mermaidcamp

mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Red Rover with Big Brother

June 12, 2013 — 1 Comment

post industrial reflection

post industrial reflection

We are pretending that the data analysts of the world are geeks and, therefore, benign. How silly can we be? My own father jumped from slide rule to mainframe computer just to get bigger data. The rest of his life was consumed by the opportunity to get more and bigger data. He taught petroleum engineering students how to analyze big data to manage oil fields. He was recruited by IBM in the late 1950’s to be a believer.  Data was the future and the future was bigger data.

My parents and all their petroleum friends around the world distinguished themselves by the mass quantities of alcohol they consumed. They liked Ike, war, cars, and cocktails. I never saw them as particularly in touch with reality. They were, in their day, the big science data mangers trusted to produce energy for the planet. They were distinctly reckless, especially my father.  He adored fracking and exploding stuff of all kinds.  In his 60’s he became a reckless hot air balloonist, risking the lives of many to get his kicks.  I am not saying they were evil..not at all. They were lots of fun, and popular for their party antics.  What I am saying is that humans handle the data, and I suspect each person attracted to this kind of power (of geekiness and arcane knowledge) of wanting to pervert the universe.  I see the greatest generation as having used science to do much damage.  I think the Boomers will not be remembered so well in data history either.  Control of politics and data has turned into a giant Red Rover dare.  Protecting all the various digital borders is now impossible, so cyberinfo is a volatile hacking paradise.

Now there is so much data nobody has any idea how to manage it, let alone isolate the people ethical enough to handle it.  This whole idea and verbiage of leak is indicative of the problem.  We now have such a complex web of data moving non stop that leaks of all kinds are inevitable.  People will now devote their lives and fortunes to creating and finding leaks of important data.  The data came from Pandora’s box, but it is much too big to be contained now.  We let it all out, then we dare Big Brother to come over.  I witnessed first hand the people who conquered the oil fields with data and science.  They suffered from intense ignorance.  We do too.  It is not the tool, but the user,who makes the decisions, who has the power to change the outcome. I am not so worried about NSA wasting time analyzing my data as I am about all misdirected data studies everywhere. This data smuggling and whistle blowing has only just begun, gentle reader.  We have a tangled web of growing data to interpret, store and hide.

Coniunctio Oppositorum

June 7, 2013 — 3 Comments

The reunification of opposites in alchemy is called Coniunctio Oppositorum. The material is separated in the distillation process.  In the collective consciousness imagery and music exist as powerful actors.  The opposites can be soul and spirit, Republican and Democrat, or just black and white.  Our individual dreams and psyches are influenced by all the opposites in the universe.  It is an act of magic to distill your thoughts and ethical boundaries. It is an act of wisdom to recognize that we are each as magical as the other.

Charts and Maps

June 4, 2013 — 1 Comment

I love maps and charts.  I am wild about pedigrees and anatomical models.  The visual imagery path is my natural way to learn.  I read, but to really get into a subject, I read charts, mind maps, and even word derivation.  I am curious about where things arise and where they go.  I like charts because they show momentum and details that we would not be able to hold in our heads without a picture. Here are words about the time I was born:

Zodiac in degrees 0.00 Placidus Orb:0
Sun Aquarius 9.58 Ascendant Aries 5.44
Moon Scorpio 10.22 II Taurus 14.09
Mercury Capricorn 16.19 III Gemini 10.55
Venus Aquarius 28.33 IV Cancer 3.18
Mars Pisces 6.24 V Cancer 26.12
Jupiter Pisces 10.52 VI Leo 24.41
Saturn Libra 2.03 R VII Libra 5.44
Uranus Cancer 6.10 R VIII Scorpio 14.09
Neptune Libra 19.30 R IX Sagittarius 10.55
Pluto Leo 18.50 R Midheaven Capricorn 3.18
Lilith Gemini 12.49 XI Capricorn 26.12
Asc node Pisces 19.42 XII Aquarius 24.41

Now here is the chart:

Birth Chart

Birth Chart

I like the visuals.  One part of our intelligence is keyed into these pictures and symbols.  We take in the information in a different way when we see it in a circle.  The practice of drawing mandalas, or any circular design has been a hobby of mine since I was a child.  I had a toy called the Magic Designer that held round paper discs and created geometric designs.  This technology would later become Spirograph.

I think my love for charts makes me a good navigator.  I have done a fair amount of it in planes and cars with accuracy.  I enjoy knowing exactly where I am. The same can be said of my family tree.  I stay the same, but as the tree grows and I learn more about my pedigree I have a much fuller picture of my karmic situation.  If you read charts, now you do too, gentle reader.

Boundaries for the Victim

May 29, 2013


All of us have the victim archetype in our personalities. We may not see it, but we all have suffered and caused others to suffer. What the victim archetype teaches us in life is how to draw boundaries.  While we can’t go through life without any suffering, we can recognize the causes and address them.  Yoga is a complex system that offers a path to enlightenment and soulful living.  Physical practice of asanas and breathing is a powerful and effective way to begin to draw the appropriate borders and rules for yourself and others in your life who may take advantage of you.  The above explanation and remedy are simple to understand and practice.  Bend over backwards to find your own limits and expand on what you have now.

Dreams of Symptom Exchange

May 22, 2013 — 4 Comments

reflecting

reflecting

Since returning home after ancestry quest I have tracked my dream life.  I think  am digesting centuries of action in my nightly dramatic  interpretations.  My homework assignment to record dreams and notice the archetypes I find in them has not been completed in a very rigorous fashion.  During my weekend with Thomas Moore we talked about dreams and did a group discussion about one lady’s dream that she shared with us.  My guilt about not doing homework as the rebel archetype dominates the teacher in my chart of origin, came into focus.  I fell deeply to sleep that night and did start to notice and record dreams on a regular basis while I was still on the road.  I visited homes and graves, museums and city streets where the specific ancestors lived and died.  I started to have some strong emotions about history and groups of the dead.

Although Mayflower ancestry is highly valued by some, I am much more excited about those who rebeled against the Pilgrims.  The sooner they dissed Plymouth, Salem, and the Pilgrim way of religious fascism the more I liked them.  My special pride in my one Wampanoag ancestor makes me feel entitled to some explanations.  They will not be forthcoming, and I need to understand that I am the sum total of many warring factions going back in time.  While Mary Stuart was burning one ancestor at the stake, another ancestor was defending her in Scotland.  This is how life works.  We do not just have two crazy parents, we have all of karmic history in our collective inheritance.

I  have had a dream now more than once that is symbolic and clear.  I enter a big building, box, loft, kind of structure, where I am joined by all kinds of other beings from past and present..maybe future also.  The place is intended to heal, but the multiple streams of energy mix and collide inside the space.  The beings leave having exchanged symptoms with other people, leaving with new issues, side effects and thoughts.  The desire to dump one’s own faults on others who are handy is at the root of this gift exchange gone so bad.  Common practice is to blame the dead, or the absent for almost everything, trying to leave with only shining and laudable characteristics.  This creates a mighty vortex that fills with neediness and greed once the door to the blame barn has been left ajar.  A boomerang of dreadful feelings never fails to be returned to the sender.  I am no dream interpretation expert, not even a very faithful recorder in the past.  This series of dreams in the warehouse health space is about healing, boundaries, and inevitability.  I haves used the flower essence Mexican Hat recently, which I find to be powerful and freaky. It is blooming in my garden in a few places. Under this hat’s influence the connections to others that we wish to ignore are highlighted.  This flower essence refers to boundaries and healing, exactly like the dreams.   Reflection is imperative to interpret both sides of symptoms, causes, and remedies.

Communication Loop

May 16, 2013 — 4 Comments

Butterfly convo

Butterfly convo

“The single biggest problem in communication

is the illusion that it has taken place.” GB Shaw

Are you in communities? Are you a leader? Do you create valuable content?  Does the internet make you compulsive and lonely?  I have read several posts lately about the brains of depressed people, and the effects of loneliness on health. It appears that insomnia, which seems to afflict most Americans now, can be a result of altered and damaged circadian rhythms.  Depression makes the day/night self timer malfunction. Isolation from live social contact proves to be as damaging to overall health as smoking or obesity.  It destroys the self monitoring abilities we learned in elementary school to survive in a social world.  Now that social order has been redefined, healthy relationships are less likely to evolve.  Human lovingkindness is essential for mental and physical health and well being.

Time spent with screens is not without merit, but if life is to be lived fully screen time has to be secondary to real human interaction.  Screen communication increases the chances of faulty assumptions on everyone’s part.  We normally present ourselves in the best light possible, keeping the shadow issues away from the public forums.  We know others must edit along the same favorable lines to give a spin on their life and times that makes them appealing.  How much noise is generated and how much valuable exchange?  The answer is never final.  It is a mix of magical electronic connections and spammy, even dangerous, invasions of privacy.  Caveat emptor, gentle reader.   The internet is what you make of it.

Music, A Family Tradition

May 14, 2013 — 2 Comments

Music is part of many spiritual practices and worship ceremonies. Musical exposure at an early age is a gift.  If parents appreciate and play music for a child, singing and dance will be a natural part of life.  In my household folk music and piano rolls were always being played and sung during my childhood.  I played classical music on the piano, but I absorbed American and English folk music from my parents, who invited friends over to play and sing music.  The Moore-Khalsa home is full of musical talent and knowledge, but of a different sort.  They are more meditative and prayerful ,kind of musical monks. They harmonize well together, making a joyful noise.

We were given an added treat during the Thomas Moore weekend at Kripalu recently.  His wife and daughter gave a special evening program on Saturday night.  The Kundalini yoga session was directed by Hari Kirin Kaur Khalsa, Tom’s wife.  The musical accompaniment was done by their daughter , Ajeet Kaur,  and her band. I sat myself right next to the musicians for max vibrations during the demonstration.  Drum, guitar and harmonium formed the instrumental background for chants.  Sanskrit mantras were used.  These chants have specific meaning and results when repeated.  One specific breathing and mantra round was taught to combat insomnia.  I sleep well normally, but had a profoundly deep sleep that night.  I felt the results of the chanting and movement in my body and mind.  Ajeet’s clear sweet voice carried the group into focused concentration. The twin brothers who played guitar and drum were also accomplished and well rehearsed in this music.  The total package was a pleasant and instructive voyage into the technique of Kundalini yoga. The people in our class all reported a positive experience.  It was fun to be included as her talented parents encourage her musical career by working with her.  She has recorded a CD with her band and is setting out to soothe the planet with her musical talent.  Our group was lucky to meet her as she sets out on this adventure.

Magic Word

May 10, 2013

Carl Jung carved a Latin inscription above the door of his house in Kusnacht, Switzerland: “VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT.” This means: “Called or not called, the god will be there.” To actively call and later, be still and know is the heart of meditation. The call can be music, nature, yoga, chant, movement, or poetry.  The goal is emptiness gained through insight. This free time beyond the word, beyond the concept, and beyond imagination is free time with no boundaries of space and time. The ultimate reality is unlike the one in which our ego goes and does and consumes all the time. It has infinite qualities, at which words merely take a stab at defining. Words and chants are used to create liturgy and forms of reverence. Group voice has a magical quality that lifts spirit and satisfies the soul. Words and sounds resonate as well as drive the memory deeper, creating more meaningful images of past and dream life as a collage.

Rarely do direct and useful insights arrive like lightning bolts.  I notice that visual cues stimulate my contemplation, but often a single word has great and continued meaning.  Last week I heard the sound of a name I have often read, Hecate.  I noticed that my mental pronunciation had been incorrect.  Perhaps for this reason the name and her meaning came back to me a few times over the weekend.  As we learned discernment between soul and spirit, her name was mentioned as the night goddess of magic.  Her meaning is all about soul, in the living and the dead.  She stands at the crossroads and is a guide to the underworld. At the end of our group’s time together we got to gaze into Tom’s obsidian mirror to stimulate our intuitions.  The small shiny mirror was passed around from student to student as we said our goodbyes to each other.  I moved about with my reflective image,  finally settling on a shot of the ceiling , which was covered with acoustic tile.   I gazed for a few moments and again Hecate came faintly into my mental focus.  Days later I remembered the image of that cross of the intersecting ceiling tiles.  This time the metaphor of my question as a crossroads, and Hecate is the ruler of the place was clearer.

All decisions are not life or death.  I take from this contemplation on my own soul and spirit the idea that life is finite, but the soul is not.  Hecate is a symbol of darkness, death, and magic.  Called or uncalled, she will be there at the crossroads.

Gurus in Person

May 2, 2013 — 6 Comments

We can become fans of writers, teachers, artists and performers by watching and reading their work. Sometimes the personality is not even important if the subject being covered is of great interest. Teachers can impart wisdom from both a positive and a shadow style lesson. Sometimes they teach us what we want to avoid. This week I have the priviledge of seeing back to back two people I like because of the work they do.  Tonight I will see Anthony Bourdain on stage with another chef, Eric Rippert.  Tomorrow I will go to Kripalu to attend a weekend workshop with Thomas Moore.

These teacher/gurus influence me in completely different ways.  Bourdain travels and eats on TV.  Thomas Moore is my favorite author and modern philosopher.  They both inspire new thoughts and ideas for me while exposing me to unknown worlds.  They are both very knowledgeable and are recognized by peers as experts in their fields.  They both tweet, but with completely different styles.  Tonight I will sit in the audience for a show that is repeated on a tour of  other cities.  I am not sure if any interaction will take place, but it has to be minimal because of the ratio of audience members to talent.  For the weekend I will study, meditate and absorb the vibe of Thomas Moore in an intimate setting.  They will be distinct and probably incomparable experiences.  I will let you know, gentle reader.

History and Record Keeping

April 30, 2013 — 1 Comment

If I learned one thing on my ancestry quest in Massachusetts it is that the record keeper is the author of  history.  I have realized this by finding census and other documents that conflict with each other while studying my ancestors.  Never has it been so clear.  I believed that the tribe would have the information on the tribe in Mashpee, so I went straight to the museum to inquire.  Because they rely on records kept by the Europeans the family trees are reconstructed using English last names.  They use what they have.  The records looked like they started in the 1800’s.

I was unhappy about  the state of affairs.  The tiny tribal museum has little funding, and can open only a few hours, a couple of days a week.  I then traveled to the big well funded museum at Plimouth Plantation.  Wow, what a difference!!!

The museum at Plimouth Plantation is doing some revisionist history in order to correct many of the assumptions and erroneous stories that exist about the Mayflower and the native people. The Pilgrims play characters in period costume, expressing the beliefs of the time and place.  The Pilgrims were religious prudes who considered themselves religiously superior to all other religions.  They also felt entitled to take anything they wanted from the native people because they had permission from the King of England. Their church was fortified on top with cannons in all directions.  I guess they felt that God and the King needed some back up.  Although I had a few Pilgrims and only one ( I think) Wampanoag ancestor, I distinctly disliked the pretend Pilgrims when I met them. I am, however, glad they kept some records at the time.