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By Jaguar
This mother-to-be stuff is really quite peculiar. My body has taken over in a way I never thought possible. It seems to know what it needs to do, which is a good thing, because I'd hate to be in charge of turning on and off all those genes, in the right sequence, in the right way, at the right time. They told me that my hair would grow faster than it ever had before. They didnt tell me that I'd grow more of it in more places - I now have a furry belly. Appropriate for my totem, but a bit disconcerting for me. I recently went on a business trip where I was presenting a paper. Two hours before I was supposed to talk, the baby got its first case of hiccups. It felt sort of like when I get the hiccups, except that holding my breath had no effect whatsoever. His (yes, his) latest passion is practicing his karate kicks in the direction of my kidneys, and grabbing a corner of my liver and pulling. He also yanks the umbilical cord. While I am certainly glad that he is having a nice time, I dont think this is a very nice way for a guest to treat his hostess. One of these days we may have to have a little talk about Celtic hospitality and the appropriate behavior of guests!
By Fox
As our membership continues to grow by leaps and bounds I have realized that many of our newer members may be confused about the numerous activities and subgroups within the Grove. To remedy this situation we are in the process of writing a guide for new members to orient them to our ever expanding tribe and its activities. The following article is intended to explain one of our subgroups called An Bruane to help with this situation until the guide is published.
In the late winter of 1995 I began to feel that the spiritual growth of the Grove was starting to stagnate. We had conducted public High Day rites for a full turn of the wheel and it was beginning to feel routine. The High Days have proven to be a wonderful opportunity for the community to gather in celebration but I havent felt that they do much to bring Druidism into everyday life. I began to search for some way for us to deepen our spiritual experience and foster stronger contacts with the world around us. With these thoughts in mind I started the group called An Bruane.
An Bruane is an Irish Gaelic phrase that is translated as "The Fireseed". Its meaning is rooted in our ancestors' tradition of extinguishing all of the fires in the village twice per year, on the eves of Beltaine and Samhain. At dusk on these days the druids of the village would kindle a new fire, creating the first spark using a bow drill as we do today.
That tiny flame, kindled by skill in the light of the setting sun and coaxed into a roaring blaze, marked the beginning of the new season. Sacred woods were offered to consecrate the fire and it was tended through the night. The fire accepted offerings from the villagers in rites the next day and maintain the contacts between the folk and the surrounding spirits. When the celebrations came to an end each house- holder carried an ember from this sacred fire home where it was protected and sustained as a continuous spiritual presence in the hearths of the home. Eventually that first sacred fire, the source of the fires of the tribe, became known as "The Fireseed".
The selection of the name for this group was very deliberate. My vision is that An Bruane will become the spark of a spiritual revitalization of Druidism that will spread far beyond the boundaries of our sacred land. This spiritual fire will grow and unite with the tribal fires of other people. It will spread around the globe to bring great change as millions turn back to the spirit ways of the earth. As grand and ambitious as that sounds we have already seen strong indications that we are being divinely guided in our workings and that this dream will eventually manifest.
Since its inception the group has radically changed the spiritual life of the Grove. Our faith has become deeply connected to the land on which we live and a number of us have had profound religious experiences as the result of this work. An Bruane has been responsible for the initial contact with all of the Grove's Deities and has created a wealth of lore and magical practices that are being used to strengthen these bonds. We have expanded Druidism far beyond the public rites and have begun to transform it into a living and deeply personal faith.
We have only started on this long journey and only the Gods know when we will rest. We have plans for more workings than we have time to complete and new inspirations come to us at a furious pace. Due to urging and interest from individuals outside of our Grove I have begun writing a book which will hopefully make our evolving faith accessible to solitary seekers and other groups around the world.
Druidism has long been a vehicle for very impressive scholarship on the practices and lore of our ancestors. However, I feel that it has often fallen short in the practical application of this knowledge. We are striving to help fill this gap by acting as a kind of spiritual laboratory where the results of research, by myself and others, are brought to life.
A few examples of our workings from the past year are: the annual dawn rite to the Goddess Ana at the source of the Huron River; the consecration and empowerment of the Grove's bow-drill by the God Bel; a visionary exploration of our tribe's sacred tree; the Samhain trance ritual for contact with the ancestors; the work with trance techniques for induction of visions and contact with the God Mannanan; the work done to recover the tale of Ana's creation; the work to contact our tribal patron God Lugh; the rite of sacred marriage of Lugh to the Goddess of our land; and the rite to contact our tribal Hearth Goddess Brid.
Our plans for the future include the creation of a number of healing rites, the search for the navel stone at the heart of the land; a quest for contact with our fertility God; the creation of a Grove funeral rite; and the creation of an inner initiation for those drawn to a lifelong commitment of service to the Gods and our people.
An Bruane is open to all members of the Grove and I encourage all of you who are interested in this type of spiritual work to join us in the adventure. Each month we gather to explore new rites and magical techniques. The vast majority of this work is conducted in the forest at various points on the land so come prepared for whatever the weather may bring!
By Marae Price
At this year's Spring Equinox ritual, I was installed as Grove Ecologist. My duties are twofold: first to bring to the Grove's awareness ecological issues affecting the Huron River watershed, and to help coordinate Grove-sponsored ecological actions; and second to help build appreciation for the natural history and ecology of the area through writings, presentations, workshops and recreational activities.
I believe most if not all of us in the Grove have felt for a long time that this position was needed. I have been aware of the need since I joined the Grove over a year ago. I have volunteered because I don't feel we can neglect this work any longer, and because I feel that someone taking the step of filling the office will bring attention to its potentials and hopefully inspire others to get involved. I do not feel that I am the best qualified for this position, as I am not an activist type, nor do I know the natural history of this area as well as many of you -- I grew up in a different state. Although I have been here for over twenty years, I am still learning the native flora and fauna. In order to educate anyone else, I first have to educate myself -- a task I am eagerly anticipating, I hasten to assure you. I do have a background in natural science, including geology, ichthyology, some botany, evolutionary biology, and various other bits and pieces. I have done field work and I spent eight years working as a technician in natural history museum collections. I also have a love of nature and the land, and I feel very close to the spirit of Ana. I chose tree agate as the bead for Grove Ecologist in honor of her, because that stone seems to me to be connected with her. (The bead is actually moss agate at the moment, as that was all I could find -- I think its close enough).
Already I have had a few people come up to me and offer suggestions and support, and even interest in getting involved. I intend to make use of those offers! Over the next few months, I would like to accomplish the following:
If you can help out in any of these areas, please call me at 663-3276 or catch me at the next Grove activity. Make sure I get your name, phone number, and the specific way(s) you would like to help. This will help me keep track of it all (I hope). Volunteer! Help me before I stop again (or something like that).
It seems that we already have so many activities in the Grove that one more thing on the schedule is next to impossible. But of all the things we do, caring for our environment is the most important. The heart of our religion is our connection and relationship to the land. If we wish truly to honor Ana as our Mother, we need to be aware of her needs and offer her our hands as well as our hearts, our actions as well as flowers and gifts. We need to pitch in on the housework -- pick up after ourselves, take out the trash, and fix that leaky faucet. After all, it's the only house we've got.
By Brighn
The character of the fool has historically had an important place in rituals throughout many cultures. However, in modern eras, even as we reconstruct other aspects of ritual and adapt them to modern life, we continue the post-Renaissance tradition of minimizing the importance of the fool within and without the ritual setting. This article represents some thoughts on the position the fool plays within ritual contexts, and within society in general.
One role of the fool is the one most easily identified and accepted, that of humorist and clown. Humor and comedy are complex things, much harder to study seriously than their more sober counterparts. This difficulty lies within the nature of the concepts themselves - humor almost essentially lies within the realm of chaos, and within Western oppositional dualism chaos is perceived of as being inimical to order. Even within Eastern complementary dualism, the twin concepts of chaotic order or ordered chaos seems oxymoronic, but within that philosophy cluster, the comprehension of paradoxes lies at the very base of the comprehension of the universe.
Distinct but often combined with this first role is the second role of the fool, that of satirist and foil. This image is, I believe, the one which is most readily identified with the regal fool, the jester, the fool of kings. The fool mocks the king, or the priest, and through this mockery prevents the king from being taken too seriously. Shakespeare is fond of this type of fool, the foil for the main character. Bottom, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, has this role as one of his major functions; likewise, the inclusion of the play-within-a-play, of "The Tragical Mirth of Pyramis and Thisby", allows Shakespeare to mock his own form: this is a sort of metafoolery.
The distinction between satire and humor is a subtle one, and not one familiar to most people. Humor relies, typically, on situations and facts of life that are accepted as inevitable and even possibly desirable parts of social conditioning: the humorist or comedian identifies oxymoronic, quirky, or otherwise illogical aspects of life, while the comic or farceur distorts the serious sides of life to remind us to laugh at ourselves. Satire, on the other hand, ridicules those aspects of life which are considered unfortunate, undesirable, and conceivably changeable. Humor is typically gentle, since its goal is to point out things we can't change and make those things easier to understand or live with; satire is typically harsh, since its goal is to provoke thought and change.
While the above mentioned roles are the two most readily identified roles of the fool, there are at least three other roles that can be identified.
The fool can be the foil of some salient other, such as a priest or a king, for the amusement or edification of others; likewise, though, the fool can be the foil of the observer. This is the role that the fool has within the tarot: the fool is the everyman, the naif on the verge of discovery but (almost necessarily) oblivious to this verge. The magician is what we would like to envision ourselves as: in power, in control. The fool is what we actually are, or what we need to be: the naive one. This balance is significant and essential to philosophical approaches to the tarot. Each of us is simultaneously master of our fate and unwitting participant. We have, as a society, rejected our latter role, though; we cannot perceive of ourselves as ignorant. The very word, which etymologically means only unaware or not yet educated, has become vilified.
This role of naif ties together two conceptual roles played by the fool: that of mirror, showing us what we ourselves are, and that of educator, through being a fellow learner. The fool is a child, and we find this childishness simultaneously disorienting, endearing, and amusing. For somewhat non-comical effect, Shakespeare uses the character of Miranda in The Tempest as the naive; never having been exposed to society outside of that created by her father, Prospero, she provides a child's view from an adult body: "O brave new world, that has such people in it!" This naiveti is also a form of satire, in this context: Miranda, untainted by the knowledge of corruption that the audience is fully aware of, is impressed by the inherent awe and perceived purity that Shakespeare perhaps wishes society actually possessed. The fool is not just a mirror, but one that magnifies our faults. We laugh at the fool only as much as the fool magnifies our own weaknesses; we become angry at the fool only as much as the fool magnifies those weaknesses in ourselves that we do not wish to accept.
The fool is likewise a cohort in our education, through being the dunce at the back of the class who sees things not with the wrong perspective but rather with the different perspective. For this, the fool is chastised by Western society, which demands unity of vision and perspective - the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" relates to this role, as does the inclusion of the Malkavian clan within the Vampire role playing game. The Trickster, within Native American tradition, and Eleggua, within Yoruba tradition, likewise have differing perspectives, but in these cases the different perspective is praised by the culture, not shunned by it. People who in our culture would be labeled as psychotic and hidden from social interaction are in other cultures made shamans and given high status.
Finally, the fool has a role which is so obvious as to be misleadingly opaque. The fool is, in many ways, a cheerleader: the fool enjoins us to release our inhibitions, to revel in the more playful sides of ourselves. To use pop-psych terminology, the fool enables us to release our own Inner Children. The fool is not embarrassed in play; nay, the fool drowns in play, and exudes it from every pore. This exuding of play enables each of us to experience that play ourselves. Pan is this fool, as is Kokopelli, aspects of Ellegua, and many of the sidhe.
These five roles (clown, foil, mirror, cohort, cheerleader) are of course entangled and intermixed in most images of the fool: a good fool will combine most if not all of these roles. Considering Bottom, again, within this context, we can identify all of these roles. He is the clown, a plaything for Oberon to torment Titania with; his unawareness of his ridiculous transformation into an ass is in itself a source of amusement. He is the foil, mimicking both the serious relationship that Oberon and Titania hold and, within the greater context, mimicking the seriousness of the play in which "The Tragickal Mirth of Pyramis and Thisbe" is embedded. He is likewise a mirror: he is the hapless everyman who is only vaguely aware of the ridiculousness of his situation; his name holds a double pun - while he is an ass, he is also the base of society, the bottom of it all. He is a cohort: we learn from his innocence, and from his apparent idiocy. Finally, he is the cheerleader, enabling us to laugh not just at him but at ourselves, not just with him but with ourselves.
It is difficult to identify the specific realm of the fool within the spiritual roles. The priest helps us to connect with deity by leading us and modeling for us; the fool does this as well, by leading us as children to seeing new perspectives. The scholar and the bard educate and entertain us, maintaining a sense of historic and social continuity; the fool does these things as well, again by altering our perspective. The priest leads us; the fool follows us. The scholar teaches; the fool learns. The bard entertains and creates identity through history and parable; the fool entertains and creates identity through distorted history and inverted parables.
The fool is the complement of all things ordered: herein lies the difficulty in classification. The fool cannot be classified because the roles are foils to all other ritual roles. The fool is central to the ritual because the fool has no place within the ritual. The fool is an idiot who knows nothing; the fool is a genius whose knowledge exceeds all others. Within the tarot, the fool is unnumbered: the card is the beginning and the end. The fool is no person, for what person would wish to be the fool? The fool is every person, for what person can deny being the fool?
The fool, then, is on same plane as the manifestation of chaos. An organized description of the fool, in logical terms, is impossible because logic is rooted in order and the fool is rooted in chaos. Indeed, the notion of the fool tears down our rigid realities. The Feast of Fools, April Fool's Day, Mardi Gras, and Halloween (the Catholic holiday, not Samhain) all feature revelry and a deconstruction of reality through mockery and satire. Significantly, the latter two of these (Mardi Gras and Halloween) precede the most religiously sober times of the year (Lent and All Saint's Day), while the Feast of Fools falls in the middle of the coldest part of the winter. Mardi Gras, especially, remains as a time to get it out of one's system before embarking on a period of sober penitence.
As much as we find it necessary to incorporate balance in ritual, we need to find ways to incorporate the concept of the fool within ritual. Benevolent chaos is not inimical to order; what is excluded from ritual in the ADF paradigm, for instance, is not benevolent chaos but rather malevolence of all kinds, those things that would disrupt the ritual. Likewise, in most other faiths and paths, it is malevolence that is banned from the ritual. However, having been raised in a tradition highly tainted by Judeo-Christian oppositional dualism (rooted in Zoroastrianism), we have come to identify chaos with malevolence, and these both with destruction, and have (at least implicitly) labeled these all as inimical to our goals within ritual. But just as we must recognize death as a necessary part of life, we must recognize the role of the fool as necessary to reminding us of the importance of what we are doing. Without this recognition, we continue to cling to the oppositional dualism we claim to be rejecting.
The fool remains, in fragmented form, throughout our culture. It is not too difficult to find examples at every turn, and more often than not, we find it is the fool that is the only character which truly understands reality because it is the fool which has released the tight grasp on reality that we as rationalists and as social animals cling to for cohesiveness. Peter Tork, in the Monkees' movie Head, repeats the words of a mystic he has studied from; at the end of the speech, he echoes the words of his master: "But why ask me, for I know nothing." The response from the other three is ridicule, anger, and frustration which belie the underlying wisdom. The fool knows nothing, and this is all we really need to know. Once that is understood, the rest of the universe simply falls into place.
By Kami Landy
Editor's Note: This is the second and final part of a two-part series on home worship.
I believe that ancestor worship belongs in the home. Powerfully. Constantly. Simply. Make a collection of photos, mementos, favorite items from previous generations of your families. Put it where the household gathers, in the dining room or living room for example. You might make a pretty dish or incense burner a part of the display, so that you can offer food from your feasting when you have a traditional or old favorite dish, or so you can burn a special scent of incense . Did Grandma always wear rosewater? Did Great-grandpa smoke a pipe? Did Great-uncle Harry travel to China and bring back a sandalwood box? Smell carries memory more than any other sense. At special occasions be sure to include those family members who no longer have bodies. Tell stories about them. Remind the children which days were a favorite holiday or a birthday or anniversary. Keep it simple but reverent, and they will surely be there to help you when you need perspective, patience, wisdom, or solutions to thorny problems.
And what of the Sidhe? Ask the kids. Is there a fairy mound or fairy wood nearby? Go out walking when the moon is full and bright and bring them gifts of feathers, bright colored things, milk and honey, or a tot of whiskey if they prefer. There are those who point out to us that the land spirits here are those whom the Native Americans knew, and they prefer corn meal or tobacco, berries, shiny things, but NEVER alcohol. The nature spirits are the spirits of plants and animals, as well as the spirits of place and the sidhe-folk. Your bird feeder can become a place of offering to them, especially if you can put a deer-lick or the like nearby. If there is an interesting rock in your yard make an altar of it and leave pretty things or food offerings there for the critters. Some of your food leftovers can become offerings for the nature spirits, who will accept them in their form as ravens or crows or starlings, squirrels and cats and raccoons. Why not? Do we not share meat with the gods, offering them the parts of a meal they can "eat" but consuming the flesh on their behalf?
Do not forget the Earth Mother. Without her we are not. Where should her altar go? EVERYWHERE. Your worship of the Earth can be in recycling, turning off lights, cleaning up the neighborhood, asking permission before planting or harvesting a garden, and so on. This is easy worship to teach our children, who will remind us again and again. But how and where can we focus our devotion? Well, you could put a table by the recycling bins, with gifts the earth has given you which you give back to her; first fruits, goddess-shaped rocks or holed stones, and so on. There might be a special rock or tree in the back yard through which you connect most powerfully with the earth. Water it lovingly. Or by the kitchen sink, or by your bed, or wherever you feel most connected with the land and its cycles.
And, how will you reduce, contain and make manageable the chaos toward which the universe tends? Why not show the outsiders a place, as we do in ritual, with a gargoyle at your front gate or at the bottom of your drive. You could even impress the neighbors with a pair of protective stone lions or dogs. But the doorway itself provides a barrier as well as a passageway. Folklore is full of protective charms; a horseshoe, a rowan tree or yarrow plant, a knot of string or a drawing decorating the entry way to confuse those who would cause harm, etc. For myself, I've never felt a need for such protection, trusting those to whom I give honor to protect the space I have made theirs; the advantage to saying to the many beings of our pantheon; "My house is your house", is that they will help to protect its peace and security, and generally will remember not to fight or track mud inside.
Thus, your entire house and the land around it become your nemeton, your sacred grove. If you live in an apartment you might have to be a bit creative, but reasonable substitutes aren't hard to find; a picture of a gargoyle on your mailbox if that is your outer boundary, or else on your apartment door, replaces the stone one on the walk. There is surely a tree or bush nearby, or a window box garden you can create and a bird feeder you can hang to honor the spirits of nature. And where is the center for you? Probably not the elevator shaft, even if it's the center of the building, but perhaps the point of demarcation between public space (the living room) and private space (the bedrooms). You can place your remembrance of the vertical axis at that doorway. Again, dorms are a bit harder; often no fire is allowed, you haven't your own source of running water, and the roommate might not share your religious beliefs. These concerns make it all the more important to surround yourself with simple reminders that you are not alone in the universe.
A bonsai tree with a dish of water at its roots and an incense burner or little electric night light nearby make a lovely altar containing the central axis or world tree, the sacred fire and the well of wisdom. Pictures that remind you of the three kindreds surround your bed, and you can still find places outside to offer a dish of milk to the animals who convey your caring to the spirits of nature. Place a rock which feels particularly solid and old on your desk or under the head of your bed, and on the door, a picture which seems protective to ward off unwelcome chaos. You can still take the time, morning and evening, to touch and meditate on these items, to change the water and the incense (or scented oil rubbed on the light bulb). Offerings to your Gods and ancestors might come in the form of things you can thumbtack below their pictures; pictures of the things you identify with them, colored ribbons, etc., rather than things which need to be burnt or dropped in a well or which get messy.
So, with a general sense of sacred space set up around you, worship and magic become ever more a part of daily life. You needn't go away from home to find the Gods and spirits, but rather come from well-worn patterns of devotion to join with your community in celebration on the high days. At another time, I will talk about specific rituals for particular purposes, and ways in which our relationship with the gods and spirits can help us.
Glassie, Henry; Irish Folk History;University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Ross, Anne; Every Day Life of the Pagan Celts (now The Pagan Celts); GP Putnam's Sons, NY, 1970.
Bell, Catherine; Ritual Theory Ritual Practice; Oxford University Press, 1992.
Webb, Mary; Precious Bane; Penguin, Books 1985 (fiction with strong reference to folklife in East Anglia, first published in 1924.)
Glassie, Henry; Folklife in New England, ???
Deepest sympathies to Windweaver on the passage of his father to the Summerlands.
Heartfelt condolences to Kori and Mama Moon on the passage of Kori's uncle. Our thoughts are with you both.
Our thoughts are also with Janet Kniaz, after the passage of her cat Isabel. She will be much missed.
Every now and then, when you reach the end of a book, you'll find a number of blank pages. This is because printing machines print books on huge sheets of paper holding 32 pages each, and cannot handle page quantities smaller than 32. If the manuscript doesn't have enough writing to fill the entire last sheet, the remaining pages are left blank.
Every person on the face of the earth (and every person who was ever on the face of the earth, or ever will be on the face of the earth) spent 1/2 hour of their lives as a single-celled organism.
When the DNA of humans and chimpanzees was compared, it was discovered that 99% of their genetic material is identical. So what makes us so different? There are two answers. The first is that the 1% may control how and when the other 99% is turned on and off. As much of the genetic material in our bodies is very briefly or never used, controlling its expression is critical for the correct development of the body. The second answer is that in the larger picture, we really aren't that different.
They are here!
And they are going fast! The first official Shining Lakes Grove T-shirt! They come in dark green with a white design, or pale blue with a dark blue design, and are available in a variety of sizes. They are $12 each. Get yours now! Contact Johnna at 485-3285.
Ever wonder what to do if your necklace breaks? Bring it to the next Grove event and Johnna will fix it for you.
Ever wonder what to do if you lose your necklace? Bring $10 to the next Grove event and Johnna will replace it.
Ever wonder how to find out what is going on with the SLuGs? Call the events hot-line at (313)485-3616.
Ever wonder what our first embarrassing typo was? Come to the next Grove event and ask Fox or Jaguar!
By Fox
I will go out to sow the seed,
In the name of her who gives it
growth;
I will turn my face into the wind,
And throw a proper
handful high.
The grain that falls on barren rock,
Shall
find no soil in which to grow,
But all that falls to Ana's breast,
The dew shall make it to be full.
The Holy Day; the day
auspicious;
The gentle morning dew will welcome,
Every seed
that has lain sleeping,
Since the cold of winter's coming.
Every seed will take root in good earth;
Blessed by sun;
golden bright;
Shoots will come forth with the dew,
To breathe
life from soft summer winds.
I will come round with my step,
Rightwise round as turns the sun;
In the name of the ancestors
and kindreds all,
In the name of the father, blessed Lugh.
Gentle Ana; Great stag of the wood,
Be giving growth and
kindly substance,
To every swelling stem and shoot,
Until the
time of harvest gladness.
Round to Lughnassadh; day
beneficent;
I will put my sickle round about,
The root of corn
as is our custom;
I will lift the first cut quickly.
I
will put it three turns round,
My head, saying my rune the while;
My back to the wind of the north;
My face to the fair sun of
power.
I shall throw the handful far from me;
And close
my two eyes twice;
Should it fall to Earth in one bunch,
Our
stacks will be productive and lasting.
No specter will come
with bad times,
To ask a palm bannock from us;
And when rough
storms come with frowns;
No stint nor hardship shall be on us.
Adapted from "The consecration of the seed", Carmina Gadelica, Hymns & Incantations, by Alexander Carmichael, 1994, Lindisfarne Press, Hudson, pages 96-7.
Also loosely based on an adaptation of the above by Ian Corrigan.
By Marae Price
The Bardic Guild will have an afternoon seminar on Saturday, May 25, 1996, from 1-5 p.m. (location to be determined; call 663-3276 if interested). This will be primarily a time of study for the bards, with one or two workshops and some time to work together as a group. However, we will be using the first hour to hold auditions. If you are interested in joining the Bardic Guild, you will be asked to audition at some point, so here's your chance! Talk to any Bard about the application procedure, and do so as soon as possible so that we will know how many auditioners to plan for. If you simply wish to have your talent evaluated, with no intention of joining the guild, this is also an opportunity to do that if time allows. Again, please talk to a Bard as soon as possible. Current members of the Bardic Guild are Johnna ap Morrigan, Brighn, Kami Landy, Marae Price, David Rozian, and Windweaver. The auditions are not scary. Audition simply means a hearing, a listening session. Membership in the Bardic Guild does not depend on ones performance at audition. We just want to see how you deal with performance. We offer performance or skill evaluation to non-applicants as a service to the community in the interests of assisting others in their pursuit of training and excellence in the Bardic Arts.
By GuAu RA NU Qraw*finder
George Burns died in his sleep at the age of one hundred, on Saturday, March 9th, 1996 without playing The Palace. We had all hoped George would live forever. He didn't. But maybe somebody else will.
History teaches us that death is inevitable. But statistics teaches us that death is not inevitable! The human population of the world has been doubling so rapidly that death has not had a chance to keep up.
Out of all the people who have ever lived, roughly half of them are alive today. That means, statistically speaking, your changes of dying are only 50-50.
Hmmm....
Well,... good luck!!
By Jaguar
Implosion
By: Jaguar
Moving through a world of
shadows, nothing touches me.
Grey mist surrounds me, and
separates me from all that might seem real, were it not so far away.
A black emptiness somewhere near my navel entices me to melt into
myself, seduces me away from connection with my kindred.
'Come
in,' it whispers. 'Fold yourself into my hollowness, my warm, empty
darkness.'
A darkness so intense I shudder.
A
silence so airless my screams never leave my throat.
An
isolation so utter I forget that there was ever another way to be.
I fold.
When we watch the sun set, we are seeing an event which has already happened. Because of the angle at which the sun's rays are refracted as they pass through the atmosphere, the image which appears to be the sun setting on our horizon is actually the sun setting on a horizon below our field of vision. In effect, we never see our own sunset. This also is part of why the last part of the sunset is red: red rays are longer, and bend further, and so are still visible even after the shorter blue ones have 'set'.
The Maya were superlative astronomers, mapping the stars and the motions of planets. They had 3 different calendars, one based on the movement of Venus, one ceremonial one based on 260 days, and one every-day calendar of 365 days (18 months of 20 days each, with the remaining five days considered to be a transition period between years). The Maya understood the concept of zero, and their calendars counted from several million years in the past, to several million years in the future. At the time the Spanish encountered them, the Mayas' calendar was more accurate than the European one.
Zoos found it impossible to breed cheetahs in captivity until 1960. This was because the cheetahs were kept in small confined cages, and in 1960 it was discovered that the females must participate in long high-speed mating chases in order to stimulate ovulation.
Shining Lakes Grove
P.O. Box 15585
Ann Arbor, Michigan
48106-5585
Phone: (313) 480-2082
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