ORIENTAL YEAR OF DRAGON 2024 & New Year ZODIAC ANIMALS
Oriental Year of the Dragon Ranks 5th in Great Mythical Animal Race
Animals of the Oriental Calendar, image below rt., are counted from l. of Zenith aka ‘midnight’: Rat, and count counterclockwise thru Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse to finish with Pig [at 1 o’clock].
Ancient Oriental Zodiac Tells of Mythical Animal Race & Origin of the World
In Oriental myth on the origin of the World, [China, Taiwan, parts of Japan & Indonesia] the Universe was dark and without form, before Earth and Heaven were separated, with only the mythical Egg of Creation hanging from the Tree of Life in the cold darkness. To bring life to the Universe, the Creator—the Great Jade Emperor—decided he would create the animals, but it meant he had to choose their order of rank. As he contemplated, the rat bit a crack in the Cosmic Egg and let the air in.
Immediately this happened, the Jade Emperor made his decision to call for all animals to meet at a Gathering Place for a race. He announced that he would designate the first twelve across the finish line as calendar signs in his Cosmic Zodiac and that the first twelve to arrive would be selected in order.
Cat & Rat Were Friends; Agreed to Help Each Other; But Rat Ratted…
The Cat & Rat were friends. So the Cat-who said he always slept late-asked the Rat to wake him, so they could get there early. Rat [conveniently] forgot, so when Cat arrived, the Race had already begun. Cat & Rat forever dislike each other. Elephant also dislikes Rat, as on the starting line, Rat squeezed into his trunk to distract him & Elephant ran away, sneezing, and missed the start.
Rat cheated by asking Ox 2carry him over water, but slid ahead of him at the end. Dragon selflessly helped rabbit in the water thus allowing him 2finish ahead of him. Rat 1st of 12 animals in order at finish line.
Order of Winners:Rat,Ox,Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake;Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig
The animals all knew that Ox, Tiger, Dragon & Horse could outrun them, and were surprised to learn of Rat’s performance—until they heard how he cheated both Elephant & Ox. So, while Rat symbol holds [Zenith] first place, top pix, lower rt., he is shunned/disliked/killed by many animals in present world.
Because of Dragon’s kindness 2rabbit who was flailing in water til the great beast blew wind 2carry him ashore, all animals respect his [mythical] status as supreme, even tho in Chinese Zodiac he is in 5th place.
Dragon people make good friends because they listen attentively/sincerely to others.
Dragon’s Other Companions—Character & Characteristics of Zodiac Animals
Year of Rat: 2020, 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960, 1948, 1936, 1924. Rat people are popular.They like to invent things & are good at art. They like saving & collecting, but don’t like opening their wallet 4others.
Year of Ox: 2021, 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961, 1949, 1937, 1925. Oxen are dependable & calm. They are good listeners, but have very strong opinions/ideas.
Year of Tiger: 2022,2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, 1938, 1926. Tiger people are brave. They are independent & respected by others for their courageous acts & deep thoughts.
Year of Rabbit: 2023, 2011, 1999. 1987, 1975, 1963, 1951, 1939, 1927 People born this year are nice 2B around; they like to talk & are trusted by many. [Year of Dragon: above]
Yearof Snake: 2025, 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953, 1941, 1929 Snake people love good books, food, music & theatre. They have good luck w/money/gambling!
Five Elements—Qualities in Oriental Zodiac Denoting A Specific Year
In addition to twelve animal signs, each creature is symbolized by one of five elements: fire, earth, wood, water & metal. Specific years are denoted as “metal” or “water” years, e.g. 2023 Water Rabbit
Year of Horse: 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966, 1954, 1942, 1930 work hard, popular don’t surrender Year of Goat/Sheep: 2015, 2003, 1991,1979, 1967, 1955, 1943, 1931, 1919 artists, wise, ask questions; Year of Monkey: 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968, 1956, 1944, 1932 make ppl laugh, funny Year of Rooster: 2017, 2005, 1993, 1981, 1969 1957, 1945, 1933, many talents, works hard, punctual, reliability.
Fire Tiger symbol [above 3rd in Race] 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, 1938, 1926 independent
Year of Dog: (2030), 2018, 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970, 1958, 1946, 1934, 1922 frank, funny, loyal
Year of Boar/Pig: (2031), 2019, 2007, 1995,1983,1971,1959,1947,1935,1923 happy but stubborn
Chart of Elements in Five-yearly Cycle of Sixty Zodiacal Years
Each of the Five Elements—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water—is associated with personal traits and behavioural patterns, which add richer dimension to the personality in Tibetan/Korean astrology matrix. 12 zodiac signs overlaid with five elements complete a 60yr cycle, e.g. last Wood Dragon year=1964!
Above chart uses Dragon images, top of page, as example: Pink dragon:end Old year Dec.thru Feb; Green dragon:March thru May New Year, spring; Brown dragon 2nd row l. summer June thru Aug; top rt.Blue Dragon Sept/Oct/Nov all Dragons but spread over two Caucasian years+. Calendar mix, separated by Candlemas.
Essentially, all five elements follow the same pattern. So, for instance, someone born May 1980 is a Metal Monkey while another in January next year [1981] is also a Metal Monkey until calendar changes early February.
To bring it right up-to-date, a baby born this year after new moon February 9-10th, 2024 has a Wood Dragon twin born January next year 2025. Same applies e.g. mother b. May 1940 & son b. 1976 are both Dragons, but 1940 is Metal Dragon & 1976 is Fire Dragon.
No Bear took part in the Great Race, even though in China they are believed to have divine powers and are revered as sacred animals. Both Panda and Black Bear represent resurrection/eternal life, because of their habit of winter hibernation & re-emergence in spring.
In Chinese myth, Constellation of the Great Bear, is known as Dou. Its guardian star in the Northern sky is nearby Red Giant Arcturus in constellation Bootes, below pic rt. Ursa Major, w/tail curving2 Arcturus.
Ptolemy named Ursa Major & Ursa Minor Gk. Aρκτος μεγάλη (Arktos Megale) & Aρκτος μικρά (Arktos Mikra)(mega & micro). Arcturus follows the bear’s tail.
Many children worldwide have teddy bears —stuffed cuddly toy bear lookalikes—1902 nickname given when 26th U.S.President T.R. (Teddy) Roosevelt refused to shoot a captive American black bear tied to a tree.
Teddy Bears are immortalized in the children’s song ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ & other stories like Winnie-the-Pooh, Goldilocks & Three Bears. U.S. Forestry Service’s Smokey Bear is used as ‘cuddly’ Wildfire prevention icon.
As we prepare 4unprecedented step into a new quarter of a new Century [2024 is 25th year of 21st C Gregorian]; New Moon of Muharram 1446 Islam [July 7th 2024]; Tibetan Losar Feb.10th [Wood Dragon, 2151]; Chinese Guo Nian Feb.10th New Moon; Jan. 24th [full moon] Jewish 15th of Shevat aka New Year of the Trees 5785, we feel gratitude towards the Great Jade Emperor in his Eastern kingdoms for showing the animals [& us] the Way to win.
It seems appropriate, therefore, to share a little gratitude similarly to those of his helpers of our acquaintance in the Western hemisphere, such as Angels of our tribe created by Findhorn Foundation‘s Joy Drake in 1977 to show us our way forward.
As we draw on the wisdom of our Angels, it is a blessing to know that—at our inner core—we all have similar needs & desires: to be happy; to laugh at our struggles & to know that we are loved by someone somewhere-even when the Universe seems dark. And, remembering that laughter is the best medicine.
Many early saints who converted pagan inhabitants of North Britain to early Christianity had roots in Ireland, were influenced by Candida Casa in Whithorn, Galloway or, like Columba, by the Abbey of Iona. Surprisingly, in contrast, St. Patrick [patron saint of Ireland] was a Britonnic monk, taken captive and transported to Irish territory—where he escaped, preached widely, thus gaining the country’s idolatry.
Christianity had a foothold in early Rome—St. Valentine a prime example of a martyr killed before the end of Roman rule in Britannia, A.D.420. But military occupation of Britain-including forays into Scotia beyond Hadrian & Antonine Walls were conducted under the protection of legionaries’ beloved god Mithras. Derived from Assyrian-Greek Mithra worship, he was purely pagan himself; born under the Tree of Life already bearing arms; able to ride-& slaughter-the sacred Bull whose blood fertilized earth.
Legend tells that c.565, St Columba/Columcille, travelling with fellow Celtic monk Drostan aka Drust macCosgreig wound up in Old Deer in Buchan Aberdeenshire, where they founded a monastery, above. When Columba left, Drostan shed tears [Deira], giving the name to later Abbey built there. The Book of Deer,(Gael. Leabhar Dhèir) below pix top l. was written here:a Latin 10thC Gospel Book, with early12thC additions in Latin, Old Irish and Sc.Gaelic, it contains the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland; now in Cambridge Univ.Library [MS.ii.6.32].New archaeo discovery has unearthed original monastic cell
Top pix ‘beast’ Church of Clatt; salmon & dolphin; lower rt Rhynie Barflat & Picardy Stone at Dunnydeer, Insch, Aberdeenshire. See Pictish symbols below.
Early Saints’ Names and their Regional Variations
Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, d. A.D.704; Feast Jan.27th.Attended Council A.D.697 where he proposed Iona should come into line with Rome on Easter date. Also that women be spared from waging battle. Other forms:Aunan, Arnty, Ennan, Eunan, Ounan, St.Eunan (Teunin), Skeulan, Eonan, Ewen, Arnold, Ardeonaig, Ardeonan, Kilmaveonaig (Perthshire), Damsay (Orkney), ‘Adamnan’s Isle,’ Killennan (Argyll), Kirkennan (Kirkcudbright).
Adrian or Odran, Bishop & Martyr A.D.875, Oronsay (‘St. Oran’s Isle’), Killoran (Colonsay), Scour Ouran (St.Oran’s Hill), Inverness. Aidan, Bishop, A.D. 651. Inchaddon, Kilmadock (Perthshire). Andrew, Apostle, Patron of Scotland: St. Andrews (Fife), Kirkandrews (Roxburgh). Feast Nov.30th Angus, a disciple of St. Columba: Clach Aenais (‘Stone of Angus’), Balquhidder. Aseph, Bishop, A.D.590. Tobar Asheg (‘St. Asaph’s Well’), Loch Rannoch. Augustine(fromPopeGregoryI) Brit.St.A.D.596 instruction not2 destroy pagan sites; only [Pictish]stones within, as they shouldB ‘converted from dowership of demons to the true God’ -aka Class-I 6thC inscribed stones now in e.g. kirkyards Kintore, Bourtie, Clatt, Dyce, Huntly, Inverurie ABD
Book of Kells (Codex Cenannensis; Irish Gael. Leabhar Cheanannais); also known as the Book of Columba), an illuminated MS & Celtic Gospel book in Latin, contains four Gospels of the New Testament with texts and tables. Originally thought to have been written at Iona, it is now believed to have come from a Columban monastery in either Ireland or Scotland, and contributed to by both regions. Created c.A.D.800.
Bathan, Bishop, A.D.639 Abbey St. Bathan’s (Berwickshire), Bowden (Bothenden), Roxburgh. Baldred, Hermit, A.D.608 St. Baldred’s Cave, Cradle, and Well (Haddingtonshire). Barr or Finbar, Bishop, 6thC: Barra (‘St. Barr’s Isle’), Dunbar (Haddington), Barr (Ayrshire). Baya, Beya, or Vey, Virgin, c.9thC: Kilbag Head (Lewis), St. Vey’s Chapel (Cumbria). Bean, Bishop, A.D.1012: Kirkbean (Dumfries). Begha or Bez, Virgin, c.A.D.660: Kilbucho (Biggar), Kilbagie (Clackmannan). Berach, Abbot: Kilberry (Argyll). Berchan, Bishop: Kilbarchan (Renfrew). Blane, Bishop, A.D.590: Kilblane (Argyll), Dunblane (Perth), Blane (Bute).
Jan 12: Feast of Benedict, Bishop & Abbot A.D.628-89. Founded A.D.674 St Peter’s, Wearmouth, & sister monastery St Paul’s, Jarrow, in 682. Both foundations benefited from his trips2 continental Europe where he inspired2 bring back books, masons & other craftsmen, to work both monasteries
Feast Peter & Paul June 29th
Boisil, Prior of Old Melrose, A.D.664: St. Boswell’s (Roxburghshire). Brandon, Abbot, A.D. 577: Kilbrandon/Kilbrennan (Oban), Kilbirnie (Beith), Birnie(Elgin), Balbirnie (Fife). Bridget/Brigida or Bride, Virgin, A.D.523: Brydekirk (Annan), Kilbride(Arran, Argyll, Dumfries) Lhanbryde (Lhan: Brittonic/Welsh=church)(Moray). Brioc, Bishop, A.D.500: Inchbrayock (near Montrose), Kirkmabreck (Kirkcudbright). Buite or Boethius, Monk, A.D. 521:Carbuddo (Caer Buido, ‘Buite’s fort’), Kirkbuddo (Forfar), ‘Byth Market’ (Aberdeen).
Colmán of Lindisfarne (†676), Bishop A.D.661-4. Chief Bishop instrumental in dating of Easter at A.D.666 Synod of Whitby, after which he resigned. Withdrew to Iona w/his followers then founded monastery on Inis Bó Finne (Inishbofin) in his native Ireland c.667. Feast day February 18th. Patron Lindisfarne, Farne Is. N.umberland, pic.l.
Coivin or Kevin, Abbot, A.D.618: St. Coivin’s Chapel, Kilkivan, and ‘St. Kevin’s Bed’ (Argyll). Colluoc, Bishop, A.D.500: Portmahomack (Tain, Ross), Inchmahome (Lake of Menteith). Colmonel, A.D.610: Kilcalmonell (Argyll), Colmonell (Ayr). Columba or Colum Cille, Abbot, A.D.563: Kilmacolm (Greenock), Inchcolm (Fife), Colonsay (Argyll), Icolmkill (Iona), Kirkcolm (Wigtown). Congal, Abbot, A.D.602: Dercongal (near Dumfries). Comgan or Congan, Abbot, 8thC: Kilchoau (Argyll, Ross&Cromarty), St.Coan (Skye), Kilcowan (Wigtown). Comman, A.D.688: Kilchoran (Islay). Conan, Bishop, A.D.648: Kilconan (Perthshire), St. Conan’s Well (Argyll). Constantine, King & Martyr, A.D.811-820 pix 3. above Dupplin Cross Lat. Custatin filius Forcus =
Lat.trans=Constantine son of Fergus; viz important ogham inscription both edges & Xtian cross-side of Class-II Rodney’s Stone at Brodie Castle, Forres, MOR, rt., seat of Brodie family constructed 1567 moved frm. previous site kirkyard Dyke-Moy 1/2mE on bend R.Findhorn: in 1208-15 records as Logyn-Fithenach, link2 local placenames on John the Baptist, e.g.Ihons-logyfr. Pont’s 1590 Nairnshire map (q.v), Meads of St John & St John’s Pool.
Custatin: Kilclousland (Kintyre), St. Cousland Fair (Forfar), Chousland (Midlothian). King of Picts 811-820, buried St.Andrews crypt, guardianship St.A Cathedral Museum
Conval, c. A.D.612: St. Conall’s Chapel, Ferreness (Renfrew), Kirkconnel (Dumfries). Cormac, Abbot, A.D.6thC: Kilmacharmaig (Kintyre), Kirkcormac (Kirkcudbright). Cumine, Abbot, c. A.D.668: Kilchuimein (Scots Gael.= Fort Augustus) and also= St.Cumin’s Seat Cuthbert, Bishop, A.D. 687: Kirkcudbright (Cuthbert’s Church) Churches dedicated to St. Cuthbert throughout Scotland from Wick to Kirkcudbright [originally Northumbrian/Tyneside]. Cyricus, aka Grig, King & Martyr, A.D.880-889: Ceres (Fife), St. Cyrus and Ecclesgrig (Kincardine) King Grig built first Harbour of Aberdeen.
Dabius or Davius, Priest: Kildavie (Bute & Mull) Denis or Dionysius: Dennis Head (Orkney), Dennistoun (Glasgow). Devenic, Saint A.D.887: Banchory Devenick (Kincardine), St. Devenick’s Fair (Aberdeenshire). Donan, Martyr, A.D.616: Kildonan (Wigtown, Argyll, Ross, Sutherland & Bute), ‘Donan Fair’ ABD Eilean Donan (Ross & Cromarty). Draighen: Kirkmadrine (Wigtown). Drostan, Abbot, see Abbey of Deer, top, 6thC; Craigrostan (Ben Lomond), Drustie’s Well (Forfar), St. Drostan’s Croft (Inverness). Duthac, Bishop, A.D.1068: Kilduich, Arduthie, Kilduthie (Kincardine), Duthie Park, ABD.
Class-I inscribed Pictish symbols
Because Pictish pagan belief in sacred salmon & dolphin [l. ‘beast’] was strong, [pix.top lower rt.panel] early Saints like Fergus [Dyce], below, used Gk.acronym ICTHYS=[trans.Jesus Christ son of God], Lat.’piscis’=fish 2explain Xtianity 2converts.
Ebba, Abbess, A.D.683: St. Abb’s Head (Berwickshire). Englatius/Tanglan, Saint & Abbot, A.D.966: Tanglan’s Well & Ford (Aberdeenshire). Ernan, Abbot, A.D.640: Killearnan (Sutherland), Kinnernie, ABD. Ethernan, Bishop/Martyr Iona or Isle of May? A.D.669 mentioned in Annals of Ulster Itarnan et Corindu apud Pictores defuncti suntThos.Clancy trans. as ‘killed by Picts’ rather than simply ‘died among Picts’: hence martyr; ‘St. Ethernan’s Den’ (Aberdeenshire), ‘Tetheren’s Fair”(Forfar); Isle of May (Fife coast) believed to be site of his original burial, as his tomb was site of worship 4pilgrims until Reformation. His name in ogham inscribed on Rodney’s Stone at Brodie Castle above2rt, orig.frm nearby Dyke/Moy ABD.
Fergus, Bishop, 8thC: ‘Fergan Well’ (Banff), St. Fergus (ABD,pix l.) Dalrossie-Sc.Gael. dal Fhearghuis, ‘Field of Fergus’.
St. Fergus Chapel off Tyrebagger road at Recumbent stone circle [RSC] Dyce above Aberdeen [Dyce] Airport, contains magnifi- cent ‘teaching stone’, l., w/Class-II cross & rear marked in ogham in shape of fish, to appeal to Pictish converts whose Salmon was a sacred creature.
St.Fergus attended Rome council A.D.721 on behalf of Pictish king Nechtan 2make connection which marked way forward for Pictland as 1st Xtian nation in N.Britain
Fiacre, Abbot, AD. 760. St. Ficker’s Bay and St. Fittack’s Well (Kincardineshire). Fillan, Abbot, A.D.8thC: Strathfillan (Perthshire), Kilphillane (Wigtown), Kilellan(Inverness), Killallan (Renfrew), St. Fillan’s Cave (Fife), St. Fillain’s Well (Ayr).c.f. Fillan, Faolan, or Fuelan (‘the Stammerer’), A.D.6thC:’ St. Fillan’s, Dunfillan, and ‘St. Fillan’s Chair’ (Perthshire); Findchanus, Kilfinnichen and St. Finnichen’s Chair (Argyll); also c.f. Finan or Finian, Bishop, c.A.D.575: Kilfinan (Argyll and Wigtown), Glen Finan (Argyll), St. Finan Chapel and Finzean Fair at Finzean [pron. Fing’an] (Aberdeenshire).
Dardanus Stone or Corsedardar rt. 5ft/1.5m megalith/remnant Neolithic circle, Finzean/Feughside, Birse nr.Aboyne ABD access Cairnamount to Strachan/Finzean; broken 18thC, repaired 2 stand nr roadside war memorial. Banchory 5mi ENE; 1/2mi frm Finzean Long Cairn 33mx3m 26m wide W end/of several [Neolithic] longcairns/ burial mounds. Former boundary Kincardine. Finzean Fair 3rd Tues Lent feeing & circus event fair Migvie, Tarland ABD local tradition assoc.w/St Finnian of Moville
Findoc, Fyndoca, Virgin ? Killintag (Argyll); Findo Gask and St, Phink’s Chapel (Perthshire) Flannan: Flannan Islands (W of Lewis). Fumac: St.Fumac’s Well and Fair (Banff and Caithness).
Gervadius or Gernadius, A.D.934: ‘Gerardin’s Cave’ and Well (Elgin). Giles/Egidius, Abbot, A.D.714: St. Giles’ Cathedral (Edinburgh), St. Giles’ Fairs (Aberdeen, Dumfries, and Elgin). Glascianus or Glass, Bishop: Kinglassie and St. Glass’s Well (Fife), Kilmaglas (Argyll). Griselda: Ecclesiamagirdle, Pitkeathly (Perthshire). John, Apostle: Ihon’s Logy & Meads of St.John, E of R.Findhorn; Johnstone (Renfrew & Dumfries)
Custatin filius Forcus= [King] Constantine son of Fergus, king of Picts 811-820 (pix. top 2nd rt.Dupplin cross) held his court in Fortriu aka Forteviot (where Dupplin cross in museum; replica on hillside) & founded ancient Abbey/Cathedral of St.Andrew’s, Fife where he retired fr kingship-see Brodie His 9thC sarcophagus inSt.A Abbey church
St.Andrew, Greek born in Holy Land, patron saint of Scotland, whose flag shows how he was crucified=sideways—#saltire.
Saint Lucy (283–304)( Latin: Sancta Lucia) of Syracuse, Sicily was a Roman Christian martyr d.304 during Diocletian Persecution; patron saint of blind, eyes, sight [“lucid”= see or think “clearly”] feast of Light December 13th celebrated Sicily annually during Lent
Macceus or Mahew, c.A.D.460: Kilmahew (Dumbarton), Kirkmahoe (Dumfries). Machan, Bishop, c. 6thC: Ecclesmachan: ‘Church of Machan’ (Linlithgow). Machar, Mauritius or Mocumma, Bishop, 6thC: founded monastery, site of St. Machar’s Cathedral Old Aberdeen on bend of River Don: Machar parishes & Haugh (Old Aberdeen). Machalus or Mauchold, Bishop, A D.498: Kilmaichlie (Banffshire). Machutus/Malo, Bishop, A.D.565: Kirkmahoe (Dumfries), Lesmahagow (Lanarkshire), corruption of ‘Ecclesia St. Machuti’: [from which French town St. Malo (Brittany) derives its name.
Martinmas Feast-prior2 Nov.11 “Veteran’s /Remembrance Day”celebrated w/goose or chicken in Holland/Germany/Austria with lanterns [made of sugar beet, beetroot or turnip; now paper] children’s parade visit to homes like current Hallowe’en/Guy Fawkes; Germanic prelude to U.S. ‘Trick-or-treat’.
Ancient ‘feeing day’ marked end Harvest start of Winter in Europe/N.hemisphere. Saint cut off 1/2his cloak to give 2beggar.
Martin tried to avoid being canonized by hiding in goose pen; geese raised the alarm-hence goose feast! Cult spread to U.S. from France, Ireland via continental Europe & Wales where Cŵn Annwn, spectral Hounds who escort souls2 Otherworld engaged in a Wild Hunt led by Odin-Hallowe’en mix.
Mary, Virgin Mother: Gilmerton (Midlothian), Kilmarow, Kilmorie, Tobermory (Argyll), Kilry (Fife & Perth), Kilvarie (Perth), St. Mary’s Loch (Selkirk), St. Mary’s Holm (Orkney), Maryculter (Aberdeenshire). Medan or Middanus, Abbot?:St. Medan’s Knowe and ‘Maidie’s Well’ (Forfar). Maelrubha or Mulruy or Mury, Martyr, A.D.722: Loch Maree (Rossshire), Kilmaree, Kilarrow (Argyll), Amulree (Perthshire); Samareves Fair (Culsalmond, Aberdeenshire), St. Mariers, (Forres), Summaruff (St. Maruff, Fordyce/Banffshire/Aberdeenshire)
Magnus, Martyr, A.D.1116: St. Magnus Cathedral (Kirkwall, Orkney), St. Magnus Bay (Shetland). Margaret, Queen, A.D.1093: widow of Malcolm III Canmore St. Margaret’s (Edinburgh), St. Margaret’s Hope/bay), Queensferry (Orkney), St.Margaret’s School for Girls, (Albyn Place, Aberdeen) Marnan/Marnoch, Bishop, A.D.625. Kilmarnook (Ayrshire), Inchmarnook (Bute), Dalmarnock (Perth), Ardmarnook (Argyll), Aberchirder & Leochel, Lumphanan ABD Feast: Marnoch Fair 2nd Tues, March. Maura, Virgin: Kilmaurs (Ayrshire). Mayota/Mazota, Virgin, A.D.6thC: Drumoak/ Dalmoak (‘Field of Mayota’), and St. Maikie’s Well, ABD. Medana/Edana, Virgin, A.D.518: Kirkrnaiden or Maidenkirk; St. Medan’s Chapel & Cave (Wigtown), Pitmedden (Aberdeenshire) AA [Archangel] Michael: Kilmichael (Argyll), Kirkmichael (Perth, Dumfries, and Ayr). Moack/Moucus: Portmoak (Kinross), Drumoak (Aberdeenshire). Molios/Laserian, Abbot,A.D.639:Lamlash(Sc.Gael, lann Lais, Church of Lais) St.Molio’sBed (Arran) Molocus, Moluoc, or Lughaidh, Bishop, A.D.592:St. Molloch’s Fair, ‘Luoch Fair’ (Aberdeenshire), ‘St. Malogue’s. Fair’ (Perthshire), Kiimoluag, Kilmallow (Argyll). Modan, Abbot: Balmodhan (Ardchattan), and Kilmodan (Argyll). Monan, Bishop, A.D.571: St. Monans, Kilminning (Fife), St. Monon (Ross), Minnan Fair (Caithness); Feast Feb.4th Monoch or Monachus: ‘Sam Maneuke’s’ (St. Monk’s Day) and Auchmannoch (Ayr). Moroc, Bishop: Kilmorick and St. Muireach’s Well (Dunkeld), Kilmorack (Beauly). M’indus/Fintan Munnu, Abbot, A.D.635: Eileanmunde (M’s Island), and Kilmun Mund’s Church, (Argyll). Mungo or Kentigern, Bishop, A.D.603: St. Mungo’s (Dumfries), St. Mungo’s Isle (Inverness), St. Mungo’s Cathedral; Strathbungo (Glasgow), Balinungo (Fife)-see Thenog below. Murdoch, Bishop: Kilmorich (Argyll), Chapel Dockie (Forfar).
St. Nicholas of Myra A.D.270-343 Gk.Bishop Asia Minor [modern-day Demre,Turkey] patron saint in Europe of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried ppl, & students; his cult brought to New York/New Amsterdam by 1st Dutch settlers; known4 miracles & secret gifts to children. Festival: St.Nicholas Day December 6th, developed into Christmas reindeer cult w/gifts to children & focus of “12 days of Christmas” which begin Christmas Eve climb down chimney. In Pacific NW Indigenous Americans celebrate “rain season” when reindeer shed their antlers. Aberdeen South St.Nicholas church, Belmont St. known4 20thC gift-giving Rev. Chas. Edwin Forster, on whose d.1956, kirk converted in2 nightclub [rolling in his grave]; nearby kirks of E & W St.Nicholas guard main ABD cemetery; No N.St.Nicholas exists but Back Wynd tunnel leads2 pedestrian Geo.St.
Nathalan or Nachlan, Bishop, A.D.678:St. Nathalan’s Fair, Oldmeldrum & Nachlan’s Well (ABDshire). Ninian or Kingan, Bishop, A.D.432: Kilninian (Argyll) St. Ninian’s (Stirling), North Ronaldsay or Rinansay ‘Isle of Ringan'(Orkney), Kilrenny (Anstruther, Fife), St. Innian’s Well (Lanark), St. Ninian’s Chapel (Linlithgow), Ringan’s Dean (Roxburgh), Kilninian (Argyll), St.Ninian’s Den & Chapel (Kincardine).
Obert?:’St. Obert’s Eve,’ (Perth). Olaf/Olav or Ollow, King of Norway & Martyr, A.D.1030: Ollaberry=Olaf’s burgh(Shetland), St.Ole’s Fair (Lewis), St. Ollowe’s Bridge (Kirkwall, Orkney). Osborne? Ooseburn: ’till Osbern’ (Dumfries & Galloway). Oswald, King & Martyr, A.D.642: Kirkoswald (Maybole, Ayrshire) Kirkoswald, (Penrith, Lake District). Palladius, Bishop, A.D.430: Aberfeldy (Perthshire), Paldy’s Well (Fordoun), ‘Paldy Fair,’ (Kincardine), St. Palladius celebrated Inverurie & Kintore (Aberdeenshire). Patrick, Britonnic Bishop, captive taken to Ireland A.D.493: Patron saint of Ireland [Eire] celebrated U.S. St. Patrick/Paddy’s Day, March 17th; Kilpatrick (Dumbarton), Ardpatrick (Argyll), Dalpatrick (Lanark), Kirkpatrick (Dumfriesshire), Kilpatrick (Arran), Kilspindie (Perthshire).
Apostles St.Peter & St.Paul joint feast June 29th; early3rdC Peter celebrated as martyr crucified Rome upside down(1stC) by Nero symbol upside-down cross; founder Roman church; & iconic Pictish Peterkirks of 8thC King Nechtan. Paul, a Roman, could not be crucified; was beheaded by emperor Nero A.D.54-68 ‘reponsible 4Rome’s great Fire’
St. Peter, Apostle: Peterculter (Aberdeenshire), Kilfeather (Wigtown). Nechtan Peterkirks throughout Scotland, Northumbria & parts of Cumbria, Yorkshire & N.England Regulus or Rule, Bishop: ‘Trewell Fair’ (Aberdeenshire), St. Regulus’ Tower (see St. Andrews, pic above). Ronan, Bishop, A.D.737: Ronay (Skye & Lewis), Port Ronan (Iona), St. Ronan’s Well (Peebles), Kilmaron (Fife), Kilmarnock (Dumbarton), Kilinaronog (Argyll). Serf/Servanus, Bishop,6thC: St.Serf’s Isle (Loch Leven), St.Sear’s Well (Dumbarton), St.Serf’s Fair Perth (& Linlithgow), Dalserf (Lanarkshire), St.Sair’s Fair, Colpy, Culsalmond ABD, & Monkeigy, KeithHall ABD.
St. Stephen, patron saint of stonemasons, deacons, altar servers, bricklayers, casket makers, patron of Hungary, c.A.D.5-34, Hellenist Jew appointed after conversion by Apostles 2distribute food &aid 2poor; at address2 Jewish Sanhedrin council re his faith, called blasphemous & stoned d.A.D.34-1st Xtian martyr Gk.Stephanos=wreath/crown=reward/honor/fame ‘Feast of Stephen’ Europe=Boxing Day, Dec.26th. Jewish 8-day Festival of Light Hanukkah Dec.18th-26th
Suibhne & ‘Sweeney’, Abbots of Iona, A.D.657 and 772: Castle Sween (Argyll). Talarican/Talorcan Bishop, A.D.616: Kiltarlity (Inverness), Tarquin’s Well (Banff, Stirling) Talorcan kirk & belltower, Fordyce, Banff N.coast, now ABD. Ternan, Bishop, A.D.431 [viz St.Ernan above A.D.640] BanchoryTernan (Kincardine, now Aberdeenshire) Thenew or Thenog, A.D.514 (Mother of St.Mungo).St. Enoch’s formerly SanTheneuke’s Kirk, (Glasgow). Triduana or Tradwell, Virgin, 6thC: Kintradwell (Caithness), Tradlines (Kincardine), St. Tredwell’s Loch & Chapel (Orkney), ‘St. Trodlin’s Fair’ (Forfar). Vigean/Fechin, Abbot, A.D.664: St. Vigean’s (Forfar), Ecclefechan (Dumfries). Volocus/Wallach, Bishop, 5th? or 6thC: St. Wallach’s Baths, Wallakirk, patron of Glass nr. Huntly & St. Wallach’s Well (Aberdeenshire). Wynnin/Finian or Frigidian, Bishop, A.D.579: Kilwinning, Caerwinning & St. Wynnin’s Fair (Ayrshire), Inchinnan (Renfrew), Kirkgunzeon (Kirkcudbright), Lumphanan (Aberdeenshire), Lumphinnan (Fife). Yrchardus/Merchard, Bishop, 5th or 6thC: Merchard’s Seat, Well, and Churchyard (Invernessshire).
TIME TO TEMPT HUMANS TO ACT LIKE TELOSIANS—DELVING DEEP WITHIN TO DISCOVER OUR ORIGINS AS STAR-PEOPLE
MARDI GRAS—FAT TUESDAY— IN NEW ORLEANS, THE “BIG EASY” ECHOES BRAZIL’S CAR-NA-VAL, LONDON’S NOTTING HILL CRAZIES LATER IN SEASON—ALL FOCUS ON JOY WHATEVER THE WEATHER
Mardi Gras in New Orleans, below featured floats of multiple facets of fantasy l. & far rt., with yum-yum food like NOLA specialty King Cakes pic 2, while many threw private balls 2nd rt, with individual gowns created for such a special occasion.
NOLA-‘Big Easy’ Leads World Celebrating Mardi Gras-Fat Tuesday in Joyful Parades, Happy All-Nighters & Loadsa Food despite winter weather, while Rich Nations’ Powerful Leaders’ Boast their ‘Nuke-em’ Attitude
While rain & wild winds battered the North Pacific & huge low pressure throw winter rains, bitter ice balls & heavy snowfalls at New England and cities in central United States, like Denver, Las Vegas, many cultures on both sides of the Atlantic & deep into Brazil—original Carnival country-threw caution to the winds and celebrated as if it were their last day on Earth.
In spite of deep flooding in Gulf states, Arizona, California & Mississippi basin, unusually high temperature fluctuation in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba and the Caribbean experienced hotter-than-usual (winter) highs. New England, along with D.C. New York & Michigan froze solid.
Europeans—Britain, Scandinavia and Finland suffered deep low pressure, although this is more ‘normal’ for them, and their icy road clearance vehicles and sand-gritting lorries were out getting plenty of exercise.
Stretching farther north into Alaska, the Siberian Arctic and (presently high-profile) Ukraine, Poland and Russia their native tolerance of bitter weather seems not to deter their warlike tendencies—especially Russia & Ukraine continuing to batter each other with (borrowed) weapons, their perseverance encouraging weakling U.S. President Biden & distant N.Korea & China to promise MORE.
Through all the pain & suffering experienced by (non-warring) families in Turkey—with two recent earthquake disasters claiming 40,000 lives so far, it seems that four leaders of some of the world’s richest nations—U.S.A, Russia, China, & N.Korea have lost perspective in promising to “solve the problem” with NUCLEAR armaments, rather than by family-focused humanitarianism.
The dilemma is—for any rational everyday person-on-the-street—unfathomable.
$500 Million Funding for Nuclear-bearing Aircraft Weaponry can feed World’s Poor & Homeless Masses, with Some to Spare
Instead of moaning on about how difficult it is to “find appropriate housing” for the poor, homeless & underpaid voluntary sector-[traveling hospital staff, volunteer social workers, families in temporary vehicles/mobile campers], U.S. President Biden & Russia Head of State Putin declare war on one another—not perhaps in news bulletins, but in ‘unofficial trips to neighbor nations. With a quick speech for United Nations European members in between. U.S. President, cleverly ordered AirForce One to transport him secretly from D.C. to Germany; then commissioned an overnight sleeper to Warsaw, in order to arrive ‘fresh’ for a televised speech.
China & North Korea respond—as they don’t like to appear laggards in the nuclear ‘game’, having had their baby surveillance balloon shot down by U.S. jets over the Atlantic. They hastily gathered support from other small neighbours in the East; sprucing up their nuclear weaponry and preparing for war.
Turkey, meanwhile, languishes between, grateful for any help: money, food, vehicle response, care-givers, life-support professionals from anywhere in the world which supports their plight.
Turkey/Syria earthquakes (second occurred Monday night, February 20,2023) have created a crack in Earth’s crust 186 miles/300km long-not easy to patch up!
Animals & some stalwart hooman owners have survived 10 days or more beneath the surface of the rupture, without water or sustenance & yet were alive when rescued.
Dog & cat-owners are overjoyed at their pets’ return.
Food parcels & non-perishable donations are being accepted & distributed in shelters hastily erected to house lost individuals and families still searching for loved ones.
In Sadness there is Joy in Pain/Sorrow there is Hope—Message from Light Beings
Reminiscent of Star Trek Four: the Voyage Home, with Spock, Capt Kirk, Pavel Chekov & Scotty’s surprise appearance in their stolen Kingon ‘wessel’ complete with recyclable whale family, pic left; our brothers and sisters in the light appear as if by magic from an unknown realm to help us learn new attitudes to life and express joy, humour and gratitude instead of worry & despair.
When on Earth they keep counsel inside Mt. Shasta, pic l. my book touching on their story. They live within their own secret kingdom inside the mountain, emerging when humans summon them in need. They encourage us to find places where we feel joy-beach bottom rt. Richardson’s State Beach Park, Hilo, HI; and encourage us to plant more beautiful greenery—preferably trees, bottom l. to help our planet thrive in troubled times.
There is always Hope.
Elderly humans a generation ago conscious of maintaining a positive attitude to see them through hard times, would use this attitude in a difficult situation – loss of a loved one, misbehaving child, even the onset of age in their own bodies.
Now, with amazing timing, Light Beings of Other Worlds beyond ours—Telosians their own name for themselves— have miraculously entered our timescape with a spectacular array of pointers to guide us off the “inevitable” course we were on, and along a totally new path to-[pick one-happiness, enlightenment, Salvation (biblical), problem-solving, truth, LOVE, the answer: empowerment]!
Telosian Truth Has a Different Ring to it—or When Life Gives You Lemons, make Lemonade
When all else fails, Humans have had a habit of looking on the bright side. The New Age emphasizes this thinking by the adage ‘If Life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade.’ Telosians take this feeling even further, with a positive attitude to everything from automobile breakdown to missed rail/air connections, to burning supper on the kitchen stove. It’s all going according to Plan, i.e. don’t worry the small details, the bigger picture has a better solution in store.
Sure enough, with a firm belief of something better to come lining our pocket, a surprise solution will suddenly appear and the problem will go away.
Recent World Meditation Initiative Fire-the-Grid 2/21/23 pulled People of all Nations & Faiths together to Create a One-Mind Gathering for Thousands
Fire-the-Grid, pic below rt. uses symbols unknown to us in the ‘real world’ but which trigger a space deep inside where their shape and simplicity mean something intangible—for which we have no words.
In a religious context, the Gk.word Telos is used by many New Testament bibles to denote the physical form of a human-Jesus-as a result of INTENT by a Creator who has no physical form aka God.
Fire-the-Grid, below rt. shows us the way, even if only our subconscious mind gets the message.
Anael, early guide to making this series of “letters” mean something to our subconscious, describes them as words without a known language. She says our soul understands their message, even if our conscious mind does not.
As earthling guide sent by Telosian Light Beings, she begs us to trust that inner knowing to bring the Light forth into day.
Symbolic of an inner language we know in our hearts & rarely used parts of our subconscious mind, Fire-the-Grid shapes are familiar, but we can’t express why.
Telosian Light Beings sent out a “Wake-up Call” the night before World Meditation trial, February 19, this year. It was followed by 24 hours of psychic support 2/20-2/21, 2023, with a full hour exercising our ability to meditate tuned in on every part of the globe.
Telos Allows Change on Day-to-Day Basis, Just as Human Intentions Change
Humans gathering to share in a mind-meld (tku Spock) in the spirit of gratitude, joyful expectation and in some cases the use of prayer was enough to form one of the first events in 2023, following many years of practice after original Fire-the-Grid exercises at the end of the last century. Light Beings from a different Universe at that time helped Earthlings understand their mission on Earth was similar in belief, but different in content, from messages received by other cultures like the Maya Elders who have long expected a change—the SHIFT—from physical earthbound living to belief in the coming of the Light to end human darkness.
Humans will prepare for the coming of the Light in their own way within their own cultural limitations. The Maya, he affirms, will assist in that transition to feelings of caring and love, of friendly sharing of wealth and protection of the innocent and young families by gentle persuasion and the support of elders within their own community who already believe the change is happening.
So now, ten years after the predicted date—the Maya had known of this for at least fifty years prior—their ancient ritual gatherings at solstice and the equinoxes when the sun climbs the staircase of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan are evidence of their brothers’ faith in the Feathered Serpent Kukulkan-great god of ancient Central American race whose monuments built over one thousand years ago predict the path of the Serpent-god each year. It is he who has foreseen humanity’s impending change from dark to Light.
Kukulcan, great Feathered Serpent god of the Yucatan, pictured bottom of page rt. is known to be capable of wildly astronomical feats-like climbing the temple stairs on solar ascension on solstice and descending when our Sun declines on autumn equinox. His knowledge of the galaxies is understood to be beyond human comprehension & therefore immortal.
If Not Apocalypse, What Can We Expect?
Four minutes before Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) 11:11 a.m. February 21, 2023 converted to world time zones—East Coast U.S. five hours prior; Central CDT 6 hours, California PDT 8 hours prior; Hawai’i central Pacific a day before @ Midnight + 7minutes.
Western time zones prepared. We had practised feeling joy in the pleasure of simple things, laughing at our own childish attempts at grown-up seriousness. We were learning to release worries and doubt; we knew it was time to be counted along with those who could lay down fear & doubt; pick up the sword of true ‘reality’. To laugh, cry with joy, dance, play & be grateful for all that life has already given us—our family, friends, cats, birds, garden veg, herbs, fruit—with the expectation of more to come in the future. Even love we never thought would reach us in our rapidly advancing world.
Linguistic aside: in Indo-European terminology—study of language from its first ancient roots common to Latin, French, German, Dutch, Polish, Jewish, Flemish, even Islamic variables & to tribes along the Road to Marrakesh the word Telos denotes point of a spear, dagger or arrow. Just making a point!
Plus the knowledge that we are capable of creating anything in a world we choose. Laughter the best medicine; joy, happiness, pleasure and humour are tools of our trade.
“Find a place of comfort and calm; release all feelings of urgency, guilt or worry-anything negative which might hamper one’s mind from entering that special place within where all is light.
“Move away from FEAR conversations; move away from FEAR thoughts; TRUST in a bright and beautiful future. Hold your frequency high, so that you are part of all that moves forward. The darker the time, the more you look for the light”
They added this message the following day: “If you joined us last night/day before, bless you. There is more to come.”
Telosian Future Vision is Variable—Dependent on their own Group Mind
It is comforting to realize Telosian Light Beings are themselves subject to their own Group conclusions.
Telosians predict the “Collapse of the Fourth Field”—their name for our current world culture of war & legal battles, embezzeling, stealing, murder & rape: our unloving treatment of our fellow men & women.
Whilst conceding the Group Mind is capable of making decisions for themselves along with us, their followers, these are subject to change along the way, because Group Consciousness is constantly on the move too, changing shape/direction with each new day.
Other (S.American) cultures—like Machu Picchu, in the Peruvian Andes above Cuzco, have found unique methods of switching into non-time. as actress and Academy Award winning author, Shirley MacLaine discovered in her own search for enlightenment.
Shirley’s book ‘Out on a Limb’ charts her search in Earth’s highest mountains for ‘other’ consciousness ‘closure’.
Expectations for a Future Without Sadness/Crime or Disappointment
With our new arsenal of pleasurable thoughts, funny & satisfying life changes, expecting the unexpected—and thanking our lucky stars we are the recipients of such daily surprises, we remind ourselves to show gratitude and love to those who bring such new surprises into play.
Light Beings enjoy continuously—anything & everything that comes their way. As in their realm there is no such cataclysm as death. The physical body renews and becomes more beautiful as our genetic structure is in balance and so physically we cannot “age” after 35.
They constantly repeat—so it becomes our belief too—that we are immortal; that there is no dying in that place beyond…
Saddle Bags full of Old Stuff, Camping Out in the New
MONTHLY CAMPFIRE CHAT CORNER FOR WRITERS, INSECURE OR OTHERWISE, BLOGGERS UNLIMITED
Janus Effect— Riding into the New on an Old Horse
Janus, an Etruscan god, borrowed by Romans for their first month of reformed Julian calendar, which previously began March—equinox. The god is pictured, right, as a young man looking forward, old man looking back.
Angels, far right, were invoked to guide the army through battle, horses blessed as bearers of essential supplies
Emperor Trajan, A.D.98-117, seen left, creator of Trajan’s Column in the Roman Forum, used his power as Optimus Princeps to erect a 1st-century video documentary in STONE of his successful campaigns in subduing barbarians throughout the Empire, being offered beheaded captives
Trajan’s column in Rome, erected after successful Dacian campaign, portrays Rome’s omnipotence in all things martial—barbarians always defeated by superior Roman knowhow/weaponry/transportation
Saddle bags full of Old Stuff, Camping out in the New
MONTHLY CAMPFIRE CHAT CORNER FOR INSECURE WRITERS, FELLOW BLOG GODS & GODDESSES
Emerging from what feels like a deep dark cloud of a year—2020—into the light of a new one which has potential to wake us all up and catapult us right out of bed, it is tempting to blanket all of the bad with the old, and look to the new year to solve all our problems.
But it’s a little more complicated than that.
If I’m honest, solitary confinement aka lockdown aka quarantine aka Tier 4 [for Brits], has had a remarkable effect on my writing regimen. Many blog authors and fiction wannabes will agree, we need a writing routine to help get ourselves organized, or we’d never produce a single word—bless our Muses, may it never happen.
Angelic Potpourri of Offerings from the Stars & Social Media as Humanity Wakes up to Responsibility
Creative people have found time in isolation rewarding in unexpected ways: more self-time allows honest re-assessment of our capacity for change, our output—both volume and quality—and enjoyment of what we do. With no distractions to interrupt our daily entry to the Writer’s Cave—painting boudoir, or garden plot [unless it becomes a criminal act to do so]—new books get written, music composed and broadcast, gardens and parks flourish. Nature likes to show off her growth.
Having nobody else to talk to, or hug daily—some elderly have had no phone connection or physical touch for months—has an effect of allowing us to spiral inward to where our Muse usually sits at her own computah waiting for us to ask! That isolation opens inner doors to our mind—and its myriad compartments—usually unheard in the (former) hurly burly of day-to-day existence—what we used to call the Nine-to-Five.
The new Nine-to-Five might be called more appropriately the Dawn-to-Dusk, or Sleep-no-More. Reaction to having only oneself in charge of one’s day—plus social media— has made superstars out of teenagers and octogenarians alike.
Drive-thru Virtual Graduation for U.S. Students, Remote Viewing A-levels in Britain
A virtual world for Education premiered in British A-level exam results, and U.S. Virtual Graduation ceremonies, with drive-in access to ‘graduates’ on a giant public screen, and cars suitably six feet apart. Zoom and Facetime no longer domain of teenagers, hosts home vids from newbies thru to experts. Tweets and Instagram posts get a million followers, 12-year olds become ‘social media influencers.’ Even the Mother Road, beloved of Kerouac and the Beat Gen, has shown (very cool, hip) example by maintaining nightly shows at its Route 66 Drive-In Movie theater in Jaspar, MO, with Miami Dolphins converting their stadium for film shows and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Drive-Ins operating in many states.
Our entertainment antennae are being tweaked. We lap up visual, virtual televised or electronically-generated media like babes to the bottle. Royal audiences have become a television moment of a tap on the virtual shoulder by a non-corporeal monarch with a (light saber) sword.
Angelic Intervention and Messages from the Stars
Our senses have become heightened by this aloneness. Plus an automatic human response to being caged—escape—to get out into Nature and do more walking, planting, appreciating. World movements have appeared, to plant rescue forests, create community veg and fruit gardens, rewilding abandoned plots and city parks. Cairngorms National Park, largest park in Britain, has committed to revitalising biodiversity and to restoring (near-extinct) Caledonian Pine Forest (rewilding and exclosure plantings) and to Scotland’s looted and damaged peat bogs. Some highland estates have initiated a reduced seasonal game shoot, with fewer acres of heather burn (cover for the grouse), allowing local wildlife to return in natural numbers.
Messages from aloft include December highlight Saturn/Jupiter Great Conjunction, when every planet and asteroid that we know of—plus a few we didn’t imagine—came into alignment in a small quadrant of our (Earth-view) sky, over winter Solstice. While the two giants are separating now, they continue to dominate January skies. Astrologers predict cataclysmic change. Seismic scientists believe this alignment of planetary bodies produces earth-directed energy, similar to the effect of a sunspot maximum when the solar face aims directly at earth: it produces increased volcanic eruption and earthquake movement.
Something like that is happening now—which started on Solstice—in the Halema’uma’u Caldera, a collapsed crater atop Hawai’i’s Kilauea volcano, 4,000ft. Quiet for three decades, goddess Pele chose earth’s shortest day to reawaken a two-year old collapsed shield volcano that had filled with water (60ft deep). Blasting through rock, old petrified magma, and evaporating the water lake in process, Halema’uma’u (and Pele) created a lava lake that is currently changing the local landscape. Watch this space.
Volcano National Park USGS webcam and drone footage of December eruption update to Epiphany, January 6, 2021
Writerly Conclusions—When Life Brings you Lemons, er, Lava—make Lava-ade?
Meanwhile an Epiphany in the (smokey but breathable) writers’ cave, wassup, Doc? Is a new year resolution to keep on keeping on when all around are losing theirs, still valid if the ground we walk on is shifting beneath our feet? In our newfound zeal for restoring the wild, reducing CO2, becoming more in tune with Mother Nature, do we turn the clock back aka horse-drawn-plough? or forward akabook a seat on Space-X?
Roman ingenuity would have known. Ancient advice to the fallen, the wounded, the lost—and the found? Get back on the horse.
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.
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.
The three witches—current version—in forecourt of Glamis Castle, ancient thanage in Angus, Scotland
Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun (c.1350-c.1425), was a Scots poet, canon and prior of Lochleven & St Serf’s Insch, Aberdeenshire, where he is thought to have written this poem to his hero, Macbeth—11thC King of Scots, who died at Lumphanan fifteen miles distant. Wyntoun then became canon at St. Andrews, a most hallowed position for a cleric of his time. His greatest work (1420) is his Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland
‘All night he thought in his dreaming
That sitting he was beside the King
At a seat in hunting where his sire
Unto his leash had greyhounds two
He thought while he was seated thus
He saw three women going by
And those women then thought he
Three weird sisters most likely be
MacBeth cairn, Lumphanan, where the King of Scots was slain by Malcolm in 1057
A nycht he thowcht in hys dreamyng,
That syttand he wes besyd the kyng
At a sete in hwntyng; swa
Intil his leisch had grewhundys; twa
He thowcht, quhile he wes swa syttand,
He sawe threw wemen by gangand;
And thai wemen than thowct he
Thre werd systrys mast lyk to be.
*The first he hard say, gangang by,
‘Lo, yhondyr the Thane of Crumbawchety!’
The tothir woman sayd agane,
‘Of Morave yhondyre I se the thane!’
The thryd than sayd, ‘I se the kyng!’
All this he herd in his dreamyng…
Sone eftyre that, in his yhowthad,
Of thyr thanydoms he thane wes made;
Queen/St. Margaret’s arms—Lion Rampant & sacred Martlets around Christian cross
The fantasy of his dream
Moved him most to slay his overlord
…And Dame Gruoch, his sovereign’s wife
He took and left with her his lands
And held her both as his wife and queen
Which, before then, she had been
To his sovereign—queen living Queen
—who was Kyng with Queen Regnant
For few honours then had he (Macbeth)
Only the grace of lineage affinity
Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor
Shakespeare’s stirring predictions by the three witches to a dreaming king reaching for the throne describe the cauldron scene magnificently. Macbeth will not only become thane (mormaer) of Glamis (Forfar, seat of current Earl of Strathmore), thane of Cawdor (Cawdor Castle is Nairn seat of Campbell Thanes of Cawdor since 1320), but King of Scots—whose royal court in MacBeth’s time was the Palace of Scone, Perthshire.
Dupplin 6thC Pictish Cross Forteviot before removal to museum names Constantin son of Fergus King of Picts
Syne neyst he thowcht to be king,
Fra Dunkanyis dayis had tane endying.
The fantasy thus of his dreme
Movyd hym mast to sla his eme;
As he dyd all furth in-dede,
As before yhe herd one rede,
And Dame Growky, his emys wyf,
Tuk, and lef wyth hyr hys ly,
And held hyr bathe hys wyf and queyne,
As befor than scho had beyne
Till hys eme qwene, lyvand
Quhen he was kyng with crone rygnend
For lytil in honowre than had he
The greys of affynyte.
*Wyntoun’s Cronykil refers to Cawdor in Morayshire, as Moravia, but the closest the first witch comes to Glamis? is the Thanage of Glenbuchat? in nearby Donside as his Crumbuchaty. The second sees him as Thane of Moray, leading to the third witch’s prediction: ‘I see the King’.
Wyntoun clarifies: “Soon after that, still in his youth,
“Of those thanedoms he Thane was made.”
All this when his Lord was dead
He succeeded in his stead;
And seventeen full years he reigned
As King, as he was then, of Scotland.
During his reign were times of plenty
Abounding both on land and sea.
He was in justice right lawful
His laws fair to all.
When Leo X was Pope of Rome
As pilgrim to his court he came
And in his alms he gave silver
To all poor folk who had none
And always tried he to work
Profitably for Holy Kirk
Illuminated apostles: 10thC Iona Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin show Matthew as Man, Mark winged Lion, Luke surgeon winged Bull, John as Eagle
All thus quhen his eme was dede,
He succeedyt in his stede;
And sevyntene syntyr full rygnand
As kyng-he wes than in-til Scotland.
Corgarff Castle on the Lecht pass military route between Braemar Castle, Ft.George and Cawdor
All hys tyme wes gret plente
Abowndand, bath on land and se.
He was in justice rycht lawchful,
And till hys legis all awful.
Quhen Leo the tend was Pape of Rome,
As pylgryne to the court he come;
And in his almus he sew sylver
Till all pure folk that had myster;
And all tyme oysyd he to wyrk
Profitably for haly kyrke.
Wyntoun extols the virtues of his hero, Macbeth, who claimed the throne of Scotland through his mother’s kinship with Duncan—whom he killed in Elgin (Moravia, Moray). Rival Malcolm also claimed the throne through the female line. In Lumphanan, he succeeded in killing the wounded Macbeth and, (after stepson Lulach’s pitiful six months as king), took the crown to become Malcolm III (Canmore) of Scots in 1058. He married Saint Margaret of Scotland (1070-1093), bringing peace and prosperity to northern lands during his (long) reign of 35 years.
CONTROLLING THE FLOW
California’s Water Supply Eroding under Pressure
Water trickles down massive failure in Oroville spillway February 8, 2017, causing town to be evacuated
Building a dam spillway—theoretically for excess water release in storms—can have its engineering headaches, especially when material chosen for landfill is a legacy of California’s 1849 Goldrush.
Silt built up during 19thC. gold-panning days was used in early 1960s, alongside local sandstone, to construct a backup system for California’s second-largest [electricity-generating] dam at Oroville, despite knowledge that sand and silt from river erosion takes years to settle. And preferably a series of dry years, without rain storms. When it rains, the emergency—earth sluice—is expected to handle any excess.
This year at Oroville both main spillway and emergency failed.
Dammed if we Do and Damned if we Don’t
Oroville Dam, California’s 2nd largest, overflows February 2017
Department of Water Resources has charge of maintaining an adequate water system for agriculture in the adjacent Central Valley, but it is also responsible for maintaining water aqueducts and two pipelines to supply 3.8million households in Southern California.
In addition to the bonus of the Dam’s production of hydro-electric power for the State.
But background to this important water resource reveals shaky foundations.
Despite a crucial rainstorm flood over Christmas 1964, the incomplete dam was launched by Gov.Ronald Reagan in May 1968, during a week-long festival in Oroville attended by 50,000 visitors.
Ten years later, a massive series of earthquakes hit Oroville in August 1975.
Lori Dengler, Professor Emeritus of Geology at HSU, then a graduate student at UC Berkeley, was obsessed with the seismic ‘swarm’ that shook the dam and its surrounding “surface faulting”—a cluster of fault lines—similar to Petrolia. To her, earthquake reaction came after water levels were dramatically changed.
During the winter of 1974-1975, the lake was drawn down to its lowest level since inauguration, to repair the intakes to the power plant. It was then rapidly refilled and followed by the earthquake sequence of 1975.
Cluster of seismic fault lines, with epicenter at Oroville, CA
August 1, 1975 a Mag.5.8 earthquake hit Oroville. Quakes of this size can occur anywhere in the state, so its size was no surprise. This had been a seismically quiet area, however, and those of us working in the lab noticed when seven earthquakes in the Magnitude-3 range occurred in a tight cluster near the lake. On August 1st, the seismicity ramped up—a Mag.4.7, a Mag.5.8 and 35 additional tremors in the Magnitude-3 range. Vigorous aftershocks continued with over 200 earthquakes in the magnitude-3 range recorded over the next 18 months. Then things quieted down and no earthquakes of Magnitude-3 or larger have been recorded near Oroville since 1992.
It’s not unusual for an earthquake sequence to pop up out of the blue, but the difference in Oroville was two factors linking the earthquakes to the filling of the reservoir. The first was the proximity to the lake, the location of surface faulting and the tightly clustered epicenter locations. The second factor was that the earthquakes followed an unprecedented seasonal fluctuation in lake levels.
Lori Dengler, Prof. Emeritus, Humboldt State University
Time Travel to the Tertiary
Taking a time machine back to 1975 and 1968, Oroville might never have been built
The Foothills Fault System—which includes faults like Cleveland Hills, Spenceville, Deadman, Maidu, Prairie Creek, Swain Ravine and Willows—skirts east of Folsom Lake and runs through Auburn, Placerville, El Dorado Hills and Shingle Springs. The system runs from Mariposa to Chico. The 1975 Magnitude 6.1Richter Oroville earthquake was caused by movement along the Cleveland Hills fault.
For more than a century, the Foothills were considered seismically inactive. That changed with the 1975 Oroville earthquake. The temblor did not cause much damage outside the sparsely-populated Oroville area, but it did have a major impact.
The scientific community had to reassess the large Sierra Foothills area as seismically active, according to the California Geological Survey.
Sutter Butte extinct cinder cone, foreground, overlooks valley of Sacramento River channeled, top, east to Oroville dam along Sierra Foothills Willows fault-line
“The Auburn Dam was being built at the time and for design purposes we were asked to estimate how large an earthquake the system could generate. We estimated a Magnitude-6.5 Richter, capable of displacing the dam’s foundation by about three-quarters of a foot. That sent the dam back to the drawing board. The cost multiplied over time, and the dam was never built.”
Michael Reichle, Asst. Director Dept. of Conservation
California Geological Survey
Oil and Gas Wells in Sunken Bedrock Add Instability
Data from a number of (USGS) sources indicate that the Willows fault is far more extensive and complex than previously thought and that Tertiary deposits in the Foothills are in motion. The first clue that the Willows fault branched into a multistrand fault system was provided by an analysis of seismicity of the northern valley and Sierra foothills after the Oroville earthquake. USGS (in 1978) located a number of small-magnitude earthquakes along a zone that originated near the Marathon “Capital Company No. 1” well in the Willows-Beehive Bend gas field and extended north, rather than following the northwest trend of the Willows fault. A slew of seismic events suggested that a north-trending fault splayed off from the main stem of the Willows fault and passed west of the Corning domes.
On the east side of the valley, Upper Cretaceous sandstone and shale rest uncomfortably on metamorphic and plutonic rocks of the Sierra Nevada.
These bed companions are not made any more comfortable by the instability of the great seismic rift which stretches from Mariposa (Yosemite) in the south to Chico and Cottonwood, just S of Redding, in the north. The bedrock first went through onset of marine sedimentation (W to E) in the late Mesozoic era, and through intermittent periods of uplift and subduction the sand and shale—along with their mountain bedfellows—tilted to south and west. In late Cretaceous the reverse occurred and the sand/shale deposits slid westwards—’marine regression’ (E to W).
During these upheaval and subsidence cycles, four submarine canyons developed—cut and then filled, rifting and then flooded with sediment. Where they meet, near Sutter Butte cinder cone, above, movement both east and west continues.
Riverbank Collapse on Dam Shutdown Leaves Salmon Floundering
Riverbank collapse after dam spillway shut off March 3, 2017 leaving salmon hatcheries & farmers floundering
In the Corning gas fields, analysis of well records by the Sacramento Petroleum Association (1962) showed an anticlinal fold in the area of the Corning domes, with about 121m of maximum closure on the base of the Tehama Formation in the north dome and a steeply dipping southeast-trending fault located at the north end of south Corning dome, but it did not identify a fault west of them.
California Geological Survey
With a new gap in the main spillway now stretching like a fifteen-lane freeway across the cement foundation, immediate closure of Oroville Dam was announced this week. Such a drastic move is in part attributed to safety of those displaced valley residents who have since been allowed to return to their homes and orchards.
Oakdale Heights school children release Chinook hatchlings into Feather River last fall
Salmon young and riverine residents are now without a river bed, as most of the banks have collapsed. Almond, peach orchards and fruit farms, dependent on a seasonal flow of water, were unprepared for such extreme measures, their irrigation systems now high and dry. Salmon fingerlings and immature Chinook die in stranded pools, life-expectancy zero.
Children from Oakdale Heights school, above left, releasing babies last fall into the river, expected their hatchlings to have at least a one-percent chance of survival, on their return from the ocean, are now dismayed by the zero percent outcome for the salmon after dam failure.
Governor Jerry Brown has pledged financial help for storm-affected communities, but the state of California has already unmet infrastructure costs of $187 billion, not including roads. While $2.7 billion has been approved [Prop.1, 2014] for new water storage, that doesn’t cover old dams.
Remembering the warning of seismologists Reichle and Dengler, above, against any sudden changes in water body movement—which can trigger volcanic fault movement—we await the outcome of the shutdown decision with anxiety. It’s not only the salmon spelt, rescued manually from puddles, it’s the water supply for most of the Great Valley.
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.
2015 hottest & most active on record. Can we take it? Or will we break it?
Last December’s climate conference in Paris set a goal—agreed on by the Earth’s most powerful mid-East, West and Southern nations—to hold our combined increase in the global average temperature to two degrees Centigrade (2ºC) /Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—above pre-industrial levels.
Now February 2016 has already reached world temperature limit, see below.
Climate-speak—no time for fairytale flowery language: do or die
If we continue at the rate we’ve been going, NASA’s climatology computer model shows dramatic swings happening in world temperature, volcanic activity, and rainfall—not in twenty years, but in two.
As the predicted temperatures rise, the same group of scientists admit that ‘model uncertainty’ grows: that means it becomes increasingly more likely that we will experience “unforeseen, often disastrous” events. Hurricane Katrina? Just a fond memory.
It’s doubtful we’ll hold the line at two degrees Centigrade, but we need to give it our best shot. With anything that exceeds that target, we’re talking about enormous changes in global precipitation and temperature patterns, huge impacts on water and food security, and significant sea level rise
NASA Goddard Climatologist P.Sellers
2015 hottest, wettest, & most active on record. Can we take it? Or will we break it? The Earth, that is.
Climate Summit—The Science View: We Submit—or Else
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions—”by 2050″ or a similar approximation is no longer acceptable. We are being asked to step up and be counted—to right some of the wrong we are/have been doing—and mend our ways.
Bite the Bullet or Die
We outgrew killing whales. Maybe now we can stop killing ancient redwood groves
‘I believe future generations will look back on 2015 as an important but not decisive year in the struggle to align politics and policy, with science. This is an incredibly hard thing to do. On the science side, there has been a steady accumulation of evidence over 15 years, that climate change is real’
Piers Sellers, NASA physicist/climatologist 1/17/16
Upper limit 2ºC or 3.6ºF
Piers is convinced that if we continue unabated on this trajectory—i.e. make promises and do nothing—we could lead ourselves into a very uncomfortable, even dangerous, place.
Climate Ceiling Reached
The hottest on record is no joke in NASA and NOAA kingdoms. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Goddard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration take their newest computer science statistics seriously.
Tropospheric-stratospheric effects, exaggerated in El Niño years, produce increasing warm/wet summers
In perfect (space) timing, January 17th was launch date for Jason-3, the Space people’s answer to their weather-prediction prayers.
For this beauty*, NASA and NOAA cooperated with the French space agency to get their baby strategically placed in orbit—understandably—to monitor North American shores—impacting both Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Their data will also serve wider world systems on other shores.
Jason-3 adds to a twenty-three-year satellite monitoring of global sea surface maximum height levels—a measurement with scientific, commercial and practical applications related to climate change. It is essentially a record of world currents and weather. Jason-3 data will be used for monitoring global sea level rise, researching human impacts on oceans, aiding prediction of hurricane intensity, and has marine navigation capability.
Its initial 2016 mission—is planned to last a minimum of three years.
*Sadly the Falcon-9 rocket, planned after re-entry to be recycled in the best Space Shuttle tradition, failed to land on its target—an unmanned platform in the Pacific—exploded and destroyed the platform. Oh well, another $1million down the tubes. Back to the drawing board for Vandenberg air base buffs.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…
After Trinity National Forest fires devastated half a county, natural regrowth has been encouraged
What can we back on Earth do?
Instead of multiple repetitive wars among ourselves, it’s been suggested we combine our intelligence for a war on emissions.
Early 2016 has been a hard year for Earth-First proponents, particularly in the Pacific NorthWest where the lungs of the planet—the Giant Redwoods, Bristlecone Pine and Douglas Fir—reside. This ‘carbon storage unit’ of age-old trees has been functioning well until quite recently. Then some of the lumber companies—instead of respecting the tradition of replant, restore, regenerate—succumbed to the old dollar bribe:
success in any industry, it seems, is measured by the bottom line of the balance sheet.
Local so-called environmentally-friendly forestry interests—some calling themselves ‘Resource’ companies—have, over a generation, acquired tens of thousands of acres of ancient trees illegally from original California settlers, and are systematically felling them in the name of ‘harvest’.
CLEAR-FELLING OUR WAY TO OBLIVION
Pictish Calgacus leads 30,000 Caledonians into battle with Romans at Mons Graupius, modern Aberdeenshire, AD83, where 10,000 Caledonians died
The Caledonian Forest in Scotland is a prime example of successive raiders, decimating or razing to the ground every living thing—in the name of war—or progress. Sadly, while we may have learned how, we seem unable to implement our new knowledge: that wildlife—especially tree forms—maintain a balance which we humans have difficulty grasping: that our life on Earth would be a devastation—a vast wilderness—if we were to continue, to run amok, clear-felling our way to oblivion.
It happened to the precursor of the Sahara Desert. Now Namibia. And it’s occurring all over Brazil. More shocking, it’s happening in our own backyard—in the midst of the most-politically-correct university community in North America. And we seem blind to the signs, the gradual erosion of what was once a flourishing planetary breathing system—healthy ancient trees.
Our attitude to forests—their vibrancy, and consequently our own continuing existence—seems faulty.
In Europe during both world wars, all participating countries felled trees to build with, and to burn—as part of the ‘war effort’.
France decimated the Alsace region and felled throughout the Loire valley, regardless of ‘aspect’—the term used in gardens of great houses, when meshing planting with a pleasant view. In Germany—while many southern forests were left untouched—e.g. Schwarzwald, Poland, Eastern bloc, northern trees suffered in an endless drive for more war fuel.
Hill of Barra, Aberdeenshire, showing rear route taken by Bruce’s troops to quell local Comyn opposition, 1308
Scotland suffered heavily. Deterred from obliterating millennium-old giant yews in their own home counties, the English pounced on (what was left of) the Caledonian Forest in Aberdeenshire, Kincardine and Forfar, and finished off what raiders had begun centuries before.
Most ‘recently’, Robert the Bruce, self-crowned king of Scots, began his march a.k.a. tree-burning at the Battle of Barra, 1308, in central Aberdeenshire and burned his army’s route thirty miles to the North Coast. The Caledonian forest—pine in particular—never recovered.
The Caledonian Forest had only just revived after Roman burning!
North Britain Conquest and Retreat
Regenerating the Caledonian Forest—author with Tacitus’ Mons Graupius in background
In November of AD83, as winter began its icy grip, Roman general Agricola pushed for one more battle in North Britain, before retiring to the comfort of Rome. It is said he took the Caledonians by surprise, but it is more likely Roman foot soldiers had more leverage on steep mountain terrain than the antiquated wooden chariots of the Picts. Rallied by the piercing cry of their battle-horn, the fearsome gold boar-headed carnyx, thirty thousand Caledonians gathered on the slopes of Bennachie. Ten thousand bodies were left dead after the battle.
In plain below Bennachie-Mons Graupius, 5thC Pictish Picardy Stone shows Caledonian lineage
Solitudinem faciunt Pacem appellant
They create a Wilderness and call it Peace—Calgacus exhorting his Caledonian tribes to battle at Mons Graupius
Tacitus could not possibly have known what Calgacus said to his troops before the battle of Mons Graupius—GRAMPIAN mountain range in Aberdeenshire—even the Chieftain’s name fails to appear in any Kinglist. Yet this one particular phrase from his speech has a genuine feel about it, as if Tacitus had heard it himself from the lips of captured Pictish warriors, and was moved to write it down. Publius Cornelius Tacitus’s job on the march was that of recording the exploits of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD40-93), on the British campaign. They returned to Rome long before the snows took hold, leaving devastation behind.
Heartland of the Caledonian Forest—Aberdeenshire—was historically hit hardest. Unlike Westcoast Scotland, soil and climate here are receptive, rich and varied. The balmy Gulf Stream circles the Orkneys and Ultima Thule and then streams towards these ‘lowland’ hills, bringing balanced seasons to an already rich environment.
Climate, soil and people are more fertile/kindly than in rocky west coast ravines. Caledonian Scots pine, pinus sylvestris thrives. So does farming.
19thC tree-felling was kinder on California Redwoods, leaving more natural gaps for regeneration
When the Romans burned their way north, they were looking for gold. They found rebellious tribes and left them for dead, along with their forests. Robert the Bruce, in the summers of 1308-1310, burned the hunting (pine) forests of his rival for the throne, Comyn Earl of Buchan, and left nothing behind.
Two world wars finished off what was left of minimal remaining Caledonian pine stands.
Now, centuries on, Scotland’s Forestry Commission helps smallholders and landowners to replant oases of indigenous forest—pine, birch, oak and hazel—with maintenance grants to keep them sheep-and-deer-free—not an easy task in what are now (2000 years later) rich agricultural rolling meadows.
Other private agencies—like Trees for Life Scotland—have initiated their own planting programs, restoring pine, birch and aspen in deer-free ‘exclosures’, to encourage regeneration of natural understorey. Pine marten, snowy owl, crossbill, goldfinch and crested tit have all returned to such reclaimed woodland.
Biomass—Use or Abuse of Alternative Fuel
Trinidad Pier in whaler days, now a Northern Humboldt fishing village and resort
Controversially, Humboldt State University—seen by many academic institutions as a forerunner of enlightened attitude to use of technology within the natural environment—has mistakenly taken up the cudgel of biomass—as a back-door entry into the thorny climate problem. Unfortunately, their research has not been completely transparent and investigation reveals ‘substantial’ funding from forestry interests which are not impartial to the outcome of the University’s plan.
Biomass, seen as waste from a single campfire, may be relatively harmless to our atmosphere. Big business biomass, however—the University declares it will run its whole energy program on biomass fuel, instead of conventional statewide power sources—comprises woodland waste: milling detritus, forest-floor leftovers, mixed in a suitably nice cocktail of machine oil, sawdust sweepings, with an occasional drop of diesel—to go.
Local Earth-First activist group Climate Crisis Humboldt spoke in forum last week with HSU Senate, suggesting they reconsider their plan, and deliberation is underway within the hallowed halls.
The Humboldt climate group’s cry has not gone unheard. They are supported by European and international interests, embodied in Friends of the Earth, who are pushing for cancellation from the (higher—U.S.) Senate!
There is hope—if the state’s most northern university changes, the rest of California’s campuses will follow their lead. There is already considerable antipathy in the county towards the underhanded way in which funding from a local forestry giant has been offered as bait.
After it was pointed out to them that more carbon is stored by older/larger trees, than by acres of smaller young saplings, the company’s tree-felling operations have been temporarily halted by popular demand.
Global Temperatures Already Rising
Now statistics for February 2016 already show a marked upward trend, with unprecedented temperatures in both hemispheres.
February 2016 global temperatures already reached top limit
As March brings spring growth, the climate question will come up again and again. Earth Day—April 20th—celebrating John Muir‘s birthday and his “wilderness America”—is targeted by tree sitters, EarthFirsters and volunteer forest guardians in Pacific NorthWest, in their march for the trees.
Earth Mother is indeed listening to our cries this spring. And if we choose to mend our ways, she might even forgive us and bring back her beauty—or her Beast.
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.
It is essentially a record of world currents and weather. Jason-3 data will be used for monitoring global sea level rise, researching human impacts on oceans, aiding prediction of hurricane intensity, and has marine navigation capability. 
Siderealview's Blog 
Recent Comments