March In Like a Lamb,Out Like a Lion:Does Ancient Rhyme Predict More Climate Crises or Solutions?

MARCH IN LIKE A LAMB, OUT LIKE A LION:DOES ANCIENT RHYME PREDICT MORE CLIMATE CRISES OR SOLUTIONS?

CAUTIOUS EXIT from SUBTERRANEAN/TELOSIAN MOUNTAIN WRITERS’ WO/MAN CAVE to TREAD LIGHTLY, GUIDED BY ANGELS & NATURE SPIRIT DEVAS INTO SPRING

March May have ‘Come in like LAMB’ but her Gentle Fleece Quickly Trailed in SNOW & 100mph Gales on Donner Pass & CA I-80 2Reno

Hours after fickle month of Spring, Lady March came in on our Leap Year calendar, the young Maiden of Nature chose to reclad herself in Winter woolies, as California’s notorious 7,056ft-high Donner Pass on I-80 to Reno, Nevada was pounded with snow.

Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass, operated by the University of California at Berkeley, reported 23.8 inches of new snow between Saturday and Sunday morning, March 2-3, bringing total snowfall for the season to five feet. New snowfall was accompanied by 100mph gale force winds, gusting to 116mph.

“California Highway Patrol in Truckee on CA’s I-80 infamous transmontane route for rail & highway between San Francisco & Reno, NV was monitoring traffic & advised drivers that travel was “highly discouraged”.

Donner Pass reputed inspiration4 Overlook Hotel in Jack Nicholson/Stephen King 1975 movie ‘The Shining’, is popular destination.

Meanwhile in Britain—while the Northern Isles [Orkney & Shetland] & exposed areas of Sutherland like Cape Wrath were battered by gales normal for this time of year—most of the country-including Eastern shores of Scotland, Eastern Northumberland, Yorkshire & the notorious Pennines-were, like the English capital, enjoying garden birdsong, appearance of snowdrops, above mid-l., first buds of cherry & wild cherry (gean), top l. & rt., with even a sighting in downtown Aberdeen of an urban fox making himself comfortable on warm granite ‘cassie setts’ [paving slabs] in the mild weather.

It seems natural, therefore, that our thoughts should spring forward like clocks [daylight saving time U.S. springs forward March 10th; Britain March 28th] to working in the garden to cultivate favourites like the sweet pea, top rt., and dream of the scent of summer roses. Below mid l. Rosa Charles de Mills.

Ramadan, Lent & Easter Dominate March, all ‘late’ in Calendar this Year

Ramadan, ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting and prayer, begins March 10th and will last until April 8th.

Similarly this year, Easter falls ‘late’ i.e. on last Sunday in March: 31st. Because such festivals are still calculated by us earthlings according to moon cycles—mentioned in my previous blog on Carnival here—Good Friday & end of Lent will not happen until after Spring Equinox, March 23rd. March Full “Worm” Moon occurs March 24th. See Lenten origins for blindfolding children & Piñata frolics below*.

Full Moons this quarter: March Worm Moon April Full Pink Moon; & May Full Flower Moon

First come Candlemas
Syne the New Meen
The niest Tiseday efter ‘at
Is aye Festern’s E’en.
That Meen oot
An’ anither at its hicht
The niest Sunday efter ‘at
Is aye Pasche richt.’
Ancient Scots Easter calculation, Anon

And watch out for penumbral lunar eclipse visible in Americas, Europe & W.Africa from 1a.m.-5:30a.m. EDT-March 25; 10p.m. PDT March 24-2:30a.m.March 25th; followed by April 8th solar eclipse visible N.hemisphere

Traditions dominate every culture, whether we know it or not. So it’s worth looking at a favourite child’s game—being blindfolded, spun 3 times (2lose sense of direction) & then trying to smash open a Piñata.

Bright rainbow-paper toy mule Piñata hung up at children’s parties for them to smash open & grab candy & other treasures that burst out from inside wasn’t just for kids originally. In medieval Italy, on 1st Sunday in Lent, Kings of Naples & Sicily distributed gifts to peasants as a Lenten almsgiving. It came in simple earthenware pignatta, Ital. cooking pot, fr.Lat. pinea, pine cone shape.

This tradition spread to Spain, called Piñata like a pineapple Sp. piña, & when Armada came to the New World, they found a similar tradition in Mexico [of Aztec origin] which they embodied/converted in R.C. Xtian Lent.

Spanish Friars saw these as an opportunity 2convert pagan Aztecs & created seasonal piñatas filled with fruits & seeds for Lent, Easter & Christmas.

Being blindfolded was used to represent faith, that is, believing without seeing. Many other traditions from Europe were transmitted via the early [Catholic] Church as a means to convert pagan followers.

Ancients’ Knowledge of Seasons & Growth used at Sacred Sites/ Wells

The Ancient Britons aka Brittonic/Weish Druidic priests of Anglesey/Inys Mons have much to teach us 21st Century A.I.- & politically-dominated experts in garden cultivation, reforestation and agriculture. In our excitement over the phenomenon of spring bloom in deciduous plants, we may forget how heavily we rely on that mysterious range of evergreens quietly holding down roots through harshest winters, only to burst with new foliage and exuberance in warmer months. Below top l.rt Cotswolds’ iconic yews

Conifers like ancient Caledonian pine (pinus sylvestrus or Caledoniensis) come first to mind, along with cousins Monterey pine (pinus radiata, above, bottom rt.) & Pac.NW’s statuesque Douglas Fir (bottom l., pseudotsuga Menziesii)-q.v. last year’s June blog for its stature c.f. Giant Redwood Sequoiadendron giganteum, including my young plantation of Caledonian pine in my personal effort to bring rewilding & regrowth to Scots pine forests burned in 1308 by ravages of Robert Bruce’s Herschip o’ Buchan.

Yew—Guardian of Brittonic & pre-Celtic Sacred Mounds—reused in Christian Churches Symbolic of Reincarnation & to Ward off Evil

Less celebrated for its longevity and overwintering prowess, more for its poison, the evergreen Yew, above 1-3, has long been churchyard sentinel in all counties & four British ‘countries’—Scotland (& N.isles) Scotland, England, Wales/Kernow (Cornwall) N.& S.Ireland; relatively less visible in churches in U.S. or E. Europe, but prevalent in cross-channel (Brittonic) Brittany, coastal France & Portugal.

Doorway of St.Edwards church, l. above, Stow-on-the-Wold, English Cotswolds, has ancient yew ‘feet’.

Greek goddess Hecate was famed for her knowledge of herbs, poisonous plants & sorcery; Roman counterpart Hekate/sometimes moon goddess Silene linked to huntress Diana was bearer of the keys to the Underworld, protector of World’s Soul [Anima Mundi]. As she held the keys to unlock the gates between worlds and gain access to both realms, she was equally powerful in ‘Heaven & Hell’ & seen as early-Medieval Tree of Life. While early-Christian monastics advised against putting “devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads”, legendary Celtic Druids planted yew close to their temples for use in death ritual & regeneration. Because of its association with immortality, early Brittonic/Celtic kings had the wood cut for staffs & emblems of royal regalia, to associate with its immortality & God-given power.

Until they departed Britannia c. A.D.420, Roman legions stormed ancient Brittonic strongholds including York, [called Roman Eboracum, fr. Brythonic Eburākon=place of the Yew trees]. Pre-Celtic yew=eburos.

Reputedly oldest tree in Europe, Perthshire Fortingall Yew is 5000-yrs old & stands at the gates to the kirk [pre-Xtian Pictish well] in what Ancient Brythonic Picts saw as the centre of the landmass of Scotland [Cape Wrath/John o’Groats to Whithorn, Galloway lying a stone’s throw from Glen Lyon Loch Tay Cailleach/Bodach stone shelter, oldest continuously-observed sacred pagan site in Britain maintained by (anon) guardians.

While red Yew berries contain alkaloid poison taxine, from 13thC on its strong, flexible wood was used to cut 6ft longbows, strung with hemp/flax to create powerful weapons with a range of 230 yds/m, which could shoot arrows capable of piercing chain mail. Bows & arrows were in use until rapid fire guns & cannon took over mid 16thC.

An avenue of yews at Painswick, nr. Stroud, Glos., top, rt. reaches full-height 60ft/20m.

Its poisonous berries, 2nd l. above, keep cattle and wildlife away from graveyards, so sacred burials remain intact. Its longevity is second only to Giant Redwoods, and, because of its continuous use from Ancient pagan times, it is traditionally seen as symbolic of reincarnation and life everlasting.

Nature’s Woodland Helpers Inspire us to Dive Back into our Writers‘ Den to Connect with our Inner Soul

Guided through this maelstrom of 21stC catastrophic existence by angelic forces, we are reminded by the angel/deva of the sweet pea, top,rt. that Dorothy Maclean, a Canadian gardener, communicated with the Devas, and spoke with sweet peas and the pea fairy while she worked.

Dorothy was co-founder alongside her Brit friend Eileen Caddy of Findhorn Foundation in NE Scotland. They meditated in their ‘fifties blue caravan, with Eileen’s ex-RAF husband Peter Caddy, a WWII vet. They shared a dream of international peace. And growing their own vegetables.

Among early Foundation residents was Joy Drake, who also gardened, spoke w/angels & created now internationally-celebrated set of Angel Cards rt. used daily by millions similar to drawing from a Tarot deck.

Findhorn’s Eco-village and Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome ‘Universal Hall’ meeting venue on shores of the Moray Firth drew followers from all over the world. Recent fire burned its Community Centre & so FF meditation Sanctuary/guest program has been discontinued. Interim spiritual ad- vice, provided by FF leader Granville Stone, is supported by a worldwide network of RP ‘Resource Persons’, of which I am one. Thus, any direction or assistance i can give in helping a fellow seeker along Nature’s path to Universal enlightenment-with the help of the angelic brigade is offered via this blog-comments are welcome.

A long-time gardener myself, associated with the RP Network since 1988, [169 people in 36 countries], I have moved from NE Scotland—where I was RP for Aberdeenshire—to being RP for Eureka, CA [2012- 2018]—currently RP for Hilo, Hawai’i/working in the Network with Elisha Southworth, RP Kailua-Kona.

Such is the way of the Universe & Great Spirit. If you are a believer, all things will come; all dreams be fulfilled.

Now. as I dive back down into my Muse-Angel-guided Writerly Cavern, I urge my fellow travellers in the Light to stay cool, & believe that Peace, and those beautiful Devas within the sweet pea [and your own faves] in the Spirit Realm are keeping us on track. ThankU Universe. ©2024MarianC.Youngblood

Ancient Calendar More Accurate Than Ever—Harvest Lammastide—When Nature and Heavens Sparkle & Entice

ANCIENT CALENDAR MORE ACCURATE THAN EVER—BACK-TO-THE-LAND ETHOS—MOTHER EARTH GUIDES US HOOMAN (Insecure) WRITERS, ARTIST-CREATORS, MUSICIANS, COPS, HOSPITAL & CONSTRUCTION WORKERS & esp. FARMERS

FIRST WEDNESDAY BLOGMOBILE ROLLCALL from COSMOS for WRITERS to EXIT LAVATUBE HIDEAWAY & GREET ANCIENT LUGHNASADH/LAMMAS & HER PERSEID METEOR SHOWER SHOOTING STAR PARADE

SIRIUS Summer Dog Days Predict H₂O, PERSEID & η-AQUARID Meteors💥

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more

George Gordon of Gight, Lord Byron, died 1824 aged 36

Castle of Gight-on-Ythan original separate Gordon stronghold, part of adjoining Haddo Estate holds festive children events with blessing of Lord & Lady Haddo

August has traditionally had pride of place in European culture. Normally frozen like Juneau, AK at same latitude 58ºN, this year northerners join Mediterranean nations basking in unaccustomed warmth of Gulf Stream marvels carried relentlessly from Florida and Bermuda to reach beyond Iceland, Faroes, the Baltic, to Archangel & Nordkapp.

Sunspots Kindle Britain/Europe’s Hottest-Ever Temperatures, Pacific El Niño

An unusually large CME—coronal mass ejection—caused when a large sunspot curves round to face Earth during solar maximum—featured first week August in Washington State’s far NorthWest territory bordering Canadian Vancouver Island’s whale migration route—folk memory or consciousness trigger?

Mud Lake, WA rt., unusual Aurora latitude 47ºN—same as St.Michael’s Glastonbury tor, Newport, Bath, Somerset, Glamorgan & Roman market town Caer Gwent Chepstow, S.Wales—all with music festival Severn-estuary-related connection2 subterranean faultline hotsprings in Somerset & Brittany—seemed to send a signal last week from the Heavens—Aurora Borealis usually a feature of winter skies—to festival party-goers excited to return to mask-free music in Britain, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Miami, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, Monterrey, London’s SouthBank Centre and NYC’s Central Park.

Stormy Times Call4 Stormy Measures—Can WiFi Forestry Replace Corn Dolly-Clyack Sheaf

All along Scotland’s North Coast—Aberdeenshire, Moray Firth, former Banffshire, traditional inshore fishing boats like this oak vessel in Gamrie Bay plied waters from Peterhead to Elgin, Black Isle, Highland Fault-Glenfeshie-Caledonian Canal ©G.Robertson

From birth in the Ocean on ancient Pictish Burghead Fortress’s North Shore beach, STORM is daughter of a long tradition of Clavie-burning crew of Fire Festival-every-Quarter men & youths who shoulder a burning barrel of tar, below rt. around the coast town dispensing gifts of charred oak to residents, then hoist it to Doorie fire altar on fort’s highest rock to smoulder and burn, saving one ember for next time.

STORM, the gigantic puppet robot doll made entirely of environmental waste, is THIS WEEK gracing Edinburgh’s groovy Festival Fringe with her unique presence. Joint Creators Trees for Life, Glenfeshie, Invernessshire original Findhorn Foundation spin-off guru Alan Watson-Featherstone’s 30-yr forest, and Vision Mechanics Storm’s creators, are together spreading the word on #NewAgeConsciousness & tree-planting

Sunspot Triggers Summer Aurora & Pacific Tropical Storm Stevo

Across the pond, Hawai’ians pride themselves—nay boast—of another goddess: higher-than-Everest 29,000ft Mauna Loa (calculated to snow-covered peak from deep ocean floor). She’s a hurricane-buster, famed for side-swiping every ocean impediment that comes her way—Pele-speak for local goddess’s near-miraculous ability to redirect storms north and rain south away from her unique mountain home. Goddess Pele conspires with brother El Niño & volcanic sisters worldwide to spew lava when and wherever possible over machine/mechanical devices to make us (hoomans) wake up!

Ten years ago I was able to post an El Niño video without hassle—they want premium content now 😦

Check out how Pele’s volcanic brethren either side of the Equator are holding our oceans steady in August 2022 on run-up to 8/8 Lionsgate. CMEs turn on a switch. Voilà volcanic mayhem worldwide as Stromboli, Vesuvius, Etna, Sangay Ecuador & Kyushu’s Sakurajima react to Lammas sunspot activity. Twin-sis Mauna Kea spouts from her lava tube in Hawai’i Volcanoes NPS temporarily CLOSED, hoping sunspots & Perseid meteors will slow later in month for reopening. Meantime Big Island virtual pix…

Perseid meteors sparkle to Earth from their vortex in Algol’s binary eye of Medusa clutched in heroic hands as Perseus rescues Andromeda from Cetus, the Whale, below rt. Sirius Canis major rises East to bring breathless Dog Days, the Nile bursting its banks to flood Luxor during hot rainless dry nights.

Appropriately, Guatemalan Elders have known for decades that human ascension predicted by their ancestors has already begun. Daykeeper Hunbatz Men, modern Elder of the Guatemalan Maya, foresees no apocalypse, but encourages deep meditation and generosity to trigger joy & gratitude in a thankless world. Similarly, Islam uses prayer and gift-giving as a discipline.

Signs of the [End] Times or Birth of a New Age?
Judaic scripture [Revelation uses sacred numerology and dramatic descriptions of the Rapture and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—war, pestilence, famine and death to symbolize the End of Days.

Arab sacred texts repeat the need for constant prayer by the devoted in order to be saved. The Maya believe that sharing their higher understanding handed down by their elders from the time of their Ancestors will save the human race from itself. Maya wisdom says the New Age began four years ago.

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Ailkey Brae, above bottom left, is classic example of 5,000 years squeezed into Lammas week: Aikey Horse Fair, held as recently as 1980s on the harvest stance below Aikey Brae Recumbent Stone Circle [RSC] twins with Culsalmond, at entrance to Glens of Foudland—also RSC territory—where on St.Serf’s day in July, tradition held St. Sair’s Fair on the “market stance” field of Jericho next to its [ruined] RSC. Biblical refs aside, St. Sair was patron of Colpy, sanctified annually at neighbouring Williamston well.

Burning Man, Combine Harvesters, Plant New Trees for Old Times

Meanwhile Black Rock in the Nevada Desert, two hours North of Reno, fave tent-city for Burning Man l.above, long before Covid, will run again mask-free this year August 28-September 5th-a post-pandemic event: main tickets $575—$100 more than in 2020. Tents, camping, food vendors festival materials included.

If you are shivering in goosebump land because of Jack Nicholson’s 1980 psychological thriller, The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1977 Stephen King novel, you are wise to keep head down, windows closed as your campervan screeches into high gear mounting 7,000-ft Donner Pass. Kubrick moved King’s Overlook Hotel to Washington state to avoid clash with the real Overlook, which will accommodate late festival-goers as spare camping back-up. Nightmare city!

FIRING-THE-GRID IN FEBRUARY 2023

While we’re staying cool and hydrating hourly through this heatwave, it’s good to plan ahead for a world super-togetherness event, Fire-the-Grid2 February 21, 2023. World meditation focus on that day will peak at the moment of 11:11a.m., so plan to be seated, safe in your comfort zone ready to feel joy—biblical rapture—for minimum five minutes by 11:07. The Universe is giving you four minutes to prepare.

Agriculture Adaptable to ReNew-able/ReOldie-Wayz

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Sentimental throwback time, above :agriculture eclipsing summer in winter: Kirkton of Bourtie top, farm steading in winter of 1981 later converted to posh modern (granite) house complex; lower: RSC same farmer’s field with summertime barley bales rolled like missing megaliths against midwinter sunset in S.W. Kirkton of Bourtie stone circle, glimpsed from the Old Manse.

TRADITION LINGERS IN THE OLD WORLD

Traditionalists are still rampant in Europe—nay Colonialism never died. Countries bordering the former “Silk Road” were affected by opening of the Suez Canal, Qanātu as-Suways, 1859, linking the Red Sea & Mediterranean, as 1500 years of travel became a short 120-mile ocean hop, skip & jump between the North Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean.

Egypt is main beneficiary, as water level—Nile linked to SIRIUS rising—became controlled: only loss was having to re-site iconic Abu Simbel temple to higher ground. Ethiopia, Iran and Arabian Gulf nations boomed as the Red Sea dried up.

With such history of drought & water-consciousness, it’s satisfying to watch Saudi ingenuity triumph in the desert. Snaking for 100 miles from Red Sea shoreline, construction on the wondrous temperate-climate-controlled triple level high-rise mirrored city, THE LINE has begun. Two sub-levels house train track & infrastructure, leaving street level for glass-enclosed gardens, theatres, offices, 24-hour restaurants, recreational pools, sports arenas and a 100-mile shopping complex.

No cars or trucks. Completion is due 2030.

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 115-mile solar-mirror city as high as Empire State building 1500ft but only wide enough to accommodate 100-mile high-speed rail track-no cars or roads-for nine million residents who have a five-minute walk through mirrored gardens and orchards for their morning cup of coffee

All Stops Out for Dream Concepts & Dealing with the HEAT

THE LINE Saudi dream-city makes for interesting contrast.

Proposed as robotic-press-button permanently cool, totally-enclosed 100%-temperature-controlled habitat along a new RedSea-DeadSea highway, The LINE will bring artificial light-cum-air-conditioning where only camels plodded before. Unlike the Saudi rail link which serves Mecca from the coast during annual Hajj for Eid gift-giving after the Ramadan fast, the LINE breaks new ground, heads for mountainous terrain where shopping, walking, pool-dip coffee-klatching become the norm over minaret calls, mosques and touching prophet Mohammed’s A.D.605 Black Stone.

Veteran Song Circle/Fire Festival Traditions Bring Communities Together

STORM,robot sea goddess walking from NE Scotland’s Burghead Pictish 8thC stronghold in Moray Firth last fall’s COP26 Birmingham 2021 ecological summit; tree-planting forest walk this week to Edinburgh Festival Fringe

If the thought of camping out in mud-soaked portaloo-contaminated rain-drenched fairground conditions in Reno NV, top, gives you goosebumps, think again.

Those running the show have learned from past Music Festivals—Newbury, Glastonbury, Big Sur, Woodstock, to current Leeds, London’s LLCM Meltdown Festival & 4 Scots fans THIS WEEK Edinburgh Festival Fringe— do your own thing—be gentle with the Earth, our Mother—plant a tree yourself—Add your 21stC futurist consciousness—and a donation—2Storm & the Forest

Beyond Uranus or Back Underground in Writers’ LavaTube Hideaway

NASA’s recent launch of its James Webb telescope reveals unprecented images of Uranus, top middle left—in my oldie-but-goodie mind joining V.ger and Spock in that uncharted area beyond the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt—Spock-Speak image top middle rt. Alien Klingon ‘wessel’ ditching in San Francisco Bay, Spock in white, Scotty in charge of whales—movie Star Trek IV the Voyage Home.

If URANUS’ moons and her vertical axis [c.f. Saturn and Jupiter on the horizontal] delight and inspire you to plant another garden in the Earth—from above or below—go for it. Plant up a storm

The gardening Caledonian pine tree-planter in me wants to stay topside all the time. But my writers’ Muse is a stickler for personal discipline—that’s freedom in subterranean #lavatubespeak!

8/8 LionsGate this week & Lammas goes on for another three. Enjoy. ©2022Marian Youngblood