Another design I modified into a t-shirt a couple of years ago.
Happy New Year to everyone who stumbles across this blog, whether on a regular basis or an occasional ... or even single visit. 2012 I feel will be a major turning point for us humans ... but I don't think it will be the end for all of us, but like any year that goes by, for some of us it will be our last. The key is to make every post a winner and every day special. Maybe we should leave the Christmas tree up all year round to remind us that every day should be approached with the Christmas spirit in mind.
I've got the bottle of Moet in the fridge and in a little more than twelve hours will be welcoming in 2012 with all of it's possibilities and challenges. I'm exited. CHEERS!
The nightly puzzle that is constructed over the week at Woodford
I had a great day up at the Woodford Folk-feston Wednesday. No real major synchronicities, although a few synchronicity seeds may grow into something big from this day at Woodford ... well that's the "feeling" I have anyway. Now, how is this? I was trying to sum up my thoughts of the photo that I put up at the top of this post, that I took on my cell phone of the giant puzzle that they add a piece to every night at the Folk-fest. And I was listening to this podcast at the same time, http://cosmicgnostic.com/pod78 and Alan says,"the mind is a vast landscape full of mysteries beyond our imagination ... a universe within itself" and I thought that was a perfect summary of how I wanted to describe that puzzle, since I had almost felt this was like a snapshot of my mind with all those symbols such as the goldfish, shaman drum, question mark/golden spiral, key, boomerang, bird, musical note and butterfly. Which I might elaborate more on in a future post. This puzzle parade was done just before the main act of the night,Gotye, who performed in front of 6000 people at the amphitheater at Woodford. This guy is good.
Gotye on Wednesday night
I also saw Buffy Sainte-Marie who wrote the song Up Where We Belong, that she is performing in the You Tube above. Buffy and her band got a standing ovation at the end of the performance and rightly so. It was a great day and Woodford is marked on my calendar for next December, too.
And isn't that a Nine Kinds of Nakedtype Golden Spiral in the top right hand corner of the card? Plus the painting on the pole was done by someone named Kelly. The Greatest Show on Earth ... Now Showing Life is stranger than fiction. For me anyway.
Total Page-views 2424 Bit of a coincidence that my total Page-view counter reached the above number on the 24th of December 24/24 and also contains my father's old taxi cab number of 424. Which I have written about quite often on this blog.
Just as my littleHibiscus tree starts to really bloom with some magnificent foliage like the photo I took of it today(above), it has to move, or die, in a few weeks time. The garage is being built into a bedroom for my son and half of the garden has to make way for a carport. Unfortunately the Hibiscus has to move.
And so does my lovelybird of paradiseplant, which has taken years to get just right after transferring it from my other house to this present address. The "Bird of Paradise" "Coincidence" And not only do they have to move, but so do I. My little computer room has to move into my son's old bedroom at the other end of the house. This all happens in early January, so 2012 will be a year of change in more than one way for me, right from the start. Now for some synchros involving the Hibiscus.
The other day when I was looking for some pictures of crow paintings for my post on "The Crow" in Google images, I came across a picture called "Twenty-Three" by Marina Petro. I love this picture in so many ways that I will have to do a separate post on it to say why. I was so impressed by her paintings that I decided to follow her blog to see what other great works were produced by her talents. Her latest paintings involve theHibiscusflower, which is timely for me.
But also today I was talking to blogging friends about black cats, like panthers and told them to check out a post I did in June called Jaguar Medicine Can be Good for Cat People
Well, what should be in the jaguar painting on that page? Yes, a Hibiscus flower.
Some intersecting ripples in a pond, and some other strange plants that also happen to be growing in my garden, but are in no danger of being moved.
Usually these plants flower like the one in the jaguar painting.
Oh ... and I just remembered what sort of car I hired for my wedding car all those years ago. A white Jaguar. Maybe that's like a white crow??? Check out Marina's Angel paintings book, if you get the chance. I'll be buying a copy off her after Christmas. I just love 'em. You can see the whole book in a virtual flick through here; http://www.blurb.com/books/952884
UPDATE: Dec 22nd 2011. Mike Perryjust told me in the comment below that he just came across this picture (below) from John Bunker Fine Art.
Talking about "Birds of Paradise", when I was out taking pictures of my flowers, a crow was crowing in the tree across the road and I tried to get a picture, but it flew off.
As I was searching the sky hoping for it to return my eye caught these four white birds
(so high I couldn't tell what they were ... the birds were high,
not me, just to clarify things a bit;-)
just circling around in the clouds.
I took a picture of them, but you might give yourself eyestrain trying to spot them.
2012: A Time For Changeis a documentary with a positive spin on the year 2012for a change ... as long as we take this window of opportunity to act instead of just talk about it. I bought a copy of this DVD a little while ago, and truly feel it deserves to be seen by a wide audience. And don't forget to check out the extra features as well.
Reading a post The Fire over at theSynchrosecrets blog sparked memories of this great song by Billy Joel. A song to contemplate over the holidays, while staring into all those fires.
"This summer, I visited Glastonbury, the New Age epicenter of England, to
speak at a "Great Mysteries" conference aboutorbs.
Orbs are best known
as those mysterious balls of light that have appeared on digital
photographs for the last fifteen years, though some claim they can see
them with the naked eye as well. Orbs have spawned an enthusiastic
subculture of people who believe the blobby wisps are not dust particles
or lens anomalies, but angels, spirits, other-dimensional beings and so
on. Although I am now an accredited orbs expert, I remain agnostic on
the subject. In this area, one encounters the same difficulties in
establishing a methodology as one does with other phenomena that float
on the outer edge of cultural possibility, such as UFOs, crop circles,
occult conspiracies, miraculous appearances of the Virgin and so on."
And he concludes by saying,"As a phenomenon, the mass interest in the orbs suggests we are going
through another wave of "Spiritualism," a movement that swept the U.S.
and Europe in the 1890s, bringing with it a wave of aura photography,
levitating mediums and other anomalous events.
Only the future will
reveal whether the orbs reflect a deeper development of psychic
awareness, or whether they are a fad that will soon trail off into the
ether, from whence they perhaps came."
You can read the whole chapter by clicking on this link below,
The above photos were taken by me at the Byron Bay Writers Festivalthis year, and I felt a sense of profound spirituality at the time I took these photos. While I wasn't aware visually of the orbswhich appear in the photos, I did sense a presence around me.
So, to me even if it is just a lens flare, it captures the essence of what I felt at the time.
Like Pinchbeck, I would have to say that I am agnostic, too ... but leaning more toward the believing side of agnostic.
Before capturing these orbs, I thought the whole phenomena was total BS.
Writing about great artists that have autism(see previous post) Stephen Wiltshire was in my home city, Brisbane recently and over 4 days he drew this giant detailed picture of it from memory. Stephen Wiltshire, (born 24 April 1974) is an architectural artist who has been diagnosed with autism, he was born in London, England, to West Indian parents. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape after seeing it just once. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College.
about two little girls both namedLaura Buxton. They didn't know the other existed until one of them decided to launch a balloon with a note saying who the owner of the balloon was and that it would be appreciated if the finder of the balloon could contact Laura Buxton ... and you probably guessed by now that the finder of the balloon was the other Laura Buxton.
Watch the You Tube below to see how incredible this story is.
As by the reaction one viewer of this clip had, it's easy to write off such stories as scams or as he said "b#!!s#!t!". But it is my experience that things like this happen more frequently than this guy would care to comment on. Synchronicities are fascinating occurrences when they happen, but they don't always take you to where you think they are going to lead you.
Here's my story of what I thought was an incredible "coincidence" that happened to me yesterday in a long chain of synchs that are probably not finished yet.
He is number 23, which is one of my sync numbers. 23. Caiseal Mór "Bestselling Irish fantasy novelist Caiseal Mór is known for his
The Wanderers series and The Watcher’s trilogy. He’s created several music and spoken word CDs, and he is also famous for his autobiography, A Blessing and a Curse,
which discusses his life on the autism spectrum. Before his
autobiography was released, he kept his disability a secret from the
public. He was diagnosed as a child, not speaking until he was four, and
was taught to be ashamed of his autism, worried that he’d end up in a mental hospital
if people knew. Caiseal still struggles with conversation as an adult,
and he much prefers the written word, making his career as a novelist a
good fit for him."
about a man whose work I greatly admire,Caiseal Mór. The post's title was taken from the title of his autobiography about growing up with autism.
I've always felt compelled for some reason to get this book into the hands of a good movie director who might want to turn this book into a film. The only one that came to mind was Sarah Watt, who had made a film that I loved called Look Both Ways, which I also wrote a post about here;
Unfortunately Sarah had recovered from one bout of cancer only to be taken by a second cancer that had developed in her body(I wasn't aware she had cancer again until the day of her death,
(I love the philosophy of this You Tube clip above, it really sums up my feelings about the role synchronicity has to play in people's lives ... unfortunately his books don't really inspire me that much at all.) Yes, it started with James Redfield's book The Twelfth Insight a book that I didn't even really enjoy reading, oddly enough.
The day I saw this book on the bookshelf at Abraxas Bookshop in Byron Bay I had a strong impulse that this book was an important book and it would play a big part in my life. I couldn't see why because I didn't even like The Celestine Prophecy. But I did end up buying the book on that strong gut feeling. Unfortunately I thought it was a poor read as far as an enlightening read went ... so why the strong feeling about this book?
Well, a few months later it was announced Redfield was to headline the Byron Bay Writers Festival. I took this as a sign that I had to go and take the book with me to get it autographed by James and maybe have a chat to him if time permitted, because I still admired what James was trying to do ... even if I didn't really like his books.
Unfortunately the festival was on a weekend I had to work and I had no holidays left to take and it was probably too short a notice to give to my employer anyway. So there was no way it was going to happen. But my employer was asking its long term employees to take some long service leave if they could. At first I was outraged that they would even dare ask that we should dip into our long service leave. It was then that a little voice in my mind thought this is perfect, take two weeks off as long as they agree to let you have that weekend off.
Well, they couldn't give it to me fast enough. So I booked my tickets and booked accommodation and prepared for my weekend down in Byron Bay.
I told a girl that I work with how I was going to take my copy of The Twelfth Insight and get James to sign it. She then told me she had purchased a copy of his book Shambala from a second hand bookstore and loved it, and if I wouldn't mind getting James to sign it for her.
I said OK and took her book with me, but James got bitten by a spider in the US of A just before he was due to come out to Australia and had to cancel the trip because his doctor advised him not to fly.
I couldn't believe it, I had to go now because everything was paid for, and since I didn't have anyone in particular to see, I just went with the flow ... and had one of the most spiritual weekends of my life.
When I got back I asked my workmate if I could hold on to Shambala for a while and read it.
She said I could and she then asked if she could read The Twelfth Insight and if I had any other interesting books in my bookshelf I could lend her. I asked her if she had heard of Caiseal Mór. She had no idea who he was, so I gave her a run down on how I loved this book and how I had wanted to somehow get Sarah Watt to read it, and maybe make it into a film similar in style to Look Both Ways. She hadn't heard of Sarah Watt, or the movieLook Both Ways. After she had finished readingThe Twelfth Insight (she loved it, by the way) she started readingA Blessing and a Curseand I would discuss with her how I would love to see someone like Sarah turn this book into a movie. She still had no idea what Look Both Ways was like, so I lent her my copy of the DVD I own of it, so she could watch it over the weekend. I found out the day after that I lent the copy ofLook Both Ways to my friend that Sarah had passed away the day I had lent the DVD to my friend. On the Monday when my friend gave me the DVD back she told me what a great movie it was and that she could see Sarah making a good movie out of the book. I told her that wasn't going to happen because Sarah passed away just before the weekend. BUT ... here's the really weird synchronicity coming up - When my friend was readingA Blessing and a Curse in bed one night, her partner saw the cover of the book and said to her with a start,
"Hey! I know that guy. I met him up at Harvey Bay a few years ago and we were friends, and just as he was to go overseas he was looking for someone to give a home to his cat, so I took it to look after ... that's how we have Orpheus ... that's the name Caiseal had given it". So her and her partner still have the cat he had given her partner to look after, and she had never known about how he had come to acquire the cat until he recognized Caiseal on the book cover of the book she was reading. Now you work out the odds of these coincidences occurring ... and you will probably need a good calculator to help you. Then again it might just be easier to say "Complete B#!!S#!T!" and forget about it;- )
Who knows where the synchronicity path will take you?
This post is about the synchonicities between three posts, all from different blogs, but interconnecting with each other in various ways. To get the synchronicities you will have to read through the three posts and then compare them. I am sure if you do read through them all that you will be amazed.
Bear in mind as you watch the trailer above that this blog is called
"Just Watching the Wheels Go Round"
I am not suggesting that these synchros back up what is being said in the posts and make them true. Just that it is weird how all these syncs seem to merge with one another.
Emmett as the Tombstone Marshall in the real town where he had a house and lived. Considering that I bought this book on the same day as the post went up(April 28th 2011 ... and I can prove this through my Amazon account records if I have to)I think these synchros are pretty amazing.
And the podcast that started all this, if you would like a listen;
Crows have always been one of my favourite birds. I love the sounds of crow calls in the morning and I love watching a crow in flight. As you can probably tell, I'm not a farmer;-) And although they can be portrayed in a positive light, it saddens me that people seem to project their fears on to crows.
Not that I find the image below frightening. The pentagram to me is a good symbol, just like the cross, or the Star of David. Although there are a lot of people who project their fears onto those symbols as well.
I have just finished readingJames O'Barr's graphic novel The Crow, and it truly is a masterpiece of a work, if not a dark masterpiece.
It was also made into a motion picture which ended up having it's own dark back-story with the tragic death of Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, who also died tragically young.
James O'Barrwrote this novel as a way of working through his anger and grief over the death of his girlfriend when she was killed by a drunk driver. The plot as retold from the Wikipedia site is; "The story revolves around an unfortunate young man named Eric. He and his fiancée, Shelly, are assaulted by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is shot in the head and is paralyzed, and can only watch as Shelly is savagely beaten and raped. They are then left for dead on the side of the road.
He is resurrected by a crow and seeks vengeance on the murders, methodically stalking and killing them. When not on the hunt, Eric stays in the house he shared with Shelly, spending most of his time there lost in memories of her. Her absence is torture for him; he is in emotional pain, even engaging in self-mutilation by cutting himself.
The Crow acts as both guide and goad for Eric, giving him information that helps him in his quest but also chastising him for dwelling on Shelly's death, seeing his pining as useless self-indulgence that distracts him from his purpose." James admits "as I drew each page, it made me more self-destructive, if anything ... There is pure anger on each page" " In 1978, O'Barr's fiancée, Beverly, was killed by a drunk driver, and he joined the Marines in an effort to cope with the loss. He was stationed in Germany and illustrated combat manuals for the military. While living in Berlin in 1981, O'Barr began work on The Crow as a means of dealing with his personal tragedy. O'Barr was further inspired by a Detroit newspaper account of the murder of a young couple over a $20 engagement ring. After his discharge from the Marines, O'Barr continued his painting and illustration as well as doing lots of odd jobs, including working for a Detroit body shop. The Crow sat on a shelf for seven years, but at last someone wanted to publish it: Gary Reed of Caliber Press.
In the 1990s O'Barr was affiliated with the experimental metal band Trust Obey, which was signed briefly to Trent Reznor's Nothing label before the band was dropped. Trust Obey released the album Fear and Bullets: Music to Accompany The Crow in 1993. The album was packaged with a special edition of The Crow graphic novel."
I saw the movie A Serious Man, made by the Coen brothers, last year.
It was based on the Job story from the Bible, where the main character cops almost every curse God could give out to him. Oddly enough, the James O'Barr (J.O'B?) story is almost the opposite where the main character dishes out almost every curse he can to all the other guilty characters in this Godless place.
I often wonder how I would cope with a tragedy like James has had to face, but of course I never want to know.
Last weekend I saw the film We Need to Talk about Kevin, a rather nasty little film about the aftermath for a mother that has to live through the nightmare of being the mother of a homicidal maniac who shoots students to death at his High School, plus other atrocities committed by him . I saw it because my eldest son is named Kevin, and I'm glad to say that's where the similarities end. It was more a study of how a mother has to cope with a son that just literally will not play ball with her. It's more of a "what did I do to deserve this?" type of movie. And if you try to put yourself in her shoes throughout the movie I think you will see just what a mess someone like Kevin could make of someone's life. The movie is about her, not Kevin. So, if you see this movie, ask yourself - what would you do in this situation?
I'm sure that after a tragedy like James faced with his girlfriend being killed, that he had to channel his rage somewhere and this artwork was his therapy ... although by reading interviews he gave later, how effective it was in his trying to heal himself is debatable?
Sandy MacGregor on the other hand has channeled his grief into more positive areas, and has helped innumerable lives as well as his own in the process. He is a Vietnam vet who had three daughters murdered by a maniac with a shotgun in their own home. You can hear him tell his story on the You Tube audio above, or visit his website on the link below to see what he has done since this tragic event intruded into his life. http://www.calm.com.au/ As soon as I wrote the above lines about Sandy MacGregor and how forgiveness played a much healing role in his life, I went over to listen to what Barry Eaton's radio program was about last night and low and behold it was "The Power of Forgiveness in Healing".
It is really worth a listen. It is a real good addition to what I'm trying to write here.
Caiseal Mor sums it up pretty well on page 191 of his bookWhat is Magicby writing, "Like a stone thrown into a pond our (energy) is capable of rippling out to touch many people. As the consequences of our actions spread out and the reactions filter back to us, (energy) is returned in the same form it was sent out. From my own observations I can definitely say that if I live in bliss and share that bliss with everyone around me; all that returns to me is bliss. If I choose fear,on the other hand, things can get pretty ugly. If I allow other people to impose their fear onto me I will likely get dragged down into a very negative (energy) cycle." A popular and much-quoted example derived from chaos theory illustrates how the smallest action can have devastating effects. The theory is illustrated like this. The flapping of a butterfly's wings in the rainforest of the Amazon jungle can set in motion a chain of events that culminates in a hurricane striking the coast of Florida. As extreme as this scenario may seem it's true that the tiniest of influences can change the course of events in the mundane world."
I often wonder if Brandon would still be alive today if The Crow was never written, or if it was just how things were meant to be?
"In his 1996 book ‘Bruce Lee; Fighting Spirit’ Bruce Thomas includes a chapter called ‘The Shadow’ which includes statements made by Bruce’s family and friends telling of his battles with a black shadowy figure in his sleep which held him down – a typical symptom of sleep paralysis. He described to friends and family about having battled in his sleep with a ‘black shadow’ which he said held him down for several minutes and the effort of fighting it left him drenched in sweat.
Lee was supposedly haunted by personal demons as well. He had premonitions that he would die at half his father's age of 64 (which he did at 32). In fact, he died just three and a half months prior to his father's death. Brandon Lee (Bruce's son) also died at a young age when a prop gun was accidentally loaded with a live bullet; the same way that Bruce's character faked his death in Game of Death."
Some would say that this novel is too violent, too dark, or too evil. But you could say the same about most of Shakespeare's plays as well. I think there are lessons to be learned in reading material like this and sometimes we should examine the darker side of life. The trick is not to identify with the negative aspects of it too closely. Perhaps like Heath Ledger did when playing the Joker?
Remember that it's only your thoughts that determine how you feel about a half full glass of water.
A few syncs to mention also. When I was looking up the meaning of what crows mean in the shamanic sense in the Animal Dreaming book, I noticed on the spine both had kangaroo's with something in their pouch. The one on "The Crow" was reading a book and had another in it's pouch. The Animal Dreaming book had a baby kangaroo looking out.
Also the Crow's cat's name in the graphic novel is Gabriel, which to me harks back to the Peter Gabriel song, Digging in the Dirt, that was playing when I was burying my cat.
I guess what I am trying to say with this post could be summed up nicely in these few paragraphs from Caiseal Mor's book What is Magic,"It makes me sad that our culture seems to be fixated on competition, one-upmanship and revenge. When I'm offended by someone I run the risk of conjuring up very negative images of them. Sometimes I search for faults in that person to justify my anger and disappointment. In my experience this sort of reaction only adds fuel to the fire of their negative aspects. And it brings out my own bad side. If something isn't done about it the downward spiral can become unstoppable. This exercise represents my understanding of magic at its most basic. As you think so you make the world. The important point I'd like to make here is that any nagging worries of fears you have lurking at the back of your mind will most certainly affect you every day of your life. Awareness of these background attitudes can help change perspective and refocus your life." And from Scott Alexander King's book Animal Dreaming, this passage about Crows; "As creatures of the void (indicated by their black feathers), Crows are believed to exist in the past, present and future simultaneously, to embody darkness within light and light within darkness and to watch over all the worlds and dimensions from all viewpoints in chorus. They make little distinction between right and wrong, but acknowledge the necessity for the existence of both. Without them, we wouldn't learn the lessons afforded by choice. According to legend, when Crow appears, she is challenging our perceptions while daring us to follow her deep into the Void, into our consciousness, to strengthen our principles and our relationship with Spirit. Crow encourages us to seek the wisdom found in the inner silence and to ponder our actions and reactions to life. Apparently we inherently know the difference between right and wrong. Crow asks us, therefore, to trust our judgement and make the most sensible decision when one is required. Her appearance generally heralds a sudden but necessary change, a wake-up call, or a lesson in self-discovery. Crow is one of the sacred keepers of Universal Law and the custodian of ancient records. Crow demands that you listen to your instincts and act upon them in a way that honourably serves your purpose."
