Maebius Musings

I’ve hesitated to keep this entry private, or post it for commentary, because it’s a bit more personal and still feels a bit scary for me.  Paradigm shifts are tough.     Forgive any rambling uncoordinated phrasing and paragraph structure. I’ve re-written it twice now since last Tuesday…    It’s a wall of text.

I’ve always loved fire circles.  Sitting around a campfire,whether roasting marshmallows with friends and family, or drumming and dancing for alchemical transformation, are soothing and soul-healing events in any flavour. Continue Reading »

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As a followup to this post, I’d like to describe a bit of the awesome magical experiences that were, well, experienced there.

First, let me just say that the Four Quarter Farm is one of the nicest places I’ve ever attended a festival, both mundane or pagan-friendly.  It’s a bit hilly, and my legs were a bit put off by the walking on Friday, but it was a good kind of sore. Continue Reading »

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I hope Hrafnkell Haraldsson does not mind me cross-linking his blog, but it is a wonderful read.

One of my own favorite parts of my studies to become a minister of my Lutheran church, was the deeper bible-studies through a scholarly lens, rather than the somewhat more important Religious lens.  I was lucky enough that my mentors wereopen minded, and understood the bible could betaken as fact, or as Myth, and challenged us to find our own perspective on it.

This, coincidentally, is what eventually led me away from direct adherence to a Lutheran themed Christianity, to a more polytheistic framework of spirituality.  To me, God exists, in all His glory, just like Allah and Kali, and the artist formerly known as Prince. ;P

So, it is without insult to the Good Book, that I enjoy these more intellectual trips down cross-reference lane.  It’s only be seeing the work honestly, that we can draw inspiration, or revulsion, or any deeper Meaning and Emotion to it. I personally see the stories in the Bible as historical Myth. There’s plenty of good life-lessons included if you don’t take things too literally. Others may disagree. I’m fine with that, and welcome your comments!

First, a comparison of Paul and certain details found in the book of Acts.

http://alheithinn.blogspot.com/2009/07/paul-vs-acts-of-apostles.html

Next, his Big List of Bible Contradictions.

http://alheithinn.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-big-list-of-bible-contradictions.html

Enjoy!

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We just returned from a weekend at Four Quarter Farm, as regular readers of this blog have already known, so I won’t keep re-linking the page.   Suffice it to say it was, by far, the best festival experience we had ever attended.  Seriously.

For this post, I’ll stick to the mundane summary.  Further details and some pictures to follow once I get a bit more free time to dump the camera and blur out any necessary faces and such (we had permission to take photos of the group events, but some people didn’t want their faces on public forums, so I need to edit images slightly before uploading).

We left the house on Friday morning just before 4am and drove to pick up our friend Nettle at the Harrisburg train station, arriving just after 9am.  Made it to 4QF a little bit before noon, and setup the camp, tend and kitchen pavilion.

Friday, we mostly just hung around touring the place, swimming in the swimming hole (awesome!), grilling hot dogs for lunch, and making more finalized plans for what things to do on Saturday, then a steak feast from the grill for dinner.  The area we camped had a giant swing setup between two trees, that was continually occupied by kids or families, and hte shower house was a very short walk to the opposite side of the little circle we camped at.  All very nice and local, with the main area of merchants and stone circle a short climb uphill to those areas.

Friday night, we slept the deep sleep of the relaxed and over-tired in our tent. 

Saturday, we shopped a bit, met some new friends (Sprogling particularly enjoyed meeting Yellow Bear, who was an awesome grinning 2yr old still learning to talk, and had a totally Kodak-moment with the two of them holding hands and running off to some adventure while his mother and I chatted our introductions) and just enjoyed the festivities.

My wife and our friend Nettle went to do their own things for Saturday afternoon while the kid and I did some kids workshops and jsut wandered around swimming/playing.  We both painted a dragon scale for the evening’s Chinese “Dream Dragon”, and generally hung out at the poi/hula-hoop stand for about two hours playing with the toys and other kids who accumulated in that field.

Later, I attended one of the workshops with Nettle, and then we all ate dinner, the two women went and did some more stuff together, and then it was evening.    The kid and I wandered up to the top of the hill for the evening festivities, which included all the kids helping carry the Dream Dragon, or large puppets or decorated poles for a parade.

Following the parade was fireworks (Literally! the last group of the parade was slinging firecrackers and sparklers) which were pretty nice.  I’ve seen some small-town displays that didn’t quite get as impressive as these, which was a nice surprise.

Then, after the fireworks, we met up with “mom” again and the kid went back to the tent very sleepy and content.

Darkness brought another round of awesome drumming from the fire circle, which I joined until about 4am the next morning.  Whoo!

Sunday, we basically woke up, ate breakfast, and started the process of breaking camp.   There was much crying from numerous kids across camp, whcih I suppose is a good sign that things were fun for them too.

We left around 2-ish, bought 10 bottles of wine from the local on-site vintner, and dropped our friend back at the train station, then turned north for home.   We arrived back to Everthorn Farm around 10:30 pm.    Long weekend, but totally worth it.

So, more deeply pondering posts will be made.  There was a lot to integrate from this weekend.  but they will have to wait until I get a bit more sleep, and job-work lets me collect my thoughts. 

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A new trend here I think I’ll start, which is to include some semi-random songs that offer fuel for pondering.    I’ll include a little blurb, but am mostly just going to let the song speak (or sing) for itself.   I’ve also pre-posted five of these now, so they should show up each Monday, regardless of what else I post here.  Enjoy!

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First, we have a favorite “muse-worthy” song, by Joan Osborne: One of Us.

Lyrical snippet: If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that
you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
and all the prophets

So, I ask you humble readers, would you want to see God/Goddess manifest and visible without a shadow of a doubt, standing before you? Myself, I almost would not, but in a way I would.

I would, obviously, because on some level all this spiritual searching leads one to a profound belief in the reality of the Divine.    I would not, mostly because such a revelation would crumble a particular part of my worldview, and rather profoundly change the way I feel about my workplace and Reality as I know it. (if that’s not vague enough!).

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Just testing a new widget I got which actually fixes the ability to embed YouTube and other video files in this blog.

As summer rolls on, remember to Dream carefree, and embrace the wonder of life.

That’s my goal for this July 4th.   To celebrate the freedoms we have in this country, reardless of it’s failings.

We are all immigrants here, all radical activists, and all different.    Celebrate it.  The best things are free, but free doesn’t always mean easy.

I am off to pack and prepare for Drum and Splash.  See you back online monday!

If you want more of my qwirky musical tastes,  here’s My Library on Last.FM   I’d recommend skipping ahead to random tracks, if you don’t like the one it loads.  I have a  pretty eclectic mix!    Enjoy!

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