The Great War (not so great in my humble opinion) has been an ongoing part of my study into the tale of the tribe, pivoting on the poetry and prose of Ezra Pound and James Joyce, who both lived through WW1, and who both lost friends.
I understand, and respect why we have a period of silence in memory of those fallen, but i fail to understand why so few of the silent care to engage in the search for the main causes of war, or pay much attention to those who are brave enough to go there, into the complexity of the deep politics of war. To exhibit constructive criticism of authority, the industrial political economic war machine, those who make the guns and bombs and bullets, and sell them. And the apathy of the public, the sleeping masses who seem hoodwinked into supporting this monstrous killing machine in the name of patriotism. Or at least, not yet motivated to stand proud and say I AM AGAINST WAR, ALL WAR. And in saying that, imply a favour for life over death, compassion and sympathy, not hate and retribution.
I favour an interconnected global network of co-operative humanity, not annexed and isolated sovereign states fighting over material wealth, atoms, oil and arms. Like weasels fighting in a hole, as Willy Yeats described war.
Maybe…lets remember all our ancestors, ALL of them, and their struggles in a life lived against all the odds to bring us here. Stop the wars for our futures present sake. Stop the arms dealers. Or perhaps sign a petition, or star speaking out against the trident nuclear submarine plans? “Its a pity that ALL nations couldn’t be defeated”–Ezra Pound, letter to James Joyce concerning the slaughter of WW1
A memorable line lifted from the Roman poet Horace, and used by the British Poet Winifred Owen: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” sounds to me, today, like the mantra of a maniac suicide bomber. What do you think? “1,2,3,4 what are we fighting for?”–Country Joe. As Ez wrote: the youth of WW1 have died “For an old bitch gone in the teeth, / For a botched civilization, / … / For two gross of broken statues, / For a few thousand battered books.” Peace means peace. Man! Look into the causes of war to oppose escalations of war. And yes, make room to honor the dead, all of them on all sides, love all the people. There is a time for silence and a time to speak. I suspect we could do with some more strong anti-war voices, poets, artists and perhaps a politician or two? with a basis in humanitarian principles, no fear, and a whole lot of luck. Fear leads to hate, as Yoda said. Yes mate. Steve Fly
“As you decide on the hue of the tone, visual elements melt and evolve before your eyes; you are traveling through the song you are weaving, or you are painting a picture using complex and beautiful noises. The visuals offer just enough familiar hooks that you always feel essentially like you are looking at a world, a place. There is the suggestion of a storm over the ocean, clouds trumpeting and congesting together. Colored streamers in a garden, or perhaps they are little red fish playing over a pond. It is more than “making music” or “creating your own song”, as you experiment with the intensity of different sonic elements. At times it defies description—I reach for words to try to describe the Panoramical “levels” I played, and there are none. Is “played” the right word, or did I “make” or “find” instead?–http://boingboing.net/2015/09/18/panoramical-will-change-the-wa.html
I reach for words to try to describe the Panoramical “levels” I played, and there are none.
Reading page 132, of ‘stranger than we can imagine’ by John Higgs, posted to me by Bogus Magus (Toby Philpott), only 10 minutes ago, i had a visitation experience. Probably the closest i have come yet. Let me try to explain.
Page 132, begins with‘…was more than just a story of nuts-and-bolts physical space travel. As the slogan of the 1990s television series ‘The X-Files’ put it, ‘i want to believe. Jung was not interested in the question of whether UFOs were ‘real’ or not. He wanted to know what their sudden appearance said about the late twentieth century…’ and he goes on ‘Whether a witness reported meeting fairies, angels, demons or gods depended on which of those labels their culture found most plausible.’—John Higgs, Pg. 132. Chapter 7: Science Fiction. Stranger Than We Can Imagine. 2015.
While i sit reading these words above, a dragonfly buzzes up real close to my head, darts around my back. Stops, hovers, then lands on me right near the top of my arm. I glance down and to my right, and stare into the incredible, green and cream eyes of this mini-miracle of nature. I begin to feel slightly awkward by the unblinking gaze, i notice tiny muscles in its face, and again the eyes looking, seemingly at my facial features. The dragonfly sits for maybe 90 seconds, as i sneak-a-peek back to the text, and again back at the flying insect.
Perfectly still, all four wings begin shooting a assortment of coloured photons into my head. Sapphire and emerald jewels, there at the lower limits of my visual perception, and like indras-net, each jewel hangs from a beautiful webbed lattice of wing-tensigrity, pretty much beyond all meaningful description.
And when i went back to pick up the text again, after it finally launched itself and spiralled off over the hedge, i thought to myself; umm, perhaps this could be a real visitation experience from a UFO, at least i feel it certainly visited me, and i’ve little knowledge about Dragonflies, and how to distinguish them from say, a horsefly, or maybe it was another species of flying insect?
And so i went on to think that maybe this dragonfly here acts like the perfect symbol for a modern day angel, god, demon, fairy, UFO? in fact, to be honest, to my own mind, it would be all of these things and more due to the context of the book i was reading, coincidently at that very moment.
Now what might have been a not so meaningful first encounter with a dragonfly, up that close, becomes a jump of point, an intersection point where synchronicity, and the real time waking processing of this reader, sitting in a garden near Bristol, England, intertwine, bootstrap and go all…epiphany on me…illuminated detail, pish: just like that. Now, what does the dragonfly symbolise to me, and to culture at large, maybe i should look to Jung first. Makes sense to me.
So…i researched some interesting dragonfly data, and compiled some short quotes that were meaningful to me (below) Two facts jumped out at me, first i used the word ‘darting’, and ‘sapphire’ to describe the dragonfly, above, and it turns out Japanese poet Basho, and English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, also used those words to describe a dragonfly.
The scientific details about the reproduction, visual cortex, feeding habits and speciation of dragonflies boggles the mind, they do indeed seem very alien and ancient when compared with us, the domesticated primates. Most of this information is rather occult, i know of only one person who studies dragonflies, in the context of photography, and doubt that most of these details concerning my sudden interest in them today, would interest him much.
Yet, on further meditation i recalled my other previous encounters with dragonflies, but not as right up close as todays visit. In Flevo’ park, Amsterdam, i saw some dragonflies mating on a fallen tree, from the recent storm there, and managed to take some pictures. About 30 minutes afterwards, beside the Flevo lake, i managed to capture video and pictures of a dragonfly, buzzing us and seemingly patrolling the lakeside. (see media section below)
On another occasion, while swimming in the Flevo lake itself, i got pretty close up with a dragonfly, which, was captured on film too. So coming to think about it, i re-suppose that i have a few documented encounters of the dragonfly kind. But what does this tell us about our culture today? maybe its something to do with the dragonfly having a symbolic link to water, or skimming over it, and that the Native American Hopi Indians perform a Dragonfly song to warn men of danger, which features their word for water: tsee, tsee, tsee? According to information displayed at the website: www.scalar.usc.edu
I found the details of Dragonfly flight, together with the various categories and descriptions fascinating, and probably have a direct bearing on proposed advanced UFO technology, if agility, vision and camouflage are important. So study the dragonfly, the four types of flight, the physical and mathematical forces, counter-forces etc. All humankind might benefit from this, and yet, this miniature miracle could also be used for bad. Misused by defence aerospace companies, drone and missile businesses and more, to deliver death and destruction, or simply just watch and observe the prey, sending all images back to skynet.
Furthermore, i was talking to a friend in the garden about the producer ‘Youth’ 3 mins before the dragonfly landed on me. This has some relation to our story here, as John Higgs, the author of the text that triggered this blog, also wrote and brilliant piece about ‘Youth’, the guy who founded Dragonfly records. Youth also played on, and produced Beatnik Youth, an album together with my bandmate John Sinclair (this author plays drums on three cuts from the album)
In conclusion, or something resembling an answer to my initial question, how would a dragonfly help us make sense of the world today, what can it teach us? well, here goes:
Cherish your waters. Skim across the surface of id, and dive deep down into the larvae of the unconscious. Develop alternative flight paths, of speech, look through the illusion, live life to the fullest. Help save our wetlands. End the use of chemical fertiliser and stop the pollution of natural lakes, marshes, rivers, waterfalls and woodlands. Embrace transformation. Fly.
Check out the new book by John Higgs, and see what kind of visitations you have. let me know if anything comes up. Cheers.
Defending a breeding territory is fairly common among male dragonflies, especially among species that congregate around ponds in large numbers.
Most of a dragonfly’s life is spent as a nymph, beneath the water’s surface. The nymph extends its labium (a toothed mouthpart) to catch animals such as mosquito larvae, tadpoles and small fish.[39] They breathe through gills in their rectum, and can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus.
They have four different styles of flight:[46] A number of flying modes are used that include counter-stroking, with forewings beating 180 degrees out of phase with the hindwings, is used for hovering and slow flight.
In high-speed territorial battles between male Australian emperorsHemianax papuensis, the fighting dragonflies adjust their flight paths to appear stationary to their rivals, minimizing the chance of being detected as they approach.
Dragonflies can fly at 100 body-lengths per second, and 3 lengths per second backwards
They are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating a wide variety of insects ranging from small midges and mosquitoes to butterflies, moths, damselflies and smaller dragonflies.
With the destruction of rainforest habitats, many of these species are in danger of becoming extinct before they have even been named.
For some Native American tribes, dragonflies represent swiftness and activity; for the Navajo they symbolize pure water. They are a common motif in Zuni pottery; stylized as a double-barred cross, they appear in Hopi rock art and on Pueblonecklaces.
Douglas, a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Bristol, named its innovatively designed postwar 350cc flat twin model the Dragonfly.
As a seasonal symbol in Japan, the dragonfly is associated with autumn.[79] More generally, dragonflies are symbols of courage, strength, and happiness, and they often appear in art and literature, especially haiku. Japanese children catch large dragonflies as a game, using a hair with a small pebble tied to each end, which they throw into the air.
The poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) wrote haiku such as “Crimson pepper pod / add two pairs of wings, and look / darting dragonfly”, relating the autumn season to the dragonfly.[88]Hori Bakusui (1718-1783) similarly wrote “Dyed he is with the / Colour of autumnal days, / O red dragonfly.”
The poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson described a dragonfly splitting its old skin and emerging shining metallic blue like “sapphiremail” in his 1842 poem “The Two Voices”, with the lines “An inner impulse rent the veil / Of his old husk: from head to tail / Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.”
‘Dragonflies, or damselflies, were connected to Freya the Norse goddess of love, fertility and warfare. Freya was famous for her beauty and her knowledge as a magician. It was she who taught Odin the shamanic practices known as seidr which were still practiced during Christian times. The paired bodies of mating dragonflies form the shape of a heart, perhaps being the source for that modern symbol of love. In ancient lore, the dragonfly represents transformation, adaptation and insight.’–http://www.crystalinks.com/dragonfly.html
Robert Anton Wilson’s estate is dumping New Falcon as the publisher of most of RAW’s books, and instead is launching its own publishing imprint, Hilaritas Press.
Here is the official word from Richard Rasa, projects coordinator for the Robert Anton Wilson estate. (I wrote to Mr. Rasa earlier this week, after I noticed that all of RAW’s books have vanished from the New Falcon website).
In terms of RAW Trust matters, this is good news. We didn’t want to announce anything before we were more prepared, but I think an explanation is due. Bob and now Christina have fought with New Falcon over many issues over the years. Bob often spoke about how he would have loved to have had another publishing opportunity. He especially wanted the profits from his writing to help his children, and I heard him complain more than once about how New Falcon offered no such possibility. This became even more true with the changes in New Falcon since Alan Miller “left” the publishing house to his son Michael. Google “Michael Miller arrest”, if you haven’t already. We’ve been preparing for months and are close to being ready to launch The RAW Trust’s new publishing house, Hilaritas Press. We will be republishing all of New Falcon’s RAW books. We’re meticulously editing the books for typos and other mistakes, and then reformatting for eBook and Print publications. It’s a huge job, and so we are planning on releasing the books as each is done. At the moment we are nearing completion of Cosmic Trigger I, Prometheus Rising, and Quantum Psychology. We’re still working on a few new prefaces, and new covers. Still no clear launch date, as we keep tweaking, but we’ll let you know. Check out the temporary landing page for Hilaritas Press: http://www.hilaritaspress.com Only a few people know about this change, and we’ve been keeping it quiet while issues were being settled, but most of the legal issues have been resolved, and so there’s no reason that rumors can’t start. Amor illuminatio hilaritas et pasta volans! Rasa A couple of notes: I wrote about Michael Miller’s arrest last November; I could not find an update when I ran a couple of quick searches. New Falcon has been RAW’s publisher for just about everything except Illuminatus! and Schroedinger’s Cat. There was a schism that I don’t know much about after Christopher Hyatt died, resulting in a split and two book publishing companies, New Falcon and Original Falcon.
A teaser from my full audio interview with Dr Robert Anton Wilson, recorded at his humble home in Capitola/Live Oak/Santa Cruz, California (looking out over the Monterey Bay).
This recording was rediscovered in a jumble-bunch of mini discs–if you can remember that flash-in-the-pan format–only last week. I made my first round of rough chapter edits, and here is part 6 out of 32.
BBC Radio 3, Sunday, 20 Jul 2008, 21:30. “To mark 2008’s 50th anniversary of his release, historian Sean Street investigates how Ezra Pound, one of the 20th century’s most important poets, was accused of treason by the US Government and held for years in a mental hospital after he made a series of anti-American and anti-Semitic broadcasts in Italy. The programme investigates the significance of the case today, asking whether he committed treason or inconveniently used his right to free speech. With contributions from Pound’s daughter Mary de Rachewiltz, his biographer David Moody and the playwright Bernard Kops, who wrote a play about Pound, in order to find out how we should view the complex and controversial poet.”
DEEP SCRATCH 