in 669 ‘among the Picts’. He is patron of Kinnernie (Donside) and Banchory-Ternan (Deeside) [contra Brev.Ab where he is called St.Ternanus].
Illuminated apostles: 10thC Iona Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin shows Matthew as Man, Mark winged Lion, Luke the surgeon as winged Bull and John as Eagle
A contemporary Briton celebrated in southern Pictavia was St. Serf whose dedication at Culsalmond is rare north of the Mounth. St.Sair’s Fair was held here near Colpy until well after the Reformation. His other foundation was at Monkeigy [Keithhall], now Inverurie.
Marnan, 7thC patron of Aberchirder-Marnoch and Leochel, Lumphanan was celebrated long after his death with Marnoch Fair, held traditionally on second Tuesday in March.
Recent research suggests that portable crosses–roughly circular stones like pillows carved with a simple cross and pre-dating the eighth century [class II] Pictish cross slabs were the hallmark of these holy men. They reach far and wide.
Fish-shape ogham carved on rear of Pictish stone at St Fergus Chapel, Dyce-Aberdeen hidden in mortar for 12 centuries
Such compact Christian amulets surface in Aberdeenshire, temptingly close to early foundations. Cross-inscribed stones—with no other ornament—appear at Aboyne, Afforsk, Banchory, Barra, Botriphnie, Bourtie, Clatt, Crathes, Culsalmond, Deer, Dyce, Ellon, Fintray, Inverurie, Kinnernie, Logie-Coldstone, Logie-Elphinstone, Monymusk, Ruthven and Tullich.
A saint’s well where converts were baptized invariably lies close to these foundations. After the patron died, their relics—ranging from pillows of stone to crozier and bell—were treasured by the community.
A Fintray legend persists that St. Medan’s head was kept—wrapped in beaten silver—until melted down to make a communion cup for the (reformed) kirk. The head of the saint was kept at Banchory where t’Ernan’s bell, the ‘Ronnecht’ did not survive the Reformation; t’Ernan was patron of Findon, Arbuthnot and Slains.
One further legacy is the former pagan alphabet—ogham—carved in stone, reintroduced by early pilgrims as means of explaining Christian doctrine to the illiterate. Few remain in the north [Newton, top and Dyce, left] but their clear fish-tail shape had meaning to a populace venerating the salmon, carved locally on pre-Christian Pictish [class I] symbol stones. To new converts it simultaneously represented the fish symbol of Christ, Gk. Ikthos.
Renewed interest in Britain centers on outlying rural (pagan) carved stones & sacred Pictish strongholds/objects left by the Romans when they withdrew in A.D.420. Aberdeenshire heartland holds greatest treasures: Bronze Age beakers in museums; Roman pavements leading to C.5th Pictish carved stones of 12 sacred creatures & symbols; early-Xtian ‘Fite Kirks’ made of stone, when England was living in Dark Age straw huts.
The bard was asked who of the kings of Prydein
is most generous of all
‘And I declared boldly
That it was Owain’ The Gorhoffedd, 12thC heroic poem
The subject of royal lineage brings out the romantic in the scholar and the scholar in the romantic.
Lordship and kingship in a Pictish context has been given both treatments over centuries of scholarship, each with its version of history. Lately tolerance between disciplines allows students of literature, language and art history to communicate with archaeologists and pre-historians in a renewed attempt to investigate the rôle of royal centres in the Pictish kingdom.
WINTER ENDS with NEW BEGINNINGS Emerging from the Longest Night into a New Year
It is Solstice—the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This year—2018—it is also the night of the Full Moon—a cosmic coincidence which will not happen again until 2094.
Hogmanay now a World-Scots Celebration
Traditional Christmas pudding, oozing flaming brandy, courtesy Delia Smith
Meanwhile festivities are revving up for a week of celebrations in all corners of the globe—more glitzy in countries with the Santa Claus connection: the USA welcomes his reindeer to school halls and shopping malls. Yule logs burn in grates from Scandinavia to Scotland.
While New Year’s Eve is still a week away, around the globe Scots are preparing. They have their own name and a long rich heritage associated with the last night of the Old Year—Hogmanay.
Theories abound on the derivation of Hogmanay. While I favor the translation given by the Scots Dictionary—aguillaneuf=gift for a new year, below—there are others. The Scandinavian word for a feast preceding Yule was “Hoggo-nott” while the Flemish words (many have come into Scots) hoog min dag=’great love day’. Hogmanay can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month, or the Gaelic, oge maidne, new morning.
Remembering that Mary, Queen of Scots grew up as child bride at the French court, the most likely source seems to be the French translated bodily to Scotland with her when she became Queen. ‘Homme est né’ (‘Man is born’) in France is the last day of the year when gifts were exchanged. Aguillaneuf is still celebrated in Normandy, and presents given at that time are hoguignetes.
Tar barrel flaming at Burghead on Auld ‘Eel ends with burning the Clavie at the ‘Doorie’ on the ribs of Pictish promontory beach fort
In Scotland a practice similar to Normandy was recorded, disapprovingly, by the Church:
It is ordinary among some Plebeians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane
Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693
Christmas was not celebrated as a festival and virtually banned in Scotland for 400 years, from Protestant Reformation c.end of C.17th until around 1950s. The reformed Kirk portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Roman Catholic feast and it was forbidden. Many Scots had to work over Christmas and their winter solstice holiday was taken at New Year, when family and friends gathered for a party and to exchange presents—especially for children.
Earliest known Gaulish Coligny ‘moon’ calendar of 13 months dates to A.D. 150
In the earliest known Celtic calendar, the Coligny Calendar of 13 moons (months), now in the Palais des Arts, Lyon, the year began at Samhain, November 1st Fire-Festival of the Dead. At this time the veil between this world and the Otherworld was believed so thin that the dead could return to warm themselves at the hearths of the living. And some living—especially poets, artists, clairvoyants and shaman/healers—were able to enter the Otherworld through the doorways of the sidhe, fairyfolk, like the stone-lined entrance to passage graves in Scotland and Ireland
When the Julian calendar was in place in Rome, the Coligny caledar was seen as the Gaulish equivalent of a 10-month/13moon year, beginning November.
Traditions before midnight on Samhain perpetuated in rural communities when the calendar changed to Gregorian (at the Reformation) such as cleaning the house on 31st December—including taking outside ashes from the fire, when coal fires were in vogue. There was a superstition to clear all debts before “the bells” at midnight.
On the stroke of midnight it is traditional to sing Auld Lang Syne. Robert Burns claimed his verse was based on an earlier fragment, and the melody was in print eighty years before he published in 1788.
Partying from Hallowe’en through Hogmanay
An integral part of Hogmanay partying which continues today is to welcome friends and strangers alike with warm hospitality; and to wish everyone a Guid New Year. The underlying belief is to clear out any vestiges of the old year—ancient tradition included literally sweeping the house clean—and preparing to welcome in a young, fresh New Year on a happy and positive note.
“First footing”—i.e. the first step over the threshold into the house after midnight—is less common now in cities, but continues in rural Scotland. To ensure good luck for the house, the First Foot should be male, dark-haired (believed to be a throwback from Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) and should bring symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and/or whisky. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread are the only items still prevalent—and available.
“Handselling” was a custom of gift-giving on the first Monday of the New Year, but this may also have died out.
Magical fireworks displays and torchlight processions through Edinburgh, Elgin and many cities in Scotland are reminiscent of ancient custom at pagan Hogmanay parties which persevered until the late C.20th.
Traditionally one New Year ceremony more reminiscent of American Hallowe’en involved dressing up in cattle hides and running around the village being hit by sticks. The festivities included lighting bonfires, rolling blazing tar barrels down the hill—as is still practised in Burning the Clavie at Burghead, Morayshire—and tossing torches. Animal hide was wrapped around sticks and set on fire. This dense smoke fended off evil spirits. The smoking stick was also known as a Hogmanay.
Giant fireballs hefted by strongarm celebrants swing through Stonehaven harbor near Aberdeen on ‘auld ‘Eel’, old Yule
Some customs continue, especially in small, rural communities in the Highlands and Islands where tradition—along with language and dialect—are kept alive. On Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, young boys form rival bands, the leader of each wearing a sheepskin, while another member carries a sack. The gangs move through the village from house to house reciting a Gaelic rhyme. On being invited inside, the leader walks clockwise around the fire, while everyone hits the skin with sticks. Formerly, the boys would be given bannocks (fruit buns, similar to focaccia) for their sack before moving on to the next house. This tradition is reflected in American Hallowe’en, two months earlier.
Scotland’s Legacy of Ancient Customs
One of the most spectacular fire ceremonies to take place is in Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen on the Northeast coast. Giant fireballs, weighing up to 20 pounds are lit and swung around on five foot-long metal poles that need sixty men to carry them, as they march up and down the High Street. The origin of this pre-Christian custom is linked to Winter Solstice December 21st, with giant fireballs signifying the power of the sun’s return. The fireballs were believed to purify the world by consuming evil spirits in the New Year.
Confusing Samhain/Hallowe’en with Hogmanay is understandable. Longtime tradition holds them inter-dependent. Only the numbers have changed.
Eagle Nebula Pillars of Creation, NASA Space telescope
A theory of gravity is also a theory of space and time — Albert Einstein
According to current thinking, we have gone beyond conventional spacetime and are now floating somewhere in a ‘construct’ of our own imagination.
One hundred years ago Albert Einstein had his great insight.
A decade afterwards he revised his general relativity to include quantum theory. And yet a century later physicists are still beating the quantum drum, trying to figure how to work outside theoretical time, when physicists have always formulated their theories within a space-time framework.
EQUINOCTIAL ASCENSION GUIDE: Set Worldly Cares aside; Enter Eternity with a Serving of Grace
Heavenly Maiden with Flowers in her Hair—Equinox 2017 cluster of planets in Virgo & Leo
If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
Scott McKenzie, Forrest Gump
Woodstock wound up the summer of flower power fifty years ago this month, cementing musical friendships and crashing through new sound barriers which are audible today. Many of those groundbreaking musicians continue to perform the circuit. David Crosby, James Taylor, Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell come to mind…they/we thought then we were creating a New World…
RECIPE FOR SURVIVAL IN THE END TIMES
Now a great sign appeared in heaven:
A woman clothed with the Sun, with the Moon under her feet,
And on her head a garland of twelve stars.
Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
REVELATION 12:1-2
On September 23, 2017 an alignment which has been forming in the heavens all summer comes into sharp focus alongside the prediction of Revelation 12. As far as can be determined from computer models, this is the only time such a celestial sign will occur in history.
Strong solar wind and extra-large sunspots have brought early aurora borealis
It literally marks the Great Sign of Revelation prophesied to appear in the heavens. The woman clothed in stars is Virgo–the Virgin. The Sun appears to be ‘clothing Virgo’ and the Moon will lie under her feet on Equinox. The garland of twelve stars are the nine stars of Leo—including Regulus—plus three wandering ‘stars’ which have been approaching conjunction within Leo at this time—to make twelve. Those wandering ‘stars’ are planets Mercury, Venus and Mars. The last element of the Biblical sign is that the Virgin is with child. That planet—’star of the Messiah’—is Jupiter.
The Hajj—Saudi Arabia’s millions circling the Prophet’s sacred tomb in Mecca—in 2017 fell 3 weeks before Ramadan
During the months of August and September 2017, Jupiter rested in the womb of Virgo. Again, no replication of this sign has yet been found by researcher Mark Chiswell who scoured astronomical records for the last 7000 years.
The Sign of Revelation can be seen to represent the birth of Messiah from the Virgin of Israel, but Chiswell insists it be taken as an actual sign to be visible, seen by the masses as a way to understand the context of (post-Historic) times in which this significant event occurs.
“It happens within the timeline of the End of Days,” he says. That, too, was catalogued in Judaic scripture: Biblical prophecy says it will occur in correlation with the 70th Week of Daniel–the final period of seven years before Messiah comes to rule the planet.
The proximity of this year’s August 21st total solar eclipse over North America relates closely to the Saudi Arabian Hajj, ten days later, above right, as well as the Revelation-12 Sign one month later, on September 23rd, 2017, Equinox. Rosh Hoshanah synchronously ends at dusk the night before.
The metaphor of an eclipsed America is not lost on world critics. But more significantly, the equinox date marks a coming together of three major world religions, as well as the culmination of an astronomical event which began nine months ago on November 20th, 2016, when Jupiter—the King planet—entered (retrograde) into the body of constellation Virgo.
Because of its retrograde motion, Jupiter spent 9-1/2 months in the womb of Virgo, until Equinox, September 23rd, 2017, when it will be ‘delivered’ by exiting—going direct—with the Sun rising directly behind the Virgo constellation—the Moon at her feet and a crown of twelve stars—nine of Leo constellation, including Regulus—with planets Mercury, Venus and Mars—in her ‘hair’.
SIGNS IN THE SKIES
Galactic Seed Reflected in the Heavens and in the Corn
Crop circle August 17 ’17 at Sutton Hall, Essex, proclaiming a message we may not be able to hear
Quietly, on August 17th, 2017 a crop circle appeared in a harvest field at Sutton Hall, Essex declaring to all who view it a blared message in the corn. Few have been able to decipher it, though it touches the inner soul and we have an itch to scratch it.
At the time, there were still four more days to go, and the northern hemisphere was gearing up for the total solar eclipse across middle America. Now, in retrospect, the design appears to use the eclipse as sending point—origin—of an important message.
Feathered Serpent Kukulkan descends staircase at sunset on Equinox at Chichen Itza
While humanity is gazing at the skies, why not grab their attention and tell them what’s in store…
One scholar of Mayan Calendar detail is Maya (sic) Todorova who gives this interpretation:
On the left side of the formation is the circle ‘S’, which symbolizes the Source. Within this circle a lunar crescent ‘М’ is depicted and a smaller circle, that symbolize the First Moon with Tone 1.
Magnetic Moon Descends Staircase with Equinoctial Sun
On the right side of the formation can be seen 22 closed squares, which represent the first 22 days of the 1st Magnetic Moon, which on 17 August are already ‘closed’—they are already past. The symbol ‘G’ is a sign for Goal. With this sign the formation reminds us, that we have few days left until the end of the 1st Magnetic Moon (26 July—22 August), in which we can identify our Goals (our Purpose) for the Yellow Crystal Seed Year. Symbol ‘K’ depicts a Key. Tone 1 is the Magnetic Gate of the New Galactic Year. The Key symbolizes the opening of this Magnetic Gate.
Maya Todorova CropCircleConnector, Wiltshire, England
Ms. Todorova was not to know that the August 17th crop circle was to be the LAST of the 2017 season—a blared message indeed.
Daykeeper Hunbatz Men, modern Elder of the Guatemalan Maya, foresees no apocalypse
“According to the prophecy in the year 2013 the first stage of higher understanding will begin. If we are willing to work with our subconscious, we will then be able to reclaim the information that has been impregnated in the deepest parts of our being. In this way, the ancient knowledge will rise again.”
Hunbatz Men, Daykeeper and Mayan Elder
Meanwhile—one month later—in Chichen Itza, heartland of the Maya, visitors and tribal devotees prepare for the annual dance of the sun—in the body of feathered serpent Kukulkan—down the sacrificial staircase of El Castillo at equinoctial sundown.
Signs of the [End] Times or Birth of a New Age?
Judaic scripture uses sacred numerology and dramatic descriptions of the Rapture and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—war, pestilence, famine and death which symbolize the End of Days. Arab sacred texts repeat the need for constant prayer by the devoted in order to be saved. The Maya believe that sharing their higher understanding—handed down by their elders from the time of the Ancients—will save the human race from itself. Maya wisdom says the New Age began four years ago!
Will a once-in-7000 years’ stellar happening be dramatic enough to wake up three-quarters of the world’s major religious groups three days from now and get six million people out of bed before dawn to scan the eastern horizon? Will it change the way we look at the sky? view our amazing universe with more awe? more respect?
While difficult to pinpoint with the naked eye against the backdrop of dawn, 7a.m., binoculars will help immensely: Mercury and Mars rise at 5:27 and 5:37a.m respectively. Venus shines superbly, rising ahead of them at 4:40a.m., all three lighting up Virgo’s ‘hair’ (in the constellation Leo). It takes a little extra imagination to picture her giving birth to Jupiter, whose light is eclipsed at sunrise, but who will miraculously appear that same evening in the west immediately after sunset, 7p.m., alongside the newest of new moons! reclining within the body of Virgo.
Here’s a wee dochan doris
Jist a wee drap, that’s aa’
A wee dochan doris
Afore ye ging awa’
There’s a wee wifie waitin’
At a wee but-‘n’-ben
But, if ye can say ‘it’s a braw bricht meenlichty nicht’
Ye’re aa’ richt, ye ken
Winter sun enhances frost crystals from high cirrus cloud, to create light mirages
We just passed winter’s shortest day.
The solstice: solar ‘standstill’, the point when the Sun appears to come to rest at the center of the galactic plane. It seems to stand on celestial equator, pausing in time, moving neither north nor south.
Four winter solstices ago, we planetary travelers collided with Galactic Center on December 21st, 2012, when the Great Cycle Calendar of the Maya comes to full rest; pause; restart.
Time and Light or Bread and Circuses
The Romans—a civilization we liken ourselves to more as time elapses—became so tired of their outdated Julian calendar, adding days, subtracting nights, that they elaborated on the earlier pagan rekindling of Saturnalia—extending a Hallowe’en thru Christmas holiday period into ten days of non-time in the run-up to January 1st and the New Year.
Khronos, Father Time—in his human persona Aeon—holds zodiac wheel in balance for human race
This respected period of utter chaos, drunken festivities, carnival and masqued balls was known as Saturnalia.
Not to be confused with current Hogmanay in Scotland.
While the Scots may already feel repercussions, there are certainly more to come—in the Empire and in now-disintegrated Scotland, Hogmanay will live forever, whatever the climate. Rhyme at top is traditional toast in broad Scots to test if you could outdrink them. Translation for dummies in comment section, below.
This year’s solstitial preparation for the New is a good time for pausing.
For all of us:
To contemplate how much we shall change in the coming year—because the Human Race is changing fast and we have changed radically in the past year—
To give thanks for the road that brought us here to this point in space and time and for this moment—before plunging into the maelstrom once more—
To bless all those immediately around us NOW—as well as our loved ones far afield—absent friends—and family gone to fresher fields—
A time to remember and a time to look forward—
Time and Light are on our side.
Time Warp and the Magic of Seventeen
Perfect bowl-shaped crucible zodiac chart for Hogmanay eve—with Uranus outmaneuvering Saturn—presages a receptive year for 2017
Χρονος Kronos was God of and out of Time, Father Time
Κρονος A Titan who killed his father Ouranos—Uranus, Roman creator god
Both confused within Roman god Saturn.
KRONOS (Roman Saturn) was the primordial Greek god of time. In the Orphic cosmogony he emerged self-formed at the dawn of creation. He was seen as discorporeal, serpentine in form, with three heads—of a man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine goddess Ananke—Inevitability—enveloped the primordial world-egg in their coils and split it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky. After this act of creation the couple circled the cosmos driving the rotation of heaven and the eternal passage of time
Kronos was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaic as Aeon—Eternity personified. He holds a wheel inscribed with signs of the zodiac and Gaia—Mother Earth—reclines at his feet, right. A.D.5thC. poet Nonnus of Panopolis described Aeon as an old man with long, white hair and a beard, below, but mosaic-art presents a youthful figure—above.
The figure of Kronos was essentially a cosmological double of the Titan Kronos/Cronus—Father Time. Confusing the heirarchy, Hellenist culture sometimes merged Kronos with creator-god Phanes, and occasionally with the Titan Ophion.
Χρονος /Kronos self-created master of Time
No wonder we in the 21stC are confused. Drawn irrevocably to the madness of twelve days out of Time—just enough to feed our inner spirit, before we have to step back into the so-called real world when January hits.
ThunderSnow four inches on the Coast Range; chains required. Freezing hail in Mexico, battling a weak tropical front.
Thundersnow! Even the weather forecasters have given up; while in California, agriculture and home farmers are grateful for any seasonal precipitation, to allow the parched earth some semblance of moisture catchup, before the growing season starts all over again.
Hope for the Human Race to begin again with new resolution?
There is no Planet-B
Coal-fired industrial smog shuts down Chinese cities Beijing and Hangzhou
Even resolutions can be broken. Two years ago the Western nations agreed to a climate resolution. There are many who are doing their utmost to stick to clear healthy living, with clean healthy energy.
And there are those who are not. Marrakesh Climate Talks notwithstanding, United Airlines, one of the last American flight providers to operate within United States, as well as internationally, has closed its service to northern University town Eureka/Arcata, but has opened two new flight services to mainland China.
The mind boggles.
As does our inner spirit—watching and waiting for us to catch up with our human selves in a real grasp of what we are doing to our Pale Blue Dot—our only home—until they colonize Mars.
HUNTER’S MOON HERALDS CELTIC NEW YEAR Fireworks in the Sky for Hallowe’en/Guy Fawkes
Ancient custom SoCal style—Ghostbusters-inspired Hallowe’en frivolity in the glitz capital
Orionids began the whole celestial fireworks show by scattering fragments of leftover comet Halley (orbit period 76 years) last Tuesday night, October 20th, as we hovered at Scorpio’s door. Ostensibly meteors came from the head and spear of Orion. The Hunter, however, forever pursuing the Pleiades through the northern sky, lies 1,344-Light-Years distant from us, while Halley’s cometary fragments skidded past within a skittish 50-miles overhead.
Brit Guy Fawkes mask, traditional headwear for Bonfire Night mingled with Hallowe’en, is banned in English Ex-pat Reserves in Persian Gulf as anarchist
Halloween 2015 approaches, and with it British Guy Fawkes’s revolutionary—but foiled—attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605 Gunpowder Plot, celebrated throughout the English-speaking world. It is hard not to feel a revving up of cultural unrest, mirrored in grand scale on the celestial tapestry overhead. Following recent eclipses, planet conjunctions and lunar standstill moments to light up the sky, the Heavens continue to give us a box-office show right through our transition into autumnal Scorpio restriction, Saturnine beating our not-so-savage breast, and our cultural winding down of the Creational Clock—to primordial death.
And regeneration.
Earth’s Crustal Plates in state of Flux
It is horrific to learn of devastation caused by last weekend’s two massive 7.5-magnitude and 7.1-mag. Richter scale earthquakes, interrupting an unusual lull in quakes worldwide. Both are causing havoc and tragic loss in HinduKush and Vanuatu.
Earth’s tectonic crustal plates: Himalayan upthrust mirrored by Pacific plate displacement in Sunday’s shock in Vanuatu
While in Afghanistan, fears surface that such ferocity will open subterranean faults to the Ganges and Bangladesh, Pacific plate movement in Fiji shows equivalent turmoil only 50 miles deep. Both tremors were forecast.
Algol as Demon Star
Media traditionally tries to displace or make light of world tragedy by focusing attention on the cultural caricature. The current fave demon star is Beta Persei, otherwise known as Algol in the constellation Perseus. The star’s archaic name comes from the Arabic for ‘head of the ghoul’, or ‘head of the Demon’, because it appears to die and come back to life.
Why did early stargazers name this dual star for a ghoul—demon? Beta Persei, otherwise Algol or the Ghoul Star* was known to flicker. Ghoulishly, it was also seen in folktale as Medusa’s hair. Entwined within a legend of a star that fades and returns mysteriously from the Realm of the Dead.
Sound familiar?
Ancient astronomers calculated its rhythm and guessed—rightly—that its twin star system, with the dimmer of the two bodies passing in front of the brighter, has a regular beat. It causes Algol to shine in spurts—to pulsate. So, throughout the ancient world, Algol was seen as a demon or monster, who, as we know, is the Devil’s familiar. Centuries of observation have proved Arab astronomers’ calculations. 2015 Astronomy forecast is for Algol to reach minimum brightness late Friday night, October 30th 2015 at 11:52 p.m. in central U.S.A. (October 31st 04:52 Universal Time).
*To find the Ghoul Star: look for constellation Perseus—cuddling Andromeda—in the northern evening sky. Perseus lords over the northeast sky, above the bright star group Capella and The Kids (lower left of Perseus) and the Pleiades star cluster (lower right).
Greek and Roman culture associated the star with the Head of Medusa, monster-woman, whose fearful countenance struck a man to stone. Snakes in place of her hair were additional encouragement not to stare.
When the dimmer of the two stars passes in front of the brighter, Algol shines at minimum brightness. Astro forecast calls for Algol to reach minimum brightness late Saturday, October 30th, at 11:52p.m. Central time, U.S.A. (October 31st 4:52UTC).
Ancient astronomers were fully aware of the influence the heavenly bodies’ movements had on their population. Greek and Roman culture controlled their populace by providing—not only bread and circuses—but also seer-oracles with miraculous predictions to affect their worlds.
Meteorite held as sacred fire from Heaven in sanctuary of Hellenic Oracle at Delphi, and in Saudi Mecca’s Inner Sanctum
A meteorite, a “Zeus-fallen thing,” was kept in the Temple of Venus on Cyprus, and another in the pre-Hellenic Temple of Apollo at Delphi, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece. In Rome, a piece of sky iron, regarded as a heavenly shield upon which the tenuous security of the state depended, was cared for and guarded by a special order of priests.
Most famous holy meteorite is called the Black Stone, Hadshar al Aswad. Mounted in silver, it sits in a place of honor in the Ka’aba, the sacred shrine at Mecca, and is circumambulated by all Muslim devotees who make the Hadj, the requisite holy pilgrimage. The sacred stone has a vulvic-shaped cleft which suggests ancient pre-Islamic goddess worship. It is attended by a phalanx of men called the Sons of the Old Woman.
Arabic and Arab culture dominated the sky: star names still bear their mystical Arabian names—their connotations striking fear in believers’ breasts. It may even put goose bumps in ours.
Algol is one of these.
TRIPLE PLANETARY CONJUNCTION SHINES BETHLEHEM BRILLIANCE Jupiter Venus and Mars triangle in pre-Dawn Eastern sky
Saturn moves out as Sun moves into Scorpio. Get started on the Grand Plan: all signs in 1st/2nd house
To counteract all the willies, hoolies and ooeys, there is contrast—thank the Angels—in the morning sky.
If we have learned anything from last month’s astounding sky tapestry, it is that celestial cycles are never-ending. And there is a rhythm which we normally-oblivious humans can attune to—if we take the time to do that.
Lunar standstill provided the springboard for repeat eclipses, close encounters of heavenly bodies with Earth, and an awareness
that galactic fireworks can be to us—as they were to our ancestors—a source of gratitude and awe for the Great Beyond. Now—tonight—one month farther into this miraculous heavenly cycle of an amazing year—three cycles later than Mayan predictions—we prepare for Hunters’-Harvest full Moon: closest tightest brightest full moon combination of highest tides, lowest rainfall, highest land temperatures and greatest earth movement and tectonic mayhem since the last cycle.
Pacific plate movement is merely a reflection of crustal displacement along the Himalayan upthrust, according to NOAA and USGS. It helps to remember, however, As Above So Below. And it was independently forecast.
Azimuth, angle and rising times coincide miraculously to give us a pre-dawn display all week until Ghoul Hour
Ancient astronomers, students of celestial expansion and collapse, would have been amused by our (modern) human frailty and lack of vision, in midst of clear cosmic signs that all is well in Star Worlds.
All this week—prior to and immediately after Tuesday (tonight’s) full moon, where our cultural sight should be set is perhaps less on poor old Sol, led by Saturn into Scorpio’s western clutches over the Pacific.
Brilliant Venus, in conjunction with Jupiter above, and dimmer Mars below, 4:45a.m. October 25, 2015 looking East
Rather should we look East: Shake our culture shackles and set the alarm to get up before dawn—with Daylight Saving Time imminent—November 1st—this is an easy 6a.m.event. Then feast our eyes on three miraculous planets—Jupiter, Venus and Mars—rising in conjunction within minutes of the Sun’s brightening rays. Each dawn they can be seen, dancing a jig: vying a little each morning for position, getting closer and yet closer into a conjunction mazurka, which will separate and scatter in early November.
Two thousand years ago, such a spectacle would have inspired pilgrims. If we suspend 21stC. disbelief, their heavenly beauty might also inspire us to pause briefly in our headlong millennial crawl over the edge.
“6.6mag. Taiwan S.Japan location 24º129'N 122º335E 01a.m. UTC April 20. 2015
Four hours ago, a massive 6.6 magnitude Richter earthquake hit coastal Taiwan and Southern Japan. Local agencies, already overburdened with ongoing (nuclear) clean-up, continue to report. Minimal U.S. press coverage—slow to extract reports from the world arena in (western) night-time, unless specifically targeted—may find that differences in international dateline/time-zones may not result in this event’s being buried, It may not fit into a neat, orderly media-orchestrated political schedule.
There are ramifications, however—especially for western U.S.A.
EarthCrisis or Early Warning?
Minimum ‘safe’ height: 146ft—most of Tsunami Alley: sea-level
MAGNITUDE 6.6 mwp
Location / uncertainty 24.129°N 122.335°E± 5.4 km
Depth / uncertainty 28.9 km± 4.4
Origin time 2015-04-20 01:42:58.470 UTC
Source: USGS
Two groups of Native American elders have summoned their communities, in preparation for uprooting and a move inland, away from their traditional ocean-listening posts. In San Luis Obispo county, a small nucleus of Chumash, originally ‘whale-whisperer sea-shell people’from Morro Bay to Malibu—their traditional lodges and burial grounds long-since displaced by ex-pat. Ventura- and Topanga Canyon-ites—have returned to hear “repeated warnings from our cetacean siblings” that we are endangering our homeland.
Washington Tribe prepare for Move to High Ground
The Quileute tribe of La Push, Washington holds a ritual each year, where every woman, man and child in the reservation summons local whales, dolphins, sharks, seals and other marine species to the community’s beach by playing drums. The tribe’s chief then wades among the animals and interprets their sounds.
Cetacean whisperers help us tune in—use it before we lose it
In 2014, tribal leaders were “summoned” by Pacific Ocean whales, to alert them to a tsunami, ‘soon’ to engulf their community. La Push is located at the intersection of three tectonic plates, prone to earthquakes of nine-point magnitude. The tribe immediately started to make plans to move their community to higher ground. It applied for and received money from both the State of Washington and the federal government, to fund the relocation. Synchronously, assistance has been offered to Quileute elders by Finland’s University of Aalto, in designing their new settlement. In Finland’s Baltic and Arctic Oceans, they are also brother-whale-whisperers.
Wilderness no Longer Wild
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness” John Muir
John Muir—progenitor and founder of first U.S. National Park—would be proud of us, his descendants. While he was born in lowland Scotland and thus learned how precious is wild forest floor—Scotland’s indigenous trees mostly eaten by commercial sheep enterprises— un-mangled [by humans] tangled growth. Yet we seem oblivious of our continuing and unrelenting pollution of our only home.
Radioactive Slush
Gallons of slush and ice melt flood Great Lakes and Chicago hinterland.
Combination of Fracking, waste water recycling, human negligence, cause man-made quakes in U.S. central states
Sudden floods in New England, the Carolinas-coastal Virginia cause concern over contaminated drinking water supply. Marinas in Coral Gables, Everglades and Gulf states, Alabama, Louisiana and eastern Texas are revamping water towers last used in Hurricane Katrina, to cope with extra demand. Meanwhile Four Corners, Gila Bend, Arizona, Utah, Nevada—don’t even think of temperatures in Death Valley—and in a geographical spread as far east as Idaho, Kansas and Minnesota, high winds bring risk of grass fires.
Half the country is burning up, while the other half flounders in rising sea levels.
Do we still deny we have a hand in this? Are we pretending we don’t know what’s going on?
Competing for Cleanliest
Last week California Governor Jerry Brown scoffed at Florida governor’s amorous advances for a tourism “exchange”. While organic Californians greatly outnumber Brooklyn retirees in the balmy Everglades and Fort Lauderdale, in ecological terms, neither state can boast a totally clean city.
Echoes from Earth’s Chasms—Ring of Fire Rumbles into Activity
X-Class Solar flares emerging from the ‘hidden’ side of the Sun, add a frisson to so-called normal spring weather. Global extremes have caused great loss of life, however.
There’s more to come.
Triggered by solar CMEs incoming—bombarding Earth’s heat shield to stretching point, dormant volcanoes along subterranean ridges and lava reservoirs of the Ring of Fire are exploding.
Ring of Fire—Seismic Deeps and Ridges of the Pacific Ocean: festering to blow
Sewage and polluted water are high-profile questions that affect the whole human Earth-population.
When the dice are rolled, who gets the blame for leading humanity over the edge of the world——?
Unfortunately for Governor Brown—and for all his supporters south of Sacramento—the WWII-aircraft carrier U.S. Independence has been rediscovered on the ocean floor, in San Diego’s back yard. However supposedly :safely: out of sight, according to U.S. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administrqtion (NOAA) Chief Science officer, James Delgado, the hulk, used for monitoring hydrogen bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in South Pacific’s Marshall Islands was deliberately sunk off San Diego’s beaches, carrying one hundred barrels of nuclear waste in its hold.
Bikini Atoll: no Place for Bikinis Now
NOAA make light of the rediscovery:
WWII. aircraft carrier, U.S. Independence, scarred in Pacific battle theater
“After 64 years on the seafloor, Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch its planes”
J.Delgado, Chief NOAA Science officer
Damaged in WWII, aircraft carrier US Independence found intact April 2015 in Pacific waters carrying nuclear waste
A half-buried metal ship full of discarded nuclear waste is not what U.S.Navy residential retirement community of Coronado needs. Not to mention its hold, stuffed with radioactive bricks, concrete and mortar—’in case of leakage’—lies now exposed to every little rattle emanating from the San Andreas fault and its tributaries stretching south into Baja California. Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills experienced two middle-range quakes last week. Pasadena and San Marino residents live constantly with shaking mantels.
Sentient Earth
In cyclone-hit Philippines, residents live their lives in the shadow of a stratovolcano.
Pinatubo still fuming a century later
Fifty years to the day, volcanic activity around the planet regurgitates ash, debris and detritus from its dormant cone, as if marking the event in EARTH’s calendar, Earth‘s schedule, Earth’s Grand Plan.
Residents of Pinatubo‘s local island Luzon—unlike the cancer-prone residents of Bikini—still recount stories their grandfathers told of wildlife death toll, relocation and readjustment to life under a stratovolcano’s gaze.
Shooting Stars on Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Five years on: NorthAtlantic ridge giant, Eyjafjallajökull, used pyroclastic flows to delay SpaceShuttle Discovery’s reentry to Earth
It is also five years since Iceland’s volcanic-field-cum-ice flow blasted ash and pyroclastic mush into the North Atlantic, delaying the return of NASA’s last space shuttle, Discovery.
Their favorite volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, standing proud in a 33-mile wide lava field, is still smoldering, shooting reminders up into the stratosphere along the fault held loosely by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In case anyone farther afield is listening, Herta, Surtsey are telling us Earth has its own idea of marking anniversaries.
Perhaps we should go along with the conclusion drawn by an old veteran WWII Lancaster bomber navigator friend, who only last week decided to slough off this mortal coil at the youthful age of 95:
Combination of Earth’s silicate core, presence of Iridium and solar flares gives us our weather. It’s the CORIOLIS EFFECT.
Commander (retd.) Sandy (Gogo) Constable, RAF
CHRONOLOGY of the NEW AGE: a Countercultural Diary of Celebration
A work in progress
Icon of an Era: Jimi Hendrix November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970
He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here, and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.
Douglas Adams
When we began this blog—the Siderealview of Life, the Universe and Everything—in 2009, we posted a retrospective look at the New Age in personal terms, as a little accompaniment to fellow beings walking along the Road Less Traveled. Now, a few years down the road, interestingly it seems the world IS awakening, and more of us are traveling.
The chronology that follows of that much-romanticized Era of the ’Sixties Until The Now is not complete, but an ongoing compilation of many people’s work, involving a myriad hazy memories, or lack of them…
If you remember, you weren’t there’
with a musical underground, rock, R&B edge.
As a salute to all those amazing souls who didn’t make it, but who gave the journey meaning for the rest of us, it’s probably best read while completely submerged within earphones of your favorite surround-sound. And for those of us still here, wasn’t it a blast? And won’t it get even better now that the younger generation indigoes and star children are waking up their elders!
From Neanderthal to Ascended Being in one Lifetime…or
where were you when it all began…?
As a prelude to the ’Sixties, deference is here paid to living legend, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 94, who founded City Lights Bookstore in 1953—prescient indeed—and to those who
Voyager’s golden record sent to the stars explains human culture/sounds
“threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot with eternity outside of time…” Howl, Allen Ginsberg: dedicated to and inspired by Jack Kerouac
Icon of an era: Marilyn said goodbye in the sixties
January Bob Dylan, 19, plays Greenwich Village; visits Woody Guthrie in hospital
— Civil rights demonstrations, Atlanta, GA
January 7 First Polaris nuclear-armed ballistic missile launched Cape Canaveral, FL, missile test base on Jupiter rocket, precursor to US Space Program, launched Cape Canaveral Sept.20, 1956 as Jupiter-C oxygen-fueled booster which would power embryo space vehicles
February 13 France becomes fourth nuclear power
March 15 Lunch-counter sit-ins spread 15 cities in five southern U.S. states
May 6 Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Eisenhower
July 20 First live nuclear-armed Polaris missile (SSBN) launched ‘successfully’ from submerged submarine, USS George Washington [Forty further SSBNs with nuclear warheads launched between 1960-1966]
July Sidney Cohen survey: 5000 individuals administered LSD 25,000 times concluded ‘safe’
August 9 Timothy Leary, 39, program of psilocybin mushrooms in Cuernavaca
August 10 Antarctic Treaty creates peaceful international ‘scientific preserve’
November 6 John F. Kennedy elected president
Eisenhower warns U.S. about ‘Military Industrial Complex’ power
November 9 Brian Epstein meets the Beatles
December Birth control pills go on sale in USA
Internationally recognized, except in war zones…
1961
January 17 Eisenhower warns of increasing power of military industrial complex
February Four black students arrested at whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, SC
February 18 Bertrand Russell, 89, leads march of 20,000 sit-down of 5000 anti-nuke outside British Defense Ministry, London. Jailed for seven days
March – Richard Alpert [Ram Dass] takes psilocybin as part of the Harvard Project
March 1 John Kennedy initiates $17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increasing military aid to Indochina; announces creation of Peace Corps
March Polaris missiles (SSBNs/Brit ICBNs) manufactured by Lockheed, sold to British Navy, installed Holy Loch, Scotland
April 11 Bob Dylan’s first billed performance at Gerde’s Folk City, New York
April 12 Yuri Gagarin, first man in space USSR
Berlin Wall, c.1980
April 25 Bay of Pigs, Cuba: U.S.-planned invasion, defeated by Fidel Castro
May 4 Freedom Riders DC-southern tour to test integration bus stations
May 28 Amnesty International founded
June Robert Heinlein‘s Stranger in a Strange Land published
July Ban-the-Bomb demonstrations start worldwide
July 19 Telstar satellite live televised transmission across Atlantic
August 13 East German border guards begin constructiom of Berliner Mauer BERLIN WALL (opened 19 years later)
September 11 WWF (World Wildlife Fund, US & Canada, World Wide Fund for Nature, Switzerland, GB) open offices in Geneva, Switzerland, inspired by Julian Huxley, Victor Stolan, Godfrey A. Rockefeller
September 15 U.S. starts underground nuclear testing
October 6 President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters
“If the words ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on.”
― Terence McKenna, 1999
1962
February 2 (Candlemas) French Liner SS France, 66,000-tons, maiden voyage to New York; last (sole) steam liner on transatlantic route, see 1963; cost (then) $80-million; sold 1974 to Norwegian Line, q.v. as losing French govt $35-million annually
February 16 Boston SANE, fledgling SDS first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000-8000 protesters
April 25 U.S. resumes atmospheric nuclear testing after three-year moratorium
August 5 Marilyn Munroe—Norma Jeane Mortenson—b.June 1, 1926, died, age 36
September Timothy Leary founds International Foundation for International Freedom [IFIF] to promote LSD research; publishes the Physchedelic Review
October 22 Cuban Missile Crisis Soviet missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy orders naval blockade
November 17 Findhorn Bay Community (later Findhorn Foundation) established Moray, Scotland by Eileen/Peter Caddy + Dorothy MacLean
December 25 Oscar-winning movie ‘To Kill a Mockingbird‘, based on Harper Lee novel, released, makes careers of Robert Duval, Brock Peters
Recognizing that there is intelligence in Nature that goes beyond our concept of the survival of the fittest and ecological diversity is not yet commonplace in our western culture.
Dorothy Maclean
1963
January Alabama Governor George Wallace Segregation Forever speech at inauguration
April 3 SCLC volunteers stage sit-in Birmingham, AL
June 11 JFK proposes Civil Rights Bill
June 12 Mississippi Civil rights leader Medgar Evers assassinated
June 26 John F. Kennedy “Ick bin ein Berliner” speech, Berlin
July Timothy Leary hosts Freedom House groups in Zihuatanejo Mexico, Dominica, Antigua
July 26-28 Newport Folk Festival includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger
August 5 First Nuclear Test Treaty signed
August 28 Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech, Washington, D.C. civil rights 2-million march
August 30 U.S.-Soviet hotline installed
September Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and other Harvard alumni LSD researchers move to Hitchcock estate Millbrook, NY
Last Atlantic steamship SS France, 66,000-tons, sold 1974 became SS Norway, scrapped 2006-8
September 24 Nuclear Test Ban treaty ratified by U.S. Senate
October 10 Nuclear Treaty takes effect
October 13 Beatles televised London Palladium, 15 million audience She Loves You, Twist and Shout
November 22 SS France 1st commercial voyage Southampton-New York; communications freeze 6-days JFK death until November 29th; Old World Order plays deck quoits, skittles, cabin roulette, drinkiepoos with Capt.Christian Pettre
November 22 Sidereal sails Atlantic for America; JFK assassinated in Dallas, TX, LBJ sworn in
November 22 Aldous Huxley dies on deliberate self-administered LSD; his dying intention
November 29 Beatles I Want to Hold your Hand released
‘What’s wrong with using biotechnology to get rid of mental pain altogether?’ Aldous Huxley
1964
January 8 LBJ declares ‘War on Poverty’ in State of the Union address
January 11 U.S. Surgeon General declares cigarettes cause lung disease
January 30 New military junta takes over in South Vietnam
February 7 Beatles arrive in New York to 10,000 screaming fans
February 9 Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan Show, 74 million largest audience in history of television
April 23 Beatles at Hollywood Bowl; Rolling Stones, turn the Beatles on to marijuana
July Millbrook LSD sessions with Timothy Leary
July Ken Kesey’s First Magic Bus Trip to New York
July 23 Senate passes $947 million anti-poverty bill
August Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters visit Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Millbrook
August Beatles first U.S. tour: 25 North American cities
August 4 Three missing civil rights workers found dead in Mississippi
August 11 Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night movie released
My people await PAHANA, the lost White Brother—from the stars—as do all our brothers in the land. He will not be like the White Men we know now, who are cruel and greedy. We were told of their coming long ago. But still we await Pahana—
He will bring with him the symbols, and the missing piece of that sacred tablet now kept by the Elders, given to him when he left, that shall identify him as our True White Brother—
The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the Elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left—
HOPI Update 2012
symbol of a generation: awakening consciousness
August 20 LBJ signs anti-poverty program
August 23 Beatles Hollywood Bowl concert
August 28 Race riots in Philadelphia
August 31 LBJ signs food stamp bill
October 14 Martin Luther King Jr wins Nobel Peace prize
1965 Time Magazine calls youth a ‘generation of conformists’
January 4 President Johnson outlines ‘Great Society’
February Martin Luther King Jr, 770 protesters arrested Selma, AL picket county courthouse to end discrimination in vote
February 8 U.S. starts bombing North Vietnam
February 18 Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara calls for U.S-wide network of bomb shelters
February 21 Malcolm X shot and killed, New York
March 3 Owsley starts LSD factory making large units of acid publicly available for first time
March 6 first American soldier sets foot on Vietnam soil
March 7 Alabama state troopers attack 525 civil rights workers before march
March 8 3,500 Marines land to protect Da Nang air base
March 16 Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolates herself in Detroit in protest of Vietnam war
March 16 Police break up demonstration of 600 Montgomery, AL
March 17 1600 demonstrate at courthouse Montgomery, AL
Jefferson Airplane, Janis and Big Brother at the Fillmore 1966
March 21 Martin Luther King Jr leads march from Selma to Montgomery, AL joined by 25,000 marchers
March 24 SDS organizes first Vietnam War teach-in, University of Michigan, 3000 attend
March 25 Civil rights worker shot, killed by Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
March 28 Martin Luther King calls for boycott of Alabama on television
April 25 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam
April 2 Ken Kesey arrested for marijuana possession
Apri1 7 SDA leads first anti-Vietnam march in Washington, D.C. 25,000 attend, including Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins
June 11 Beatles awarded MBE by HM the Queen
July 8 Chicago school integration protests
July 10 Rolling Stones I Can’t Get No Satisfaction #1
July 24 Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone enters chartsJuly 25 Dylan goes Rock at Newport Folk Festival
July 30 LBJ signs Medicare bill
August – Ken Kesey meets Hunter S. Thompson: introduces Hells Angels to Merry Pranksters; Alan Ginsberg, Richard Alpert at party
August 11 Major race riot—6 days—in Watts, Los Angeles, CA leaves 35 dead
August 13 National Guard enter Watts riots in Los Angeles
August 14 Sonny and Cher release I Got You, Babe, #1 Britain-worldwide ‘R+R Hall of Fame’s ‘greatest pop-rock song of the ’Sixties’
Biscayne Boulevard, Miami amid hurricane Betsy, August 1965
August 23 Première of Beatles’ Help!
August 27-September 14 Hurricane Betsy hits Bahamas, Florida Keys, Louisiana and southern U.S. states—first tropical storm to cause in excess of $1billion damage, c.f. Katrina 2005
August 31 Burning draft cards becomes illegal
September 5 San Francisco author Michael Fallon uses hippie in San Francisco counterculture article: Blue Unicorn coffee house; LEMAR [Legalize Marijuana] and Sexual Freedom League meet in hippie houses
September 25 Eve of Destruction sung by Barry McGuire top of the charts
October 1 Anti-pollution bill sets emission standards for cars
October 16 100,000 anti-war protesters U.S-nationwide in 80 cities
November Unsafe at Any Speed published by Ralph Nader: re automobile industry’s disregard for safety
November 22 Bob Dylan marries Sarah Lowndes; moves to Woodstock, NY
December 25 Timothy Leary arrested for el poto at Mexican border
1966
January 3 The Psychedelic Shop head shop opens Haight Street, San Francisco
January 14 March on Atlanta, GA to protest oust of Julian Bond
January 17 B-52 collides, drops four 10-megaton H-bombs over Spain, none explodes, cover-up follows
January 20 Ken Kesey arrested with Mountain Girl on the roof
January 21 First light show, Grateful Dead, 10,000 attend in San Francisco
February 19 Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore
Dead Rock Stars: Janis received posthumous Grammy, Lifetime Awards
March 3 GI Bill grants veterans rights to education, housing, health and jobs
March 11 Timothy Leary sentenced Texas to 30 years in jail trying to cross into Mexico with personal marijuana
March 25 Anti-Vietnam war protests in NYC bring out 25,000 on Fifth Avenue. Other protests 7-U.S. cities, 7 internationally
April FBI releases file on LSD, ‘drug’ bad press
April 30 Mississippi blacks build tent city under President Johnson’s window to protest housing conditions
April Discothèques are the rage in New York and Los Angeles; Andy Warhol produces light shows
April 7 Sandoz stops supplying LSD to researchers
April 12 New York Stock Exchange hit with anti-war leaflets
April 16 Timothy Leary arrest at Millbrook by G.Gordon Liddy FBI for marijuana possession
May 15 Anti-war demonstration Washington D.C, 10,000 assemble
June Star Trek tv series by Gene Roddenberry débût; series ran three summers on NBC
July 29 Bob Dylan: motorcycle accident
July 10-year anniversary Cutty Sark Tall Ships youth race North Sea international ports–Bergen, Aberdeen, Hamburg, Copenhagen, patron HRH Prince Philip
August 5 John Lennon pronounces ‘Beatles more popular than Jesus’
August 18 Red Guard begins to remove western influence in China
September George Harrison to India:six weeks study sitar with Ravi Shankar
Cream, Airplane, Big Brother, CSN: those were the years
September Timothy Leary holds press conference in New York Press Club announcing formation of a psychedelic religion of Spiritual Discovery ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’, and starts nightly presentations at Village Theater
November 5 Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom: 10,0000 attend in New York City
December Cream first album released by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker
November 5 Mariner-3 sent to Mars: first fly by
1967 Summer of Love
January 14 Gathering of the Tribes, First Human Be-In, 20,000 San Francisco
January 27 US-USSR-GB sign treaty banning nuclear weapons in space
February 25,000 U.S. troops sent to Cambodian border
February Beatles release Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Michelle, Yesterday
March US Scientists’ report LSD causes chromosome damage: not validated
March Berkeley Barb starts ‘smokable banana’ rumor, based on Donovan’s song Mellow Yellow
March 3 Alice B. Toklas dies
March 18 First U.S. supertanker wreck: Torrey Canyon spills 90,000-tons oil, English coast
March 26 Be-In Central Park, NY, 10,000 attend
April 5 Grayline starts hippie tours of Haight-Ashbury
April 10 Vietnam Week begins Draft card burnings and anti-draft deomonstrations
April 15 Anti-Vietnam War protest 400,000 march from Central Park to UN, Speeches by Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Dr Benjamin Spock
May Paul McCartney announces all Beatles have ‘dropped acid’
May 19 First U.S. air strike on Hanoi
May 20 Flower Power day in New York City
June 2 Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released
June 16 Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey Bay, CA
June 21 Summer solstice party, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
June 25 Beatles sing All You Need is Love on worldwide television
June 30 448,400 U.S troops total in Vietnam
July Summer of Love in San Francisco
Fabled ‘summer of love’, 1967 came midway thru cultural change
– Summer of rioting in U.S. streets: Chicago, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Baltimore
July 1 Sgt Pepper hits #1
July 11 Newark riots start ‘long hot summer’, 43 die Detroit ‘worst in U.S. history’
July 26 H Rap Brown arrested for inciting riot in Maryland
July 29 The Doors‘ Light my Fire and Procol Harem’s Whiter Shade of Pale at #1
August 26 Jimi Hendrix’s Are you Experienced? hits charts
August 27 Beatles in India with Maharishi; informed of Brian Epstein’s death
September Richard Alpert meets Bhagwan Dass, Blue Tibetan Katmandu, stays in India; follows until he meets his guru
September 15 Donovan performs at the Hollywood Bowl
October 3 Woody Guthrie dies, age 55
October 8 Che Guevarra killed in Bolivia by U.S-trained troops
October 12 Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills with Janis Joplin at top of LP charts
October 21-22 Anti-war protesters storm the Pentagon
October 26 Draft deferments eliminated for those who violate draft laws or interfere with recruitment
November 9 Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner, San Francisco
November 14 Air Quality Act provides $428 million to fight air pollution
November 20 National commission on Product Safety established
December Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour
December 486,000 American troops in Vietnam [of total 15,000 killed, 60% died in 1967]
December ‘Stop the Draft’ movement organized by 40 anti-war groups U.S. nationwide protests
December 5 1000 anti-war protesters New York induction center, 585 arrested: Allen Ginsberg, Dr Benjamin Spock
December 5 Beatles open Apple Shop, London
December 8 Otis Redding records Dock of the Bay
December 10 Otis Redding, 26 (b. September 9, 1941) dies plane crash
December 22 Owsley arrested, stops making acid
December 31 Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory pronounce themselves ‘yippies’
1968
January 16 Youth International Party —Yippies— founded
January 18 Eartha Kitt visit LBJ at White House speaks against Viet war
January 22 B-52 carrying H-bomb crashes in Greenland
January 23 USS Pueblo seized by Korea
January 31 Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive
February Timothy Leary evicted from Millbrook House
February Beatles visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh-on-Ganges; Mia Farrow, Donovan follow
February 8 George Wallace announces candidacy for President on law and order platform
February 28 Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India founded
March 12 Eugene McCarthy wins 42% of New Hampshire vote in presidential primary
March 16 My Lai massacre: 200-500 Vietnamese villagers killed
March 16 Robert F. Kennedy announces candidacy for President
March 31 LBJ announces decision not to run again; offers partial Vietnam bombing halt
April 4 Martin Luther King shot, killed Memphis, TN
April Week following Martin Luther King’s murder: black uprisings 125 U.S.cities
April 6 Oakland police ambush Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver arrested with bullet-shattered leg. Bobby Hutton shot/killed
April 8 Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs established [DEA]
April 11 LBJ signs Civil Rights bill banning housing discrimination
April 11 Major reserve call-up for Vietnam duty
April 14 Love-in at Malibu Canyon, CA
April 15 Start of Spring Mobilization against Vietnam war
April 23 SDS-led students take over five buildings Columbia University, one week, 700 arrested
April 24 300 black students occupy admin. building Boston University, demand black studies, financial aid
April 25 Paul Horn records in Taj Mahal
April 29 Rock musical HAIR opens Biltmore Theater, Broadway
May ‘The Weight‘ single released by The Band—Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. Rolling Stone‘s song that ‘most influenced American popular music’entered U.S. British, European and Oriental charts
May 10 Vietnam peace talks begin, Paris
June 3 Andy Warhol shot by unknown woman
June 5 Robert F. Kennedy assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan after winning California primary
June 14 Dr Benjamin Spock convicted of conspiracy to abet draft evasion
July 1 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by 61 nations
August 1 541,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
August 3 First Newport Pop Festival Costa Mesa, CA to 100,000+ audience. Performers included Steppenwolf Jefferson Aiplane, Sonny and Cher, Tiny Tim, the Byrds, Iron Butterfly, the Grateful Dead and Eric Burdon and the Animals
Seminal literature: Ram Dass published BE HERE NOW 1971, changed a generation
August 8 Nixon and Agnew nominated during Miami riots
August 20 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
August 25-29 Democratic convention Chicago police riot 10,000 demonstrators vs 11,000 Chicago police; 6,000 National Guard 7,500 US army troops and 1,000 FBI, CIA and other services agents. Humphrey nominated on platform supporting war
August 28 Humphrey-Muskie nominated amid violent Chicago anti-war protest. Bystanders/press beaten by police
October 18 John Lennon; Yoko Ono arrested
October 30 ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ released by Marvin Gaye; Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, 2004
November First ‘Whole Earth Catalog‘ publshed by Stewart Brand
November 5 Nixon elected Prsident, Spiro Agnew VP
November 6 Student Strike San Francisco State U
1969
January 28 Santa Barbara, CA oil well blowout
February Massive strike UC Berkeley for Ethnic Studies
February 11 200 students smash computers with axes, set computer center on fire during sit-in protest racism at St George Williams College, Montreal
February 13 33 students arrested at admin bldg sit-in University of Massachusetts
February 18 Students seize building, begin boycott Howard University
February 24 Students occupy admin building at Penn State
February 27 Police charge student picket lines, club and arrest two Chicano leaders at UC Berkeley
February 27 Thousands rampage thru nine buildings at U Wisconsin Madison over black enrollments
Jim Morrison in 1969
March 1 Doors concert, Dinner Key Auditorium, Coconut Grove, FL; Jim Morrison peaceful débacle; used by media/city officials to arrest Morrison; trials/pardon/pending sentence +$50,000 bail bond remained unresolved at his death in Paris two years later
March 2 Concorde maiden flight of SuperSonicTransport planned to take London Heathrow-New York JFK in three hours; achieves 1350-mph
March 12 Paul McCarney marries Linda Eastman
March 20 John-Yoko fly Gibraltar, marry, fly Amsterdam for week ‘lie-in’ for peace
March 20 James Earl Ray sentenced 99 years for murder Martin Luther King
April 543,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
April 4 Smothers Brothers TV show canceled ‘too controversial’
April 9 300 Harvard students led by SDS Seize University Hall, evict eight deans
April 10 police called into Harvard, 37 injured, 200 arrested
April 11 start of 3-day student strike Harvard
April 22 Harvard faculty votes to create black studies program, give student vote to select faculty
April 22 City College NY closed after black/Puerto Rican students self-lock re higher minority enrollment
April 23 Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for murder of Robt.F. Kennedy
April 24 US B-52s launch biggest attack on N Vietnam, protests in 40 cities
May 15 Hippies in People’s Park, Berkeley attacked by police/National Guard
July Movie ‘Easy Rider’ released: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, music stardom for The Band: The Weight
July Stephen Gaskin starts the Farm commune, Tennessee
July 3 Brian Jones of Rolling Stones dies
July 14 Easy Rider premières
July 20 Men walk on the Moon
July 27 Police raid on gay bar, Greenwich Village NYC results in Stonewall Uprising 2000 protesters battle 400 police, start of Gay Liberation movement
August Blind Faith forms, with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker from Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic
Albion Doo-Wah 1969 post-Woodstock sounds from Cat Mother’s country cabin in Mendocino wilds
August 9 Sharon Tate LaBiancas found murdered by Charles Manson
August 15-17 WOODSTOCK Festival; 500,000 people gather for three days of music and peace that changed the world
August 24 Movie Alice’s Restaurant released with Arlo Guthrie
August 26 FBI reports 98% increase in marijuana arrests from 1966-1968
September 3 Ho Chi Min, North Vietnam dies
September 13-14 Big Sur Folk Festival
September 24 Chicago Eight trial begins Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin charged with conspiracy to incite riots
October 8-11 The Weatherman ‘Days of Rage’
October 15 Peace Day 5000,000 protestors U.S. nationwide. First Vietnam moratorium
October 21 Jack Kerouac, b. March 12, 1922, beat author of On the Road dies
October 30 Supreme Court orders desegregation nationwide
CSN hit San Francisco, Altamont with Wooden Ships, Guinevere
November 15 500,000 march Washington, DC for peace-largest anti-war rally in U.S. history; speakers- McCarthy, McGovern, Coretta King, Dick Gregory, Leonard Bernstein; Singers; Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mich Miller, cast of Hair
November 17 First round of SALT talks, Helsinki
November 20 78 Native Americans (AIM) seize Alcatraz Island, demand its return
November 20 DDT use banned in residential areas, USA
November 24 Lt William Calley charged with murder 102 S. Vietnamese civilians at My Lai
November 25 President Nixon orders all US germ warfare stockpiles destroyed
December over 100,000 U.S. troops dead or injured in Vietnam
December First draft lottery since WWII held NYC
December 6 Altamont Free Concert, Altamont Speedway, CA Hells Angels incident; one death Performers: CSN, Rolling Stones, Santana, Grateful Dead (did not perform)
December 8 Raid on Black Panther headquarters Los Angeles shoot-out
December 24 Rolling Stones Altamont free concert erupts in violence, one spectator killed (Sidereal in attendance)
Ken Carey’s Return of the Bird Tribes, HarperCollins, see 1991
The Awesome Seventies
1970
January 1 Nixon signs National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA]
February Timothy Leary sentenced to ten years for Tex/Mex marijuana arrest
February 4 Riot in Isla Vista, CA protesting Chicago verdicts
February 18 Chicago Seven acquitted of consipiracy charges
February 19 Explosions in three office buildings in New York, California, Washington, Maryland; Michigan; Weathermen suspected
February 25 Isla Vista Riots, Santa Barbara Bank of America bombed
February 26 U.S. Army discontinues surveillance of civilian demonstrators’ files
March 6 Three Weathermen blow themselves up in Greenwich Village New York
April 1 Cigarette commercials banned on U.S.radio, television
April 7 Referring to student unrest Gov. Ronald Reagan of California: ‘If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with’
April 10 Paul McCartney announces breakup of Beatles
Greek letter theta: symbol of Earth Day, of back-to-Earth movement
April 22 First Earth Day Millions participate [former Arbor Day, now transferred to April 26!?!]; John Muir birthday, April 21, 1838]
– Nixon sends troops into Cambodia
May 4 Four College Students killed by National Guard at Kent State University, OH
May 5 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty takes effect
May 8 Construction workers attacked anti-war demonstrators, Wall Street, NYC
May 9 100,000 attend anti-war rally Washington, DC
May 14 Police kill two Jackson State during violent student demonstrations
June 15 Supreme Court approves conscientious objector status on moral grounds
June 18 U.S. voting age lowered to 18; now old enough to kill and vote
June 11 Daniel Berrigan arrested by FBI for kidnapping/bombing conspiracy
September 12 Timothy Leary escapes prison, San Luis Obispo helped by Weather Underground, joins Eldridge Cleaver, Algiers
September 18 Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) dies, age 27
October 4 Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) dies, age 27
October 13 Angela Davis arrested on kidnapping, murder amd conspiracy charges
December Paul McCartney sues to dissolve Beatles
December 2 Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] activated
1971
First Mars Rovers ‘lost’ in 1971 ‘found’ again April 2013 on Martian soil
January 7 DDT use outlawed by U.S. Court of Appeals
January 12 Rev. Philip Berrigan + 6 others indicted for conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger; bomb federal buildings
January 12 Ralph Nader forms Earth Act group
January 25 Chas. Manson and followers found guilty of murder
January 25 Supreme Court first ruling against sexual discrimination in workplace
February 2 [Candlemas] Ramsar Convention on World Wetlands adopted in Iran shores of Caspian Sea. Convention now celebrated internationally with water-conservation/awareness projects
March 1 Bomb explodes in Capitol men’s room. Weather Underground claims repsponsibility ‘in retaliation for Laos’ March 1 U.S. stops licensing commercial whale hunters
Whaling in California, c,1924
March 8 U.S. Supreme Court rules objection to war not grounds for conscientious objection
March 23 U.S.Congress votes to lower voting age to 18
March 29 Lt. Calley convicted for My Lai massacre
March 29 Chas. Manson et al sentenced to death after longest trial in California history
April 5 Friends of the Earth founded in Britain; International Dawn Chorus Day
April 19 1000+ Veterans demonstrate against Vietnam war Washington, DC
April 20 Supreme Court upholds school busing to end segregation
April 23 Vietnam vets return medals, ribbons in antiwar protest
April 24 350,000+ veterans march on Washington DC and San Francisco to protest war
April 26 50,000 demonstrators in Washington DC set up Algonquin Peace city
May 3 May Day anti-war protest Washington DC
May 11 Native American (AIM) occupation of Alcatraz ends after 19 months
May 28 First Russian Mars Landers launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR, see December fail
June 13 Pentagon Papers published by New York Times
July 3 Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) voice of The Doors dies in Paris, age 27 (Joplin, Hendrix identical age at death)
July 6 Louis Armstrong, tour-de-force jazz trumpeter-bandleader-musician Satchmo, b.August 4, 1901 New Orleans, dies New York in seventieth year
August Earthwatch Institute earth environment charitable org founded Cambridge, Mass.
November – Nixon starts withdrawing troops from Vietnam
December Greenpeace founded in Vancouver, BC
December 2 Russian Mars Landers 2 and 3 “lost” minutes after soft landing
1972
Native American peaceful occupation of Alcatraz island, San Francisco Bay 1971
January 25 Shirley Chisholm first black woman to run for president
February Life Magazine ‘high school generation interests security stability, comfort’
February 24 Angela Davis is released after 16 months in prison
March Equal Rights amendment (ERA) passes US Congress
March 22 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommends legalization of Cannabis
March 22 Equal Rights Amendment prohibiting sex discrimination passes Senate
March 30 N Vietnamese launch attack thru DMZ into S Vietnam; U.S. resumes bombing
April 10 Biological Warfare treaty signed by US and 120 nations
April 15 President Nixon Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau sign pact to clean up Great Lakes
May FBI director J Edgar Hoover dies
May 9 President Nixon orders mining of North Vietnam’s ports
May 15 Gov. George Wallace shot during primary campaign Maryland
May 18 Margaret Kuhn start Gray Panthers to protest discrimiantion against elderly
May 22 Nixon makes first US presidential trip to Moscow
May 26 US and USSR freeze nuclear weapons at current level
June 5-16 First UN Conference on Human Environment: created World Environment Day [and World Oceans Day≠]
Global warming 1950-2012, with El Niño-La Niña years
June 8 ≠World Oceans Day El Niño-La Niña live data shown here
June 14 EPA bans DDT in the USA
June 17 Watergate Break-In
June 29 Supreme Court rules death penalties unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment
July First Rainbow Gathering, Colorado
July 1 Gloria Steinem launches feminist magazine Ms
July 10 Democratic Convention nominates George McGovern for President of U.S.
July 30 Deliverance, screenplay by elusive James Dickie, directed by John Boorman, cements careers of Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty; strikes fear into American moviegoers
August 11 Last U.S. military unit withdraws from Veitnam
August 18 Water Pollution Control Act passed by Congress over Nixon’s veto
August 21 Republican National Convention renominates Nixon and Agnew
August 23 1100 antiwar protest arrested outside Republican National Convention Center
August 28 Consumer Product Safety Commision established
September 5 Arabs kill Israeli athletes at Munich Olympic Games, Bavaria
October Canadian director Douglas Trumbull’s Saturn special effects set—still under wraps in 2001:A Space Odyssey—released Silent Running with Bruce Dern; environmental script has worldwide impact during decade of war
November 13 U.S. + 90 countries sign International Oceanic Pollution act
December 18 full scale bombing of North Vietnam resumes
1973
January 27 Vietnam ceasefire agreement signed after 58,000 U.S. casualties: miltary draft ends
Carl Sagan changes worldview, 1973
January 30 McCord + Liddy found guilty of Watergate burglary, wiretap attempt
February 28 250 American Indians [AIM] occupy Wounded Knee
March 29 Last American troops withdrawn from Vietnam
April 16 U.S.A bombs Laos
April 30 Nixon accepts resignations of HR Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, releases John Dean; denies knowledge of break-in or cover-up
June U.S. Dept of Defense (DoD) invents GPS for worldwide military surveillance, see 1998
July 20 U.S. Senate subpoenas Watergate tapes
August 8 Nixon resigns amid Watergate scandal
September Carl Sagan publishes The Cosmic Connection: an Extraterrestrial Perspective to world acclaim, bringing concept of Higher Intelligent Lifeforms—Kardashev Civilizations levels I, II, II into public domain; television series, his academic influence in NASA/military circles softens blow for billions
October 10 Spiro Agnew resigns
October 16 Henry Kissinger awarded Nobel Peace Prize
October 23 Nixon Impeachment begins
November Congress passes Freedom of Information Act
November 7 War Powers Act passed over Nixon’s veto: gives Congress approval for military actions over 60 days
November 9 Six Watergate defendants sentenced
1974
February 4 Patty Hearst, 19, kidnapped by the SLA [Symbionese Liberation Army]
Inner Space meets Outer Space—Astrophysicist Sagan visits Tim Leary in jail
February 12 SLA demands Randolph Hearst begin food distribution to poor
February-March Carl Sagan visits Timothy Leary in jail, Vacaville, CA—Inner Space meets Outer Space
April 1 Jane Fonda arrives in Vietnam on second visit
April 15 Patricia Hearst participates in bank robbery with SLA members
May 17 SLA shoot-out in LA
September 1974-December 1975 Britain’s Three-Day-Week: government attempt to create Socialist Commonwealth (rescued by Margaret Thatcher, see 1979 below)
July 30 Two articles of impeachment voted against President Nixon
September 4 Nixon pardoned by President Ford
September 7 CIA operation against Chile’s Marxist government disclosed
September 16 President Ford announces conditional pardon for draft evaders and deserters
November 16 SETI sends Message to ET from Arecibo PR World’s Largest Radio Telescope
November 21 Freedom of Information act passed over presidential veto
December 21 New York Times reports CIA illegal domestic activites in Viet war
1975
March 8 United Nations initiated International Women’s Day
April 17 Khmer Rouge reclaims Cambodia
April 30 Fall of Saigon—North Vietnamese troops enter city
Lineup of the century: The Last Waltz ‘farewell’ concert
September 18 Patty Hearst kidnapped, San Francisco
October New York Radio City Music Hall UNESCO African Literacy Drive sponsored by Marvin Gaye
November 20 COA and FBI charged with illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens; planning foreign assassinations
1976
January 21 Concorde enters service [Aérospatiale—BAC French-British consortium] flying London-Dakar and Paris-Rio de Janeiro routes
February 12 Production of Monsanto Red Cye #2 banned
April BBC ‘most successful drama series of all time’: I, Claudius, Robert Graves-scriptwriter Jack Pulman launched careers of Siân Phillips, Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart (future Star Trek), John Rhys-Davies and John Hurt (Alien series)
August 15 Apocalypse Now world première, ends career of Marlo Brando; makes Robert Duval, Martin Sheen
August “hottest summer since records began“, Europe *see millennium decade
November 25 Thanksgiving: The Last Waltz ‘farewell concert’ by The Band, Winterland, San Francisco special guests Paul Butterfield, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton. Filmed as Martin Scorsese’s Last Waltz released 1978
Icon for a generation of space-age children boldly going…
1977
May 2 2000 Clamshell Alliance occupy site of nuclear reactor Seabrook, NH, 1400 arrested
June 6 Washington Post reports U.S. developing neutron bomb
July Star Wars movie released; Harrison Ford becomes idol of youth generation overnight
August 16 Elvis Presley (b.January 8, 1935)—the King— dies, age 42
August 20 – Voyager II and
September 5 Voyager I launched from Cape Canaveral, FL by NASA to outer solar system, aboard Titan-Centaur rocket [for official crossing the heliopause, see 2012-2013]. Aboard is ‘golden disk’ inspired by Carl Sagan, q.v. 1996
1978
June 15 Tellico Dam project, Tennessee halted by snail darter per Endangered Species Act
July 18 American Indian Movement [AIM] leads march from Alcatraz to Washington, DC to protest legislation depriving Native American land rights
August Close Encounters of the Third Kind released by Steven Spielberg; humanity enchanted by ET
September Martin Scorsese releases The Last Waltz movie of The Band’s Winterland ‘farewell concert’, see 1976
1979
Margaret Thatcher, new female Prime Minister of Britain launches Conservative manifesto. Isle of Wight May 1983
February 1 Patty Hearst released from jail
March 28 Three Mile Island Pennsylvania radiation accident, partial meltdown; plant to be dismantled in 2044
April SS France, longest passenger ship ever built, record unchallenged until 345-metre RMS Queen Mary-II in 2004, sold to Norwegian Line; sails as SS Norway, increased to 76,000tons, until scrapped 2006
May 4 Margaret Thatcher accepts positon as Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister; serves three consecutive terms; brings Britain out of recession
July U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders Three-Mile Island’s undamaged Unit-1 reactor remain shut down until accident is studied
September 23 200,000 in NYC for nuclear weapons protest
Robert Wise directing actors on set of Star Trek: the Motion Picture, USS Enterprise bridge, 1979
December 7 Saturn Award for Best Director Robert Wise‘s Star Trek: the Motion Picture premieres worldwide; Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Best Ever Film
The Eventful Eighties
1980
May 18 Mount St. Helens, WA ±8364ft(!!) collapses; ash builds in jet stream, falls in TX, AZ, OK 2-year worldwide weather depression; c.f.Yellowstone—3500-miles—blows, 2millionBC, 640,000BC, 1360BC where ash fell in LA, FL, Africa, Asia, precipitated global cooling
July Montreux Jazz Festival: Marvin Gaye among other black performers celebrated in Europe
September 25 John Bonham, (b. May 31, 1948) musician, songwriter, drummer for Led Zeppelin, dies, age 32; Led Zeppelin disbanded, see 2012
December 8 John Lennon b. 9 October 1940, murdered outside apartment New York, age 40
1981
April 12 First Space Shuttle STS-1 Columbia launched from Cape Canaveral, 20-yr anniversary Yuri Gagarin space capsule USSR
International Peace symbol since 1981
May 11 Bob Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981), 36, dies brain cancer
September 21 Equinox UN General Assembly ratified first International Day of Peace; specifically encouraging ceasefire and absence of violence/war for one day
1983
April 4 First ex-vehicular space walk from shuttle Challenger-4
June 18 First U.S. woman in space Sally Ride helps deploy and retrieve comms satellite aboard shuttle Challenger-5
November 28 First Spacelab launch shuttle Columbia-6
1984-1985 One million dead in Ethiopian famine; see Bob Geldof Live-Aid, below
Live-Aid London:
Live-Aid Philadelphia:
1985
LiveAid largest benefit concert in history
July 13 Wembley Stadium, London: First Live-Aid Concert opened by HRH Prince/Princess of Wales (Diana and Charles) arranged by Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats); with simultaneous concert Philadelphia: British, US international acts with Genesis drummer, Phil Collins playing both locations (Sting in London—74,000—Led Zeppelin in JFK Stadium, Philadelphia—90,000) flies Concorde between to catch both shows.
Of the planet’s five billion people, 1.4 billion stopped and watched Geldof’s “global jukebox,” and were treated to one of the biggest, most ambitious concerts ever staged. At one point, according to a stage announcement, 95 percent of the world’s television sets were tuned in to Live Aid
April 1 Marvin Gaye, b.April 2, 1939, voice of Motown, murdered by his father, age 44; posthumous Grammy Achievement Award and Rock and Roll House of Fame
May: Three-Mile-Island: NRC allows GPU, successor to Metropolitan-Edison as plant’s post-accident operating company, to restart Unit-1.
July 31 First successful breeding/reintroduction of sea eagles to Scotland
1986
Return of sea eagles, osprey, snowy owl to Scotland
April 5 Chernobyl Nuclear accident in Soviet Union; cloud spreads N. Europe; newly-planted crops die
May 26 Michael Jackson’s huge benefit chain of Hands Across America, 6.5-million people joined hands from Battery Park, NY to RMS Queen Mary docked Long Beach, CA
June 20-30 First Burning Man prelude to annual festival, see 2010, burned by Larry Harvey and friends, Baker Beach, San Francisco
November 26 Star Trek: The Voyage Home, directed by Leonard Nimoy smashed attendance records; human-space-whale theme popular worldwide
1987
July World Population Day: world population passed seven billion, 1987
August 16-17 First global synchronized Harmonic Convergence group meditation-prayer; celestial Grand Trine of major planets Jupiter-Saturn-Moon-Neptune-Uranus-Mars-Venus, see 2003
September 16 International protocol agreed to protect Earth’s ozone layer
October 19 Black Monday world stock market crash
October 1 San Andreas fault (Whittier) tremor Richter-6.1, $100million damage to freeways L.A, San Francisco
1988
May 8 Robert Heinlein, ‘dean of science fiction’, fantasy author ‘Stranger in a Strange Land‘ dies age 88 Carmel, CA
July 15 Bruce Willis’s Hollywood blockbuster “Die Hard‘premières, ‘largest grossing movie of decade’
1989
May 20: Memorial Day weekend: GaiaFest worldwide celebrations of the Earth
May 21 Universal release Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster ‘Field of Dreams‘ inspire millions; see 2012
Berlin Wall, c. 1991 courtesy Autobahn Hamburg-Berlin
October 3 Berlin Wall opens; DDR and West Germany unofficially reunited, Berlin Wall souvenirs proliferate Europe-wide
December 23 Leonard Bernstein conducts orchestra comprising musicians of ‘occupying’ nations: French, British, US, Soviet, in his reworked Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schiller’s Ode to Joy becomes Ode to Freiheit/Freedom; concerts repeated either side of Wall East and West
December 25 on both sides of Wall, supported but E/W Berlin choirs, signals official reunification underway
Leonard Bernstein heals the breach: December concerts East and West Berlin
The Spending Nineties
1990
Margaret Thatcher replaced as Leader of Conservative party retires in face of laborite derision. Great Britain becomes financial power again —Thatcherite economics
October 14 Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor, see Berlin Wall, above, dies age 72 New York
October 15 Apple Macintosh Classic computer launched on unsuspecting world
1991
June 24 Reforesting Scotland founded
June 28 Ken Carey‘s ‘Return of the Bird Tribes‘published by HarperCollins, establishes Carey as spiritual guru—Starseed Transmissions, Third Millennium series
September 28 Miles Dewey Davis, (b. May 26, 1926) genius jazz trumpet/musician dies Santa Monica, age 65
1992
Collapse of Soviet Union. Russia reemerges Holy Loch US Nuclear Submarine base, Scotland closed. Excess of 200 redundant ICBMs/ISSMs Trident missiles ‘redistributed’
September 28 Mars Observer launch
October 4 Taiga Rescue Network—Boreal Forest Network founded specifically to protect Arctic forests from exploitation/shale oil drilling etc.
November 21-30 International Buy-Nothing Day, founded Mexico to combat overconsumption; becomes US ‘Black Friday’ “NO-SHOP-DROP” day
1993
March 22 [spring equinox N.hemishere] United Nations declared World Day for Water
1994
January 17 Northridge 6.7-Richter earthquake, San Fernando, CA: costliest quake in history $20billion, 57 dead
July Comet Shoemaker-Levy crashes into Jupiter; billions watch televised impact
Plant for the Planet
August 9 International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples established by U.N.General Assembly
September GPS begun 1973 by DoD offered to US/Europe as fully functioning satellite directional navigation aid—free
1995
June 17 World Day to Combat Desertification established by UN (UNCCD)
August 9 Jerry Garcia (August 1, 1942–August 9, 1995) lead guitar Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, dies age 53
December 2 SOHO—SOlar Heliospheric Observatory—launched into heliocentric orbit to study gas and magnetic fields, see 2012
1996
May 31 Timothy Leary (1920-1996) dies aged 76, or so it seems
September 21, 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) initiated discrimination against same-sex marriages in some U.S. states
October Cradleboard Teaching Project founded by Buffy Sainte-Marie to improve Native American Indian ‘participation in learning’ educational non-profit org
December 4 Mars Pathfinder launch
December 20 Carl Sagan (b. November 9, 1934), prophetic astronomer, author of Cosmos, Contacttelevision presenter of Cosmos dies, age 62
mingling musical modes. iDead for the 21stC
1997
April 5 Allen Ginsberg (3 June 1926-5 April 1997) dies, age 71
July 4 Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover lands successfully; comms lost Sept.27, same year
August 31 HRH Diana, Princess of Wales, dies Paris (Lady Diana Frances née Spencer b.1 July 1961), age 36
October 15 NASA launch Cassini-Huygens Saturn-orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on Titan IVB/ rocket
1997-1998 Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’ all time high single, featured backing daughter Liv Tyler in Bruce Willis’s Armageddon, blockbuster 1998; see video above
1998
January 5 Sonny Bono dies in ski accident
July Deep Impact and Armageddon; cement Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis’s careers as artist-cinematographer-producer-actor-benefactor – highest grossing world-wide space sci-fi action fantasies set world alight
June VP Al Gore initiates upgrade of planetary GPS—freely provided American gift to world
August 25 World List of Threatened Trees published, detailing 8753 endangered planetary species
September 6-28 Aerosmith #1 Billboard’s Hot 100 greatest hit I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing after band’s 28 years together; success of blockbuster Armageddon
Dec 11 Mars Climate Orbiter launch
1999
July 16 JFK jr (b. Nov. 25, 1960) and wife Carolyn die in Atlantic ocean private plane crash
October 12 Human population passes six billion mark
30- years of Space Shuttle: Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor— symbol of freedom
“To me, the chance of surviving with dignity on this planet hinges on the acquisition of a new mind. This new mind must be wrought, among other things, from a radically different epistemology which will inform relevant actions.”
French neuroscientist Francisco Varela
The Naughty Noughties
2000
January 1 Millennium Bug did not strike–damp squib; rise of internet for everyman
April 3 Terence McKenna, (b. 16 November 1946) psychonaut, author, lecturer in metaphysics, entheogens, shamanism, dies of brain tumor, age 53
December 30 Cassini Orbiter on way to Saturn, does close fly-by of Jupiter
Golden Lizzie ‘GoldElse’ icon of Berlin’s victory over 3 centuries of war
“We have to create culture; not watch TV, read magazines, not even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe. What is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. If you’re giving it all away to icons, you’re not empowering yourself. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron, consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”
― Terence McKenna
2001
HHGttG: DON’T PANIC
May 11 Douglas Adams, author of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘, dies age 49
November 30 George Harrison (25 February 1943–29 November 2001) dies, age 54
2003
January 16-February 1 Space Shuttle Columbia micro-gravity/earthscience research flight, all seven astronauts killed on failed re-entry
July Tesla Motor Company, CA first lithium battery electric car in service
September Concorde’s last flight; SST retired from service after 27 years
November 3 Harmonic Concordance millions meditate worldwide under heavenly grand sextile-star tetrahedron; 16 years after astrological Convergence Grand Trine, q.v. August 1987
2004
January 31 Mars Rover Opportunity/Spirit lands on Mars
2005
January 14 NASA’s Huygens Titan-lander component of Cassini orbiter, lands on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan
February 16 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases implemented
February 20 Hunter S.Thompson, (b.July 1937) American author ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas‘, ‘Gonzo Papers‘, journalist dies, age 67
Hurricane Katrina, greatest —unprepared-for—natural disaster in US history until 2013
April Cher completes 2003-2005 three-year 325-venue Farewell Tour highest grossing female tour ever
August 23-30 Hurricane Katrina hits southern USA:FEMA,emergency & rescue services collapse; water shortage Memorial Medical Center chaos; media coverup;2000 die needlessly. Highest winds 174mph; Costliest natural disaster in history of USA
September 14 Robert Wise, b. 10 Sept 1914, Saturn-Oscar-award-winning director Star Trek, Andromeda Strain, West Side Story, Day the Earth Stood Still, dies age 91 Los Angeles
2006
January 16 International centennial birthday Symposium ‘LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug’, for Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist discoverer of LSD, Santa Cruz, CA
September SS France, see 1963, synonym SS Norway, see 1979, scrapped
2007
January 1 Romania and Bulgaria join European Union—27 nations
February 7 U.S. sends 30,000 troops to Iraq
2008
Milk Hill Astrolabe alien code came in 3 phases solstice week 2009
March 19 Arthur C. Clarke, sci-fi guru author 2001: A Space Odyssey, b.16 December 1917,
July 24 Barack Obama addresses Berliners at Siegesäule/Victory statue ‘Golden Lizzie‘ pre-election campaign
July-August California wildfires claim 1.6million acres; largest loss on record, mismanaged for inadequate resources focused on So.CA property to detriment of No.CA forests; Yosemite fire started by target-shooters; majority lightning-Santa Ana-induced
2009
March European beaver reintroduced in eastern Scotland
April Actor Morgan Freeman wins Oscar award for his role as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood directed ‘Invictus‘
June 25 Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) dies cardiac arrest Los Angeles, age 50
June 21-30 Triple-phase Crop Circle Milk Hill sextant/astrolabe alien script defies translation-interpretation
2010
January 4 World’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, 2722ft (Burj Dubai until Dubai bankcrupt, borrow from Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President UAR, Ruler Abu Dhabi, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority who bale out in time for New Year’s opening
May 29 Dennis Hopper, b May 17, 1936 Dodge, KS movie actor, director, revolutionary, dies, age 74
2010-2011
Burning Man in Nevada desert has become annual Labor week event
August last week- Labor Day weekend September
Annual Burning Man Festival and intentional community, Black Rock, Nevada desert HOPI SAY:
‘There is a river flowing now very fast. Some will be afraid and try to hold on to the shore. Feeling torn apart, they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
And I say, look around and see who is in there with you and celebrate’
Hopi Elder Prophecy, Oraibi, Arizona 2000
2011
March 11 Fukushima nuclear plant Daiichi, Japan crippled in mag.8-9 earthquake, world response to greatest nuclear leak since Chernobyl, 1986; pollution circles Pacific, see Philippines 2013
June 28 B.B.King, 88, Blues musician extraordinaire celebrated in sold-out ‘LIVE’ concert , Royal Albert Hall London
November 11—11:11:11— Fire the Grid, Spark in the Park, World Grid Meditations affect ‘coherent consciousness’, see PrincetonU’s Global Consciousness Dot
Shuttle Endeavour lifta off NASA Boeing-747 transport for last sentimental journey LAX through downtown Los Angeles, September 2012
“Fourteen Americans are known to have taken a jump room to visit Mars. They are: Andrew D. Basiago, Raymond F. Basiago, Major Ed Dames, Regina E. Dugan, Mary J. Eisenhower, Courtney M. Hunt, Linda Hunt, William C. McCool, Bernard Mendez, Arthur Neumann, Barack H. Obama, Michael C. Relfe, William B. Stillings, and Admiral Stansfield T. Turner. In addition, three other Americans are known to have served as support personnel for the Mars project. They are: Stanley Ann Dunham, Thomas J. Stillings, and Michael Strickland. That a secret US colony exists on Mars has been established by the testimony of Laura M. Eisenhower.” — Andrew D. Basiago
January 12 70th birthday celebration for ‘Dead Rock Stars’—Janis Joplin would have been seventy
April 19 Levon Helm, drummer, vocalist, rock-wayshower for The Band, dies age 71 of throat cancer
May 20 Trees for Life Scotland’s millionth native species planted [pine and birch]; regeneration thriving
September 19 Last Space Shuttle Endeavour lands LAX atop NASA 747 transport; parade downtown Los Angeles
October 17 Save the Field of Dreams initiated by Los Angeles film editor David Blanchard, see FB page
November 6 Colorado-Washington first states to legalize sale/possession cannabis sativa for recreational use since Marijuana Tax Act 1937
December 5 Jazz composer-pianist musicianDave Brubeck, b. December 6, 1920, dies age 92 years, minus one day; Grammy Award-winner for Greatest ‘Classical-Crossover’ Album, TakeFive, Rondo à la Turc, TimeOut, etc.
December 26 Led Zeppelin honored at Kennedy Center by President Obama
December 31 SOHO solar satellites complete 360º monitoring orbit of sun: full solar surface revealed
2013
Eugene, OR top hipster city on latest poll of cool US cities
February 5 ‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act’ calls on the federal government to regulate marijuana as it does alcohol; bill amended September 2013
March 28 Maya Sun-Venus Calendar ends fifty-two-year Venus cycle which began April 10, 1961 and marks start of new 5000-year cycle of the Sixth Sun.
April 8 Baroness Thatcher, first female Prime Minister of Great Britain—1979-1990, Leader of Conservative Party 1975-—1990 (Margaret Thatcher, née Roberts, 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) died just after she moved Britain into the new tax year!
April 20 4/20 Festivities openly held to celebrate relaxed medical marijuana laws in 22 US states
May 9 Ascension Day —coincidentally Roman catholic festival
May 20 Dr John, blues musician singer dubbed Dr Dr John by Tulane U honorary degree
May 28 James Taylor and Carly Simon receive Library of Congress Gerschwin Prize at White House
June 18 Luminato Arts Festival birthday tribute concert to Joni Mitchell, Toronto, Canada
…Don’t Panic…
‘There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.’ Douglas Adams
July Section-3 DoMA considered unconstitutional. Federal Government acknowledges/supports rights for gay couples
August 21 Norwegian study ‘Psychedelic supplements improve mental health’
August 22 Oregon and Washington legalize personal use of marijuana
August 25 Crosby and Nash benefit concert, Pasadena, CA
September Some U.S. states legalize cannabis for medical or personal use; press celebrate 17 ‘Hipster’ US cities
“My children and I use music the way all people should use music: to help you process your feelings and to help you get on with your life”
Linda Ronstadt, 2013, Parkinson’s Disease sufferer, rock-jazz musician
September 27 Linda Ronstadt belatedly awarded Rock Hall of Fame, book-launch ‘Simple Dreams’
October U. S. Government shutdown
October 5 BMW-all-electric car launches International Auto Show, Orange Co, CA
October 8 New York Film Festival premieres Bruce Dern’s Nebraska
October 19 Fukushima human chain Ocean Beach, San Francisco hold hands against oncoming pollution from Daiichi (March 2011) fracture—nuclear cleanup operation halted; rods & effluent flow unabated into Pacific Ocean
October 27 Lou Reed, seminal rock musician, songwriter, Velvet Underground, dies New York, age 71
October 27 Neil Young, Elvis Costello et al perform Lou Reed tribute concert Bridge School benefit, Mountain View, CA
November 2 Comet Ison appears to naked eye in Earth skies—heralded as Hopi blue-star Kachina, above
November 7 Solar Radiation Storms accelerate Category-5 tropical cyclone ‘super’-Typhoon Yolanda-Haiyan (winds 195-205mph) destroys much of Philippines; deaths in hundreds of thousands; survivors unreachable ‘burying’ dead at sea, pollution cloud follows Fukushima-2 to US West Coast, landfall San Diego, CA
November 11 11:11 11/11/13 Comet Ison morphs into Blue Star Kachina twin tailed blue visible thru backyard binoculars
11/11 Solar X-class and M-class flares continue CME bombardment via earth-facing solar wind; Saturn eclipses Sun; Pacific storms aggravate pollution in North Pacific Gyre
November 23 Full moon/solar X-class flares; seven volcanoes erupt in six countries worldwide,: Daiichi subterranean fault-line re-fractures; cooling rods “lost”, clean-up abandoned, new island=Niijima 新島 formed, off coast of Nishinojima, west island= 西ノ島
November 29 Comet ISON’s awaited reemergences from perihelion ‘slingshot round the sun’ as naked eye evening spectacle in western skies stymied by solar elves who swallowed her and spat out planetary awakening ascendance code instead
December 5, 2013 Nelson Mandela,—xhosa [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla] member of Thembu royal family, & South Africa’s first black President (1994-1999), Nobel Peace Prize recipient 1993, dies at peace in Johannesburg, age 95
December 7, 2013 Shirley MacLaine, Martina Arroyo, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock honored at Kennedy Center Award Dinner Washington, DC
As we said at the beginning, this is a work in progress and if you have read to the end, you may be inspired to add something that’s missing. Any and all contributions via our comments page will be considered.
Thanks for being part of it.
Rare lightning storm over Chile’s VLT array (very large telescope) at 8,500ft Cerro Paranal, Atacama desert
Solstice, they say, should be a time of stillness. Ancient civilizations—however primitive our society views them—were aware of the sun’s influence on their lives and its ability apparently to ‘stand still’ twice each year, when it reaches its greatest distance from the celestial equator. Now, in the Enlightened Aquarian Age, we hold festival over winter to celebrate that time of change. What do we do in summer? Go on vacation? Study crop circles? Some continue to work right through this special time, not realizing our connection to its ancient traditions, rooted in the earth.
Party Time!
Some cultures continue to make offerings, like the Ayamara in Peru. English do Maypole dance, Cornish have their Green Man bonfires, Nevada its Burning Man Festival, August 26-September 2nd this year, and California its music. So perhaps the consciousness behind celebrating in the fields is not totally lost to urbanites, if we can drink in the stillness offered by nature and make an effort to incorporate calm communion with the Earth in our everyday lives.
Classical civilization certainly knew how to do that—and party. And if they didn’t have gods of their own to offer obeisance and reverence to, they imported others. Saturnalia was known throughout the Roman world as the epitome of winter revelry, debauchery, excess, as the only time the old rigid god Saturn let down his hair. Equally, in summertime, they pulled out all the stops, liberally borrowing gods and goddesses from other cultures as themes suited.
Cybele adopted as Mother-protectrix of Rome’s ‘city and fields’ wore the Phrygian helmet-crown of warrior goddess
Cybele, right, the original pre-classical (Bronze Age, c.8thC BC) Indo-European Earth Mother warrior goddess from Phrygia-Anatolia, Turkey—symbol of fertility, earth’s swelling summer cornucopia of growth and abundance—was converted for her ‘psychic powers’ to take a place in the Greek and Roman pantheon. The Sybil who issued prophetic knowledge, like the Delphic Oracle, was her Roman adaptation. She was guardian of Rome. Her Egyptian equivalent was revered as Earth Mother figure Hathor; but the later Greeks, succumbing to male-dominant cultural needs, altered her concept of ‘love’ to one embodied by Aphrodite—losing the earth connection.
The Earth Mother of prehistoric cultures—whose neolithic carved dolls date to pre-Ice Age Europe—survives in vestigial worship of Inca Pachamama in Bolivia, but had turned volte-face in the Aegean by the time of the Trojan wars, when male physical prowess and warlike behavior on all fronts were supreme in Greek eyes. It is curious to note that hero of the Trojan wars, Paris, embodying male physical beauty, pure in mind, focused in war and manly pursuits like discus and javelin dexterity, was an imported ‘alien'(suppressed culture) superhero who wore the prehistoric Phrygian helmet (like Cybele), denoting his more ancient origins. The Roman army dedicated its legions’ souls to the care of Mithras—another import from Phrygia, complete with godly war-helmet.
Where the primeval mother-warrior had battled time and the elements for the good of the Earth, bringing fruits in season, male culture—in taking over the role of earth-caretaker—may have gone a little overboard on the warrior front.
The locked grid for Solstice June 21st 2013 9pm EST, progressed chart, courtesy Astrotheme
In astrological circles this solstitial time is seen as one of huge change—in context of life, personal vision, and clearing away old debris, solstitial chart by Astrotheme, left.
Astronomically, NASA/NOAA’s solstitial prediction for ‘few’ aurorae over the midsummer period, includes a mention by the space agency of meteor showers, Eta Delphinids, M-class solar flares ongoing, with resulting storms hitting earth through June and July. Earth’s magnetosphere activity is listed as ‘unsettled’ during this period, see changes sidebar right. We are, after all, midway through solar maximum, 2013.
Somewhere between the two star camps there appears in the northern sky one of our least-known yet most massive constellations, only visible in summer: Ophiuchus. Both astro sides agree: this giant (dim) group of stars stretching from the head of Scorpio across Libra and Virgo, to touch the (upside-down) head of Hercules at zenith, brings into the summer sky images—and concepts from the ancient mind—most appropriate to this silly season. Because of the cosmic quirk of precession of the equinoxes—earth’s ‘wobble’ on its axis bringing it successively through each of the zodiac signs, backwards—we in the Aquarian Age in Earth’s subtropical, tropical and temperate zones are seeing—many for the first time—two gigantic constellations which were familiar to the Ancients, who anthropomorphized them as expressions of their own conflicting ideals.
backwards thru Zodiac~~ Aquarius: water-bearer, far-sighted visionary, troubled by burdens—symbol of the Age
Capricorn: seagoat, god of cardinal order, old (outworn? Saturnian) mechanisms, consistently appears at midsummer full moon to put cat among pigeons…
Sagittarius: archer, ruled by Jupiter: Jovian happy-spirited lover of nature, trying to hold balance between the above and…
Scorpio: scorpion, fixed water=ice symbolic of birth, death and rebirth, transfiguration; overcoming impediments, its sting-in-tail never allows others to relax
enter~~ Ophiuchus, serpent bearer holding both ends of constellation Serpens in his hands: Serpens Cauda, tail in his right; Serpens Caput, head in his left.
Ophiuchus: Ὀφιοῦχος “Serpent-bearer”, serpent-wielding handler of snakes, transitioned from his ancient image of enlightened Man wrestling-with-conscience through medieval image of unbridled male sexual power, to Georgian image of protective fatherly person-of-age and wisdom and healing, to Victorian preoccupation with—mostly male—medical profession—caduceus, or *thyrsus a symbol of healing derived from a rod (bamboo, fennel, or the male member) wrapped in a vine, ivy or flower garlands.
Unusually, both ‘scientific’ and ‘psychic’ astros agree, constellation Ophiuchus will dominate the July 2013 sky, rising higher than it has in the last two thousand years. Some extreme astrologers have suggested rearranging the traditional/tropical zodiac, to make room for another constellation (because his feet actually stand on the ecliptic, between Scorpio and Sagittarius). Current western astrology, however, is a convention developed from zodiac signs visible in Roman/Greek skies, using attributes associated with cultural gods/seasons/beliefs of that time, and these which would lose meaning if arbitrarily rearranged.
As Ophiuchus makes its first appearance since the “EndTimes of 2012″—brighter and more dominant than at any time in human memory—there may be another message for us in its new guise.
Greco-Roman god Priapus, rescued fresco from Pompeii c.AD79, Archaeological Museum of Naples
PRIAPOS was the rustic god of the Ancient world, responsible through his unbridled fertility for the bounty of the vegetable garden. Later stylized as a dwarfish entity with a huge penis, which symbolized garden fertility, originally his head was crowned with a peaked Phrygian cap, belying his origin as a god, native to the Hellespont, ancient Phrygia. His cult was introduced into Greece and Italy, where his mythology was reinterpreted in Greek terms. Greeks naturally named him a son of one of their phallic gods: either Hermes/Mercury or, more often Dionysos. His mother was Aphrodite. They were accompanied by satyrs Orthanes and Tykhon.
Priapos/Priapus was honored by Greeks, Romans, Mysians, Hittites, Egyptians (their Apis, bull of fertility) as protector of sheep, goats, bees, the vine and of all garden produce. In formative cultures, the phallus was the ancient emblem of creation. It represented gods Bacchus, Priapus, Hermaphroditus, Hercules, Shiva, Osiris, Baal and Asher, who were all Phallic deities. Roman Priapus, a stylized symbol of Rome’s mastery of the then world, had odes written to him and poems pinned on patio phalluses in gardens of aristocratic ladies who wished to keep their arboreal spirits potent.
The most famous extant depiction of Priapus is the Pompeiian fresco, above. He is crowned with peaked Phrygian cap, shown weighing his enormous member on a set of scales against the produce of the fields. He wears Phrygian war-boots, and has a Bacchic, cone-tipped thyrsus* resting by his side.
Photo of Pompeiian fresco, courtesy Andargor
Burning Man annual late summer festival in Black Rock Nevada desert
In festive summer frolics, Priapus was depicted accompanied by garden nymphs, dyads and maenads, each waving a flower-wreathed *thyrsus—a wand made from fennel or bamboo, with a pierced pine-cone at its tip, which nymphs used as mini-phalluses to poke at the unitiated or to ward off satyrs and unwanted suitors.
In Celtic mythology he is the god of spring, Greenman, vestigial Druid prince-king-god who invoked fertility for his land through dance in sacred groves where tree and nature-spirits dwell.
Primitive statues of the god were traditionally set up in vegetable plots to promote fertility, with the added benefit of functioning as a type of scarecrow for scaring away birds. But when garden gnomes became a late 19thC fashion, their priapic member was eliminated in the mass-produced version, as Victorian sensibilities dictated that such garden gnomes NOT display their ‘private parts’, in case ladies in passing carriages should succumb to the ‘vapors’ and require medical assistance.
Priapic Preoccupation in Crop Circles
Victorian humor aside, Priapos was genuinely revered as patron of the garden, guardian of growth for all crops, and it is a relief to see this multi-faceted countryside god showing his (at least symbolic) head above ground—as a sign of bounty to come?—in the first two-phase crop circle appearance at Stanton St Bernard, Wiltshire, June 21st.
Solstitial crop circles have traditionally sent some of the clearest messages as the theme of a season; it is tempting to believe that the paucity of designs in Wiltshire—twelve during June; British total for season—is one of those. Meanwhile, crop circle anticipation remains high: manfully upheld by the Italian contingent, as the fields of Rome, Tuscany and northern Italy have had a relatively ‘normal’ growing season—that in itself may suggest we show a little deference to our classical heritage.
Stanton St Bernard dual-phase phallic crop circle points to ancestral Milk Hill, photo courtesy Paul Jacobs
So it is riveting to see that the season’s first ‘complex’ symbol should appear right on schedule—over solstice—in the Wiltshire ‘hub‘, in the same fields which created all the uproar last year, see Siderealview archives.
*Seen as a thyrsus, (typically, English has no translation for a wand wreathed in flowers sporting a bristle like a dildo), its pinecone-like business end pointed straight at Milk Hill—representative of ancient Earth Mother-milk-and-honey-bounty—the first meaningful crop circle of the season may once more be pulling at us with multiple strands. Targeting the Mother hill (the highest in Wiltshire) goes partway to awakening dormant English respect for ancient ways. By incorporating the dildo-pinecone in a sword- (or thyrsus-like) javelin cut straight through the barley and aimed at Milk Hill’s symbol of male strength—the horse riding the Mother—this crop design rekindles memories of pineal gland/third eye crop formations of summer 2011.
Messages then were that we/’Society’ release our male left-brain stranglehold on our fragile 21stC world, allow the female intuitive right-brain heart-centered side to come out of dormancy and express more freely. And that the pleasure zone: endorphins, melatonin and the pineal gland, function together as a means to synthesize and synchronize this new awareness in us humans by connecting our mind-body-spirit back to our terrestrial home.
Now, in post-Omega-Point reflection through a slow growing season, we are reminded to temper our left hemisphere destruction of habitat, and instead to devote time to more reverent and respectful treatment of our earthly environment.
To add to this summer madness, Ophiuchus rises to full stature in the northern July night, unseen until now in such grandeur by 21stC eyes. He stands diametrically opposite Orion, filling the southern arc of the night sky, his feet astride the ecliptic, between Sagittarius and Scorpio, his head grazed by the upside-down head of Hercules at zenith. Grasping with both hands he wields the Serpent: Serpens Caput in his left; Serpens Cauda in his right, the dual twisting constellation locked between his outstretched legs, as if caught in flagrante delicto, not a god, but a man wrestling his (inner and) outer demons.
Summer’s greatest blessing is that we northerners can relax, feel warm, surrounded by earth’s cornucopia of beauty, vegetative growth at its height—lulled into enjoying the brief season without thought to winter, responsibility, cold… the grasshopper and ant scenario. Or, with American Independence Day July 4th just around the corner, could consciousness of the ‘Silly Season’ already be taking hold? Celebrate now for tomorrow we die? Te morituri salutamus!
View from the Stars: whichever way you look at it, we are present in Sidereal time, Space is our growth medium, and stardust and water our constituent particles. When electromagnetically charged, our solar-powered circuitry is capable of Creating Anything We Choose.
Inca portal of Amaru Muru at Hayu Marca, which is believe to give access to the world of serpent wisdom and interdimensional travel Last weekend the sun stood, as it does on both equinoxes—March 21st, September 22nd—directly overhead on earth’s equator, before making its (apparent) journey southward towards the tropic of Capricorn, where it will stand on winter solstice—S.hemisphere midsummer—on December 21st, 2012. For one day and night, everyone on planet earth experienced a twelve-hour day* and twelve-hour night, with sunrise due east and sunset due west. From now on, days in the northern hemisphere will appear dramatically shorter. If that were not enough to make the most avid outdoorsman turn inwards for consolation, the end of the British crop circle season would appear to be a done deal. 
Sacred Tzolkin, ritual calendar of the ancient…
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