tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3351463163333519312024-03-19T14:33:35.733-07:00Odin's Raven's Nest Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-54844227137066627252016-06-26T04:00:00.000-07:002016-07-26T06:20:04.054-07:00The Church of the Green Jesus<br />
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<br />
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Maybe you
saw it on the way here? It’s easy to miss. It used to be notorious in these
parts and lots of people came to see it. Now it’s just a small dilapidated
building in an overgrown patch of woodland.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How did it
start? Who started it? What was it about? There's lots of stories about it, and
it’s hard to know how much truth there may be in any of them. I've lived around
here and been interested in the local stories for a long time, and this is the
best sense I can make of it.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Way back in
the old times, long ago when this was still America, things became real crazy,
even before the Collapse and the War. Maybe the craziness was a cause rather
than an effect. I don't know. Any ways, it seems that before the end of the old
times, some people were scared that the sea was about to rise and swallow them,
or the sun was about to burn them up, or the weather was about to go mad and
torment them and destroy their crops by unseasonable floods and droughts. They
came here, well above sea level, in a temperate climatic zone to live what they
considered to be a more holy life. It’s a bit like the story of Noah, but
without an ark. Some say that these folk were atheists, some say that they were
nature worshipers who hoped to propitiate their angry deities by
self-chastisement, ritualized farming and gardening and blaming their neighbors. Why angry gods would be mollified by this behavior is not
explained. Perhaps there was some echo of the Exodus story, with the 'good
guys' expecting to be 'passed over'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>when their neighbors got whacked. Maybe there had to be a sacrifice,
probably blood. Other People's Blood, usually better than Other People's Money
for making things happen in such stories. It's difficult to imagine angry gods
being satisfied with an offering of fresh vegetables, now isn't it? There is
that Cain and Abel precedent.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the bad
times came, everyone got whacked. Some of the 'Greenies', as they were known,
survived; probably helped by having become proficient kitchen gardeners- and by
ceasing to blame their neighbors. This is all background. The real story
begins a bit later, after the War, in the Templar Era.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At that
point the Greenies were gaining adherents as well as a reputation for being
'holier than thou', which other people disliked; especially those other people
who considered that they were the more holy ones. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Who did these people
think they were? Vicarious Atonement for the sins of others? That was Somebody
Else’s job description! </span> The American Inquisition
became active, and anything obviously unchristian came under scrutiny. Part of
the craziness hanging over from the old times was that some of these 'Greenies'
had been known to boast of being wizards, apparently without having the
expected skills of being able to turn opponents into green frogs, and so forth.
This was <span style="font-family: inherit;">r</span>emembered against them. At that time one of the most popular Biblical
quotes became, 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' Some have claimed to
discern different shades or colors of witchcraft, but to the popular mind, and
to religious orthodoxy, it’s all black. Some of them became air pollution and
cinders, a particularly sad fate for those reputed to have abhorred carbon for
some obscure reason. The fate of our community of 'Greenies' was different.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is
where the Templars enter the story. There are many tales about the Templars.
There were also whispers that some at least were heretics. Well, green eyed
envy ever besmirches the successful as well as the useful, and there's no doubt
that the Templars were both successful and useful. Many were evidently pious
and humble, even mystical, qualities often denigrated by the worldly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
seems that the Templar Preceptor for this district took an interest in the fate
of our local 'Greenies' for some reason. Perhaps he may have liked their leader,
who seems to have been a</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>colorful character, noted in the stories under various
pseudonyms such as 'Arch-priest Jeremiah'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In any case, as the local story goes, one afternoon the Preceptor paid a
visit to the 'Arch-priest'. The arrival of a group of well-armed and well
mounted men in Templar uniform caused much <span style="font-family: inherit;">p</span>erturbation in those who saw them
pass, and who answered their polite request for directions to the dwelling of
the Arch-priest, who lived in a big farmhouse with a group of his followers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Petrine mutterings of these followers
were quickly quelled by more thoughtful assessment of the Preceptor's escort of
hard faced war veterans. When it became clear that the Preceptor was there to
visit the Arch-priest, but not to arrest him, the followers, although not the
escort, relaxed.</span></span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The two men
got on well. Both were well educated and well informed with broad
interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the usual social
preliminaries such as discussion of the weather and the crop prospects, talk
turned to religion, particularly the early history of Christianity. Was it
chance or Providence which had decided which of the numerous schools of opinion
were to flourish and be accepted as Orthodox, and which would be condemned as
heretical? How strange it was that views at one time completely acceptable and
spread by missionaries were later deemed unacceptable. What immense trouble the
Christological disputes of Byzantine theologians had caused their state. How
one of the Fathers of the Church had been condemned and excommunicated – two
centuries after his death. How one of these holy men had written that whatever
fables he had to tell the people, privately he would remain a philosopher. How
St. Paul had said that he would be all things to all men to bring them to
Christ. How some of the martyrs had been so in love with death that they had
forced their prosecution upon reluctant officials. How some of the missionaries
had adopted the local culture to facilitate the spreading of their gospel. How
Pope Gregory had sent Augustine to England with instructions to take over pagan
holy places and festivals and adapt them to Christianity. How the Bible
famously allowed that 'in my Father's House are many mansions', without
defining them more closely. The Preceptor mentioned that although the attention
of the Inquisition had been drawn to this area, they and his own organization
were very busy. He and his superiors were hopeful that the Holy Spirit would
soon lead an upsurge of faith in this district, whether through seeing the
condign severity with which the pertinaciously contumacious were dispatched, or
through the mercy with which God touched the hearts of sinners enabling their
repentance, remained to be seen; although he personally prayed for the
latter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The agents of the Inquisition
were expected to arrive in no more than two weeks’ time, then the answer might
be revealed. The message having been obliquely but clearly delivered, the two
men turned their attention to sampling and appraising the Arch-priest's supply
of locally brewed beer. Pronouncing it good, the Preceptor and his men
departed, leaving a thoughtful Arch-priest surrounded by inquisitive followers.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Next Sunday
the Church of the Green Jesus opened for worship. When the Inquisition opened
their inquiries in the district a week later, it sheltered many who might not
have passed rigorous inspection otherwise. It was controversial from the start.
Few believed in the sincerity of this sudden Damascene conversion, although all
accepted that a visit from a Templar Preceptor just ahead of the arrival of the
Inquisition could have induced a profound change of consciousness comparable to
such an event. Seeing the light was obviously preferable to seeing the flames.
Those few who felt otherwise had left to meet their fiery destiny elsewhere. Some
of the Righteous were outraged; the self-righteous often are. Complaints to
officialdom were met by references to motes and beams, the parable wherein the
late recruited laborers received as much pay as those who had worked
throughout the whole day, the return of the Prodigal Son, rejoicing over the
salvation of lost lambs, injunctions to Christian charity, and much blandness.
Naturally the members of this new church were closely observed, but no one
found sufficient evidence against them to justify treating them as relapsed
heretics, so the barking diminished as the caravan moved on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For
most of the Greenies it was a surprisingly easy change, once they were careful
to adjust their rhetoric and nomenclature. 'Global Warming' easily translated
as 'Hell'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strenuous personal efforts to
avoid it, and widespread preaching to that effect were standard and expected
Christian</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>practices. Satan and his minions easily substituted for big
corporations. 'Sin' replaced carbon in their diatribes. 'Salvation' became of
much greater relevance than technology. Personal austerity and not-too-pointed
references to greed, corruption and hypocrisy were likewise accepted as normal.
'Waste not, want not’ and 'You can't have your cake and eat it' were old saws.
Proficiency in natural gardening and skill in handicrafts were useful and now
necessarily becoming commonplace. Oil, or indeed 'gas' in any form, and their
products were no longer available to the general public, so tirades against
them ceased as they became irrelevant. The historically inclined could discuss
the history of Indulgences and of carbon trading. As usual, beards remained
fashionable for reputed holy men, and now also for many others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wild eyes and long robes remained optional.
The translation and transition from a secular materialist frame of reference to
a Christian religious one was not so difficult. As they ceased to stick out so
egregiously, fewer of their neighbors felt that they were nails which needed
to be hammered down. Indeed, as the Templar probably expected, after a couple
of generations the members of the church would have been horrified had they
been able to know and understand the true beliefs of their founders.</span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They quickly
developed a distinctive brand, market niche or theological emphasis. A special
devotion to St. Francis was part of it. Preaching to birds and beasts still
seemed 'far out', but the notion if not the practice, provided an acceptably
Christian frame of reference for a religiously oriented concern with nature.
The previous sentimentality about lambs had diminished as hunger and poverty
made them again a profitable food source not often available to much of the
population, rather than infantile woolly images of cloying sweetness. The Agnus
Dei remained a highly acceptable religious symbol. Woolen textiles silently
replaced synthetic materials that were no longer available. Shepherds were
authentically Biblical characters and had a renewed economic significance.
Speculation about the relation between their woolen clothing, the web of
nature and the Seamless Robe of Christ which was divided by his persecutors,
although it may have had the potential for heresy, was within acceptable
bounds. Eucharistic symbolism easily extended from bread and wine to embrace
mutton or lamb as the body of Christ, for those who could afford it, although
officially only the former were Biblically endorsed for use in Holy Communion.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The pious
legend of St. Hubert who beheld a crucifix between the horns of a stag provided inspiration for a local style of flowing art depicting not
only the very Biblical vines, figs and olive trees, but also deer nibbling the
leaves of the Tree of Life, Noah's Ark, Elijah's ravens, lions and lambs,
fishes, the Evangelical emblems of lion, man, eagle and bull, and any other
reference to flora and fauna that could attest a more or less authentically
Biblical provenance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one caviled at
the occasional mushroom in discreet corners of designs. Corn (all edible grain,
not specifically maize) and wine were acceptable, and no one took it amiss if a
special devotion to St. John Barleycorn was sometimes exuberantly expressed.
Indeed, and not for the first time, other and sometimes older faiths were
subsumed under the rubric of Christianity without much difficulty.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
state of innocence in this Edenic garden persisted for some years, or even
decades. Eventually a smart young man named Jonas Caraway became prominent in
this loose knit community. A throwback to an earlier era, he was definitely
what had been known as a 'go-getter'. Jonas became a leader determined to craft
an organization and a business-model which would have substantial impact and
outreach beyond the locality and its community or congregation. He forged the
Church of the Green Jesus into a vehicle to serve his special devotion to money
and self-publicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His business talent
soon created, if not an empire, then certainly a prosperous province in the
world of recreational drug growing and distribution. The Church had become
locally and discreetly known as a supplier of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>marijuana and 'entheogenic' mushrooms, but Jonas turned it into a
business, and combined the notions of business and cult. His early profits were
ploughed back into the business, sprinkled liberally with pious references to
the Parable of the Talents, and brought forth strange fruits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The acreage under cultivation was increased,
the staff or congregation was 'upgraded' and motivated to increase
productivity, branch offices or Churches were opened across</span> more and more of the country. 'Bishop Jonas' as he rapidly
became, and his supervisors or Canons, were soon known to be heavy handed and
easily offended, but there was little adverse publicity, and 'My God, how the
money rolls in, rolls in!' was the overriding theme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So far, so
good. Or, so bad. A matter for the perhaps negligent or somnolent or corrupt
local authorities and their perhaps incompetent or over-stretched police
forces, but not something to gain widespread notoriety, you might think. So far
you would be right. Jonas however had another gift, not exactly Eucharistic, a
flair for self-publicity unfortunately combined with a sneering sense of his
own cleverness. Not satisfied with success, Jonas had to improve upon it.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The original
Church had a sign outside it, a literally green painted image of Jesus.
Certainly distinctive, but not offensive. It is said that at first this image
had been outlined by a sort of flashing green light which glowed in the dark,
much used by the people in olden times. Believe that story if you will. In any
case, as success went to his head, ‘Bishop' Jonas demonstrated his wit by
revising the liturgy of his church, and then advertising it. Smoking a
marijuana cigarette became the new sacrament, and he would place a burning
'joint' in the mouth of the green image of Jesus, often standing outside the
church building, laughing with passers-by and alternating the cigarette between
his lips and those of Jesus, whilst garbed in his self-designed ecclesiastical
cope which featured a huge green marijuana leaf on a golden background.
Certainly distinctive, and very offensive. So far, so local.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A lamb not
being enough, Jonas went for the sheep. As his cult expanded, he became more
concerned with branding and advertising his products and himself. He packaged
his products in green paper bearing a depiction of Jesus and himself standing
together wearing Biblical robes and smoking marijuana cigarettes with the
letters 'J' and 'C' over their respective heads and leering smiles on their
faces. This Unique Selling Point certainly began to draw attention to him. His
end was now inevitable, but just what the event was which lit the faggots he
had so carefully placed around his own feet, remains obscure. One version is
that a well-known minister of a more orthodox denomination pulled out a
handkerchief at a church gathering and one of these lurid covers fluttered out
of his pocket with it, to the scandal of the assembled dignitaries once one of
them had retrieved it. Others suggest that business rivals who had their own
discreet contacts, began to whisper more and more urgently into official ears
as Jonas became more successful and as more evidence against him could be
presented to the public. Out of sight, wheels began to turn, joints and bones
began to crack, names began to be screamed, and the Hounds of God ran silently
upon his trail.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They
say he did not die well. He was not the only one to die of course. Most of his
followers were caught, although a few probably escaped, and many of his
customers and business contacts shared their fate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's what made the name famous, or
infamous, of course. Jonas wasn't the only person with a sense of drama and the
ability to ensure that a message was heard loudly and clearly. His screams and
babbling certainly were heard for hours. The executions were spread over the
country and widely publicised. Special attention was devoted to the execution
of 'Bishop' Jonas. All local officials and prominent persons were required to
attend. National dignitaries attended. The local populace, including the
children, were also mostly assembled there, few exemptions were permitted.
Deterrence is more effective if you see the pain, hear the screams and howls,
smell the smoke and the roasting flesh, watch it basted in its own blood, track
the melting and bubbling fat, smell the appetizing smell of roasting meat, see
someone you once knew become an <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">unrecognizable</span> distorted blackened lump, still
screaming, whilst his blood and sizzling fat and soot and ashes smears your own
face. It helps if you puke your own guts out over your own and your <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">neighbor's</span>
shoes, and hear their moans and sobs as well as your own all overlain by the
howling of the object that had been a man. People remember that, and pass on
the story to their grandchildren. The officials and dignitaries, although many
blanched and gulped, did not lose their dignity by moaning or puking or turning
their gazes away like women or children. No mercy was shown. The event </span>lasted all morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When it seemed he might die too soon, the fire was slaked, or raked
back. Others who had not been adjudged so guilty had been allowed bags of
gunpowder around their necks to end their misery much sooner, but this was
denied to Jonas. He was no martyr. He had no cause but his own vanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lacked the dignity to die without whining
and pleading and cursing uselessly. He deserved what happened to him. Some of
the more hardened and stony-faced officials were able to sit smoking marijuana
cigarettes as they watched. Another brand obviously. Marijuana is not illegal.
Blasphemy is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The little church fell upon hard times
after that. It was abandoned for years and neglected as nobody was left to look
after it and no group wished to be associated with its name, for fear of being
regarded as surviving followers of Jonas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The name and the memory survived locally of course, and people knew the
stories associated with the little building and its strange image of Jesus.
After various tramps and misfits who had drifted by and squatted in and around
the building had become nuisances and been moved on feeling sore, another group
crystallized there. They were known as Diggers, perhaps partly in reference to
the 17<sup>th</sup> century sect and partly because they cultivated and
searched for mushrooms and spent a lot of time grubbing around. Something of
the ideas and stories surrounding the place filtered through to them and in
local thought they assumed or resumed the group identity of the Church. This
group however had somewhat different interests. This time it was mushrooms and
symbiotic forms of life. Many of the stories associated with these people are
extremely strange and disturbing. Some may be derived from what they themselves
said. Others may have come from what was later gleaned by the inquiries of the
Inquisition. It is widely accepted that mushrooms are the fruit of fungi which
attach themselves to the roots of trees. They said that the trees and the fungi
exchanged food, much like, they also said, people and plants exchange different
types of air. Maybe they did know more than ordinary people; I can’t say.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
stories began to get a bit scary when they said such things as that trees could
make their leaves poisonous to dissuade or kill animals which over-grazed them,
and warn each other when the animals started to munch on one of them, and
transfer food or water to each other via their roots and networks of
fungi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were creepy echoes of
ancient stories of people being lost in a forest where the trees slowly closed
in on them, or of Triffids and Venus fly traps. From the olden days came a
legend that the great trees of the Pacific Northwest coast had been fed on
salmon by the bears which guarded them. There were whispers of bugs which got
into mice, and caused them to act counter to their natural instincts and to
seek out cats rather than flee from them, and hints that something similar
could happen to people, maybe spread by parasitic fungi. Perhaps there was a
natural mutation or some form of ghoulish experiment went wrong – or right.
Concern definitely became Inquisitorial when rumors spread that they worshiped and had communion with the spirits of trees and desert cacti and
vines from distant forests; but that must have come a lot later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously the only Biblical spin on anything
which smacked of Sacred Groves or High Places or relations with unclean spirits
led straight through the fire to Hell. At the time of course, their neighbors
would not have seen anything very strange about these people. Tending to one’s
trees and to one’s garden and to one’s own business was absolutely normal. Only
later could people wonder whether these folk had somehow become taken over by
their trees, mentally controlled by them and used as ambulant servitors. That
after all would not have been so different from how plants used animals and insects
to spread their pollen and their seeds. Maybe, as with fungi, they became more
tightly and physically linked. Very nice for the trees if they could get people
to bring them food and water, spread and plant their seeds and generally act as
their gardeners. Fungi, trees, humans, each making use of the others. Was any
one of them in charge? If plants could create scents and colors to attract
insects, and some could give humans intense emotional and mystical experiences,
perhaps they would provide some kind of feelings of happiness or even bliss to
keep their human labor force content and productive. It’s only a couple of
steps further to have them lay down their lives and those of others for their
owners. </span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
new artistic motif began to be noticed in association with the Church of the
Green Jesus</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>and its followers and hangers-on.That was the Green Man, a
revival of a much older image, a man’s head peeking through foliage. No
satisfactory explanation was ever offered, although later there was speculation
as to whether it might have meant something. A wild natural consciousness
perhaps, or human intelligence expressed through vegetable life, or a man
assimilated to a tree maybe. If the Inquisition couldn’t settle the question,
neither can I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What was later
settled was that The Men of the Green Lord as some of them called <span style="font-family: inherit;">t</span>hemselves (O
shades of Osiris!) had formed a cult somewhat along the lines of the Thugs.
They became great travelers, working as artists, carvers, tinkers, conjurors,
entertainers, gardeners and plant distributors and so forth. They spread the
image along with the cult, and used it as a recognition sign, rather as the
early Christians had used the fish. They did not use the name of the Church of
the Green Jesus, nor create local ‘branches’ -hmm. At first they tended to
return there each year as a kind of general meeting place, and some of their
gains, well or ill-gotten, were used to maintain it and its surroundings. It
was probably rather beautiful, and their influence created a modest prosperity
in several local businesses. They even established their own passenger and
freight haulage businesses. ‘Tree Line’ or ‘Green Way’ or something twee like
that I think they may have been called.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are said to have acquired property in the district and to have
created gardens open to the public, and their devotion to composting and
mulching became well known. </span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All good
things come to an end, they say. I suppose the same may be said of bad or
indifferent things, although they are less wistfully missed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case the end began far away in a town
where the Green Men had established several of their organizations. There are
always a certain number of missing people. Sometimes they are found, in good or
in bad condition. Sometimes they do not want to be found. Sometimes there is a
hue and cry, particularly if the missing person is either a person of
consequence, or a child or someone else about whose imagined fate a great deal
of popular sentiment may easily and profitably be stirred up. </span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Ah, you
just can’t get the staff these days, can you?’ Excessively rapid expansion of
an organization, unrestrained ambition, lack of supervision and training, low
quality of staff, lack of due diligence and risk assessment, all these and
other familiar terms of business ‘cant’ may have played a part in their
downfall. Along with bad luck, fate, the wrath of God, or probability, perhaps.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was of
course a huge scandal. Several entangled scandals in fact. As the rigorous
investigations of the judicial and Inquisitorial authorities established, (and
we may be fully confident that there was nothing slipshod in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> work,) a couple of low level Green
Men had decided to improve their prospects by developing an unofficial line in
kidnapping. Their victim, the son of a successful businessman, (and indeed, why
would anyone kidnap the son of an unsuccessful one?) had escaped from the
inadequately secured shed in which they had left him inadequately secured
whilst they went on an alcoholic spree to discuss their future plans, none of
which were to come to fruition in their actual future, short as it was to be.
This shed was located in the ‘staff only’ yard at the back of one of the public
gardens which they maintained. When the police arrived, in force need we say, their
curiosity extended to the rest of the area. One of its facilities was a small
bone crushing plant which produced the bone meal used for horticultural
purposes. Some of the as yet uncrushed bones aroused suspicion, which forensic
examination of the bones and of the meal justified, by confirming that they
were human remains. Remains of whom, and where were the remaining remains, so
to speak?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
opportunity to close many missing person cases stimulated police investigation
in other districts, once news spread, and as the reluctance of detained persons
associated with Green Men organizations to assist these <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">inquiries</span> was overcome,
it spread fast. All the faster because of another interrelated scandal. In the
course of investigating the gardening businesses in adjacent districts for more
human bones, the murdered and abused corpse of a missing infant was discovered
in a</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>compost heap of one of their businesses. This child had been
missing for some weeks and already there had been considerable public agitation
about her fate. That nailed them. NO! NO! Not literally! That would have been
blasphemous. We certainly don’t want to give a wrong impression about anything
which the Inquisition might find objectionable. Do you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean there was so much public outcry that
investigation focused on them even more intensely. Although it was the corpse
of that sadly mistreated infant which made them monsters in the public mind,
the Green Men steadfastly denied any involvement in or knowledge about her
death. Some went to their deaths denying it after they had admitted other
killings, and protesting that it would not have been a good way to prepare
compost. It may be that it was just a coincidence and some other murderer
escaped justice when they were blamed. </span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The investigators
found that not only did the Green Men murder people for no better motive than
to use their bodies to nourish trees and other plants, they had done so for
many years, and made a profit from their sales of plant food. This news make
many people look a bit askance at their crops and gardens, wondering just whose
remains might be helping them to thrive, and resulting in a drop in the
popularity of such products. A bit strange really, as people have no objection
to eating plants and know that their own bodies will go back to the soil, ‘dust
to dust; ashes to ashes’ potentially to nourish plants in their turn, but
people are not altogether rational. It was soon seen that there was a strong
correlation between the growth of Green Man activity in an area and reports of
missing persons. Indeed, increases in such reports were able to indicate areas
where they were operating without as yet establishing organizations associated
with them. Initially investigators thought they were dealing with a criminal
organization following a bizarre business model. It had few links to the recognized criminal underworld however. It was puzzling that many of the
corpses were not turned into profit, but chopped up and buried near trees,
often in the gardens and parks which the Green Men maintained. Sometimes
portions of the bodies had been transported long distances to be buried under
special trees rather than disposed of more conveniently. Indeed, at first
the authorities had not realized that the connections went beyond the particular
businesses and that the Green Man image was actually associated with them and
involved people who had no connection with these businesses, and that the
image, when it came to their attention, was the key to understanding events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was when the authorities discovered that
such burials were not just a convenient way to conceal a murder, but were the
motive for the murder; and furthermore, that it was the preferred method of the
leading lights for their own interment, and that these leading lights had a
special fondness or devotion for individual trees, that things became really
serious. The hints of an organized religious cult underlying these strange and
repulsive happenings, and their hysterical magnification by the popular press,
immediately elevated the matter from the criminal, past the political, to the
religious plane. </span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It was an
immense embarrassment. The country had been infiltrated by a well organized,
extensive and criminal organization, and much worse - an evil pagan cult,
without the authorities having been aware of its existence and of the dangers
it posed. They first found out about it by reading the popular press! How was
this possible? Why had the Inquisition, the organization tasked with protecting
the morals and religious purity of the population and the state, not detected
and eliminated this danger? This last question was certainly raised in high
places, although the press had the prudence not to do more than hint at it.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? was a question in many minds, but sensibly it
was never publicly asked. </span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With
so much egg dripping from important and <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">humorless</span> faces, someone was going to
fry. Or roast. Many did. How then did the little church survive? Perhaps it had
some luck, but by then it<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>was no longer central, or even of interest to the
Green Men. Their operations had spread far afield, and the businesses which
were to prove fatal had not been operated here. Any connection with local
disappearances long ago was not queried. The discreet graves of the founders
under their <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">favorite</span> trees, or their successors, were not remembered and not
disturbed. Its name was not used so no</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>connection was identified. It may be that there were a few
convenient deaths or disappearances which broke any living links between the Green
Men and the Green Jesus before the authorities reached them. Now the tangle of
tales is only of interest to a few antiquarians such as ourselves, although the
Church remains part of local lore and its green image, somewhat restored, may
still be seen. The Green Man is no longer a popular artistic motif around here,
but you may still find a few such heads near old graves under the trees.
Sometimes it’s even possible to imagine such likenesses in knotty branches or
roots.</span><br />
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, we can
visit it. It’s not far to walk, although there’s not a great deal to see. I
like to stroll or sit under the trees about the area, and help to keep the
place tidy. It’s very peaceful there, although sometimes strange thoughts come
to me. What might happen, for instance, if we took the notion of a Green Jesus
seriously? What if the Second Coming has already occurred, and we missed it?
‘When Jesus came to Birmingham they merely passed him by’, a poet wrote. What
if He was here and we didn’t notice? What if he’s still waiting for us? What if
this time he came, not as a human, but as a tree? What if we considered the
Holy Cross seriously? ‘He came to his own and his own received him not’. Has
the plant kingdom received him in our stead? Has he been there all along, but
we have been too thick to notice? What about the Real Presence of divinity in
bread and wine? What about the myth of the Tree of Life? After the Norse
Ragnarok they expected a new humanity to emerge from the Tree to repopulate the
earth. What about that? The early depictions of Jesus on the Cross showed him
in majesty, with arms outstretched, outlined by but not bound to the ‘Tree’ as
it was often called. Only later was there a change to depictions of a literal
crucifixion. Enough questions before we attract the attention of a literal
Inquisition.</span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<div class="Standard">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Here we are.
That’s the famous wooden image of the Green Jesus. I’ll just wait and sit under
the trees there while you look around. Sometimes it seems so beautiful that
one’s spirit is uplifted and one seems to share with nature in some great rite
or hymn of praise.</span></span>There’s a sense of joining in a noble dance with every other
aspect of Nature, of participating in a joyous harmony as if each species, in
living, expressed some special aspect of divinity and their lives combined in
repetitious but ever-changing ways, as a melody or tapestry to display the
action of divinity in life to Itself. There He is, the Lord of the Dance, at
the centre, and acting within all of them, inviting us to join, assuming or
resuming the place that was always ours. Alas for us, since our pride excluded
Him from our hearts, we no longer know our place, nor can we deftly tread the
measure, nor subtly improvise without disruption. How clumsy are our attempts
at conscious integration! What a ripple of confusion spreads from our
determination to do good and to be right; requiring extended efforts from the
more skilful dancers to absorb and mitigate our efforts. The vision fades,
leaving a feeling of regret, and the image of a mighty river, whose movements
have left an ox-bow lake, almost stagnant and cut off from the flow. This is
where our egotism and narrowness has left us, almost self-severed from the
spiritual source of our physical situation. At the last, arises His sadly
smiling image, not crucified, not haloed, but crowned with oak leaves, and
beckoning us to leave the illusory security of our egos and allow him to re-join
us to the flow of love and life.</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Hearing the leaves rustle one may fancy one almost hears
what the Lord God said to Adam when they walked together in that Garden, or
what Lord Zeus spoke through Dodona’s oak. Perhaps if you are deemed worthy you
may hear the answer. Ah yes, there it is. When the light is right it shimmers
on the Green Jesus as if it was gold, and He may smile or even wink.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span></span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-39756736534361204772015-06-26T15:26:00.001-07:002015-06-26T15:26:33.723-07:00King's Quest<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<h2>
Riding the White Horse</h2>
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The breeze sighed softly as it breathed caressingly over the
grass, which rippled, changing colour slightly as it moved and as the light of
the moon glimmered through scattered clouds and its shadows played over the
smooth and silent earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The breath of
the Horse was in his nostrils; its blood pulsed through his veins. He was eager
to run. His perspective shifted, no longer was he just a man seated on the back
of that strangely flowing figure of great antiquity, known as the White Horse
of Uffington, cut unknown ages ago into the chalk of the Berkshire Downs. Was
it really meant to be a horse? Some considered it to depict a dragon. In either
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“Halt Rider!” he heard as his mind cleared and he found himself
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large but dilapidated Hall, whose dimly seen furnishings seemed dirty and
decayed. “I am the Voice of the Land of Wessex, within the House of Wessex. I
summon the King. His Land has need of him. His kingdom is failing and it his
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Impelled even more rapidly and confusingly through the
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He believed the Voice, but it would not be easy to obey its
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would rather laugh and sneer, call him a drunk, a fool, a lout in need of being
taught better manners if he persisted in annoying his betters. A good beating
would be the least he could expect if he tried to contact the King, and the
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of his country. He must find a way. </div>
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Time out of mind, the people of this area had been involved
with horses, and it was through this connection that a way was found. That
evening, one of his wife’s cousins unexpectedly came to visit them. He worked
for one of the stables which trained and looked after horses for the Royal
family, and was on his way with a message to the Royal Court, escorting a
riding horse for the king. </div>
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That young man is far too idle and dreamy thought Princess Matilda
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the stables. He pays far too much attention to childish tales about King Arthur
and Good King Harold. He should pay more attention to the advice of the Royal
Council and attempt to get a grip on the country as well as improve the
management and income from the Royal estates. A young king who was more
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foxes or hares than in the accumulating pile of reports of debts, unpaid taxes,
unpaid servants, riots, disturbances, bad weather, crop failure, disease and
disobedience amongst the people and corruption and strife amongst their rulers,
whilst his own lands no longer produced their old income, but their debts never
seemed to diminish, was not what the Kingdom needed. Her own son John would
make a far better King she was sure. There he was again, coming out of the
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<h2>
At Dragon Hill</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Let the King stand forth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Repeat my words to him so that he understands
me. Let him speak his replies aloud so that the Land may hear him.” William
uttered the words as they arose in his mind whilst he gazed into the blaze
where his inner vision saw the huge form of the Wyvern of Wessex embodied in
the flames, its wings flapping and its tail writhing as the flames moved, his
attention rapt by the intense power of its eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The circle of men seated on the ground around the great fire
on the top of the flat topped man made conical hill nestled just beneath the
great form of the White Horse listened in silence as they gazed into the
flames. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Slowly the King, who had been sitting beside William, stood
and spoke. “I am Richard, King of Wessex. Who are you?” </div>
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<br /></div>
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“I am the Wyvern of Wessex, the Voice of the Land. The Land
has need of a King. The Land has summoned you, Richard, to know whether you
will be its True King.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Puzzled, the King responded, “I am the true and only King of
Wessex. I am the only son of my father King Henry, who died last year. I have
been acknowledged and crowned as his lawful and undisputed successor.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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The Wyvern seemed to laugh in a crackle of flames. “Very
well Your Majesty, King Richard. You have been accepted by your people as King;
but are you a True King? This Land needs a True King and will serve no other. A
fool may be King, and many have been, but no fool can be a True King. Nor any
knave.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Now irritated, King Richard glanced at William in case he
was mocking him, but seeing his vacant face staring fixedly into the flames, as
the words came from his mouth in a voice that was different from his usual
speech, said merely “What is a True King?” </div>
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<br /></div>
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“One who is united with his Land as well as his people, and
who serves them as they serve him. Of old it was said ‘The King and The Land
are One’. Such is a True King. Arthur and Good King Harold were True Kings. It
is a thing very hard to be a True King. In times of peace and prosperity an
ordinary King suffices, and is soon forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For too long we have had ordinary kings. What has been created by
greater men, and more than men, decays. Your kingdom is passing. Wessex faces
dissolution and destruction from within and without. It is your responsibility
to save it. Only a True King can do so. You are not yet that King, but you may
become so. Will you attempt it? ”</div>
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<br /></div>
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After a thoughtful pause, “Yes. How should I proceed?”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“A True King is willing to shed his blood for his Land. Are
you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Yes.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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“In token thereof, take a knife and pass it through the
flames to purify it. Make a slight cut in your arm and let some of your blood
drip unto the ground and into the flames. As you do so make oath to your Land,
saying ‘I, Richard King of Wessex, by my breath and by my blood, do swear that
I will do my best to be a True King to Wessex and will give my life in service
to my people and my Land.’ ”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Slowly the King did so, whilst all watched solemnly.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There was a pause whilst William continued to stare at the
Wyvern in the flames and everyone else watched the King as he stood in front of
the fire binding a cloth around his arm.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Your people and your Land accept your oath King Richard.
They will serve you as you serve them. You are linked and each must hold the
others to the task. Your first task will be to make a sword. This will be an
expression of your rule, a Sword of State, embodying a link between you and
your Land. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is to be made of iron
mined and forged and formed in Wessex. It must be the work of your mind and
your hands. You will require assistance. You are not expected to do all the
work yourself, but your effort and sweat as well as your care and planning must
go into it. The materials are of the land, and the people of the land should
have a part in the effort and skill required to make the sword which binds them
to the King who will wield it and them, but it must clearly be the sword of
King Richard.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Wyvern continued as everyone listened intently. “Your
King and your Land need help. King Richard requires loyal service and
assistance if he is to achieve the Quest of the Sword, and much more in service
of his Land and people. Which of you will now follow the example of your King
and pledge service to him and to your Land of Wessex? Let him likewise stand
before all and make oath with his breath and his blood to serve them loyally.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was quite a mixed bunch which was gathered on this hill.
The King had brought several of his friends and their guards and servants, and
there was the small group of local ‘Horsemen’ of which William was the leader.
Only the latter had much interest in the old ways or much aptitude for them.
The King's friends were pleasure loving young men who had never had much interest
in old tales and traditions, and were quite startled to feel some of the power
of the Wyvern, although only William and a couple of his Horsemen could see and
hear it in their minds. They were familiar with the commonplace symbol of
Wessex, the form of dragon known as a Wyvern, but were astonished that it could
be at least as real as they themselves were, and were much impressed by the
effect it had on their friend. The servants were more familiar with old
superstitions, loyal to their King and country, quite willing to follow the
lead of their superiors, and pleased to have an impressive yarn to tell their
friends. Thus, everyone followed the lead of their King, clockwise round to
William. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Elated by the experience and the loyalty of the group the
King had an inspiration. Calling for his servant to fetch something to drink
and a big drinking vessel from their baggage, he announced, “I thank you all
and name you Companions of the King’s Quest. Let us all drink together to mark
this occasion, and then let us think how to make the sword.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Wait,” said the Wyvern. “Let all those who have shed their
blood in loyalty to the Land, now mingle it in the vessel with the drink which
they take together and then spill a little on the ground and into the fire as a
libation to the powers of the Land of Wessex to seek their aid and participation
in this Companionship and its Quest.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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When this had been done the King asked for suggestions as to
how they should find the materials and make the sword. “I think most of the
iron that we use comes from York and the swords as well” said one of his friends.
“Excuse me sir,” said one of the guards, “there used to be iron mined in the
Weald, long ago. Maybe there’s some left. Some of my relatives came from there,
and they say that there were blacksmiths in that part of the country. ” </div>
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<br /></div>
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“There should be a royal estate somewhere near there. It’s
time I paid a visit,” said the King. “Now what and who else do we need? Does
anyone know anything about mining or a sword smith? How about the scabbard and
the decorations? ’’ The discussion proceeded and plans were laid. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When they concluded and the fire was starting to burn low,
the Wyvern had a final message for them. “It has been extremely unusual these
days, and very difficult to achieve such clarity of communication, even at this
site and through an accomplished Horseman. You will need his continued
assistance and also a link with this fire to achieve anything like it again.
Take some of the flames from this fire and keep them fed, so that you have
small fires which continue this one. Do not let them go out. Then when you use
them to light other fires you can imagine my presence in them and it may help
to gain mental contact between us. This is particularly important for the King.
He must light the forge from such a flame and keep it burning, for my presence
and that of other Powers through me, is required in the forging of the blade. Now
fare well.”</div>
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<h2>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking and Making Trouble</h2>
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“He’s obviously mad. Something must be done”, declared
Princess Matilda to her son John. “If he continues to carry on in this way,
he’ll get us all lynched, not just himself.”“You heard about the riot then?”
replied her son. “What was he doing there anyway?” she asked.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Council were
happy enough when he told us that he intended to visit and look into the
management of some of the Royal estates in Kent. We thought he was beginning to
take things seriously,” said John. However, it seems that after a cursory visit
to a few places, he took to burrowing in some long abandoned mine workings. No
one can explain why. Maybe the madness is intermittent, like that of George
III. He’s not always mad; he even asked some quite sharp and pointed questions at
the last Council meeting when that old fool Smithers was trying to explain his
budget proposals. Somehow he got into dispute with a group of locals; perhaps
they were bandits using the area as a hideout. I don’t think they knew who he
was at first, but they saw a gentleman toiling amongst a group of more common
people at a pointless task of excavation in an exhausted mine, and they mocked
him. When they knew who he was, they mocked all the more. That’s how the fight
started. He took a few bruises but his men had the better of the mockers, who
departed dragging their injured and vowing vengeance and rebellion. Now Sheriff
Bates has the task of tracking them down and hanging them, without enough men
to maintain order in the rest of the county, and without sparking another
uprising. He is not happy. One good thing seems to have come out of it though.
Richard is now training very hard, and practising wrestling and the use of
weapons every day with the Guard. They tell me he is becoming quite a good
fighter. He’s courageous and determined. They like him.” After a moment John
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“Hmmph,” sniffed Matilda. “He’s also become an apprentice
blacksmith I hear. Perhaps he’ll be better at that than at being King. It’s not
just that it’s bad for the country when its King is a fool to be mocked by
every low fellow, its mortifying for us, his relatives, to be associated with
him and be laughed at or pitied by the people we meet. Yesterday Cecily was
quite condescending in her sympathy to me on Richard’s sad state.” She added,
apparently irrelevantly, “He spends all his time with labourers and guardsmen
nowadays, and never seems to be interested in meeting any nice girls. I wonder
is he... normal? ”</div>
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<h2>
Toil</h2>
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“Harder, harder, smite harder.” The words echoed and
re-echoed in Richard’s mind as he wielded the hammer in the forge. Was he
saying them aloud? Were they what the smith had said to him, or the Wyvern’s
words which he heard in the roar of the flames and the hiss of the bellows?</div>
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“Harder, harder, strike harder. Careful there, be precise.
Keep the rhythm.” The heat made him feel that he was being burned alive. His
mind whirled, seemingly involved not only in the task of forming the blade on
the anvil, amidst the heat which even the blacksmith declared to be unusually
intense, but also in the droning, moaning, sighing, singing incantations which seemed
to echo between William crouched in trance in a corner of the forge, and the
living speaking flames which embodied the Wyvern in the furnace, at least in
his imagination. “A good sword must be sung as well as struck into life. Sing.
Let your soul sing .” His will and his hardened body kept him striking in
relentless rhythm as his emotions poured out a babble of words and feelings
which took on the patterns of song, and his spirit seemed to join both the
Wyvern and the billet of glowing iron that he was striking. “Hard, precise,
rhythmical; there is no soft or easy way to make a sword or mend a kingdom or
rule it. This Land will not endure a soft or easy ruler. Strike! Feel each
blow. It is yourself as well as your sword and your kingdom that you are
shaping. The King and the Land must be One. You must drive out impurities from
yourself and from your kingdom, and shape both to your will and to the needs of
the Land. You free and shape and strengthen and wield your kingdom as you do
your sword and yourself.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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The image of the Wyvern filled his vision as he toiled. Its
gaze and its words filled his mind. “This Land needs a True King. It is too
long since it had one. Think not that I and the Powers of the Land toil with
you just to benefit you and your people. No! Together we forge and form a
kingdom; that is true, but there is more. A True King needs the empowerment of
the Land to rule justly and well, but the Land needs a True King to inspire or
en-spirit it. Through the focal point of his trained and attuned mind may flow
higher spiritual influences to the Land, bringing conscious awareness of higher
states and the patterns of how things should be. It is the function of a True
King to be that link between the three levels. Making a Sword is just the
start. Few men or even Kings know this. They do not understand it. They despise
it. It is the burden and glory of a True King. It is not all his doing, but if
it is not done, not only will the kingdom fall and the people perish, but the
inner foundations of the Land – laid so very, very long ago, by Beings greater
than those of the present age, crumble and dissolve beyond consciousness and
recall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beasts die, men die, kingdoms
fall, even Cosmos fades; and all the sooner from neglect. Is it not a fine jest
that the greatest among men should be a janitor of Cosmos?”</div>
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<br /></div>
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So the toil proceeded for many days, more than the time
usually required to make a sword, not as many sneered, because the King was a
weak, clumsy and inadequate apprentice. Blacksmith and sword smith were pleased
by his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A novice could not do it all
by himself, but they were impressed by his determination to do as much as he
could, even if they were slightly unnerved by the mutterings of William in his
corner and the subdued babbling <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
singing of the King. They admired his ability to withstand the unusually fierce
heat of this furnace, and if they were disturbed by the fey atmosphere of the
place and the rumours that swirled around the person of the King, they said
nothing about it, well pleased by their remuneration to adhere to the oath of
silence which the King had insisted upon. </div>
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At length the Wyvern spoke in the mind of the King that
enough and more than enough had been done, and the smiths concurred. “As you
serve the Land, the Land serves you,” the Wyvern told him. “It was said, with
what truth I know not, that gods and men lived each other’s deaths. You have
shown your intention to be a True King despite the cost. On the other side has
been found one willing to meet and match your sacrifice. This spirit has been
bound to you and embodied in the blade. This is not one of the dragon slaying
blades of legend, but the confinement of the consciousness of such a being
within these limitations is like death to it. Respect it and wield it well. Now
you may quench and finish the sword and make its fittings.” </div>
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<br /></div>
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So the sword was quenched in water containing some of the
blood and sweat of the King. Aided by a goldsmith, the King engraved two words
upon the blade and inlaid them with gold, which many centuries before had been
mined from his land. On one side was the word ‘Richard’ and on the other was
the word ‘Wessex’. The goldsmith completed the ornamentation of the sword and
other artisans completed the handle and the scabbard and sword belt to the
directions of the king and made a traveling case in which it could be carried
and upon which it could be stood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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When all the work had been done and the King had polished
the sword brightly, the Wyvern spoke to him again. “You have done well, but the
sword is not ready for use. It is not yet ‘alive’. These efforts are somewhat
like pregnancy and birth. Not all succeed despite the best efforts of the
parents. Bury it carefully in the earth of Dragon’s Hill, where the idea of it
was conceived, and leave it to come to term, well guarded by William and a
couple of your men. If and when it becomes ready to be ‘born’ we will tell you
to unearth it, display it to your people and make use of its powers. None then
will be able to doubt that you are a True King. If all goes well the sword
should come to birth as winter gives way to spring. Until then look to your
realm as best you can.”</div>
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<h2>
More trouble</h2>
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“He’s no less mad,” sighed the Princess Matilda, “even if
the madness has taken another form.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well”, said her son, “he seems to have lost
interest in blacksmithing and sword making, and even to have lost or forgotten
about that sword he went to so much trouble to make.” “Doesn’t that prove that
he’s mad?” asked his querulous mother. “Can’t the doctors and the Council be
persuaded to see that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hardly,” said
John. “A man, even a King, may have eccentric hobbies and sudden changes of
interest, without being judged insane and tipped out of his house or off his
throne. To most people he seems fairly normal, albeit rash and eccentric. He’d
have to do something really outrageous and leave the ‘people who matter’ as a
whole feeling endangered before usurpation would be tolerated. It’s not even as
if we’re any more popular, and we certainly don’t have a lot of military force
or the means to buy friends.”</div>
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“Until he marries and provides a son, although you’re his
older cousin you’re still the Heir Apparent. I’d be the Mother of the King.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Dear Mother, please stop playing Margaret Beaufort and
trying to turn me into Henry VII he thought to himself in exasperation. Aloud
he said, “Richard’s now promoting patriotism and presenting himself as a King
of Justice. There’s certainly enough crime and dissatisfaction to keep him
busy.”</div>
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“Huh! I thought it was some new religion he was setting up
to worship the Wyvern. He put up those altars with little fires on them which
the servants have to keep tended, under pictures and banners of the Wyvern. It
must be a fire risk, besides being a nuisance and distraction from their other
work. Some of the sillier maids are convinced that the Wyvern has spoken to
them or that they’re seen it flying around.”</div>
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“It must have been flames flickering in dimness or draughts
moving the banners,” suggested John. “He’s gone round all the local villages
telling them to put up Wyvern images over their village halls or headman’s
houses and to keep burning a fire dedicated to the Wyvern which he presented to
them, and to offer it twigs and happy thoughts and to request the aid of the
Wise Wyvern of Wessex when they need advice or to make a decision. The children
love it. He’s also sent similar instructions to all the towns and counties as
well as to the Royal estates. The Council liked the idea of promoting
patriotism and distracting people from their grumbles. I don’t think that the
sheriffs have found it helpful in reducing crime though. ”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Matilda’s eyes shone with malice. “They’ll soon get bored,
and feel foolish. It’ll end by making him seem crazy, and they’ll blame him for
making them feel foolish.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Winter was bleak and cold and long. No word came from
William or from the Wyvern. People continued to grumble and to starve. The
King’s initiative had caused some revival of patriotism and participation in
traditional practices. People talked of Good King Harold and told tales of the
plentiful bounty of nature that had supposedly flourished in his days, when the
crops grew just to please him, as some said. Others became more raucous and
contemptuous in their rejection of all such things.</div>
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<h2>
Good King Harold and his Iron Wyrm</h2>
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One of the most popular tales about Good King Harold featured
his Iron Wyrm. Travellers who had visited Winchester claimed to have seen it. It
was kept in a shed, on a section of dual iron tracks, and carefully tended and
kept clean by its guardians, who liked to display and talk about it to the
pilgrims and curiosity seekers. It was taller than two men’s heights, and what
was most impressive about it was that it seemed to be made almost entirely of
iron. It stood on two rows of iron wheels on either side and was attached to a
carriage on similar iron wheels for important passengers. Its vast belly was
said to have contained a furnace which consumed black rocks, and issued
piercing shrieks and plumes of smoke steam and fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to legend and the tales
enthusiastically disseminated by its guardians, this was the famous steed of
the legendary Good King Harold. Long ago it had ceased to function, perhaps
because of a lack of black rocks, or because of the lack of a sufficiently good
and powerful king, or for some other reason, but its guardians stoutly asserted
that once upon a time it had roared and thundered across the land causing
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and his mages. Their tales told that when tamed, the Wyrm, which indeed had
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</span>Perhaps that was where it had found the black rocks upon which it had
fed. Alas, the king had died, and so had his Wyrm. Awed visitors looked at the
Wyrm and at the carriage containing comfortable seats and windows through which
to view the passing scenery, and wondered what it must have felt like to have
gone snorting and thundering across country, faster even than a horse could
gallop if one believed the possibly exaggerated tales of its guardians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to legend, it was Good King Harold
who had tamed the dragons of the land and turned them from destructive monsters
to beneficent protectors of the country and bestowers of fertility. The King’s
Iron Wyrm was the only dragon which anyone had ever seen, and it was dead. So
much for legend.</div>
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<h2>
Danger</h2>
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Prince John became irritated by his mother’s growing hatred
of his cousin and her constant scheming and whispering against him. “I’m not
able to turn into Good King Harold and make the winds warm and the crops grow
to please me,” he had said after another of her tirades against Richard and her
increasingly openly expressed wishes that the King should die and that John
should replace him. “Even if I became King,” he snapped, “I couldn’t wave a
wand and make everything right and everyone happy. I’d just become the one whom
everyone blamed for everything they don’t like. In fact, if anything untoward
happened to Richard, this country could fall apart, not just into civil war,
but into anarchy. There’d be little enough loyalty to me or to you, especially
if we were thought to have contrived or connived at the death or overthrow of
Richard. He’s surprisingly popular, and unsurprisingly, we’re not. Most likely
everyone who could attract the support of a few armed men would set up his own
kingdom and fight all the others and pillage the unarmed until death or disease
carried them all away.”</div>
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She wasn’t listening. “There’s so much crime and lawlessness
these days,” she murmured to herself, “he could run into an arrow at any time.”
Her son took her by the shoulders and shook her. “Mother! Stop talking and
thinking like that. It’s foolish and dangerous. It doesn’t help anyone and if
Richard gets to hear of it, he’d be quite justified in executing both of us for
treason.” </div>
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Privately, he thought as he left his mother, that Richard
was becoming quite a steely young monarch, not a man to cross and no longer the
dreamy youth lost in romantic tales of ancient times, nor the callow young
pleasure seeker. He attended closely and perceptively to Royal business and was
paying attention to the better administration of Royal estates and offices. A
couple of the Royal Councillors had been retired. Several Sheriffs and other
officials had been shocked to receive surprise inspections by the King and his
staff. Some might feel privileged still to be wearing rather than carrying
their heads. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others were less fortunate. </div>
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One story was that Richard and his companions had helped to
capture a band of outlaws. Rather than having them executed immediately or
taken to town for a delayed trial and enhanced opportunities for bribery and
escape, he had taken them to the nearest village, where a couple of them were
said to have relatives. There he had summoned all the men from their work, empaneled them as a jury, set up the Wyvern standard and the flame that always
accompanied him, and presided over the trial. It had been a brisk affair with
little doubt of the rogues’ guilt. After sentencing them to death the King had
called for a rope, made a noose at one end, placed it around the neck of the
first felon, slung the other end over the branch of a convenient tree, and told
the villagers to join him in hauling on the rope. And so it went for all of
them. By mid afternoon the King and his party had left and the peasants were
burying the corpses, much impressed by the King’s justice. This young man was
becoming a leader, not squeamish about taking responsibility and participating
in any action he ordered. He might not like executing his relatives, but if
justice or necessity impelled him John was sure that he would do it. He worried
about his foolish mother and felt a breeze on his own neck.</div>
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<h2>
Awakening</h2>
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Spring was late and well advanced before word came from
Dragon Hill. The King was beginning to lose hope of the sword. He was still
determined to be as true a king as he could manage, even without the assistance
of the Otherworld. He kept himself busy, learning the administrative
complexities of kingship, presiding over courts of justice, visiting and
inspecting his troops, officials and estates, making himself known and his
presence felt across the land, assessing the personalities characters and capacities
of those around him. No one knew where or when the King might appear, who he
might talk to, nor what he might ask. He took an interest in the work of
craftsmen and farmers and labourers as well as officials and landowners. He
heard many complaints and often had to patiently explain why he could do little
or nothing about most of them ...the crops would not grow to please him, although
his interest took the edge from many grievances. People got used to seeing his
cavalcade pass, or even stop to talk to them. Sometimes he and his entourage
would share a drink with them, from his own supplies. He was not extravagant;
so many people accepted that despite the difference in scale between his and
their income and expenses, his budget was as tight as theirs and his tasks more
arduous than their own. He became respected and even liked. However, he did not
stray very far from the centre of his kingdom, seldom more than a day’s ride,
in case word came for him. </div>
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One beautiful morning as his party was riding in the
direction of Uffington, they were met by the long awaited messenger. William
and the Wyvern had declared that the sword was awakening and that he should
collect it at once. Hastening to Dragon Hill he met William and together they
dug up and unwrapped the sword from where it had been hidden, at the top of the
hill, directly under where the fire had been. It looked and felt no different.
Holding the sword he sat with William, under his Wyvern banner in front of his
portable altar bearing a fire lit from the flame he had taken from the original
fire when the Wyvern had spoken to him through William. They communed with the
Wyvern, seeking advice on how to use the sword. The wyvern explained that it
would facilitate a meeting of minds when it was exposed in the presence of
others and he held a question in his mind. It would get used to him and would
demonstrate its power in front of an assembly of the leading people of Wessex
which he should summon soon.</div>
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The Wyvern had some parting words for him. “This is the
first stage of your quest for True Kingship, well concluded. Like Arthur you
now have a Sword, drawn from the Land. Arthur was renowned for his cavalry.
Those knights of quest did much to secure his rule and his fame. Who will be
your Horsemen? A Sword is a great thing, and needful to a King, but do not rule
solely by it. A King may rule by the sword, he may become great, honoured,
feared and respected, but no man, not even a True King, may attain love at the
point or edge of a blade. The Land may not be ruled without the sword, but
without love it will not long remember even a True King. It is the love between
the King and the Land and the people that will sustain them and enable them and
their memory to endure. When the Sword, the vessel of knowledge, enables you to
rule as a True King, your next task will be to find the Cup, the vessel of
love. You will know the time for that quest. In that I cannot assist you. You
must seek the aid of the Ladies of the Waters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now I salute you and bid you farewell True King Richard.”</div>
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<h2>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Revelation</h2>
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“He really is mad. This proves it.” Princess Matilda was
talking to Lady Cecily Danvers, Countess of Salisbury and a group of her
friends. “He’s summoned <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everyone</i> who
matters from across the land to display his toy sword to them. We thought he’d
forgotten about it and buckled down to being King, but the madness seems to
have come back. This time everyone will see it and will have to do something
about it.”</div>
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“It would be too embarrassing not to,” agreed Cecily. “A
Regency Council seems the obvious thing, unless John has enough support to be
Prince Regent?” </div>
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“I’m very disappointed in John,” said Matilda. “He just
doesn’t seem to care.”</div>
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There was much discussion and uncertainty as people took
their places in the Great Hall and awaited the arrival of the King. Many had
worries and conflicting concerns which they hoped to raise, and with the
swirling rumours weakening the authority of the King there was little
confidence that this meeting would achieve much, and considerable fear about what
might happen if the King demonstrated that he was no longer a mentally capable
ruler.</div>
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The King entered wearing the sword on his belt and strode to
his throne, where he seated himself in front of his audience and with the
Wyvern banner and its flame bearing altar behind him. William was crouched
unobtrusively beside it ready to tend the flame.</div>
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“I have called you together,” began the King, “because the
Land calls to all of us. For too long selfishness has prevailed. The links
between the people of Wessex have weakened. The identity of Wessex is
crumbling. The links joining the people and their Land have frayed as people
have ignored it, seeking only material gain. Few any longer believe that there
is anything else, that there is an even more important ‘inside’ to the
‘outside’ which they see and touch. But there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> an inside to the Land just as there is to ourselves. I’ve called
you here to show you.”</div>
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Gasps and murmurs arose. The King stood; drawing his blade,
then knelt on one knee and struck the pommel sharply on the stone floor until
the sword rang. “Awake! Attend! Serve!” he cried, and the sword sang. </div>
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As the people stared at it, the sword seemed to shine more
brightly, its sounds ringing sweetly in their minds, drawing their fascinated
attention. “We are Wessex,” said the King quietly, and they knew that this was
true. “There is more to Wessex,” he added, and slowly they became aware of the growing
form of the Wyvern embodied in the flames of the altar, which William was
assiduously feeding. A consciousness of its majesty and their joint integrity grew
amongst them as the King added, “This is the Wyvern of Wessex, the Voice of the
Land. It unifies us, which is why it is our emblem. Its wisdom will assist our
deliberations. You perceive it now because of the magnifying influence of this
sword, whose virtue is awareness of truth. The Land calls us to attend and
serve it, as it serves us. Who will serve Wessex? Who will not serve Wessex? Who
has acted or will act against Wessex?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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on the bench. Was it better to be safe than sorry? Slowly, the King laid the edge
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<h2>
Afterword</h2>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afterwards there were
hard years. No one could still the tempests or feed all of the hungry. Greater
sensitivity to nature, prompted by inner sources, may have helped mitigate some
of the harshness. Greater honesty of administration and patriotic fellow
feeling prompting effort and sharing certainly helped. The spirit of Wessex, if
not the bodies of its inhabitants was greatly strengthened. In the presence of
the King and his sword and the Wyvern standard and fire, all knew themselves to
be united and to be of Wessex. No falsehood could pass for truth in the
presence of the sword of truth. Wyvern shrines became widespread and it was
invoked at the opening of all public business, as well as privately by people
who sought guidance and desired some inner contact or some means to serve their
Land, King and people.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There were some who, even in the presence of the King, the
Sword and the Wyvern, still could not perceive or accept that there was
anything beyond material appearances. Most of the scoffers had learned the
error of their ways, but the spiritual defectives were sub-human monsters that
could not be permitted to pollute and pervert Wessex by their continued
existence, so they had had to be slaughtered. Even plants and animals had their
own connections to the Otherworld, and did not deny their natures. Humans who fell
below that level were an abomination.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Some years passed in arduous activity before the King
noticed that something had happened. Wessex, although it continued to
experience difficulties, displayed now a strong sense of identity. Its people
were loyal to each other, to him and to the Land. This was not the case in
their neighbour Mercia. There similarly harsh conditions prevailed but the
people had not grown stronger in battling them. They battled each other,
worsened their situation and had almost lost their sense of identity and
awareness of their Land. Refugees were unwelcome because there was nothing for
them and they had no connection to the inner Wessex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the communities and landowners
bordering Wessex began to plead for protection and annexation. This worried the
King for he had no desire for war with Mercia, nor to annex any of it. Rather
than subvert and destroy their identity and absorb the people and territory
into Wessex, he thought it would be better to reinforce the identity of Mercia
and strengthen the people’s connection with their Land, as he had done for
Wessex; and to seek some greater identity within the Land in which both Mercia
and Wessex could participate without losing their own identities and inner
connections. He remembered what the Wyvern had told him about love and loyalty,
and thought it was time to begin the Quest of the Cup, but that is another
tale. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Already the tales of True King Richard and his seer-sword
are spreading, and will join the legends of Good King Harold. The crops still will
not grow to please him, but there will be no more treason in his days, for
Wessex is united. ‘What should they know of ‘Wessex’, who only Wessex know?’
ironically misquoted one who had delved into ancient poetry, but now they know.
The inner or Otherworld and the outer have grown closer. Stranger chimaeras
than the Wyvern have been perceived by the sensitive, and the King’s Horsemen
have trodden regular paths between the worlds. </div>
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<br /></div>
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This has been the tale of a sword. Me. My name is Richard
Wessex and this is the story of how I made a King and the King made me; for the
True King and the Land <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> One.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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References:</div>
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For the true story of Good King Harold and his Iron Wyrm and
the crops of his time see:The Sovereignty of Wessex http://ravenfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-sovereignty-of-wessex.html</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The White Horse of Uffington
and Dragon Hill:</span> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse<br /><br />
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Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-66438142874423948212015-06-26T13:38:00.000-07:002015-06-26T13:43:27.757-07:00New Yorkers: Pillar Saints or Phoenixes?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The ruins of New York have long puzzled archaeologists. Why
were those tall towers built? By whom were they built and how? For what
purposes were they used? When? Why so many and so close together?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why in that place?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Archaeologists and students of the strange have voiced many
theories, ranging from the bizarre to the incredible. We’ve been offered the
notion that they were nesting sites for huge exotic birds, like Sinbad’s Roc or
intelligent Pterodactyls which survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were they perhaps built like the nests of
flamingos, heaps of mud close together in the shallows of a salt lake? Were
their builders genetically engineered by alien visitors from other worlds,
perhaps mingling their own DNA with that of reptiles and mammals? Others
suggest that they may have been bat-people, or just giant bats which flew by
night to suck the blood of their neighbours. Or is that just too batty? Even
less credible is the belief that they were normal human beings, one version of
which claims that they ruled a vast worldwide trading empire like the
Phoenicians or Venetians before them. The prevailing academic view however is
that the only evidence of human occupation found so far is that of primitive
scavengers from long after the abandonment of the site by its builders, whoever
or whatever they may have been.</div>
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Now another couple of contenders have entered the fray. Dr.
Verity Learned, an expert in studies of hermits and the desert saints of early
Christianity, specialising in St. Simeon Stylites, has published an article
drawing attention to the similarities between these tall structures and the
pillars and rocks upon which the saints of Egypt and Syria perched. ‘We know
that the saints spent years sitting or standing, sometimes in contorted
positions, exposed to the weather and enduring austerities. Their disciples or
local villagers would occasionally bring food for them, to be drawn up in a
basket on a rope. They obtained great prestige, and their reputation for
holiness caused them to be consulted on political questions by the Imperial
authorities.’ When we spoke to her the learned doctor added that “Later
monasteries, such as Mt. Athos, demonstrated a similar arrangement, where
visitors and supplies had to be drawn up by rope. This was partly a defensive
measure to protect them from marauders.” As further evidence she referred to
Skellig Michael, a small steep rocky island off the south coast of Ireland
occupied by early medieval hermits, on the top of which they built small stone
cells. She thinks that a direct connection between New York and Ireland and even
the Middle East is quite possible. “It is known that Irish monasticism was
influenced by that of Egypt. These men sought isolation in remote deserted
places. There are stories of saints such as Brendan making voyages into the
Atlantic seeking even more remote places. Some seem to have settled in Iceland.
Why not New York? Was there anywhere more remote and inhospitable?” She also
pointed to the Round Towers of Ireland. These are generally thought to have
been built by medieval monks, with entrances well above ground level. Of
course, they are round rather than rectangular in section, and much less tall,
besides being of dry stone construction rather than consisting of some smooth
monolithic artificial stone, but they may have monks in common. Dr. Learned
refused to be drawn on the questions of who built New York and how. “The monks
didn’t build Skellig Michael or the rocks of the desert. They just occupied
them. Maybe they just found and occupied New York.”</div>
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Dr. Abel Brightman, Professor of Xenoarchaeology, has a
quite different idea. “I think these structures were the self created pyres of
Phoenixes”, he said. His new publication ‘Phoenixes of New York’ claims that
New York was a colony of very bright birds. Their light illuminated America and
the Atlantic. Their radiance awed the rest of the world. Mere humans in early
times bowed before their might and majesty.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Obviously they came
from the Middle East,” he said. “They built the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They
were responsible for the achievements of Egyptian civilization. The Pharaohs
were their servants.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why then did they
leave? “In a word, ingratitude” says Prof. Brightman. “They were very sensitive
souls, and it greatly saddened them to feel that the people for whom they had
done so much, did not appreciate them.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr.
Brightman continued, “Their noble light-filled souls had an affinity with that
most noble of metals, gold. They required gold as part of the complex process
of self immolation and resurrection. Egypt was well placed to supply them, and
also to gather the other ingredients such as the exotic spices and incense
imported from Arabia, India and further afield.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, as the Pharaohs became more arrogant, they took to having
themselves buried with lots of gold, in imitation of the Phoenixes, although
none of them ever managed the difficult process of resurrection from the dead.
That meant that less and less gold was left for the needs of the Phoenixes.” So
they collected all the gold that wasn’t buried and flew to New York? “Not
exactly,” said Dr. Brightman. “We have depictions of the Pharos, the Great
Lighthouse of Alexandria. It’s very like the towers of New York, and with a
huge fire at the top. I think that some of the Phoenixes stayed for a while to
civilise the Greeks and Macedonians when they reached Egypt, and to help them
built great structures like the Pharos, as the greater and more numerous
Phoenixes of the past had helped the Pharaohs by building greater structures
for them. Alas, they found the Greeks, and even more so the Romans, too crude
and difficult to civilise. They felt that they could no longer bear to live
amongst them, so they either flew away, or self-immolated and reincarnated
elsewhere. Probably the Pharos was illuminated by Phoenix light. It would have
been in keeping with their generosity of spirit and nobility of soul to have so
self-sacrificingly and freely assisted the backward humans around them.” </div>
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Why did they choose New York? “Note the similarity between
New York and Alexandria. Both are at the mouths of rivers which provide access
to large territories. They are easy landmarks for Phoenixes in flight and safe
routes to follow on recreational journeys or when training the young to fly. Phoenixes
were great nature-lovers; they were attuned to the serenity and sublimity of
riverside landscapes, especially the fertile areas which attracted human
settlement. As human settlement spread, the Phoenixes felt increasingly
restricted and even persecuted.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So what
happened when humans arrived and settled New York? Why didn’t they mention
anything about the presence of Phoenixes and their towers? The Professor shook
his head sadly. “It just goes to show their greed, ingratitude and
insensitivity,” he sighed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What happened to the Phoenixes? “I don’t know, but sadly I
suspect that humanity killed them, either directly or indirectly by taking over
their habitat.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New Yorkers were just too delicate to live amongst humans?
Who knew? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Has one of the mysteries of the ages, alongside such enigmas
as Stonehenge and the Pyramids finally been solved?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well readers, what do you think?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
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Comments:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>They’re
both quite wrong. New York was built by the angels as the site for the Second
Coming, but He changed his mind when He took a good look at the place.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Maybe
even He couldn’t afford the property prices!</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>My
granny dreamt that a Phoenix gave her a feather, but it vanished when she
awoke. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>New
York was built as a base for extraterrestrials from Alpha Centauri. They had a
war with the extraterrestrials from Beta Reticuli who built Stonehenge, in
which both places were wrecked.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>New
York must have been for the birds. I had a parrot which kept squawking ‘Nuuu
Yaawwakkkk Nuuuu Yyaaawwwkkkk’. It died of climate change, or was it mange?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>It’s
all down to Climate Change, I tell you, Climate Change! Once those glaciers get
moving they’re awful hard to stop.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Yes,
somebody should have done something about it. Not me obviously.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Of
course it should have been you. If you’d taken your clothes off and pretended
really hard to be warm, sympathetic magic would have melted the glaciers and
restored the earth to its pristine state.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>What
about the Fallen Woman of New York? Was New York Babylon and she the Great
Whore of Babylon?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>No.
New York was Sodom, and she was Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of
salt.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>She
was obviously a strong independent Woman, pulled down by male spite!!!</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Probably
she was a nun, who got there before the monks, but they refused to acknowledge
her. Typical Male Chauvinists!!!</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The
towers are reminiscent of medieval dove cotes or pigeon lofts. Recent research
suggests that Phoenixes did not become extinct; they evolved into Passenger
Pigeons and roosted in these towers, from whence they spread over the continent
in great flocks. Unfortunately, humans arrived and ate the birds.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Hey!
They were fighting Global Cooling by sticking close together. I do the same by
sleeping on top of a stack of chicken coops. All that rising hot air keeps me
toasty! </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Tweet!
Tweet! We’re still here, but not doing much building since humans stole all our
resources.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">16.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>No!
No! It’s got nothing to do with birds or Phoenixes or monks or Biblical
characters. Science knows that Neolithic Man could do wonderful things with
stone hammers and copper chisels. Just look at the Pyramids! They probably just
knocked up New York for practice. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">17.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>And
when they got bored, they just knocked them down again? That’s why they’re all
so crumbly?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">18.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Imagine
how beautiful they must have been, with trees and flowers and moss growing all
over them. They were wonderful nature refuges for birds and butterflies and
bees and bats. New York was probably the Garden of Eden. It inspired all those
attempts by oriental monarchs to make Paradise Gardens. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">19.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The
Hanging Gardens were in New York, which was also Babylon. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">20.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Obviously
those towers can’t have been made by humans. They’re far too big and useless.
Nobody could climb so far up and down for any purpose of work or daily living,
so there would be no need for them. Even if people had the technology to make
such strong thin walls to carry the weight of such great height, it would have
been wasteful to make them so tall.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">21.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>They’re
all that’s left of the Tower of Babel. People wanted to climb up to Heaven.
That’s why they’re so tall. They were temples. Maybe that was as high as they
could get before the slaves and overseers responsible for dragging up building
materials died of exhaustion or starvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">22.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Perhaps
it was like Easter Island. They used up all their trees and slaves and
resources building these useless stone monuments to their own futility.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">23.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Their
arrogance angered G-d, who destroyed the upper parts of their work, confused
their language, and scattered them. That’s why nobody lived there when later
settlers arrived.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">24.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The
gods were really aliens from other planets who genetically engineered humans to
serve them. The towers are obviously alien structures for alien purposes. They
probably used their genetically modified human slaves to build them.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">25.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Social
insects such as ants and termites and bees can make large structures out of
stuff they chew. An extinct species of insect probably made the towers.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">26.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>It
seems that the genetically modified human-insects could chew rock and make huge
towers out of it for the alien gods. What happened to them and where did they
get all that rock? </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">27.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The
aliens may have taken them away when they left, or exterminated them.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">28.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>I
think some of the human-insects escaped and hid underground. There are said to
be extensive tunnels under New York. Archaeologists don’t like to talk about
them. Maybe that’s where all the chewed rock for the towers came from. Perhaps
there are underground cities there, as in Cappadocia. Maybe the insects are
happy to stay hidden deep beneath our feet. Maybe it’s best to leave them
there.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">29.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>I
like the notion of those old Celtic monks crossing the Atlantic in their leather
boats and finding the island of New York covered by mysterious apparently
uninhabited ancient towers, festooned with trees and bushes and grass and
flowers. How beautiful and peaceful it must have been, with no noise but the
bees and the birds and the rustling of the leaves amid the murmuring sound of
the water. They probably thought they’d reached the Land of the Fairies, and
decided to stay to Christianise it. These fairy towers are much bigger than the
Irish fairy hills. The fairies may also have been larger and more numerous. It
must have taken real Saints and a powerful lot of prayers and Holy Water to
Christianise New York.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">30.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Ha!
Ha! New Yorkers became fairies and went underground! Who’d a thunk it? Anyone
know a good exorcist? How about a shrink?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">31.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>No!
No! This discussion is proceeding entirely in the wrong direction. There’s no
need to hypothesize fairies or aliens or gods or phoenixes or humanoid insects,
or any such nonsense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no need to
suppose anyone but humans built these structures. We don’t know who or how.
They certainly had technology which we can no longer imitate or understand.
There’s reason to suspect that there have been civilizations which have left
little trace and this is one of them. We can however infer the purpose of these
structures by analogy. In renaissance Italian cities, such as San Gimignano, for
example, there were bitter rivalries between competing noble families, which
were expressed by striving to out-build each other in raising the tallest
family towers. Those were of course much smaller , but the same principle of
intense family or commercial or civic rivalry<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>can explain the devotion of resources to such otherwise pointless
buildings, and explain why there are so many of them packed so closely
together. This was obviously a powerful city riven by jealousies among the
powerful, whose vanities were expressed by this conspicuous consumption. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s another example in the tribes of Red
Indians on the North West Pacific coast of North America. They made displays of
tall decorated totem poles and displayed wealth and prestige by throwing lavish
feasts called potlatches where they gave away their possessions. All very small
by the standards of New York, where we need not doubt that conspicuous
consumption was displayed with even more extravagance. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks folks, that’s
all we have room for this week. Don’t forget to check back next week for
another episode of Mysteries of Archaeology, when the topic will be ‘Was There
Ever Such a Place as the United States, and if so Where?’ As you know, we do
our best to support the Archaeological Community in its endeavors to bring the
past to light and entertain our audience. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like everything else Archaeology has to pay
its way by being entertaining, controversial and popular. At the end of the
series we’ll be giving a prize for the idea we like the best. We love to hear
from you, so don’t let ignorance inhibit your creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fame and Fortune, if not Truth, await!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-36866071457194753772015-02-17T05:35:00.000-08:002015-02-17T05:35:16.515-08:00A Cage Full of Squirrels for the Archdruid<br />
Background.<br />
This little collection of squirrel stories was inspired by the competition announced by the Archdruid, on his blog entry for 14th Jan. 2015 http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/march-of-squirrels.html although it may have developed further than was anticipated. I hope that this tally of tales gives you as much amusement to read as it gave me to write.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwR26t9HV3jp99AQAJb6-PP4UpDDrsExDb5DT18oh1QYlJHdOn-DPm_YMPtCGvwl1PUPevO4bWe8-Ol7LHeFANQ_-em0D1R6NsbeTzQmg9ZGWZ2yID2pmOReslPPEyfn0vk3SzXfvh99Le/s1600/article-2229728-15E9578B000005DC-244_634x857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwR26t9HV3jp99AQAJb6-PP4UpDDrsExDb5DT18oh1QYlJHdOn-DPm_YMPtCGvwl1PUPevO4bWe8-Ol7LHeFANQ_-em0D1R6NsbeTzQmg9ZGWZ2yID2pmOReslPPEyfn0vk3SzXfvh99Le/s1600/article-2229728-15E9578B000005DC-244_634x857.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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<h3>
Induction.</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Relax. Breathe deeply and slowly. Think happy thoughts. The
incantations have finished. The potions are working. Now we commence our
journey into a corner of the Late American Psyche. A corner filled with amazing
powers and ideas, inhabited by wonderful symbolic creatures. Creatures of great
power in the minds of late Americans. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here you can interact with the repressed
creative energies of that culture, expressing through the symbolic forms of
squirrels. Anything that could harm you is safely caged. You are safe and
relaxed, ready for your shamanic-druidic pathworking. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here we enter the magical realm through the special gate
which you see in front of you. It is a gate of dreams, a gate of remembrance.
Is it a gate of horn or a gate of ivory? When you enter you remember and recognize the place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Through the unknown,
remembered gate’. Is it in Little Gidding? No, that’s not in the Late American
Psyche.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Follow the path ahead
of you. Go past the cemeteries of past wars, the tattered flags, the tacky
malls, the ruins of great industries, the cities in decay. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go past the Phoenix pyre, that place of cold
ashes, memorial of a dead civilization which shall not here arise again. Ignore
the dying eagle baldly moulting in a tree, that’s for Llew, not for you. Those
creatures have no power in this reality. Do not follow Dante into that dark
wood. Do not take the Yeatsian </span>path of slouching beasts, the furnaces of Bethlehem have
been put out and can no longer steel their hearts and limbs nor give them birth.
Go straight ahead to the Squirrel House.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal">
The Squirrel House </h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
There you are. See the gigantic image of Uncle Sam at the
entrance, wearing his usual blue coat, striped trousers and tall hat. He’s smiling and
waving you in. Now he’s changed into a giant squirrel! Cross his palm with a
silver dollar and in you go. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcAo5RcIwWTSGA4OjSnjesh21akQnsziuEz5xVcg8zpvDSuZq0Z7ut7C14x_zXPPRf66CjpkQ_oR9WWt1Y5hAJbBbttCwI1Y3kTU8AbimL1jk-Yo3Zt4o-W41Lm9vNUJ1Ut5NbwL76LKn/s1600/uncle-sam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAcAo5RcIwWTSGA4OjSnjesh21akQnsziuEz5xVcg8zpvDSuZq0Z7ut7C14x_zXPPRf66CjpkQ_oR9WWt1Y5hAJbBbttCwI1Y3kTU8AbimL1jk-Yo3Zt4o-W41Lm9vNUJ1Ut5NbwL76LKn/s1600/uncle-sam.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-p6hFOijm2XRRWcikSUscnpUJEjMxerBwHAkI2yclDaNBU1gPmjKE4AW99oyX_JO3I1jN6Yd3vGX6H3VvAXAKdKVbX2wMqaUMdP_770XMbUh_svJ8UwEWpYRasrfyB8tkbTL8A2xvsqT/s1600/unclesam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-p6hFOijm2XRRWcikSUscnpUJEjMxerBwHAkI2yclDaNBU1gPmjKE4AW99oyX_JO3I1jN6Yd3vGX6H3VvAXAKdKVbX2wMqaUMdP_770XMbUh_svJ8UwEWpYRasrfyB8tkbTL8A2xvsqT/s1600/unclesam.jpg" height="320" width="257" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGuIk1Nwc5NJVJG0J4ZT1ArUzPCWcI1zU_nT6xH9unhzK-GBCfDy8AD9V54xFuNCmvnoyPT2E0sy7PjQPbxH1A_1sIPLDSwsJGrj7edCYq1sxVuyj64_UJAtqJITvVjUF4TZf_MYhqbM5/s1600/unclesam-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGuIk1Nwc5NJVJG0J4ZT1ArUzPCWcI1zU_nT6xH9unhzK-GBCfDy8AD9V54xFuNCmvnoyPT2E0sy7PjQPbxH1A_1sIPLDSwsJGrj7edCYq1sxVuyj64_UJAtqJITvVjUF4TZf_MYhqbM5/s1600/unclesam-02.jpg" height="315" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See the huge cage full of squirrels. It’s light and airy,
well appointed with everything which a squirrel could desire. Is it just a
fancy, or is the cage shaped like the United States of America? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Notice the squirrels. See how large and well
fed they are, how busily they run and scamper, how eagerly they climb up and
down the bars and over each other, how nimbly they chase one another, how
loudly and angrily they chatter, how aggressive, how active agile and ingenious
... how, dare we say it – American, they seem. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now we shall walk around the cage, paying close attention to
the demonstrations of ingenuity or ingenuousness given by the squirrels and to
the notices helpfully fixed beside the cage to explain what we are seeing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
Pay close attention. This is the
objective of your journey. Here you may take an idea from the squirrel cage of
creativity, nourish and cherish it in the cavern of your mind and if you can
remember and nurture it, upon your return you may be so fortunate, with zeal
and salesmanship, to give birth to a brainchild which when it grows up will place
you into the ranks of great American inventors who have advanced American
commerce and made huge fortunes for themselves. Oh yes, and saved the world
etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look, there’s a bunch running around in circles, chattering
angrily and throwing scat at the others. They’re even carrying placards and
waving pieces of paper. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4q1RiJlfMf7CQALxdXoGBqfdIfI2KNN6itbUqXzhiAfXST4fNLvPlyZ4aoLm-UEfOwGhkfRF0QkTx0MObVpp3xlSdsmmFPSW1MWmTp-Qt5lnpVeOpfmBpft-_h1Rj-fYoTPw2rFp5huk/s1600/grey-squirrels-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp4q1RiJlfMf7CQALxdXoGBqfdIfI2KNN6itbUqXzhiAfXST4fNLvPlyZ4aoLm-UEfOwGhkfRF0QkTx0MObVpp3xlSdsmmFPSW1MWmTp-Qt5lnpVeOpfmBpft-_h1Rj-fYoTPw2rFp5huk/s1600/grey-squirrels-2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDo3CdTs8W8nLo8fE6ZIgsIju0aDwYW-dDTrF4-XadpzzzsTkYXj6QZA2Wukfw2B2R4yG8tvC_OTuh7Y9dOQKSFGePZ_jv3ZWOe8dtTcoeHudIUEP79ukIqExh53eQLM-TpW57MSLHJIU/s1600/squirrels_feedme.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDo3CdTs8W8nLo8fE6ZIgsIju0aDwYW-dDTrF4-XadpzzzsTkYXj6QZA2Wukfw2B2R4yG8tvC_OTuh7Y9dOQKSFGePZ_jv3ZWOe8dtTcoeHudIUEP79ukIqExh53eQLM-TpW57MSLHJIU/s1600/squirrels_feedme.gif" height="320" width="282" /></a></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal">
Squirrel One.</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s read what this notice says.</div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">Paper from the W.C.</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">Flush with their success in blocking access to a sewage farm
and raising a stink, the Women’s Collective has issued a press release
denouncing the manufacture and use of toilet paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">WC demands the immediate cessation of the practice of
logging and turning forests into toilet paper. This male dominated perversion
of nature must cease forthwith. Just think of all the energy it wastes! Mother
Nature protests at the insult in turning her beautiful trees into material with
which to wipe people’s backsides. Bears don’t need toilet paper. They just
defecate in the woods. So should people. That’s why Gaia created them, the
woods, the bears and the people, and the recyclable material. All that
excrement should be going back to Nature to be recycled into more trees and
bears and people and... dung. It’s a beautiful natural cycle, disrupted by evil
white men enslaving the female force of nature to make private profits in
pursuit of the capitalist, or as it turns out, ‘crapitalist’ system! And, did I
mention – Racist? Who invented toilet paper anyhow? I bet it wasn’t blacks or
women, nor bears obviously. It must have been evil white men. They’ve been
chopping down trees with their stone axes and chainsaws since the Stone Age,
slaughtering the forests, and the blacks and the bears, and forcing women to
use toilet paper through the insidious advertising of multinational
corporations on Wall Street.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">Just think how much energy has been stolen from Nature and
used for pointless things like toilet paper and drains and sewage farms – and
Wall Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">We announce that the theme of our next march and sit-in will
be ‘Take a dump on Crapitali$m and on Wall Street’. Things could get dirty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What crazy dirty squirrels! Is it something in their diet or
the air or the water they drink? Perhaps it’s a lack of early toilet training
or parental discipline. Let’s hurry past and read the next notice. It may make
more sense.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
Squirrel Two</h4>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #a64d79;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Nuclear Fracking</span></span></h2>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: cyan;">Nuclear Fracking Incorporated has issued the following
statement</span>.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: cyan;">This company
absolutely denies any connection with or responsibility for the unfortunate
series of earthquakes and floods which have devastated the Mississippi Valley,
changed the course of the river and destroyed all the cities along its southern
course. The company accepts no responsibility for Acts of God and deny that
their activities had anything to do with activating the New Madrid Fault. The
loss of life and destruction of property that has resulted from these
unfortunate events is tragic, but we should not forget that the company is
among the innocent victims here. It has lost several sites and staff. The
decline in its share price is undeserved and has had a regrettable impact on
the bonuses expected by its executives. </span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: cyan;">
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="background-color: #a64d79;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: cyan;">
<span style="background-color: #a64d79;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="background-color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The company announces that it will press ahead with its
plans for deep nuclear fracking in the Chicago area. Irresponsible stories that
this may cause the Great Lakes to empty into the Mississippi Valley are mere
scaremongering by rivals and eco-nuts. And if it does happen, it won’t be our
fault. Get over it. Man-up. We need to make a profit here.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59KqeOMatTRgOn4fHkAiO7oOG00t3aqlWs2xy7mjLsQGMtZ8-40OIFAVJ_l85iFroRQTD9gSJ8kMl8renCzDU_cAe9N8K2dP2pfEbpwVSLf9u2NacEhNJnEOTCvDTHqtpsDlovilMba_z/s1600/13273854-human-skeleton-and-nuclear-detonation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59KqeOMatTRgOn4fHkAiO7oOG00t3aqlWs2xy7mjLsQGMtZ8-40OIFAVJ_l85iFroRQTD9gSJ8kMl8renCzDU_cAe9N8K2dP2pfEbpwVSLf9u2NacEhNJnEOTCvDTHqtpsDlovilMba_z/s1600/13273854-human-skeleton-and-nuclear-detonation.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtF9GafwCWFmeBN_Zrh-zsVlsXQpxEWyJ6rftENYppRlKLMBFMsV2SXjvrhao7il5ZFwpc3mhEO2aGlfGYnC4TC3iMMlnzRrKivl09CNyX58cBGe0eByQPhnxScbPOF1PmO3kX0JO4oSKk/s1600/pirate-squirrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtF9GafwCWFmeBN_Zrh-zsVlsXQpxEWyJ6rftENYppRlKLMBFMsV2SXjvrhao7il5ZFwpc3mhEO2aGlfGYnC4TC3iMMlnzRrKivl09CNyX58cBGe0eByQPhnxScbPOF1PmO3kX0JO4oSKk/s1600/pirate-squirrel.jpg" height="320" width="290" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">This one’s quite scary. Is that a skull and crossbones on
the sign there? Why does it have $ signs over the eye-holes? Is money all it
could see? Why is that squirrel waving a cutlass at us? Time to move along.
Perhaps the next squirrel will be more pleasant.</span></div>
</h4>
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Squirrel Three</h4>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Oh, here’s some industrious<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<h2>
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">€UthanatU$</span></h2>
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">Smaller creatures use less energy. Squirrels are faster and
nimbler than elephants, even if they do forget where they’ve left their nuts. Save
energy by shrinking! Become richer by being able to do more with what you’ve
already got. Capitalise on recent breakthroughs in the science of solipsistics.
Now you don’t need to bother about sending spaceships to the moon and the
planets and to other solar systems. You don’t need to bother occupying other
people’s planets or countries to subdue them and steal their resources. That’s
very slow, expensive, wasteful, and can lead to conflict with other violent and
greedy people. That’s the old fashioned way. Now try the new Solipsistic way.
Occupy yourself!</span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">Take advantage of our updated nanotechnology and colonise
your own inner space. Forget Cryonics, freezing your sorry ass and hoping that
the future will find a way to cure your diseases and extend your life before
the cost of the electricity consumes your resources and you are switched off.
Now your consciousness can be shrunk so much that each atom in your body
becomes a solar system, whose electrons you can visit and inhabit as planets. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you a gross
bumbling buffoon? No longer let that worry you. Now it’s an advantage, it gives
you a bigger universe of atoms to visit and exploit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the New Frontier; this advance puts
limitless energy and resources at your command. You owe it to yourself to take
advantage of it. That’s the American Way. You’re worth it! Be a leader! Be the
first person in your community to disappear up your own backside. Demonstrate that
old American know-how yet again. Let them see why the rest of the world should
follow the American Way. Show them where to go.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">Let our experts guide you comfortably through the easy and
enriching process. Dr. Jim Jones, late of Guyana, and a very experienced guide,
is available to answer your questions and get you started with a free glass of
nanopsychotherapeutic koolaid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For our
billionaire clients we have an additional level of luxury and sophistication,
available exclusively at our Swiss resort of Heaven’s Gate. Affluently ‘edgy’
clients may prefer to undergo the unique experience available at our clinic of
Hellsdoor.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">€ and £ as well as $ rates available on request. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">U$A! U$A! U$A for ever!</span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">This amazing breakthrough is not only a technological and
cultural marvel; it provides additional power and legitimacy to the financial
sector. As sovereigns over all those atomic and sub-atomic worlds within them,
people may now issue sovereign debt instruments which can be rated and traded,
diced and mixed in the old familiar way which enabled previous financial booms.
Another boom, yippee!</span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">Legal Disclosure: </span></div>
<span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><span style="background-color: orange;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: orange;">The bankers are feeling a bit jaded and burnt-out; having
found that it would take a trillion earth equivalent worlds to bail them out of
their losses and not even their political whores in Washington enslaving the
whole population of the earth on their behalf can provide that much money for
them. Not even if they used all the paper in the world to print banknotes and
all the computers they can make to store all the digits. Suddenly, salvation!
They can securitize and foreclose on your bodies, one atom at a time. Chattel,
debt and wage slavery are completely obsolete and outclassed. This time Shylock
Associates, the eminent lawyers and lobbyists have got the right laws through
Congress and the Administration is completely bribed and fully instructed on
how to implement them. There’ll be no more of that ‘take only the exact pound
of flesh, without shedding any blood’ nonsense when they go to court to claim
their pound of flesh in future. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #e69138;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyLyL1g1U9KkbGGcPYUaBE7ox6HRhs4klgxj7d1Cs1gR7RiXbVoJeaaAS98ZAa4r5KcAbBkl0LyxkRUI9inpUqdKpQqAu5rSWtSAU3A2PPflv4cLsSgVdi5C1fiP1M_2_8G3kjILnFAEm/s1600/squirrel+drinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyLyL1g1U9KkbGGcPYUaBE7ox6HRhs4klgxj7d1Cs1gR7RiXbVoJeaaAS98ZAa4r5KcAbBkl0LyxkRUI9inpUqdKpQqAu5rSWtSAU3A2PPflv4cLsSgVdi5C1fiP1M_2_8G3kjILnFAEm/s1600/squirrel+drinking.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</span></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><div class="MsoNormal">
That seems very intoxicating, but do we really need even more of what went before? Who'll be left to clean up after the party? Perhaps the next bunch of squirrels may be more practical.<br />
<br />
<br />
Squirrel Four</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Now here’s a very busy and well organised group of
squirrels. But why are they going round in circles? What does their notice say?</div>
<h2>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background-color: red;">The Treadmill of Permanent
Revolution</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">Save energy! Get healthy! Help your community!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">You’ve done all the good things like insulating your house,
growing vegetables, befriending your neighbors, giving away any of your
property that they haven’t yet stolen, to the screaming scrofulous starving
scavenging savage hordes,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and taking up
cycling. Now take the next step on the path of virtue. Get on a treadmill. It’s
revolutionary!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s healthy. It can
be fun if you’re already fit and don’t collapse too early. It’s collective,
although not yet a collective punishment. Previously only available in limited
numbers to selected inmates of state institutions, the social benefits of the
treadmill should now be made available to the wider society. Develop the
camaraderie that comes from working and suffering together. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will really get to know your neighbours
and they will get to know you. It’s the Great Equaliser, better than a Colt .45
and less immediately lethal. </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Admittedly, after some hours of sweaty effort in
close and enforced proximity to lazy, whining, stinking,</span>flatulent comrades, some people experience an irrational
desire to use a Colt on them, but such atavistic and reactionary tendencies can
be overcome by further sessions of therapeutic re-education. Fortunately, the
gun control process has made so much progress that reactionary elements would
find it difficult to obtain a weapon.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">The treadmill is an inspiring model and metaphor for a just
society. Everyone has to keep climbing, but no one can get ahead and everyone
is brought down to earth at the same level whatever their abilities or
disabilities, merits or deserts. You have to keep moving but never get
anywhere. A few prophetic leaders, such as Karl, Fidel or Che, known by their
beards and tendency to logorrhoea, have transcended the need for this process
or self-sacrificingly deprive themselves of its benefits. They stand apart to philosophize about it and inspire you to greater efforts with their sermons
(and AK 47’s.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">(Mao, Joe, Leon and Adolf will only qualify for such
positions of responsibility when they manage to grow better beards. Moustaches
are not enough. There are no vacancies for Bearded Ladies. No discussions will
be entered relating to Oscar’s ‘beard’, merkins, or similar topics.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">Don’t think that the benefits are solely social, vital
though it is that society should be socialist and run by bearded progressives
for everybody’s benefit, and especially theirs. No! This is a very practical endeavor to build a just collectivist society, far better than Mao’s foolish endeavors to kill sparrows and build backyard steelworks, and with a
supervisory framework superior to Bentham’s panopticon. Since the unfortunate
incident at Gaza involving operator Samson’s excessively long hair becoming
entangled in the machinery of an early model and bringing down the house, it
has been decided that all operators will in future have fully shaven heads.
That means you too, ladies. You’ll get used to the new progressive fashion and
the exercise will keep your heads warm. Hotheads will be removed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">A great deal of energy will of necessity be devoted to this
project, and deservedly so, for it promises both to generate a great deal and
to save even more. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need not suppose
that you, formerly the American Middle Class and now the impoverished and newly
recruited Vanguard of the Proletariat, will be alone on the treadmills. Of
course not. Not for long anyway. Misery loves company and you’ll soon have
plenty of company as the capitalist economy implodes. All the unemployed office
cubicle fauna will need somewhere to go and an opportunity to keep fit and
‘give something back’ in return for a little bread and water and sleeping room
in a shared cubicle in a dosshouse. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then there are all the layabouts and invaders, degenerates and freaks. You
didn’t really think we promoted them because we liked them, did you? Ha!Ha!Ha!
Of course not! They were useful to us in performing a destructive function, and
having succeeded they may be dispensed with. A society with an excessive
population and diminishing resources certainly can’t afford the luxury of
maintaining bums and vermin. They won’t qualify for food rations, so working
them to death will make a positive contribution to society and free that
society from their potential future nuisance. But hush, it’s too soon to
comment on matters that will later be dealt with by the Inner Party and which
might disturb the naive but useful idiots to whom we owe so much that can never
be repaid. Back to the more cheerful topic of the benefits of treadmills. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">For one thing, they can generate more power than the trendy
bird-slicers even when the wind is not blowing or is blowing too hard, so it
can be available more reliably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
another, our engineers say that they can store power as flywheels once the
operators have run them up to speed, and they will slow down so a new crew can
jump on once some of that power has been used. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">Huge progress can be made on both the demand for and the
supply of energy. Demand can be greatly reduced by eliminating the decadent
consumer fripperies of late-capitalist consumer society. If necessary by
eliminating the decadent consumers, but let’s not go there just yet. Vast
improvements can be made on both sides of the equation by some simple social
reforms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">Just think how much time and effort and equipment and energy
is wasted in the various futile endeavors known as ‘sport’! It’s all a cunning
capitalist plot to distract workers from their instinctive need to build a fair
social structure and to divide their class solidarity with destructive
competitions generating meaningless categories of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. Now
we can redeem that wasted effort. Sport will be replaced by exercise on a
treadmill. The current sporting venues and public parks and open spaces can be
filled by treadmills generating electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All that time wasted, not only on sport but by other bourgeois
activities such as sitting around chattering in coffee shops, sitting around
blogging, marching around protesting, shopping for fripperies or getting your
hair done, could all be spent productively getting fit and generating energy by
running on a treadmill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no need
for ‘texting’ or ‘twittering’ or for ‘hanging out’ with your friends. All such
social needs can be better met by gathering for long and frequent sessions on
the treadmill. There’s no need for gym subscriptions. This is better. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">People won’t be allowed to become gluttons wallowing in
excessively luxurious meals at fancy restaurants. Nor will they be allowed to
become fat slobs gorging on junk food. None of that is needed. The Roman
gladiators were known as ‘barley men’ because they were fed a healthy diet of
grain and vegetables, and they certainly were fit. You’ll learn to love it, and
for obvious reasons, we’ll economize by not teaching you to fight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much energy is wasted in producing meat. In
future it will only be available to members of the Inner Party, like Karl and
Fidel and Che. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">You won’t need to bother with books or magazines or music or
art or the internet, although the more practiced treadmill runners could manage
those activities at the same time. In fact you won’t need to be able to read or
write. There’s no need for petit-bourgeois individualism and anti-social
privacy, and all such potentially subversive activities. Running on the
treadmill will be a social occasion and a strict requirement for existence in
this Workers Paradise. After your twelve hour work shift each day – no Sundays
off you slackers – you will refresh yourself and prove your social utility by
running for at least four hours on a treadmill. This will of course be
monitored, and those whose performance is inadequate will be motivated to
improve rapidly. Eight hours per day is a luxurious allocation for sleeping,
eating and moving around. The Party may decide to reduce it if more output is
required from the treadmills. You will not be allowed to fall into individual
reveries. Your intellectual and cultural food will be supplied by listening to
speeches and recordings of the works of Karl and Fidel and Che as you run, but
there’ll be no getting away from them. Ha! Ha! There will be tests afterwards.
You won’t want to fail them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">Join the Squirrel Workers Party. Squirrels of the world
unite! You have nothing to lose but your nuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNns1Lm1U1E6UJUSVqdDfETcqLl9WFPVHbT7b3RE0up4GLygO7l9JC3sCN5pzOucBvYRzfQnXKWLOL5Kfv0cXkX50xHDFdukCi8iCPhUTTXoEZ4QdS76gohKyfXxH_o164_6TotR2uvLNz/s1600/article-2220694-1593F062000005DC-71_634x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNns1Lm1U1E6UJUSVqdDfETcqLl9WFPVHbT7b3RE0up4GLygO7l9JC3sCN5pzOucBvYRzfQnXKWLOL5Kfv0cXkX50xHDFdukCi8iCPhUTTXoEZ4QdS76gohKyfXxH_o164_6TotR2uvLNz/s1600/article-2220694-1593F062000005DC-71_634x600.jpg" height="302" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UzFmLkpFzR2GiylzvJZk7UfVQt9DnClkT4rYTj5-n6iGtrsN3IrX-lvfj77Fvv80Np7WZXSyDXWav2GeftsXMSifQj4gNdjmb4qqMMekZQmf_caXXLl4ITvv-2cGNE3VwMCK_ImCFCTt/s1600/LgiqU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UzFmLkpFzR2GiylzvJZk7UfVQt9DnClkT4rYTj5-n6iGtrsN3IrX-lvfj77Fvv80Np7WZXSyDXWav2GeftsXMSifQj4gNdjmb4qqMMekZQmf_caXXLl4ITvv-2cGNE3VwMCK_ImCFCTt/s1600/LgiqU.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too strenuous huh? Maybe it’ll appeal to left-brained
people. Or is that a No-Brain-er?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s
see what the next squirrel has to offer.</div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Squirrel Five</span></h4>
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Free Energy and Stuff </div>
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Communiqué from Commander Fatso of the Free Stuff Army</div>
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">People of the Free World, unite! You have nothing to lose,
but your inhibitions, and everything to gain that your greed can desire and
your arms can grab!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">It’s your human right to have everything you want and to
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something even better. Don’t let killjoys hold you back. There’s no such thing
as morality or virtue or property rights or just deserts. Those are just
stories invented by people who have stuff and want to stop you from taking it. That’s
why you need to join the Free Stuff Army so you can kill them and take the
stuff for free. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Scarcity is artificial. It’s created by governments and big
corporations to enslave, you keep you afraid and keep you working for them. Our
intelligence has discovered that there need be no shortage of energy. That’s
all lies, spread by the special interests that benefit by keeping you ignorant
and afraid that you won’t be able to live unless you serve them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, they’re wrong. Our agents have infiltrated
their operations and have discovered the truth which they have tried to hide
from you.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Listen to Lieutenant Squeaker, here, of our Intelligence
Service.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Hi there. I’m Lieutenant Pip Squeaker. See this bundle of
reports in my paw? This is all information I obtained by hacking into the
internet and printing out a lot of sensational stories which the media
sycophants of the New World Disorder<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>keep suppressed.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">See this report about Peak Oil? That’s just disinformation
put out by the oil companies. There’s actually lots of oil. It doesn’t have to
be scarce. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The companies try to limit
production to keep the price high, but sometimes, like recently, the price
falls because the thieves fall out and don’t stick to their agreements to limit
output. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">It goes further. They want you to believe that oil is made
from squashed dinosaurs and ferns from prehistoric times, and that it’s scarce
because there are no more dinosaurs and ferns are no longer being squeezed
under deep layers of earth. Can you really believe that? Well, if you want to
pass exams, you have to pretend to believe it. Of course, that’s just an
attempt to see how dumb they can make you pretend to be. Only the really oily
sycophants can expect good jobs with the Powers That Be.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Obviously this is all nonsense. The Russians found out the
truth long ago. It’s called abiotic oil. Oil is made deep in the earth’s crust
by chemical reactions caused by heat and pressure, and it seeps up towards the
surface. Depleted oil reservoirs can refill themselves. This happens far below
the depths that any dinosaurs or ferns could have reached, or even any layers
of rock made of their remains. Americans believe in squashed dinosaurs, and
they’re running out of oil, they say. Russians know better, and they produce and
sell more gas than anyone else. Maybe they know their business. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Perhaps oil is irrelevant. Here’s information from several
sources that automobile engines <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that
run on water have been developed, but suppressed by the big corporations until
they’ve squeezed the last drop of profit out of the current arrangement ! Maybe
you can travel for fifty miles on a litre of water. Here’s more information
that the real purpose of fracking is to pollute the water supply and make fresh
water scarce. The big corporations got you used to buying bottles of water when
it was no better, although more expensive than tap water. Now you won’t mind
carrying some bottles of water in your automobile, but the big companies will
be charging more for it than for gasoline. Why do you suppose your ex-President
Shrub bought a ranch in Paraguay, right over a huge aquifer of fresh water?</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Maybe you don’t even need water to power a machine. There’s
a suppressed American tradition of using mind power to move matter. Back in the
19<sup>th</sup> century they had John Keeley who made machines that worked, but
only for him. Later there was Ed Leedskalnin, who built a castle from big
blocks of coral rock without machinery to help him. Way back in ancient Egypt
they moved huge blocks, by means of prayer and chanting to levitate them,
according to legend. There’s also an account from someone in the early 20<sup>th</sup>
century who saw Tibetan monks levitate and direct blocks of stone, using
chanting and the sound of big horns and drums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You must have heard of the great genius Tesla, and how his work on free
energy from the earth and space was suppressed by greedy corporations and their
political lackeys. Wouldn’t you like to just plug your appliances directly into
the Earth, without having to pay utility bills?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s also a lot of fuss about zero point energy, getting free energy
from a vacuum, but that gets rather technical and acrimonious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</span></span></h4>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thank you Lieutenant.
That’s enough revelations for now. We don’t want to overload people with too
much information in case it shocks them and they go into denial. You’re doing
an</span></span> excellent job, but it’s time for you to get back to the
internet to monitor the latest developments.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Well folks, let me tell you, we have found a simple way to
get past all the techno-gobbledygook and cut to the chase. We’re going to round
up all the ‘pointy-headed intellectuals’ and make them come up with something
that works.You’ve heard of those FEMA camps they’re planning to fill
with dissidents? Well, we’ll get there, ‘first-est with the most-est’ and turn
them into Free Energy Manufacturing Academies. Ha!Ha! How do you like that?
More American than a GULAG I guess, more like the Manhattan Project, but
bigger. Maybe I’ll be in charge. I’d sure like to be a General.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">We can collect all those nuts that Squeaker and his crew
find, we squirrels are real good at collecting nuts, yes sirree! We’ll keep
them in cages, so we don’t lose them. Then we just bite and bang them around a
bit until something good pops out.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Maybe this science stuff is about played out? We’ll invest a
bit of effort into magic as some insurance. There’s an Archdruid I’m keeping an
eye on, as a potential White Team leader. He may have useful contacts with
nature spirits and deities. Maybe he can put a spell on your automobile to make
it move by itself! There’s a Satanist who supposedly could kill goats by
staring at them. Black Magic or White? Let’s see which team wins. If we can’t
run automobiles on water or fairy farts, maybe goats’ blood will do. Would
red-blooded Americans be willing to do that? As long as they personally don’t
have to get caught red-handed, just try to stop them! If there’s no gasoline,
goats’ blood would be a sustainable alternative fuel. Adds a new meaning to the
term ‘service station’ doesn’t it? Just fill up with a couple of goats, freshly
slaughtered for premium customers. Then there’s all the meat, and so many
religious cooks that are fussy about how it’s been killed. The market potential
is mouth-watering. What if there aren’t enough goats? What about camels or other
animals, and might their mileage differ? Well, there’s a whole Middle East full
of.. mammals, which could be used, isn’t there? We’ve all got a ‘little list of
those who’d not be missed’, haven’t we? How many of your neighbors would not
sacrifice your blood to get where they want to go? Looks like the Black Team
might win, doesn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never mind. That’s
the mass market for you. Maybe there’s scope for an upmarket brand. ‘Fairy
Juice’, the alternative fuel for affluent animal and human rights supporters
with delicate dispositions and a marked sense of intellectual, social, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>moral and cultural superiority? Even Liberals
gotta ride, huh? How long before they exercise or exorcise their hypocrisy by
joining fairy rights organizations? A little donation of time or money sure
goes a long way to assuage a guilty conscience. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Why don’t we just ask all the conventional religious leaders
to pray for us, and get their favorite versions of Divinity to keep things
running? Puhleeese! Gimme a break. When was the last time one of those had
enough energy to even pray up or calm a storm? Two thousand years and counting!
How long can you wait? </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">We are trying very hard to be reasonable, as you can tell. Just
give us what we want, free stuff – or at the very least, cheap stuff and lots
of it. We all want to live comfortably in a reasonable society. Then we can
give you what you want, to continue living. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">If the reasonable way doesn’t work, there is another. See
that big black squirrel with large teeth and a ferocious disposition? That’s
Sergeant Mobongo. He is very experienced at making free with other people’s
possessions and lives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4ierEflUAfPRgJDhT7HsbrG2coQFB6Ue2wFx2SLeHhN59zBGuDxQDeu5AFJOerVv-rnRqa6-HmxzDuQcOtwiB4_t_-agM4ccv_5rPz512XRCmv3K57_IgqmytaNLAL3Cl0sWwQxfIJCR/s1600/images.duckduckgo.com+sq17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4ierEflUAfPRgJDhT7HsbrG2coQFB6Ue2wFx2SLeHhN59zBGuDxQDeu5AFJOerVv-rnRqa6-HmxzDuQcOtwiB4_t_-agM4ccv_5rPz512XRCmv3K57_IgqmytaNLAL3Cl0sWwQxfIJCR/s1600/images.duckduckgo.com+sq17.jpg" height="320" width="302" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cld0rc0ND_oL3ZYBNMrigyILWbdBS7YOBGuQTAIzdpfXD9KuLTJA6jELYxtoWgcZtnBAJCXZg2yWhJPBHDJXWVCduvXTVxymmjUYLe_PzEPY9YJ7r0fqIrkMH5ePeUhgC7-oLz5s25pc/s1600/squirrel-gun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cld0rc0ND_oL3ZYBNMrigyILWbdBS7YOBGuQTAIzdpfXD9KuLTJA6jELYxtoWgcZtnBAJCXZg2yWhJPBHDJXWVCduvXTVxymmjUYLe_PzEPY9YJ7r0fqIrkMH5ePeUhgC7-oLz5s25pc/s1600/squirrel-gun.jpg" height="234" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbbLQmdCKkIYSe8qtsPH9Qrr3qxPl4opXnCQdFkbOZIfx5Q6gog555R1PP0FyAvT5l-J7pmE619xRJhvvq4Oa6dqjR1LRWIGnVD0SAMBMoFewYssXNFp5V44lmxnLGv59_PYzHmE6hlMG/s1600/ShylosCatch+dead+squirrels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbbLQmdCKkIYSe8qtsPH9Qrr3qxPl4opXnCQdFkbOZIfx5Q6gog555R1PP0FyAvT5l-J7pmE619xRJhvvq4Oa6dqjR1LRWIGnVD0SAMBMoFewYssXNFp5V44lmxnLGv59_PYzHmE6hlMG/s1600/ShylosCatch+dead+squirrels.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: #6fa8dc;">Give me Liberty or give me Death! That means give me Free
Stuff or I’ll give you Death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
‘Far out, man!’ Do people still say that sort of thing? I
guess some people are very concerned about freedom and stuff. Maybe if they
smoked some free dope they’d chill out a bit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s see what the next bunch of squirrels is about.</div>
</span></span></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> Squirrel Six</span></h4>
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</h4>
<h2>
The Mephistopheles Corporation</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">See those squirrels in the tree? It looks like the important
squirrel is giving a talk or an interview. Let’s get close enough to overhear
them.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KMEEgwXZKBQu-eBTQdjdnPAqCEwIvSMigcfWHf-JjCAcPA-Z-mM8sKPQFJ8tEH2oDW5LhtNoxGQvc2DNPKwEhrk-K8Zza0cE38y02G6tlQ7CKmgpwIeKto5t3f2hydj4TRY_tlfRcQHj/s1600/classysquirreltophat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KMEEgwXZKBQu-eBTQdjdnPAqCEwIvSMigcfWHf-JjCAcPA-Z-mM8sKPQFJ8tEH2oDW5LhtNoxGQvc2DNPKwEhrk-K8Zza0cE38y02G6tlQ7CKmgpwIeKto5t3f2hydj4TRY_tlfRcQHj/s1600/classysquirreltophat.jpg" height="281" width="320" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘Hi there! Thanks for joining us. I’m Beelzebub, Chief
Marketing Executive of the Mephistopheles Corporation for Planet Earth in the
Solar System Sector. That’s quite a mouthful I know, so you’re welcome just to
call me El.’ </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘I’ve got some great deals both for energy consumers and for
investors in our great corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve
just been explaining some of the background to an interested couple, Knavor and
Greta Phfool, here. You’re welcome to join them and ask questions if there’s
anything not covered by our press release there. Please take a copy. It’ll be
in all the media if you pay attention to that sort of thing. I do because it’s
my job. Cosmic law obliges me to give you this disclaimer before you make any
decisions. The Mephistopheles Corporation and its affiliates adhere closely to
the highest ethical standards and practices available in its areas of interest and
activity in force on this planet. That’s better than most corporations. I can’t
think of any of our competitors who do any better. We do not tell lies. Let me
repeat that; we do not tell lies. We are not to be presumed to have full and accurate
knowledge, or to have revealed all that we know. We are not obliged to disclose
commercially sensitive or proprietary information. You may misunderstand what
you hear or read. You are responsible for exercising your own judgment in any
dealings with us, as with others. I’m a salesperson, and a good one, so I will
try to persuade you, but I do not compel. Opinions and judgments differ, that’s
what keeps markets and arguments going! You must exercise your own will and
judgment; then cosmic law will hold you to the consequences of any agreement
made. Now after that boring legal small print let’s get to the fun stuff.’</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘It’s all about ME.
That’s right. Mephistopheles Corporation has YOU very much in mind. We have M.
Energy, M. Ecology, M. Environment and many other projects, all operating in
the area of Materialistic Egotism. We focus on your material desires.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">There’s a lot of concern about the environment and about
Peak Oil and that sort of thing. Running out of energy to do the things you
want and need to do is certainly a big concern. Environmentalists complain that
you’ve used up most of the good stuff, the energy dense fossil fuels, so your
economies societies and cultures are in for a very rude shock. They won’t carry
on because they can’t carry on. That leaves YOU in a very unpleasant situation.
You may not be equipped or inclined to live in the simpler, bleaker, harsher future
that’s getting closer by the moment, and you don’t want to either die miserably
and soon, or survive as a self-flagellating pauper with only your sense of
environmental virtue to keep you warm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Scary stuff. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there’s
another huge energy resource which these people have overlooked in their
eagerness to be miserable and to see you suffer. It happens to be the most
energy dense fuel commonly available to humanity. Materialistic Egotism. Your
sense of ME and what you want is the most energizing fuel to get you going and
keep you active and in hot pursuit of your desires. Better than sex; far more empowering
than gold or oil.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Our technology enables us to stimulate ME energy, to
motivate your activity and then to harvest the residue of your desires and the
energy generated by your striving and your clashes with other egos. We channel
the entropic process by which this energy degrades into waste heat, so that it
is converted into material power and warmth. Naturally we take a small
percentage as commission, seldom more than ten percent; that’s only fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a lot of ME energy. This is a large
well established business, with an effective business model. We already have a
considerable market share and expect to experience steady growth in earnings
and market share. We are a Blue Chip stock. We invest heavily in research and
development, so we aim to increase the effective energy yielded by our on-going
technological enhancements. This is good news both for consumers and for
investors. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We have an active Real Estate division which invests in
prime properties in hot locations. High Energy Living Locations are much sought
after. We can help you find somewhere that suits your lifestyle and
aspirations. New York is much admired by our clients as an example of a high
energy living location where the clash of densely packed, highly motivated <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and very materialistic egos results in a great
deal of energy which we can use. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In addition to utilization of the dense and sustainable
sources of ME energy and the development and sale of real estate where this
energy is most stimulated and concentrated, we also cater to the widespread
interest in environmentalism. When you want a change from watching films of
lions killing antelope, or stags rutting, or orcas killing the calves of Blue
whales or other manifestations of nature in action; you can take one of our
psychic tours to observe the big beasts of the corporate jungle gather at their
watering holes or ambush their prey or stalk each other. Later our Educational
Division, which has had great success in promoting our concepts and services to
young and old alike, may offer a course in Mephistophelian Ecology explaining
how energy may be derived from division, not only by splitting the atom, but by
introducing contention to split all forms of unity including consciousness. The
energy gradient between facts and people’s opinions and desires is steep and
generates a lot of emotional energy. Divide and Rule is a very old concept, and
a basic part of this ecology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now let me deal with the answers to some Frequently Asked
Questions.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What about Global Warming?</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Global Warming? That’s the entropic waste from the spiritual,
intellectual, emotional and physical energy wasted by Materialistic Egotism.
It’s what’s left over from meeting all those needs desires and expectations. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Or Cooling?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well, we cover both sides of the refrigerator.
They’re different realities or perceptions, all useful for our purposes.
Arguments between them generate a lot of heat, quite a flow of energy.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How did we get into this situation?</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You mortgaged your house and squandered the capital. That
was just an external manifestation of what you’re doing to your soul. Also, it’s
an analogy for depleting the material and moral resources of your country and
the world. You didn’t realize and still don’t believe that was a very effective
rite of Black Magic? Well it’s too late for you now, and ignorance of cosmic
law is no more an excuse than it is for terrestrial law.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What will become of us?</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If you’re lucky you might get to reincarnate at the level of
consciousness of a grain of sand or a puff of foul gas. It’s a long climb back
to the level you fell from and it’ll probably take several Big Bangs and Big
Collapses before much progress is made, but ‘you’ won’t be able to worry about
that. Enjoy it while you can.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Will you buy my soul?</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No, we won’t buy your soul. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was so medieval, so much stress and
struggle over sin and redemption – useful in its way and in its time, but now
we prefer modern financial products, they do the job more slowly but more comfortably.
Debt in a multiplicity of varieties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
let you waste your soul, and keep taking a steady and confusing series of energy
streams from it until it dwindles below a recognizable and usable level. I
suppose you never thought of Wall Street as a kind of inverted church where
Black Magic is carried out very successfully? It’s one of our proudest modern
achievements. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Am I going to hell?</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No, you’re not ‘going to hell’ to be kept warm there at
someone else’s expense. Uncle Satan isn’t Uncle Sam you know. He isn’t running
a welfare state feeding grasshoppers at the expense of ants, the ecology is
different there. No, it’s your essence and your energy which fuels hell and
keeps us warm and well fed without your awareness. We’re not going to waste
eternity perpetually torturing you; you’re already doing that to yourself and
each other with only a little encouragement from us. Don’t let it worry you now,
soon you won’t be able to worry, and then there’ll be no ‘you’ to worry.
Win-Win or what? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now ladies and gentlemen, if you have no more questions, I
thank you for your interest in Mephistopheles Corporation. Please take some of
our free literature and remember you can call us any time to find out more
about how our services can assist you. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Wow! Psychic vampirism keeps reality running? That sure must
be fashionable, and profitable for its organizers; but let’s move on before we
get drawn in. I think we’ve got enough time to visit one more squirrel. Look at
that one wearing a white robe and stroking his beard as he orates to a small
audience. </span></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Squirrel Seven</span></h4>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The Philosophical Squirrel</span></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Greetings Humans. How are things among humankind? Nuttier
than amongst the squirrels I’d guess.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I’m Phil the Squirrel Philosopher. That’s why I’m wearing
white robes, and the beard of course. Of course I need the beard! A beard is
necessary to be taken seriously in the squirrel community. You’ve passed by
Karl and Fidel and Che and their show, they explained it to you didn’t they? I
bet Pythagoras and Protagoras and Plato and Plotinus, and Porphyry and all the
real philosophers had beards, as well as names beginning with P.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even Hatshepsut had a beard, and she was just
a female Pharaoh wearing a false beard, not even a real Philosopher. You think
I’m taking the pee? You’ve never seen a bearded squirrel before? That just
shows what a rare and endangered species we are! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get me on the Endangered Species List. I need
a government grant. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">
</span></h4>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">Yes, that’s a claim to victimhood. You need one of those,
now everything’s so very P.C. I’m actually very P.C. That’s Philosophically
Conscious. I can do all the ‘P’s and now I wonder whether I should get a wig.
Then I could do Burke and Voltaire. From enlightened philosopher to philosopher
of the Enlightenment. They didn’t have a beard, which shows that they weren’t
real philosophers. Could I wear both wig and beard? Show that I’m both natural
and sophisticated? Both black and white? Humans never managed it, but
fortunately I’m a Grey squirrel, although not thank goodness, a relative of
that fool Sir Edward Grey. ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; they will
not be re-lit in our generation’. Not so many would have gone out had he minded
his own business and stayed out of what became the Great War. The Cabbages
would have given the Frogs a quick bout of indigestion and then it would have
been business as usual, especially if the Bears had taken the time to sharpen
their claws properly to deter the Cabbages from rolling eastwards. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">You’re worried that the lamps and other things will shortly
be going out over more than Europe, and they’ll never be re-lit in any
generation? Don’t worry so much, be philosophical. Most of the pain will be
borne by other people; you won’t need to feel it. It’s not your business.
Meddling in other people’s business usually makes things worse. Stop making
yourself feel virtuous and important by clubbing other people over the head
with your superior ‘sensitivity’. The crocodiles don’t need you to add to their
tears. You want to help suffering humanity, you say? You want to ease the lot
of the toiling masses, using your greater wisdom and compassion to guide them
around some of the obstacles in their path?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You don’t walk on water or part seas do you? I didn’t think you were
Jesus or Moses. You don’t have the beards for that job.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">You should be Philosophical and also Environmental and
Ecological. There’s more pee you can take. Haven’t you seen those nature films about
the migration of the great herds of wildebeest and zebra over the Serengeti
plains? Remember how they fall over each other into raging torrents, crush each
other against impassable banks, climb over the bodies of those underneath to
make a route up the bank. You saw individuals swept away or dragged under by
crocodiles lying in wait. You saw lions and hyenas pull down the unlucky, the
very young, the old, the infirm and the weak and devour them whilst they were
still alive. You saw drought thin the herd, you saw their necessity to keep
moving through heat and dust and fear and fatigue and pain when there was
nothing to eat or drink. You saw how very tough they are, and what keeps them
so. They’re not very smart, but the exigencies of their life force the
survivors to be very tough. In hard times a lot more of them than usual die,
but in good times they breed prolifically and both they and their predators
thrive. You saw a lot of death, but you saw the herd survive. Most of humanity
are herd animals. The herd has survived much harder times before and will do so
again. When times are easy the members of the herd become too numerous, fat,
unhealthy, lazy, crazy and fractious. Hard times cull the herd drastically; all
the civilized easy living disappears but a small tough savage herd develops and
survives. You don’t have to like it. Reality doesn’t care whether you like it.
The herd does not survive by long term planning, far-sighted and compassionate
idealism, technology, social engineering or even by good leadership. Those
things are nice and have their uses when times are not too hard. Civilization
is certainly superior to herd living, and can create opportunities for higher
levels of existence, but before and afterwards, the herd must survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re not nice, but they are necessary. The
Messiah needs a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. No donkey, no Messiah. Don’t
forget that, but also don’t forget which is the donkey and treat it like the
Messiah! ‘Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot
and turn again and rend you.’ That old cold wisdom remains wise. Stop
interfering with the herd. It does not help them, but it endangers you. Helping
humanity, as distinct from a few individual humans, is a task far above your
pay-grade. You are not the Messiah. ‘Get real’, ‘Get over yourself’ then you
might begin to be useful. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not
have to take the Way of the herd, but the herd most assuredly cannot take the
Way of the Philosopher. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">Now let’s consider your specific need. You want a source of
power. Forget all the techno-gizmos and the smoke and mirrors salesmanship, let
alone the herd-changing craziness. If that sort of thing was relevant to you,
you’d already be doing it, or someone else would have done enough that you
would not need to bother. Keep it simple. Remember that the ‘power’ you want to
maintain a civilized and comfortable life, especially when resources are
scarce, will only be found in close proximity to those who have considerable
political and economic power. Like most fortunate Philosophers you want a
patron. Plato, for a while, had Dion of Syracuse. Aristotle, more of a
scientist, had Phillip and Alexander. That’s a difficult position to obtain and
keep, but it can be done. Basically you need to latch on to somebody powerful
and keep telling him what he wants to hear. That won’t be quite the same thing
all the time. Don’t forget, these are not stupid people, and there are a lot of
others seeking their attention and patronage. Shouting ‘You Sire, are the
Greatest!’ all day long will soon bore and irritate him – which could be fatal
for you. You will provide your patron with philosophical, or other, distraction
from the affairs of state when he wishes to relax in intelligent and congenial
company. ‘Pastime in good company’ as Henry VIII sang about it. Don’t forget
how many of the people who passed time with him lost their heads afterwards
when they failed to shift with his moods. You won’t make the mistake of telling
him what to do, or arguing with him more strenuously than he expects. Your
intention is to become a valued and well rewarded intellectual ornament which
adds lustre to his brilliance. Restrain any tendency to ‘address him as if he were
a public meeting’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #ea9999;">That’s all I can tell you. If I knew any more, I’d probably
have the job! Good luck and remember me when you are successful. See if you can
get me some sort of grant or sinecure or academic position. Being as crazy as a
squirrel is a prime qualification. I’d fit right in, and like Cassandra,
although with more humour, I could tell them the truth and they’d never believe
me. Goodbye and have a safe journey home.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hmmm. Is that the craziest squirrel of them all? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s that naive tendency to say things that
would be socially embarrassing which keeps them locked up here in the
sub-conscious. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s time to return and take the time to reflect on whether
you have found anything helpful or interesting in Squirrel Land.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Farewell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
</h4>
</div>
Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-46962519345227428942014-07-20T04:31:00.000-07:002017-05-10T10:59:44.578-07:00When the Angels Landed on the White House LawnWhen the angels landed on the White House lawn,<br />
Politicians were revealed as demon spawn.<br />
The hounds of Pwyll took them down to Arawn,<br />
Things may be better now they have gone.<br />
<br />
The marine saluted, as good Soldiers do,<br />
Said,"Sir, you're welcome. Please come through.<br />
Bring Leo and Perses, Sun-Runner too.<br />
Since Father Washington died we've needed you. <br />
<br />
To cleanse this land much blood must flow<br />
On sinners standing here below.<br />
The Bull of Heaven must freely bleed<br />
So People may live by that Holy Seed.<br />
The Blood of the Lamb did not suffice<br />
America's still steeped in vice.<br />
Fire and Firelord shall light the way,<br />
Taurobolium begins this very day.<br />
The Raven brought us your command,<br />
All things needful are now at hand".<br />
<br />
The Lad with the Cap bestrode the Bull<br />
And Wall Street crashed as it felt his pull. <br />
His knife in it's neck let forth it's life,<br />
Fearful traders screamed, "less money, more strife!"<br />
<br />
As from a Temple far away, <br />
The Moneymen were driven that day.<br />
<br />
The Banks, they tottered. Oh! The Banks, they fell.<br />
No more were the People under their spell.<br />
Too big to fail, too powerful to jail,<br />
Yet all connected now feel the flail.<br />
<br />
In New York city a statue stands<br />
Greeting visitors from foreign lands.<br />
<br />
A radiate crown rests on Liberty's brow,<br />
That of Sol Invictus anyhow.<br />
Return his crown, your tenure's passed<br />
For in this land Liberty did not last.<br />
<br />
Conceived in Liberty it may have been,<br />
But choked on greed it's corpse is seen.<br />
<br />
<br />
The sun runner stood as the Delphian had,<br />
Would his race be good? Would his race be bad?<br />
Yoked to the chariot he held four-in-hand,<br />
Before these horses few could stand.<br />
Their names were Famine and Plague and Death and War<br />
Where their feet struck earth arose uproar.<br />
His iron fist controlled them well,<br />
else the horses he managed drove straight to hell. <br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
They evicted the tenants whose time had flown. <br />
'Your mandate's exceeded, your course is run.<br />
Today give place to the Lord of the Sun.'<br />
<br />
From the White House lawn came the Lion's roar,<br />
To the Empyrean his Eagles soar.<br />
Angra Mainyu had been dwelling here<br />
The stench of his lies made that quite clear.<br />
<br />
Conceived in Liberty, Deceived in Fear<br />
Only self shackled slaves now cower here.<br />
No heirs remain of the Sons of the Free <br />
Liberty's too strenuous for such as thee.<br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
Nature shimmered in the glorious morn.<br />
The flowers appeared in joyful bloom<br />
But the powerful knew they had met their doom.<br />
<br />
Their spirits trembled as letters of fire<br />
on their bodies wrote their deeds in ire. <br />
Their guilty minds were seared by pain<br />
Evasive tricks were all in vain.<br />
<br />
Through the furnace walked the friends of God<br />
In the furnace burned those guilty of fraud.<br />
All the bloated egos fell to ash<br />
As the contumacious felt the lash.<br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
The Mechanical Messiah became stillborn.<br />
The degree mills of Satan ceased to turn<br />
And the secret projects were all undone.<br />
<br />
When Babel's Tower to the heavens arose<br />
And the gardens of paradise were disposed<br />
He walked in the garden when He so chose<br />
Til He was replaced by a book verbose.<br />
<br />
When New York's towers fell in dust and flame<br />
Empire's feet both fared the same.<br />
Not to the stars will their pride go<br />
But to destruction as all should know.<br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
Celebrated anew was the Miracle Born<br />
Birth cave and tomb the Sun renew<br />
No feast of life from death eschew.<br />
<br />
In Eleusis they drank the barley brew,<br />
though the purple fungus was known to few.<br />
<br />
The shamans quaffed what the reindeer staled<br />
Seeking visions and journeys that seldom failed.<br />
<br />
The little-great dactyls of Samothrace<br />
Gave their initiates a sense of grace.<br />
<br />
The red and white mushrooms were manna indeed<br />
Entheogen to those in need.<br />
<br />
When Elijah in the desert was by ravens fed<br />
Prophecy issued from his Raven's Bread. <br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
They were small but potent as they sang the dawn.<br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn<br />
Unseen and unheard by the throbbing swarm.<br />
The literal minded knew they were insane,<br />
Circe's beasts they were and remain.<br />
<br />
The battery beasts felt their burden eased<br />
But Circe's beasts were not so pleased.<br />
Work and shopping and a TV show<br />
Was all the life they wished to know.<br />
<br />
The Church of Progress, branches in every street,<br />
Nicer people you couldn't hope to meet.<br />
Such generous folk, giving all the dreams you can take;<br />
Ignore that Buddha rudely roaring 'Awake!'<br />
<br />
Things were running smoothly, life's a real sweet deal<br />
Til that fool from Nepal put a spoke in the Wheel.<br />
Ignore Awareness, get back to your Dream<br />
Chase Progress and Success even if you're mean.<br />
<br />
Progress means running in your hamster wheel,<br />
The faster you go the more you can steal!<br />
Other people's lives and money can be given away,<br />
To be Progressive means you need never pay!<br />
<br />
In dreamscape malls of waking day<br />
They make their souls Medusa's prey.<br />
<br />
The deadly head of stony mind<br />
only in matter can meaning find.<br />
<br />
Enchanted locks are all they see<br />
Refracted through their own TV.<br />
<br />
Of skies they know, of heavens none<br />
A nuclear furnace they think the Sun.<br />
<br />
Gods and angels they are out <br />
by Science banished; but round about<br />
come tales that make the scientists shout,<br />
- of wars in heaven, space brethren fled<br />
to heap Technology on Mankind's head.<br />
<br />
<br />
When the angels landed on the White House lawn <br />
The UFO fans were quite forlorn. <br />
No messages of peace and love,<br />
No gifts of even a plastic dove.<br />
<br />
The minds of scientists shattered lay,<br />
For the angels had come forth to slay.<br />
<br />
They should have known - it was foretold,<br />
T.S. Eliot had it cold:<br />
'In the juvescence of the year came Christ - the Tiger.'Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-84387906575919020832014-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:002014-07-10T03:13:39.476-07:00The American Brake Company Building<br />
<br />
<h3>
Setting the Scene</h3>
<br />
In the centre of the Mississippi valley, near the head of natural navigation, stands a city. It is named St. Louis in honour of the medieval French king Louis IX, whose life was such a model of devotion that after his death in 1270 on his second unsuccessful Crusade he was canonised. Notable also for his promotion of culture, his most famous monument is a beautiful building in Paris, the Sainte Chapelle, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture and stained glass, built as a shrine to house what he believed to be the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross. How strangely the current of history or fate has flowed to bring the name of this man and it's associations to this place. That occurred when 17th century French explorers of the Mississippi claimed a vast area in the middle of the continent and named it after their current ruler, the Sun King Louis XIV, and the town was founded a century later. <br />
<br />
Quite unknown to Saint Louis, his life coincided with the peak of a city and a culture very far from his lands and his concerns. Only a few miles from what was to become the site of St. Louis, on the other side of the river, stood the largest city of the Mississippi Valley culture. We don't know what it's inhabitants called it or what they called themselves, but they left a lot of earth mounds, some shaped as step pyramids in the Mexican style and the largest such site north of Mexico. It seems to have been a centre of human sacrifice and the manufacture of stone hoes. Their culture fell apart and their lands fell to strangers some centuries before the arrival of European settlers, who destroyed and ploughed over some of these mounds, before preserving the remainder and calling it Cahokia after a tribe probably unrelated to the builders. <br />
<br />
As the old hymn says:<br />
<br />
'Time, like an ever-rolling stream,<br />
Bears all it's sons away;<br />
They fly forgotten, as a dream<br />
Dies at the opening day.'<br />
<br />
Time, and the Mississippi, continue to flow.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Genius Loci</h3>
<br />
Do you believe that a building can tell a story, that it expresses an identity, that it can tell us about the nature and culture of the people who made and used it? Well if you look and listen quietly and respectfully perhaps it may speak to you.Here's one which lasted from one era into another, occupied by a variety of users for a variety of purposes redolent of the cultures of their time and place and resonant to a name which gave associations of much wider history and achievements. Let's try to learn something from it. By 'looking' through the spirit of the building, if we have 'eyes to see', we may be able to summon or at least imagine something of the ghosts or spirits of those who were or may be associated with the building or the city and country which were served by the activities in and around it.<br />
<br />
Consider the American Brake Company Building in St. Louis, built in 1901 and since 2007 officially included in the National Register of Historic Places under the category of Industry. If you seek the Spirit of America this may be as good a place as any. 'Si monumentum requiris, circumspice!' If you seek a monument of the Americans, look around you. It was, after all, an American President who said that 'the business of America is business', so it's people may find this a suitable memorial.<br />
<br />
The company manufactured brakes for freight trains. The building was it's factory and office, it's ornamental front built in the Romanesque Revival style popular at the time. In it's heyday, which was also that of it's city, country and society, it was part of a great industrial complex, a factory in a major industrial area in the most industrialised powerful and prosperous society the world had ever seen. In it's decline and decrepitude, which was also that of it's city, country, society and civilisation, it also attempted to stave off death by a succession of facelifts,denying mortality whilst tarting up the processes of decay and trumpeting them as Renewal amounting to Resurrection. <br />
<br />
Has the spirit of the building been overshadowed by or subsumed within the spirit of the country and its people? Does the spirit rest easily? Is it's monument appropriate? Is the site treated with respect by courteous and reverent visitors? Do the descendants of the builders boast of the great works of their ancestors? What offerings do they leave? What tales does it inspire? Other people have left haunting stories, poetry and music, paintings, statues, pyramids, megaliths, cathedrals, castles, palaces, walls and roads. The Americans left a factory. Not a functioning factory of course, full of whirring machines attended by busy workers, drawing in inputs and sending forth products to the ends of the earth - those the banksters sent to China when they found it profitable to do so. No, an empty factory, of bare floors, columns and walls; an empty tomb from which no saviour arose although several imposters were acclaimed. A tomb for the spirit of America, soon thinly infested by scavengers ignorant or contemptuous of the past, like the ruins of Troy. <br />
<br />
<br />
Let's look at it from the perspective of 2040. <br />
<br />
2040 marked a century since the end of production there and the sale of the building from its primary use in 1941, which was also just before the height of it's country's power and greatness. There had been a long decline and attempts at gentrification of both the Building and it's city and country. 2040 might mark a recognition point that 'America' and its values or attitudes or culture was irrecoverably over. No one even remembered Humpty Dumpty accurately and few lovingly, let alone wanting or having the capacity to put him together again.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Great Simplification</h3>
<br />
'The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.' As the caravan of world history slowly passed America in the early decades of the 21st century, the rabid dogs in Washington became hysterical and insane in their yapping and barking, their spittle slathered and eye-rolling threats and demands, gnashing their financial and military teeth in the face of the world, savaging weak countries and stalking the strong. They came close to being put down and taking much of the world with them. Fortunately for the rest of the world, the patient and mature statesmanship of the leaders of China and Russia enabled them to fend off the mad dogs of Washington until their caravan was out of reach and the Americans collapsed into their cultural and economic death coma.<br />
<br />
After the most productive part of the American economy had been shipped to China by greedy financiers, the 'Homeland' was left to wither and stagnate, it's culture and society dissolving in an acidbath of corruption and perversion. Productive people slowly disappeared and their homes and workplaces decayed into ruin. At first the chattering classes were not much affected. The people who counted had no sympathy at all for the redneck hicks living in the 'flyover country' between the East and West coasts. Whatever happened to them, they probably deserved it, and it was of no interest to the beautiful, wealthy and important people.Their wealth, connections and interests were largely foreign. Wherever they went they were insulated and isolated from the misery and chaos affecting the lives of less fortunate mortals, whose lives their masters thought, were only of significance in so far as they served their masters' interests in enhancing their global power and wealth. When America was used up they fully intended to be elsewhere exploiting the people there.<br />
<br />
Initially not much seemed to have changed. Capital and seed corn was used up and living on debt and the seigneurage of a reserve currency attached to powerful military and financial interests and the infinite printing of money to pay the cronies and beneficiaries of those who controlled government, made it seem as if the dream could continue indefinitely. <br />
<br />
The Building had something of a respite at this time. It had attained official notice and protected status as an industrial building of historic interest. It had been somewhat tarted up and gentrified, and for a time housed little art galleries and trendy shops, although most of it remained vacant. It attracted some notice from fashionable urban renewal and town planner types. Photos of its frontage became relatively well known. It's own Indian Summer coincided with that of it's country.<br />
<br />
Reality made a slow arrival. Gradually the rest of the world stopped using dollars to denominate and finance their trade. They already had far more dollars than they wanted. The exchange rate just kept sinking. Imports (almost everything) became much more expensive for Americans.Trust in American governments, banks, businesses, institutions and the basic honesty and decency of the people waned. There were too many scandals, too much hectoring, too much spying, too much 'do as I say, not as I do' hypocrisy, and the rest of the world fell out of love with America. No one with an alternative wanted to do business or invest there. As the 'lipstick on a pig' cracked, the porcine snout greedily inserted into other peoples' troughs became much more evident and much uglier. Even the much vaunted American military seemed much less impressive, unable to keep it's secrets or its morale and unable to keep up with Russian and Chinese developments despite its bluster and sabre rattling; unable even to defeat the Pashtuns in Afghanistan let alone introduce 'democracy' to Iraq, Libya, Syria or Ukraine despite destroying them. The eight hundred or so bases around the world became an expensive and sinister burden rather than welcomed envoys and assurances of freedom.<br />
<br />
Domestically, the economy continued to contract, despite all the desperate political and statistical lies about recovery. Fewer and fewer people had jobs. Income levels were falling. More and more of the people were directly or indirectly dependent on government for jobs, handouts or contracts. Government and personal debt kept increasing with no prospect of repayment. Capital was not created and invested because interest rates were held too low, which was because government could not afford to pay higher interest on its debts. Only the 'crony-capitalists' of Wall Street who were given vast sums free of interest and with no reasonable expectation of repayment benefited. The dollar was being hollowed out as the 'full faith and credit' of the US government became exhausted. No one had faith in them any more. No one with real money could or would lend them anything. Their only recourse was inflation which eventually became hyperinflation eliminating any savings the populace may have had. It also eliminated the value of government obligations and left those in receipt of government pensions benefits and salaries starving. The dollar followed its predecessor and became 'not worth a Continental.' Most of the land and buildings and productive assets of America were bought up by foreigners, often Chinese, at first to get rid of their rapidly depreciating dollars, and then because they were cheap in foreign currencies. Americans very often became squatters in and on what had been their land.<br />
<br />
The 2020's were not a good time in American history, and not just in the clarity of hindsight.Nor were the 2030's much improvement.<br />
<br />
Nature also became unhelpful. California had been a major food producer until drought and the exhaustion of aquifers turned it into a replica ofthe 1930's Dustbowl of Texas and Oklahoma. No water for agriculture, and soon no water for cities. That set much of the population marching, first in placard waving and screaming protest demonstrations which Nature ignored, and then in footloose movement eastward, reversing and replicating on a larger scale the movement of the 'Okies' of almost a century before. Naturally, the drought and water depletion continued and spread across the Great Plains, so that almost all of the land between the Pacific and the Mississippi, with the exception of Oregon and Washington, became again the Great American Desert. St. Louis, (although not the Building) had seen much of the 18th and 19th century westward expansion pass through it, and now it saw the 21st century return wave of population receding from the high point of settlement. The first occasion was much happier.<br />
<br />
Things got worse. Agriculture in the Mid-West was also in trouble. It was very dependent on oil and chemical pesticides and fertilizers and hugely expensive machinery and long distance transport. More variable weather coincided with the decline of the dollar,and the shortage of fuel and increased costs of machinery and all inputs except labour. Food became much more expensive. Social breakdown and floods of migrants worsened the situation. Trains and trucks suspected to be carrying food or products to and from food processing plants were liable to be attacked by mobs of looters and organized criminals, unless under heavily armed escort. Genetically modified crops and animals worsened the situation. They produced disease and hence were frowned upon by people not under the influence of those who controlled the big industrial interests and their bought flunkies in the American media and government. The decline of the dollar's exchange rate made imports, including oil, much more expensive but cheapened American exports in foreign currency. Food had been a major American export and so increased food exports would have been expected to help ease America's balance of payments crisis. It didn't work out that way. A short tempered public, already having to go short of food, was enraged by the export of food and made it difficult. <br />
<br />
Foreign governments, influenced by their own food producers who did not want more competition from cheaper imports, and by the scary publicity of those who opposed genetically modified food,restricted and banned food imports from America. Thus, in the short term Americans got more to eat, but in the longer term their government got less revenue, their system of agriculture became less productive and the American public became more subject to disease both from the genetic modifications and from slow starvation. <br />
<br />
The decline and fall of the American dollar had hugely disruptive consequences, domestic and foreign. Domestically, life and social and political organisation were drastically simplified. Accumulating bigger piles of almost worthless currency and admiring those who had the highest heaps soon lost it's attraction. The important thing became finding enough food to survive a little longer. Tens of millions of jobs remote from food production lost their point. Producing, protecting and preying upon those who produced food became the new or newly obvious, basis of the economy and society. There were far more mouths than could be fed. Many had to die. There was no immediate or smooth transition. Naturally, the politicians and parasites didn't curl up and die. They tried to maintain their grip and their privileges, but with diminishing success. As the productive base of the pyramid shrank, the number and height of the layers above it that could be sustained had to shrink commensurately.The three hundred million or so guns in the hands of ordinary Americans did not remain unused, nor did the heavier weapons available to those who wished to continue ruling them. By the time the flows of blood declined to trickles, the political culture of what remained of the country had also been simplified. It was no longer possible to maintain large classes of unproductive propagandists, academics, lawyers, jail bait tax consumers and bureaucrats to administer them and to tax and redistribute food and goods from the productive to these and to the political class, nor had such people any political influence. The whole banking and financial, media and advertising, legal and judicial, education and taxation systems had imploded along with the dollar. There was no general replacement for the dollar, just ad-hoc trade in goods using whatever 'near money', such as food or ammunition or booze or silver or scrip issued by local businesses or would-be-authorities was acceptable to those attempting to do business. Local gangs of crooks, politicians and gunmen were now in charge of areas where there was enough of a productive base to sustain a much simpler and arbitrary system of governance. They squabbled between themselves and with their neighbours, but lacked the resources for large scale or long range conflict. Washington was accorded honorific status as a sort of first among equals by the variety of Governorships, Mayoralties, Peoples Democratic Republics or warbands in loose and shifting alliances that tenuously controlled the remaining productive populations and resources, but the notion that they would actually obey or pay more than could be extorted from them by the rather small forces at the command of the self proclaimed President and Commander in Chief and his Congress of cronies, was quite risible.<br />
<br />
At an earlier stage, when Washington still hoped to maintain control over the whole country there had been a 'military coup'. This was less than it seemed. The Kleptocrats whose 'democratic' and 'constitutional' public relations fig-leaves had tattered and blown away, leaving them uncomfortably exposed to the ire of the mob, had chosen a military front-man to impose martial law and enable them to remain in control of as much as possible of the remaining resources. He was quite obedient, almost as much of a mouthpiece for his owners as the Presidents had been. Unfortunately for them, the military had proved to be a sword of chocolate rather than of steel. It crumbled melted or broke under the strain and heat of civil conflict. As the dollar depreciated and the revenues of government declined their pretty pieces of paper which did not buy much, became insufficient to buy the loyalty of men with guns, heavier weapons and military training, who held a simpler and they supposed more effective means of obtaining what they wanted. At the same time, the social and economic dislocation revealed that threatening and shooting people was not a magic formula to make them obedient and productive, or at least it did not work unaided and all the time. Dead men grew no crops and baked no bread. The necessity of protecting and providing food for themselves and their dependents, along with personal ambition and the competing claims of would-be-authorities and the palpable inability of the nominal government to provide more than lying promises, broke the loyalty of the military and fragmented its personnel. They became supporters of various interests, including some who ranged as freebooters on their own account and some who tried to seize control of localities or merge their interests with other competing groups of criminals, businessmen and politicians to establish a more cohesive dominance of a region.<br />
<br />
As the situation had started to slip away from Washington's control, and many voices around the country were raised in protest, defiance and despair, a group of officers in the Pentagon devised a cunning plan which they hoped would provide insurance against that occurrence. This was to create a controlled opposition to gather and lead dissidents and potential rebels. At the worst, this would ensure that any new regime would be controlled by people with the right connections. It was to notionally be headed by a mysterious figure called 'Washington' who would create a resonance of patriotism. The Pentagon still contained many well educated and well read officers. They knew that this was exactly what the Bolsheviks had done to infiltrate and spy on or gain control of groups opposed to them after they had taken over Russia, and they had read 1984, as well of course as remembering 'Al-cia-da'. The notion of 'Washington' versus Washington may seem a little too cute, an insider joke, but that was not the reason for it's failure. The forces of collapse and disintegration were too strong. It was soon no longer possible to maintain a central government as large and interfering as that of the USA had been, whoever was to run it. People found that they could only survive by concentrating on what was immediately around them. <br />
<br />
The rest of the world watched the shriveling and simplification of America with a range of <br />
reactions from amusement to horror, via contempt, derision, and even a little sympathy.The USA had become a ghost and fell away or was removed from its leading role in international organizations, including losing it's seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, which went to India. After a generation, China, Russia and India combined to track down, buy and dismantle the remaining decaying and almost disregarded nuclear weapons in America, in case some of them might yet cause a disaster for the world. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Green Leaves</h3>
<br />
And what of the Building during this time of turmoil and decay? It still stood, and during the Indian Summer of America during the couple of generations either side of the Millennium it had fared relatively well. It's principal purpose long abandoned, it had continued in partial occupation by a succession of gimmicky trendy users, small art galleries and studios for 'artists' producing kitsch and tat, coffee shops, storage spaces; it's outer fabric kept looking good by grants from cultural and civic bodies. Indeed, it looked better and cleaner and was a more pleasant place to visit than it had been in it's heyday. Anyone who had known it when it was a busy workplace, full of noise and bustle, urgent with shouted orders and the roar of trucks bringing materials in and out or passing on the streets outside, in the centre of a noisy, smoky, grimy factory district, would have been astounded by the calm clean and relaxed atmosphere, as well as by the cultural respect accorded to it, and by the change in the type of person who found reason to go there. Ghosts of the old days would surely have felt uncomfortable among the would-be-beautiful-and-significant-people who now congregated there, eating dainty pastries and drinking incomprehensible non-alcoholic beverages whilst chattering on mobile phones. Thus were the ghosts of the American past exorcised. <br />
<br />
During the Simplification the days of ancient sunlight came to an end. No more was heard the purr of limousines, the growls of motor bikes bearing obese lawyers, aging financial executives and dreadlocked trustafarians garbed in expensively tattered imitations of the work clothes of working men, rather as savages might bear the skins and skulls of vanquished foes, or the coos and giggles of their clothes horse model escorts. <br />
<br />
New people appeared in the vicinity and the Building was put to new uses.The storm winds of change stirred and blew, as a precursor of the wrath to come, not just dead leaves, but dead lives across the landscape. Not only the 'Cali-Okies', some of whom were as fierce and deadly as Kali; many people were in motion, abandoning old lives like old leaves, seeking new identities and fresh growth.<br />
<br />
A commune of 'Greenies' sprouted in the old Building. A heterogeneous group of practical idealists, as they termed themselves, found themselves cast together into this eddy in the currents of fate, squatting in the Building. They attempted to make a living growing vegetables on abandoned suburban land and and performing handicrafts such as cobbling. They turned part of the building into living quarters and another part into a market. At first they had named themselves 'Green Shoots', but as the world around became more violent, the pacifist tendency among them insisted on changing the name to 'Green Leaves'.<br />
<br />
Adrian Hennessy was one of them. He was a man who appeared to have done everything right. He had 'collapsed early', become a proficient vegetable gardener, honed his practical skills as a jack-of-all-trades, become physically fit, lived abstemiously, paid no attention to the mass media, practiced playing the harmonica and telling stories, was courteously friendly to people and traveled by bicycle. As conditions worsened he had found a nascent group with which he was sympathetic, hoping to ride out the coming storm, able to look after themselves and hoping to be accepted as assets to any community by the people around them. <br />
<br />
At first they had been relatively successful.They were housed for free in an approximately functional city.Their produce and their skills kept them fed, made them customers and some friends, so their work enabled them to avoid much of the chaos whirling around them. At that point most people still expected some sort of 'recovery', no longer prosperity, but basic order in a more or less United States bearing some resemblance to the old ways of doing things, even if it had been Simplified and was under new management, a place where there was a sense of participation in a common order, where 'community' meant the ability to be productive and supportive under common standards of decency, not an assembly of murderous lunatics in an unguarded asylum.Things got worse. <br />
<br />
Already they were living in interesting times. Now the second degree of the Chinese curse bit them. They came to the attention of important people. Initially this curse appeared disguised as a blessing. Praise from what was left of the media, complimentary remarks from the Mayor as he visited them, a positive example other people were urged to emulate. What was there not to like about that? Surely this validated and vindicated their efforts. They were performing a useful function, spreading the word, making friends and influencing people. Pioneers of a New America some called them. <br />
<br />
Alas for the vanity of human hopes.They became targets for those, officials and criminals, who live at the expense of others. Making friends made them enemies, often the same people. Not only did they become increasingly the victims of opportunistic criminals and aggressive beggars, they were bowed under the mass of official and semi-official exactions, fees, expenses ,requisitions, quotas, taxes, voluntary-but-expected contributions, bribes. If the weather was bad and their crops poor, there was no remission, rather an intensification of the abuse. The people who grew the food got the least of it. As things got worse they were viewed with suspicion and hatred as 'hoarders' and 'kulaks'; ironic as most of them had been somewhat lefty.<br />
<br />
The Green Leaves or Green Shoots were already withering fast when Adrian died. He had been out with his beloved bicycle to collect some cabbages from one of their garden plots, but failed to return. Next day his corpse was found by the roadside with a stab wound into his heart. Bicycle and cabbages were gone. Shortly thereafter a local gangster or public official, (the functions and concepts had blurred together), was seen riding the bicycle as his official transport. At least Adrian's corpse was buried rather than left to rot, shoved down a manhole or dumped into the Mississippi. His comrades buried him under a garden plot. Rachel Smith, who had some skill as a carver, and who had rather liked Adrian, made a small stone memorial for him and placed it over his grave amongst the growing plants. It took the form of one of the Green Men found in some old English churches - a head displaying Adrian's features peeking through the foliage of the greenwood. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
No Way Back</h3>
<br />
After the withering of the Green Leaves, the Building, like the society around it, fell upon even harder times. The Building became a doss house for scavengers and itinerants, a den of thieves under the occasional and un-benign eye of the greater thieves around City Hall. <br />
<br />
So much for a society and economy based on recycling itself. Some people failed to realise or studiously ignored for as long as possible that 'we' would not survive indefinitely by making ingenious arrangements to cannibalize the less immediately vital organs of the body cultural, social, economic and politic whilst fueling itself on hot air and debt. By 2040 the truth was becoming clear even to the Pollyannas. What had been destroyed in the process of being remade was 'us', the USA as it had experienced itself. It was like an old lion crippled by disease or injury being eaten alive by a pack of hyaenas, or even a column of driver ants. It's pieces were being processed though the stomachs of other creatures, giving sustenance and growth to lower forms of life. There could be no rebound, no further refashioning of it's identity, no miraculous resurrection. It was dead. 'America' was over. <br />
<br />
Thus far, the old building although battered and neglected and put to uses for which it had not been designed by the sort of people who would never have been allowed near it in it's heyday, had survived. It's spirit had been demeaned but it was not yet extinct. Let's take a glimpse at a few of the people and events in and around it about this time or a few years later. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Joey</h3>
<br />
The old man appeared to have died peacefully in his sleep lying on a rough mattress, fully dressed with his few possessions beside him, as if prepared to resume a journey. Not that Joey cared. He had been quite prepared to stick a knife into the old man or anyone else who had interrupted his search for plunder as he slipped quietly along the stairs, corridors and sleeping areas of the old Building.Swiftly he went through the old man's pockets and his rucksack, finding disappointingly little to reward this effort. As he rummaged through the rucksack a few paperback books fell out. These did not interest Joey, who had never had any interest in books, and only scorn for the wussies who wasted their time reading. One of the books did however catch his attention because of the picture on it's cover. A huge man whose body was made up of lots of small people loomed from behind a hill with a town in the foreground. He was an impressively cool dude brandishing a large sword and some sort of club, wearing a fancy hat and smiling through his long hair and big mustache.This was someone not to be messed with, he demanded serious respect. Joey was sufficiently impressed by this to take the book with him as he slipped silently away. <br />
<br />
Later in the day, as Joey went to meet his buddies Moro and Badass in the ruins of another old building, he wondered about the image on the book he had stolen. Was this a Superhero he had not heard about? He had seen comic books depicting the actions of Superman, Spiderman and Batman, and with the help of Moro, who was certainly no wuss although he could read a bit, he had made out some of the mercifully few words they contained. This book was different. It consisted entirely of words with no more pictures. That was disappointing, but Joey had a hope that they would tell the stories of a lot of adventures of this mysterious Superhero and reveal his Superpowers. After all, there were a lot of words, so there must be a lot of adventures, right? It would be really cool if he and his buddies could find out about these adventures and tell the stories before other people discovered them. Having special knowledge of a new Superhero might gain them some respect and help them to score.<br />
<br />
When Joey arrived at the meeting place, Moro and Badass were already there arguing over a dead rat which they hoped to roast that evening. "Hey bro, what ya got there?" enquired Moro as Joey showed them the book. Joey pointed to the cover picture and explained about the Superhero. Badass glanced briefly at it before returning his dead gaze to the dead rat. <br />
<br />
Moro's eyes gleamed with more interest as he reached for the book. " Le..vi..a..th..an" he vocalised. None of them had heard that name before. "Read some of it," Joey urged. Moro riffled through the pages and his eyes fixed on a paragraph: <br />
<br />
'There is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of Time; no arts; no letters; no society. And, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.'<br />
<br />
His brow wrinkled as he attempted to spell out the words, but most of them made no sense and the passage had no meaning for him, or for his companions. After another cursory scan which revealed no graphic account of sex or drugs or violence in the manner they expected of a Superhero, he closed the book. "You bin fooled man," he said sadly and a touch scornfully as he handed back the volume. "That ain't no Superhero, or if he is, he's too Super for you. Ain't ya got anything useful?" Gazing forlornly at the image of Leviathan, and his dashed hopes of cultural and social success, Joey shook his head despondently. <br />
<br />
"I know wat dis be useful for" grunted Badass, as he grabbed the book and tore out several pages. "Next time I take a dump this will be a good asswipe."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Hizzonner</h3>
<br />
Michael Malcolm the Mayor of the Democratic Mayoralty of St. Louis was a large and happy man. There he was seated on his mayoral throne wearing his best and most brightly decorated robe in vibrantly clashing colours, crowned with his gold and silver bead encrusted skullcap, waving his trademark flywhisk. Not that the flywhisk was altogether an affectation, there really did seem to be a lot more flies around than there had been. Something to do with blocked drains and the stench of corruption some might have suggested - but those who might have made such suggestions were not present, and the rotting bodies of some of them might be adding to the stench.<br />
<br />
Hizzonner was a happy man today. His day of triumph was being seen by a party of observers from far away Washington and he hoped to impress them with a good show. His power for another period in office had been popularly reaffirmed by the most solemn Democratic ritual of voting. Every few years, or in fact whenever Hizzonner felt that his subjects or 'voters' might be flagging in their enthusiasm for his rule, or when he felt that they should be given an opportunity to express their love of him by making material donations to his well-being, he held an election. This was always a joyous and colourful and popular occasion. It had to be. Those who failed to appear and to appear extremely joyful were likely to be visited by members of Malcolm's Macoutes. These latter were the successors of the old social services and welfare bureaucracies, as well as of the taxation and judicial and police systems. They were perhaps more efficient and certainly more effective in making an impact on the needy, although their notions of service and welfare and need were different.<br />
<br />
Each Election involved a choice of and between candidates. Michael and his senior Macoutes chose as candidates a few of those whom they suspected might be less enthusiastic over Michael's rule than was expected, or who seemed to be gaining popularity or prominence for any reason, or who seemed over educated, snobbish, or uppity in manner. If it was necessary to make up the numbers, people might be chosen at random 'to encourage the others'. As campaigning proceeded the Macoutes visited every resident and solicited promises of support. Those whose promises seemed niggardly in relation to their circumstances might risk their names appearing on another list. On election day the voters went to various designated premises where they were identified by the local Macoutes, who received and marked off the promised donations.This was done to public acclaim. Those who failed to produce the promised goods were harangued by the Macoutes and the crowd, and deficiencies compensated by blows. All present were then asked if they wanted Michael to continue as Mayor. A loud and prolonged acclamation was then expected, under the vigilant eyes and weapons of the Macoutes. The other candidates were then brought forward bound and the crowd was asked how they should be dealt with. 'Death!' was the expected acclamation, and the crowd was invited to beat and kick the candidates to death. The corpses were dumped on waste ground or down a drain or sewer, or simply thrown into the river. Late in the day Hizzonner would parade from precinct to precinct, borne aloft on his Mayoral throne by teams of not quite groaning voters, accompanied by his guards and teams of drummers and jazz musicians producing an infernal cacophony augmented by the cheers and acclamations of the crowd. That evening there would be a city-wide celebration, with food and drink provided for the public, partly by Hizzonner and partly by the edible contributions just collected from the voters.<br />
<br />
Rough though such arrangements might have seemed to the more delicate sensibilities of previous times, Hizzonner was actually quite popular, not afraid to go amongst his people, and would probably have won elections run under previous arrangements, albeit not so overwhelmingly. <br />
<br />
By mid century such arrangements were becoming usual throughout what had been the United States. Hizzonner's St. Louis was perhaps run with more efficiency and ruthlessness than some others, but allowing for personality and local colour, it was not atypical. Although some semblance of democratic and constitutional forms were preserved, these tattered fig-leaves did not conceal the naked truth that government was for the benefit of the governors not of the governed. Yet the bulk of the huddled populace was not yearning to breathe free. It was keeping close to nurse for fear of meeting something worse. <br />
<br />
Hizzonner was determined to cling to his mayoral throne for as long as possible. He had very little interest in what happened outside his domain. He extorted money, goods and services from his people, redistributing much of the proceeds to his entourage to buy their loyalty. He accepted that the rulers of Washington did the same to him to pay their own supporters. He knew they could muster larger and stronger forces than he could, so he had no desire to oppose them, provided their demands did not seriously damage his own position. In any case Washington was very far away so they could not keep a close hold on him. If they wished him to swear loyalty to them as Rulers of the Universe under whatever flag and form of words they chose, he would happily do so. Actual performance would depend upon the circumstances of the time. Everyone understood that. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Go East Young Man</h3>
<br />
Some years and many tears later.<br />
<br />
Li Chang sat outside the front entrance of the old Building and thought about his future. Realistically it was not likely to be much different from his past, containing little but ill-fed and painful toil. He had however consulted a diviner, who had cast the yarrow stalks, considered the pattern formed, and advised him to go east, to cross the Great Water. Here he was, only a short walk and almost within sight of the great river which flowed through the centre of the continent. When he had accumulated sufficient for the toll and to cover some days or weeks of travel he would walk across the bridge and seek his destiny in the shining east. <br />
<br />
He thought he had been fortunate to have obtained temporary employment as a guard, cleaner and dogsbody at Fat Cheng's establishment. It had only been possible because he was already a very junior member of the Triad in which Chong held a more honourable place and he could demonstrate some competence in the martial arts. Li Chang thought that Cheng and the Triad must be doing quite well here. This large building was in fairly good shape although obviously aging and in need of renovation. Cheng ran several businesses here, gambling, prostitution, drug dealing, sale of alcohol, loan sharking, fencing stolen goods, forgery, jewellery, weapons, groceries, import and export - and probably others even more discreet about which it was prudent to know nothing. It was the hub of the settlement of the Black Haired People which was growing up near this crossing of the Great Water. <br />
<br />
As Li Chang sat or strolled in front of the old Building during his rest breaks, he glanced at it's facade. It's reddish colour was a sign of luck, and Fat Cheng's enterprizes seemed to prosper there. He looked in displeasure at the gweilo writing on the sign above the door, which he could not read. He found the letters ugly, and hoped there was truth in the gossip that Cheng would soon have them removed and replaced with Chinese signs, probably including those for meiguo, 'Beautiful Country' the Chinese name for this continent. He had heard that Cheng was seeking the advice of feng-shui experts to maximise the favourable aspects of the property. Some people said that it would be luckier to have the main entrance on the sun facing southern rather than the northern side. He did not know much about such things, but he had a feeling that the huge river just to the east flowing southwards might be bringing luck through the northern entrance and might drain it away through a southern door. That would be up to Cheng and his diviners to determine. As he idled there he heard a hubbub of raised voices from several streets away. There were still a few feral gweilo slinking about in the ruins of the city and sometimes they attempted to steal things. It seemed that one of these had been spotted nearby and the people were chasing it down with sticks and stones and knives and nooses. Newly alert, he started to patrol the perimeter of the building.<br />
<br />
Early one morning, just as the sun was rising ahead of him, inviting him to good fortune, he left behind the Building , where workmen were making the expected alterations above the entrance, and with a brief letter of reference in Chinese from Cheng, which he could not in any case read, in his pocket, Li Chang paid his toll at the bridge and walked slowly across the Great Water and into his destiny.<br />
<br />
Here ends our tale. The character and identity of the Building has changed with the people in and around it. It's no longer The American Brake Company Building. It's people are no longer American. There's no longer an 'America'. On the huge stage of this continent the props and the cast have changed. The 'America' production has run its course and ended. Instead, the curtain has risen on a new production, 'The Beautiful Country of China East'.<br />
<br />
<h4>
References:</h4>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">http://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/07000172.pdf<br />http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/04/23/story4.html<br />http://builtstlouis.net/industrial/northbroadway.html<br />http://builtstlouis.net/industrial/images/northbroadway112.jpg<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_St._Louis<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_Francehttp://www.gradesaver.com/leviathan/study-guide/section8/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/cahokia/hodges-text </span></h4>
<br />Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-23956321782573990022014-04-22T04:12:00.000-07:002014-04-22T04:12:15.207-07:00The Sovereignty of Wessex<h3>
The King</h3>
<br />The King and the Land are One. These old words had depth and strength. They endured; like the land. They focused and settled his mind and described his duty and his life. They had replaced the Dieu et Mon Droit, motto of the old English monarchy, and said much about the people and their ruler in the Kingdom of Wessex.The cities of old had died, and most of their civilisation with them, but the Land lived on. <br /><br />King Harold III contemplated them inscribed under the flag of Wessex on the wall in front of him. They appeared thus on all courts and public buildings and on the ensigns and liveries of royal officers or state servants. This one was the one whose letters he had filled with his own blood when he had made his oath of kingship and been accepted by his people as their king. He expected that it would be buried with his body. It was not an ornament. It was not only a statement of the social, political, legal and religious constitution of the land, it was the binding force constituting a People and a Land into a Kingdom. It was not an assertion of personal despotism, even his rival Ragnar Redbeard of Mercia, his neighbor to the north, knew that. They were a link to his predecessors and to the powers of the land, which could be a surprising source of wisdom and inspiration. The golden Wyvern or two-legged curly dragon on a blood red background had long been an emblem of Wessex, perhaps derived from a Roman cavalry standard, and had flown over the armies of the ancient Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Harold regarded it as a representation of the spiritual life force that moved within the blood of the people of the Land and united them.<br /><br />He considered the situation of Wessex and the main problems it faced. It was King Ragnar of Mercia and Count Dieter the ambassador from His Imperial Majesty Wilhelm who occupied his thoughts at the moment, because they it was who were pressing upon the Sovereignty of Wessex, and Wessex did not like it. He knew well enough that Redbeard, a very shrewd and effective ruler in a tradition of warrior kings, despised him as an effete milksop and would gladly have split his skull. He made no secret of that. Dieter was a different matter and probably a greater danger. <br /><br />Harold meditated deeply, in silent, wordless touch with the spirits of the Land. In the peace an image arose. It was of an enormous snake which coiled and writhed along. As he regarded it with alert but unemotional concentration, the King saw that the serpent had coiled around and crushed a man and was slowly swallowing him.<br /><br /><br />
<h3>
The Lady of Avebury</h3>
<br /> Dame Sally Arbuthnot, Lady of Avebury, was Custodian of this most ancient and holy site. She was responsible for the organisation of festivals, particularly the great Midsummer Festival and Fair which was the most popular gathering and holiday in the country, as well as central to the religious and secular ceremonies which gave focus to the people's sense of identity every year. Avebury, along with Silbury Hill, West Kennett passage grave, Windmill Hill and Stonehenge - it's midwinter counterpart, and Glastonbury not so far away, provided a megalithic skeleton protecting the heart and soul of this ancient land, which once before and now again, was named as Wessex. No one knew what the very old ones who had raised these structures had called them or their land, but this no longer mattered, they had formed the basis and been subsumed into the soul of Wessex. This secular responsibility required considerable organisational skill, as well as a certain amount of tact and diplomacy to deal with the various and sundry people and interests who and which had to be managed, cajoled and placated to ensure that events ran smoothly and activities involving other places and groups were co-ordinated with the minimum of jealousy and ruffled feathers.<br /><br />In addition to her secular responsibilities she was the current chairwoman of the Green Ladies, those who had cultivated the capacity to make contact with nature spirits and were able to secure their co-operation and hear their complaints.(This involved a certain amount of weeding out of over imaginative women who fancied themselves the central figures in cosmic dramas. This was an Order of people who could perform a function, not an association of lady novelists.) In this capacity she reported to the Archmage and to the King, who wanted to know that the country was adequately covered by such contacts and to be informed of any major problems or significant information gained, such as predictions of unseasonable weather or natural disasters.In a time and place without chemical fertilisers or fuel for agricultural machinery or bulk importation of food for people or animals, or refrigeration, this ability was important. It kept crop yields high enough to support more people and livestock through winter than would have been possible considering only their level of material technology; and beyond the gains which might be counted, the intangible gains to health and happiness and alertness, of better quality food may have been even more important in helping to produce better quality people.<br /><br />The Green Ladies, in addition to their psychic work, busily promoted - and demonstrated - organic gardening and farming. (Well, there were no longer the industrial products to perform any other sort!) Findhorn had been far from Wessex, but books about it and about Viktor Schauberger had survived the winnowing of fate which had discarded so much else from the Old Times.People lacking psychic abilities were interested in these as well as in what their local Green Ladies had to say, and it may be that there were selection pressures slowly increasing the proportion of the population with such abilities, and giving incentives to develop them. Most people were happy enough to pay a small fee to a Green Lady to put in a good word for them with their local nature spirits and to leave small offerings to the spirits in appreciation of their work, as well as to protect certain trees or rocks or streams or banks or heaths that the spirits especially valued. Few were so bold as to be willing to risk the wrath of the King, his officials, the Green Ladies and a jury of their neighbours by violating such well known agreements. It was generally appreciated that in such circumstances the spirits had a taste for blood. Green Ladies could initiate prosecutions and present evidence in court on behalf of nature spirits. No appeal against conviction for offences against Nature had ever succeeded. How could it, when the King and the Land are One?<br /><br />The midsummer festival was a time when people from all over the country gathered to meet friends, exchange news, make business arrangements, attend ceremonies and make merry. The Green Ladies would not be the only group meeting formally and informally. This year Dame Sally would be too busy with other matters to spend much time with her Ladies, but her deputy Maisie Higgins would see that they were well looked after and hear anything which they had to say. She would tell Dame Sally if there was anything which needed to be passed on to the King.<br /><br /><br />
<h3>
On Imperial Service</h3>
<br />His Excellency Dieter von Born enjoyed life. He enjoyed being the ambassador from His Imperial Majesty Wilhelm IV of the Second Holy Roman Empire of the German People to the court of His Majesty Harold III King of Wessex. He enjoyed living in Wessex. This morning he derived particular enjoyment from sitting in the beautiful garden of the German embassy outside the capital, Winchester. As he sat in the sun admiring the flowers and foliage, listening to the song of the birds and the buzzing of the bees, sipping a glass of his favourite white wine from his Rhenish homeland, he glanced at the plans for his next dinner party to entertain those who were prominent in local social and economic circles. He enjoyed being the only permanent ambassador to Wessex - a measure of the preponderance of power and prestige of the German Empire in the affairs of the world of the present day, and he enjoyed the process of acquiring influence in the affairs of Wessex, just as he would enjoy making use of that influence to encourage change in directions favoured by those who ran the Empire, amongst which illustrious company he claimed a modest place. <br /><br />Sir Peter Conyers, friend and advisor to the King, present at many of the social events which Dieter organised, attended or dominated, saw all this and he was much less happy about it. When Dieter and Sir Peter looked at each other, neither liked what he saw. Dieter saw a lean and hard-faced man with quick eyes, who had 'Security Service' written all over him. Sir Peter saw, if not a man-who-would-be-king, at least a would-be kingmaker. <br /><br />Dieter had found that amongst the most appreciated treats which he could offer his guests was a simple cup of tea. Long ago this semi-legendary beverage had been the favoured drink of the masses, crassly adulterated with milk (and sugar, whatever that was.) Now it was a rare luxury brought by rail across the whole world from the mysterious land of the rising phoenix, to delight the vanity of the rich and the palates of snobbish connoisseurs, rather like rare but non-alcoholic wines. Dieter had been amused to discuss the tea trade with some of his guests. They had such romantic ideas for re-creating the era of the tea-clippers and tall ships racing each other to be first home from Shanghai to the English Channel seeking premium prices for the first cargoes to land! Gently he pointed out to them that the economics of transcontinental rail transport prohibited any such notions. Never mind, it just went to show the value and importance of having a railway, didn't it? Not that Wessex was short of food or drink. Quite the contrary. Dieter would die before he admitted a preference for any beverage before his beloved Rhineland wines, but he had to confess a growing fondness for the mead and even the cider of Wessex. Their abundance of orchards, flowers, bees and honey meant that here were a couple of potentially lucrative exports which could sell very well in Europe. The local beers however, were more of an acquired taste, and one moreover not likely to be acquired by a German. <br /> <br />As he relaxed in comfort he let his mind drift over the current state of the world and some of the history which had brought them to this point. He was happy that the German Empire -its full title was too cumbersome for even its officials to use on other than official occasions - was the strongest power in the world. Its double eagle might be said to soar over all the others. This was literally true since it was painted on the sides of the great airships which only the German Empire commanded. The golden images within circles of black on the white fabric were very striking and most impressive as they floated almost silently in the skies over Europe. Yes, there was another empire, that of the Russians, which also claimed the double eagle as its emblem, but although mighty, they were less so than the German Empire, and as yet had no airships. Curiously, the third empire also had a somewhat similar emblem. That was the Phoenix Empire of China. Happily all three were much in agreement, even alliance, with lucrative trade between them, linked by the Trans-Siberian Railway; they formed the bulk of the world economy. India and Pakistan had used to be moderately powerful, and extremely populous, but they had had a nuclear exchange and any survivors were probably eating or beating each other to death with bones and stones. A vague thought occurred to him that the eagles had been derived from Rome, and then that there had once been another great power which had used it as its emblem - but the Americans had long ceased to exercise influence in the world. Indeed, it was not clear whether they still existed, and no one cared to find out.It was a 'reverse Columbus' situation he mused. Everyone now knew that America was there, but no one wanted to go there. After all, everyone knew there was no gold there any more, it had all gone to China long before.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, the ointment of world happiness contained a rather large, angry, and aggressive fly. Islam. That brought a worrying thought to mind. He had not heard from his son Pieter for some time. He was an officer serving with the Imperial forces in the Balkans, and Dieter hoped that he was well. The campaign appeared to be progressing successfully, according to both his own sources in the High Command and the official propaganda, but casualties could be heavy. Fortunately superior German skill at arms, organisation, discipline, and technology ensured that most of them were borne by the Turks, Arabs, Albanians and assorted Islamic riff-raff who opposed them. Still, it was a worry. It brought his reverie however to one of the objectives of his embassy, to obtain more recruits to supplement the auxiliary forces of the Empire. Wessex, and the rest of Europe had their own bloody and unhappy history of Islamic aggression. They were one of the three kingdoms, named after ancient precursors , which had emerged on the island which had been Britain, from the bloodshed and chaos after the Old Times ended. Now that after so much struggle the island had overcome Islam on its own territory and had achieved some stability, the three kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and York were willing to allow recruits to join the Germans in helping to free Europe, and what had been the territory of the Roman Empire so long ago, before it had been overrun by the first outbreak of this curse on humanity. Wessex was the least militarised of these kingdoms, but it did produce some recruits. His task was to produce a lot more. <br /><br />Wessex was quite a strange place in some ways. Mercia on the other hand was much easier to <br />understand. Their king, Ragnar Redbeard, had served with distinction in leading the British <br />contingent of auxiliaries, most of them from Mercia. His military capacities and ruthless ambition, which had led to him seizing the throne from his uncle, were well known to the German High Command. His country was efficiently administered and produced a good flow of recruits for the German forces and quite a lot of trade and investment opportunities. If he was allowed to take over Wessex, as it was known he wished to do, he would undoubtedly make it more productive, fiscally and economically as well as militarily. Nobody who knew Ragnar believed that his ambition would be sated by the acquisition of Wessex. All believed he would then make a bid to take York and unite England and even the whole of Britain, as a second Aethelstan. This prospect worried the Imperial Court and High Command because he would probably not be content to remain a loyal and reliable vassal-king, and suppressing him would be a considerable nuisance and distraction from the struggle with Islam. Hence the need to encourage the modernisation of Wessex,whether it remained independent or whether Ragnar was allowed to take it, but under some curb. Dieter' assessment of Wessex's political leadership and military forces was that they would have absolutely no chance against Ragnar; but if he could instigate sufficient change in Wessex to make it better able and willing to contribute to Imperial military and economic strength, that might inspire his own superiors to exert sufficient pressure on Ragnar to keep him in his box, before it became necessary to put him into a much smaller box. <br /><br />Dieter liked the people of Wessex. He found them very 'gemutlich' and 'volkisch'. They were <br />generally cheerful, hard working, honest and friendly.They often sang or whistled as they worked and had a vigorous culture of home made art, folk music and tale telling.They admired the Germans, in a distant way, for their successful leadership in the great fight against Islam, even though few were so dissatisfied with their own lives as to be willing to go abroad to join this historic struggle. He knew that they would be far less happy under the iron rule of Ragnar or someone like him, but sadly, Imperial omelettes could only be made by breaking heads as if they were eggs. <br /><br />One of the oddities about Wessex was how lush it was and how healthy and well fed its people were, despite their lack of large scale farming and chemical fertilisers and weed killers. Plants, insects and animals seemed to thrive. He had never seen so many beautiful flowers, or so many buzzing insects and singing birds. Gardening was a passion with the local people, both to grow food and to produce flowers, and to compete with their neighbours and other villages in local contests. Anyone who took a walk or a ride in the countryside was equally struck by its beauty and the busy cheerful proliferation of nature in hedgerows along the roads and around the small fields. There were many trees and bushes and no areas of clear-cut monotonous monoculture. <br /><br />Dieter thought that he and his assistant Heini Schultz had built up a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of local capabilities than the King and his Court probably possessed. In part this was because of their observation and enquiries into the economy and society of Wessex. In part it was because of what Dieter jocularly called his 'Domesday Book', derived from aerial photographs of the whole country, made from the airships as they had passed back and forth and had taken him, and the Wessex notables, even the King, on goodwill visits around the land, to show if not the flag, then certainly the Double Eagle to the admiring gaze of the local people. <br /><br />Wessex had no oil of course, no electricity was generated, they imported a little coal and iron from York or Europe, but had few if any steam engines. They mined no minerals apart from a little lead. They didn't even make much use of iron, except for the most crucial parts of machines and implements. He'd even been proudly shown a wooden printing press with movable lead type with which Gutenberg himself would have felt at home! Their ploughs and spades were wooden with iron cutting edges added. They had lots of windmills and watermills, mainly for grinding corn and fulling cloth. They made colourful stained glass for lovely windows, whose small panes were held together by lead. It was almost a wooden world where carpenters and their derivatives such as cartwrights, millwrights, wheelwrights and shipwrights were common occupations and common names. Their buildings were mainly stone and wood.They had flourishing traditions of architecture and carving in wood and stone. Brick was an expensive and swanky building material. Their ancestors had not needed steel reinforcing bars or concrete or powered cranes or elevators to build the medieval cathedrals - which still stood, all the more gloriously for again being the tallest buildings around,- and they had no need for such things, nor any intention of building skyscraper temples to commerce or bureaucracy.<br /><br />Their roads were terrible, muddy rutted tracks - apart from a few which seemed to have been made and maintained in imitation of the ancient Romans. Plants and animals throve astonishingly and the people were sturdy and healthy. There were of course no big cities, but many villages and market towns. Sheep were again an important part of their economy, as they had they had been in the middle ages, the green hills were dotted with them and their fleeces enabled widespread local manufacture of woolen cloth and an export trade in wool and cloth, carried by trains of pack animals to the coast and then to the continent in their small but numerous fishing boats. They produced excellent rugs, tapestries and embroideries - some almost up to the amazing standards of the medieval Opus Anglicanum, those richly decorated ecclesiastical vestments so prized by the Church. Dieter had every expectation that the introduction of silken and silver-gilt thread, brought by rail all the way across the world from China, would enable them to produce fabulous fabrics which would be sold very profitably to both Church and Court in the Empire, and indeed in all three empires. He had obtained samples for experimentation by some of the manufacturers, and he intended to participate in the eventual profits.<br />
<br />
Militarily they were not up to much. They could make black-powder, but had only a few antiquated muskets and fowling pieces. Archery was popular, although they were hardly up for a repetition of Agincourt or Towton. A hardy people, devoted to rural pursuits including hunting, wrestling, and horse racing, many of them would make excellent light troops, especially if a bit of German discipline overcame their vague and tardy attitude to time. Few, even of the affluent, possessed clocks or watches. Sundials and stomach rumbles seemed their main guides to time - they found punctuality a foreign notion.<br /><br /> Dieter estimated that the population did not exceed one million. He thought that a considerably greater population could be sustained, at a lower standard of living, and supporting a much stronger state. "I ask you Heini," he had said in amused amazement to his assistant as they had pored over their evaluations and assessments prior to summarising them for his despatches to Berlin, "what can you do with a people who think that ten percent of their income is more than enough to maintain a Royal Court and an efficient state! Their so-called army is little more than a palace guard."<br />
<br />
"Their king is also a little strange, don't you think, mein herr?" had asked Heini."Strange?" repeated Dieter. "He seems to be some sort of trance medium who bases his decisions on messages from the dead! I'm embarrassed to even tell Berlin in case they ask me for the news from Fairyland. I tell you Heini, with a king who's away with the fairies most of the time, I'm surprised Wessex still survives. If somebody pretty heavy in Berlin doesn't stand hard on Ragnar's toes, he'll be here in a flash."<br /><br /> Heini had paused in his work and asked another question. "That's something else which seems strange, doesn't it sir? What's happened to Christianity on this island? Why is it that here in the south we hardly meet any Christians. In Mercia their king thinks he's a Viking and promotes Odinism, without any obvious Christian resistance.They're not persecuted or anything, just rare somehow. Most of the people seem more devoted to a vague sort of ancestor worship combined with enthusiasm for popular seasonal festivals. There's a few mystics or druids or something, but very few people and activities which we would regard as religious. Why is that?" Dieter scowled. "Thank God the place is no longer infested with mosques! Maybe freeing themselves from the Muslims gave them more than enough of religious fanaticism. Anyway, it seems Christianity wasn't much help to them when they needed it. After the destruction of Rome and the relocation of the Papacy to Koln, our ancestors got a succession of crusader Popes who put fire in their bellies and turned them into Christian soldiers able to withstand and repulse the Muslim assaults without wasting time and effort squabbling with other varieties of Christian. Here I think the Church was too busy buggering around to do anything serious to defend itself or the country before the Muslims nearly killed them." "That could be it, sir" said Heini."It's strange to think that missionaries from the north of England did so much to bring Christianity to Germany. Will we now have to return the favour?" Dieter had pulled a face."That's not currently Imperial policy.We need to concentrate on the Muslims. That means we need to get more soldiers and more supplies from this island. We don't need to stir up any more religious trouble here, that wouldn't help. I've got a better idea." <br /><br />Dieter awoke from his reverie with a start. It was time to do some more work on his 'better idea' - a railway.<br /><br /><br />
<h3>
King of the Birds</h3>
<br />'Wren' or Robin Blackmore, was the King's Falconer, his 'King of the Birds'. (According to ancient lore the tiny wren had become King of the Birds by stowing away on the eagle's back until it had flown as high as it could, before itself flying higher.) When they hunted, it was sometimes more than sparrows and pigeons which were their prey. Robin was a quiet unobtrusive man in greying middle age who attracted little attention, even though he was one who had the ear of the King. A solitary taciturn man, he seemed to prefer the company of his avian charges to that of other people. Although few but the King and the Archmage knew it, he had spent many years training in Ireland with their druidical bird-men who could perform astral-traveling or out-of-body experiences and travel in vision wherever they wished. They could also identify with an actual bird and experience the world through it's senses. To see the earth from far above was a very different thing from walking or riding over it, and it gave views such as those of the White Horse of Uffington or much more spectacularly,the Nazca outlines in South America, which could not be appreciated at ground level. He often soared with his falcons and other birds, and saw and heard much that was unexpected, some of which he reported to the King.<br /><br />It had been mildly interesting for 'Wren' to note the network of people who met with Count Dieter and his servants, and who met with whom when they went for walks or rides. People who behaved as if walls had ears spoke more freely when they met as if by chance in the countryside and knew that no human had followed them and no one was watching them. Most of these conversations were in English. It would be interesting to know what the ambassador and his senior staff discussed in their own language, seated in the privacy of his garden. His Excellency's laudable efforts to promote cultural understanding, including organising classes in the German language, might prove beneficial to a certain wren in the foliage of his garden, and oh to be a fly on the wall of his study when he was writing reports or reading despatches from home!<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Wessex Rail Way</h3>
<br />So, the German ambassador and many of his backers and supporters, men of wealth and power in both Wessex and the Empire, wanted to 'open Wessex to development' by promoting a railway. Initially that idea had not been received well by the King and his advisers. They considered that 'the men of wealth and power in both Wessex and the Empire' might be getting a bit above themselves - 'tall poppies' who had developed rather too much wealth and power in their own hands, and whose further acquisitions and developments would probably not develop in the best interests of the Land and its people. Naturally it would not have been diplomatic to have bluntly told His Excellency so, but the lack of enthusiasm from those whose permission and support were required had given him a sufficient response.<br /><br />Thus mused Sir Peter Conyers, friend and adviser to the King on more matters than most people were aware. He stood on the hill of Uffington, listening to the birds singing above and the breeze ruffling the grass at his feet as he gazed across the tranquil farmland below him. "That wasn't all", he said to his companion, Archmage Arthur Brown. "The basic idea of a railway to carry goods more cheaply and expeditiously to market and to speed travel was quite attractive, especially to the merchants who expected to benefit thereby. After all that had been the idea when railways had first been developed so long ago - and on this island! We don't really need the Germans to take our ancestors' ideas and sell them back to us, do we?" "Of course not", said the Archmage, "But you're now saying that there's more to it?" <br /><br />"Oh yes, Dieter's pretty shrewd, his fingers are in many pies and he hopes to pull more than one plum from this one." Sir Peter glanced at the Archmage and said, "my sources and my own inquiries tell me that the merchant community accepts that the railway would be feasible and profitable. They're naturally in favour of it. Those who won't make much use of it for their own businesses see it as an opportunity to make a nice investment. Seeing the Archmage purse his lips in distaste, Sir Peter hastily added, "No, not a revival of those 'get-rich-quick', 'pump-and-dump' paper scams from the past. They think this will be a profitable, useful, long term business, something whose value will increase over time and whose shares will be worth inheriting and passing on to one's descendants." "Not a South Seas Bubble, more like the East India Company, in a small way - but with us as the Indians" he added wryly. The Archmage shrugged. He was not concerned or impressed by commercial considerations. Sir Peter continued, "So far so good for those involved; and make no mistake, Dieter and his pals will be up to their elbows in it. Already they're making loans and buying into businesses which they expect to benefit - and taking the chance to spread the word that Wessex needs to become more Progressive, to move with the times and not let antique traditions stand in the way of making a profit."<br /><br />"Now it starts to get more interesting", said Sir Peter. "I happen to know that Dieter has very good connections with the bankers of Frankfurt. They're no more than mildly interested in the prosperity of wool growers in Wessex or the tapestry weavers of Flanders, the Ruhr's increased sales of iron rails or the prospects for shipping coal to Wessex from York or Poland. No, what really interests them is the juicy prospect of issuing, underwriting and trading in large loans to governments and companies, and in extending to more moderately wealthy persons the prospects of speculating in rigged stock markets."<br /><br />The Archmage stared at him. "So, it's back to Boudicca," he said. "Updated of course, but reminiscent of how Seneca and the rich of the first Roman Empire, pressed loans upon the unwary Ancient Britons, and then demanded immediate repayment once they'd squandered the money. We know what happened after that; a lost legion, three Roman cities burnt, and then no more Iceni." "No more Druids either," added Sir Peter. "That's when the King got seriously involved; it's a direct challenge to the Sovereignty of Wessex." "We were both there", said his friend, "when the Land responded through the King,'Go to the Horse, learn wisdom at it's mouth. Consult the Dragon.'"<br /><br />That was what had brought them, riding the old Ridgeway along the top of the Downs, first to the village of Uffington to meet the Guardian and his coven of Horsewhisperers and then to this hill which for so long had borne the sinuously elongated and disjointed image cut through the turf and into the chalk, long known as the White Horse of Uffington. They had sat for a couple of days with the Guardian, George Jenkins, and his circle at the Horse's mouth in deep meditation to contact the genius loci and learn what they could. Then they had gone to the strange flat topped hill beneath the Horse, known as Dragon's Hill, and had done the same. They had shared and discussed the images and intuitions they and the Guardian's Circle had had. Now they knew what to do.<br /><br />"It'll be a major project" said Sir Peter thoughtfully. "The Land has accepted it, and that's the main thing," replied the Archmage. "Dieter will eventually get his railway, one way or another, from Dover to Bristol via Winchester, if he and his backers keep pushing, keep intriguing and keep paying. We expected that," said Sir Peter."It's better this way. The country won't be torn apart, the Land disregarded and degraded again. It'll still take time and a lot of effort to make the preparations, and the railway enthusiasts will have to keep encountering and appearing to overcome obstacles and resistance until they think they've won, without needing a coup d'etat." "They'll get their railway," said the Archmage, "but they won't know and won't care about the Rail Way."<br /><br />"I like the idea of engines looking like dragons' heads, snorting steam and flame, and pulling wagons and carriages like the body of a dragon or wyrm. An Iron Wyrm. There could be a red one and a yellow one, a green one, a black one or a blue one," remarked Sir Peter dreamily. "Perhaps we could insist on a Royal Golden one. Rail Dragons or Iron Wyrms - whatever we call them, they'll be popular, provided they preserve some romance and don't become merely and drearily utilitarian and commonplace." <br /><br />"Yes," said the Archmage, "they can be colourful, useful, profitable and popular. Best of all, with the Rail Way they can avoid the socially subversive effects that would otherwise be the case, and actually help to strengthen the People and the Land." "You know Peter" he continued," a way of life used to be regarded as a spiritual path. Each craft could make it's tools and operations into symbols and meditations. The Japanese even had a Way of the Warrior. In Europe we had Freemasons and Cathedral builders as well as Chivalry. The founder of Christianity and his earthly father were supposedly carpenters. That was before the curse of materialistic modernity blighted the spiritual connection between people and their work. Now that's over we can have a Rail Way for those who use and those who work on the railway. Even better, the Land will contribute to its effectiveness." <br />
<br /> "It's more than that Peter," said the Archmage. "You saw and experienced the vision of the White Horse shimmering and quivering with movement, and felt it expand to cover the whole Land of Wessex. We all saw it filled with a tracery of lines of golden light appearing as fire at its feet and nostrils. That's an image of the energy-body of the Land, its life force and fire of consciousness. Remember that we saw the little dragons moving over it and strengthening the links between the parts? That shows that the Land is willing to help the Rail Way and its Iron Wyrms and those who ride in them, and that in turn their live force and movement can strengthen the flows within the Land and the connections between them."<br /><br />"Yes" murmured Sir Peter. "Its the Grail Question 'Whom Serves the Grail?',isn't it? The Grail serves those who serve the Grail, and the Land helps those who help the Land, for the King and the Land are One." He laughed and said "As to Dieter and his enthusiasts, if I may misquote Milton,'They also serve who only agitate'. Without them this wouldn't be happening." <br /><br /> "Of course, Peter. Now the exciting thing is that with the co-operation of the Land, every rail journey can be an initiation. Wessex people already accept the dragon or wyvern as a symbol of their identity, and will be happy to board it and remain in a comfortable relaxed state as they journey through their landscape, their history - and their souls. The Land will re-arrange its energy currents a bit so one will enclose the route of the railway. Our dowsers will check that and you and I will then plan the actual route. Greedy people may hear rumours and buy in the wrong places." They both laughed."As I was saying, Peter, with the co-operation of the Land, I and some of my mages or druids will be able to summon dragon spirits and have them take the passengers into their consciousness. Iron Wyrms indeed! They'll be able to induce dreams, visions, feelings of joy or terror, nightmares or hallucinations in the minds of those appropriately prepared." Sir Peter interrupted. "Especially those who've 'quaffed the soma bright and are immortal grown' or whose 'railway tea' contains the kykeion or an infusion of magic mushrooms! The herbalists and Green Ladies should be able to advise on that." The Archmage nodded thoughtfully. "I'll speak to Sally about that."<br /><br />Sir Peter said slowly, "It may not be desirable for every Tom, Dieter and Harry to delve too deeply into all the Mysteries of Wessex, and it may not be good for them. We wouldn't want their corpses to contain any evidence of what might be regarded as poison, or to show any sign of violence." <br /><br />The Archmage looked slightly startled before he said, "The dragons may be a bit rough. They've Wessex of course, so foreigners will not be attuned to them. People in whom they detect ill intent towards Wessex will receive a very rough time, but it will be mental rather than physical torment." Sir Peter nodded. "A few heart attacks or cases of sudden insanity in people who were up to no good will just serve to maintain awe and respect for the Iron Wyrms of Wessex." He added "The public can be advised that they travel at their own risk. Railway travel may not suit everyone, but most people will find it interesting and enjoyable. That'll be true. I hope we can have the dragons exert a bit of emotional pressure at the railway stations, scanning passengers and idlers, frightening off those who should not be there, welcoming those who should, and putting the fear of fiery dragon's breath into layabouts or potential criminals."<br /><br />Satisfied with the progress of their work, the two men mounted their horses and began their ride back to report to the King. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Horsemen</h3>
<br />Only about ten miles from Uffington lay the village of Lambourn in a valley nestling into the Berkshire Downs. As might be expected from its proximity to the White Horse, this area had been famous for horse rearing for a very long time. In the Old Times it had been the centre of the British horse racing industry and the Royal horse herd were still stabled there. The 'sport of kings' continued, even if there was less money and fewer kings involved, and other people also had stables in the area where racehorses continued to be bred and trained. Nowadays however, horses were raised for more mundane purposes than racing. Unless and until a railway was built they remained the fastest and most convenient means of transport for anyone who was not obliged through poverty or circumstance to rely on 'Shanks' Pony'. Anyone with an interest in horseflesh might therefore be expected to be seen in the vicinity of Lambourn, so it attracted no special interest if Sir Peter or the Archmage were seen in the area. <br /><br />On some of those occasions when one or other of them might be seen there, their interest was not in the purchase of a new horse or in the racing prospects of some favuorite, or even in reviewing the business arrangements by which the Royal herd was managed and the profits made from sales of its horses. Sometimes when they stopped in passing to greet and gossip with John Daly, one of the trainers, more than business and racing prospects were discussed. Somewhat as 'Wren' was 'King of the Birds', Daly was a 'Horseman'. He had the gift of understanding horses and quietly but firmly getting them to do what he wanted. Now, under the tutelage of the Archmage, he was developing the skill of identification with a horse and experiencing its perceptions. So were some of his apprentices, who were now on detached service in Winchester, where they were eager participants in Dieter's German classes. <br /><br /> Sir Peter smiled happily when he thought about it. Wessex horses were well regarded. Closer involvement with the Empire would certainly lead to an expanded and more profitable trade in them. Some of the best would be suitable diplomatic gifts to Exalted Personages. Others would be bought by influential people. These people would go riding on horseback or in horse drawn carriages. They would meet and speak in German with other influential people about important matters, in the quiet confidence that no human could overhear them. Sir Peter laughed so much his horse wondered what had happened to him.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Checkmate!</h3>
<br />Ragnar would not bring down the wrath of the Empire on his head by flouting a direct and vehemently expressed order not to attack Wessex, but he thought that an indirect approach might well succeed. If the 'feeble and mentally unstable' Harold were to 'lose his head' - perhaps they'd need to look for it in Fairyland, he snickered to himself - the Germans might have a very good idea who was responsible, but if he ostentatiously avoided open military aggression, and instead pleaded with the Imperial Court to be allowed to 'restore order' in Wessex , they might well accept for lack of a better alternative. Even if they didn't, he intended to make a silver plated drinking cup out of Harold's skull, so that at last it would be useful and contain something helpful. Thus when news reached him that Harold would be spending a few days with only a small escort at a place just south of their border, the Thames, Ragnar scented opportunity. <br /><br />It was an overcast night, starting to rain and with a distant grumble of thunder, as Redbeard led his household troop of a couple of dozen of his most loyal and effective fighters, down to the river. This was good, they were less likely to be noticed, and if anything went wrong Redbeard was confident in the ability of himself and his men to out-ride and out-fight any opposition.The fools were not expecting them and he looked forward to returning with Harold's severed head tied to his saddle. Smiling happily he drew his sword and flourished it to signal his men to follow him as he urged his horse into the river.<br /><br />No one afterwards could quite explain what had happened. Some speculated that the king had had a heart seizure and that his legs had convulsively gripped his horse or that he had jerked the reins. There had been a splash and a scream of pain from the horse as it lost it's footing, broke a leg, threw Redbeard and collapsed on top of him with his foot trapped in the stirrup. When his horrified men had recovered the king's body after killing the horse to end it's thrashing and it's screams, they found that he was quite dead, but whether from a heart attack or from drowning or from the way in which his sword had penetrated his neck they could not tell and did not care.They simply took the body of their king back to Tamworth for burial.<br /><br />When news of this strange event and lucky escape reached King Harold and his people they were unmoved. They already knew that the King guards the Land, and the Land guards the King; for the King and the Land are One. <br /><br />
<h3>
Afterwards.</h3>
<br />Some weeks later when the next airship arrived in Winchester from Berlin, it brought unexpected passengers and news and left with several other passengers. There had been a shift in the current of political favour at the Imperial Court in Berlin, quite unrelated to events in Britain. Some previously influential people had lost their positions and their replacements had naturally replaced many of their appointees to create rewards for their own supporters. It had been no reflection on the excellent service which Count Dieter had rendered His Majesty, but his successor had arrived bearing official instructions, and much to the surprise of the Count and his family, after a hasty visit to the court of King Harold to announce his recall and introduce his successor, they found themselves waving farewell to Wessex from the airship as it serenely floated on it's way back to Berlin and feeling astonished to note how alive the land appeared. <br />
<br />Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335146316333351931.post-60861369596957533032014-02-14T12:06:00.000-08:002014-02-14T12:06:07.307-08:00An Unholy Book or How to Read a Magazine - Draft 2<b>The Priest</b><br /><br /> Man and mule were both hot, tired and thirsty as they moved slowly through the harsh landscape of dusty scrub and dry grass sprinkled over its low undulations interspersed with dry valleys and flat topped mesas.The thorny cacti in particular repelled the man, although he was accustomed to them. They appeared to him as upthrust fingers of Satan arising from Hell, contorted into obscene gestures and writhing to grasp sinners to be dragged down to destruction. An unsought thought came to him that a flower at the tip of one of these fingers was like the chalice of an unholy Mass being sneeringly offered to him by the Evil One. Such fancies had disturbed his travels for some time, but now they were becoming stronger. Perhaps they indicated incipient sunstroke, but he felt that they were delusions of the Devil, snares to divert his soul and distract his mind from holiness and duty, although they might be an obscure indication and warning that evil had laid a strong hand on this land and its people, and more of it was about to flower. <br /><br />Much as he - and the mule - would have preferred to have been in green pastures beside cooling streams he put aside such foolish thoughts, well knowing that there would be no relief for him or his mule until they reached their next destination, which he expected to do around nightfall.Then it would be time to rest and share the simple hospitality of his hosts, putting such visions behind him. He resumed telling his rosary beads as the mule continued to plod forward, both absorbed in their tasks.<br /><br />It was indeed dark before the priest reached his destination, the monastery of San Geronimo, guided over the final kilometres by a local peasant. The porter took him to the Abbot's parlour. Inside they found the Abbot, a thin man in middle age, who was seated at an old wooden desk bearing a lighted candle which sufficiently illuminated the room for those near the desk to see each other clearly. He rose and greeted them, repeating the porter's welcome, before dismissing him and inviting the priest to be seated with him beside the desk.<br /><br />Carefully the priest took a packet of waxed cloth from inside his robe, opened it and unfolded a document written on heavy paper adorned with florid calligraphy and bearing a large seal of blood-red wax impressed with an elaborate armorial design. "Father Abbot", he began, as he extended the document for inspection. "My name is Mendoza and I am an emissary from His Eminence Cardinal Ximenes. As you can see, this is my commission and introduction to you and the other Religious in the province. His Eminence requests that you will assist me in carrying out a task which he has assigned to me." Slowly the abbot ran his eyes over the letter, pausing to examine the ornate flourishes of the signature and the intricate elaborations of the seal thoughtfully, before lifting them to regard his visitor. <br />"Naturally, I will be happy to assist you and His Eminence. What is it that you require?"<br /><br />Thus he was quite unsurprised when a peasant arrived at the monastery a few days later bearing an invitation from Don Roberto Baltassar, the most considerable landowner in the district, and his wife Dona Maria, for him to visit and stay at their hacienda for a week.<br /><br />This journey was far less tiring than the previous one had been. Both Father Mendoza and his beast (whose name we may reveal to be Nicodemus) were reinvigorated, spruced up and looking forward to their outing. The priest was no glutton and was used to the spartan fare and physical exertion of monastic and peasant life, but he admitted that it was pleasant to occasionally be treated to the table and conversation of a gentleman.<br /><br />That evening, pleasantly refreshed, he dined with his hosts and their other guests from the local gentry.The roast beef they were served was succulent and a welcome change from the almost entirely vegetarian diet of his recent travels, as was the selection of wines which accompanied it. His interest in local history had been gratified by the conversation of his host and the other guests, who in turn had eagerly received such sketchy and outdated news of the wider world and its important people as his membership of the retinue of His Eminence had granted him before he had left the provincial capital several months ago. It turned out that Dona Maria had a cousin who was related by marriage to the family of one of the Canons there, so she knew something of its society and they had several acquaintances in common. He had not known of this in advance, but had been fairly confident that something of the sort would emerge once his presence in the district had become known to some of the local gentry and he had been invited to meet them. It usually did. His host and the other gentlemen had entertained him with old tales about the valour and piety of their ancestors and how they had obtained and settled their lands and the subsequent squabbles which made up local politics. Don Roberto's great-great grandfather had actually served the legendary Don Arturo,leader of the Reconquista, and had been granted a wide estate by him. His descendants' prowess, shrewdness and political agility had enabled them to hang on to most of it. <br /><br /><b>The Old City</b><br /><br />Don Roberto was pleased by the priest's interest in his family and in local history and offered to show him some places of interest on his estate. He was well spoken and reasonably well born, with the manners of a gentleman and connections to high ecclesiastical authority, and his visit allowed a diversion in the somewhat monotonous social routine of country life; so the Don was pleased to entertain him for a few days and to gratify as far as he could his interest in old books and antiquities. The priest on his mule accompanied Don Roberto and several of his men on horseback as they went to see the sights of the area. As the Don talked and pointed out places of interest Mendoza felt his pride and love of this harsh landscape made and kept fertile and beautiful in places by the unremitting efforts of men.The Don mentioned that there were some unimpressive ruins, known to the locals as the 'Old City' and offered to take him there."The peasants think it is haunted", he said. They don't like to go there. They think that the ghosts live there. There's a few slaves who hang around there. Certainly only ghouls or bandits or slaves would be willing to live there." <br /><br /> As the Don had intimated, the ruins were not impressive. Amidst the scrub there were the low broken concrete walls of a few buildings which had fallen into dilapidation or been destroyed long ago. They drifted slowly and silently through this desolation for a few minutes until the Don noticed a patch of corn and other crops growing adjacent to one of the more prominent ruins. As they approached it became evident that this was a small kitchen garden, presumably watered by a well and tended by one or more of those elusive 'ghouls bandits or slaves'. The priest noticed that there were also some exotic garden plants and bushes as if someone was trying to maintain a humble imitation on a tiny scale of the Don's magnificent estate, perhaps using plants stolen from there.<br /><br />As they drew closer one of the horses snorted. Startled, a man dressed in rags who had been on his knees among the plants using a broken piece of concrete to scrape at the earth around them, jumped up and stared at them before dropping the shard as he fled. At a flick of the Don's head two of his horsemen immediately flowed into graceful pursuit, their horses trampling a path through the crops as the riders unleashed lassos. With the easy skill of long practice they dropped both nooses over the shoulders of the running man, pulled him to the ground and dragged him to lie, bruised, battered, bleeding and even more dishevelled at the feet of the Don."So Abel, we meet again" he said to the figure at his feet. Then to Father Mendoza, "We call him Abel. I've had to have him flogged occasionally for petty theft or drunk and disorderly conduct, but he's not really dangerous, else he'd have been dead long since. He's a bit simple but sometimes useful when there's extra work to be done. He claims that this was the property and home of his ancestors. Well,its mine now, but I let him stay here. You can question him, although I doubt that he'll be able to tell you anything of interest."<br /><br /> Father Mendoza gazed intently at the bound figure in the dust before them, held firmly there by the counterpoised pull of the two ropes. Before the man had dropped his head he had glanced at the priest, who had immediately been struck by the intense gaze of those strange pale blue eyes in the sharp featured face topped by a mop of yellowish-brown hair. Most unusual. "He does look strange, doesn't he?" said the Don. "Under the grime and sunburn I think he's quite pale skinned. There's not many of them left, but very occasionally one sees a slave with even fairer or actually reddish hair. They're dying out now, but my father remembered when great nobles would maintain groups of tall fair haired and blue eyed slaves as footmen because they looked so exotic." To the slave at his feet he said in a kindly tone, "Come round to the back gate tomorrow afternoon and I'll see that the housekeeper sets out some food and old clothes for you Abel." The figure dropped his head still further and muttered his thanks."You can speak to him Father, he understands well enough."<br /><br />"Look at me Abel!" said the priest. The man raised his head and again Mendoza was struck by the intensity of those strange eyes. "Do you know anything about the Old Times?" he asked."Are there any stories or relics of this place?" Both the priest and the Don noticed the man's furtive glance towards the ruin before he dropped his head again and muttered, "No sir."<br /><br />Don Roberto extended his hand towards the ruin and said sarcastically "Wouldn't you like to visit the home of one of the former lords of this land? I'm sure Abel will be most hospitable." Whilst the two horsemen continued to hold Abel immobile in the dust the rest of the party dismounted and picked their way to the entrance of the hovel. There was of course no door, but the wreckage above constituted a roof over what had been a ground floor room of the old house. There was also a window space from which any original glazing and metal or wooden frame had vanished long ago, so the place was adequately lit.In one corner was a heap of rags and brush which appeared to be a bed.Under the window was an arrangement of rubble with a flat piece forming a tabletop.On this lay a few cracked and chipped utensils which had obviously been discarded from the Don's house. An old jug contained a little water and there were a few crusts of dried bread on a broken plate. Otherwise the place was bare - except for a small heap of rubble in another corner. This seemed a little out of place as that corner had not collapsed and the rest of the floor had been kept clean and free of obstructions. Idly the priest went over to it and used his foot to move some of the rubble aside. Underneath he saw something strange, a piece of old rag in which something appeared to have been wrapped. Squatting down the priest picked this up and unwrapped it. As Don Roberto and his men moved closer to see what the priest had found, there was the sound of a prolonged howl from Abel and of curses from the horsemen as they moved to suppress his attempt to writhe and rise to his feet.<br /><br />Ignoring this the men in the room gazed fascinated at what the priest had found. Too surprised to speak they stared at what lay in the hands of the priest. It was something none of them had ever seen, but it was immediately recognisable to at least the priest and the Don.It was an old magazine, a genuine relic of the Old Times! Astonishment of several kinds gripped them all. First, that anything of this sort had survived at all. Second, that it had survived for at least several centuries.Third, that it had survived in such conditions. Fourth, that it was in the possession of a slave. Fifth,to the horsemen, that a mere slave might have a possession and an ability that was beyond them.Sixth, to the Don, that this slave might be literate in a language of which he himself was ignorant. Seventh, to the priest, (who was immediately reminded of his hallucination of being offered a poisoned chalice in the form of the diabolical cactus flower, of beauty and wonder and knowledge and immense achievement combined with corruption,and perversity and horror and outrageous arrogance), that this object might be very dangerous to his soul and those of many others. <br /><br /><br />"Open it Father" said Don Roberto, and gestured to one of his men to make room on the tabletop. Slowly the dazed priest laid it there and delicately started to turn the pages.It was in far from pristine condition, stained and a bit crumpled and the pages were fragile and coming apart, but the text was still legible and the colours distinct in the numerous photographs - more lifelike depictions of strange objects and situations than any of them had ever seen, - and as the priest slowly turned the pages, the assembled men saw 'wonderful things'.<br /><br /><br />As the priest closed the final page Don Roberto turned to one of his men, whose dress appeared cleanest, and to the man's bewilderment, told him to take off his shirt. The Don apologised for the inconvenience and promised him a better shirt of his own in compensation. It was necessary to have something clean in which to protect and carry home this very precious object and he would be honoured by association with it. They emerged slowly through the doorway like a procession, led by Father Mendoza bearing their carefully wrapped find in his outstretched hands as if carrying a holy object or even a holy child. Abel slumped with his face in the dust when he saw them and his guards stared in curiosity at what had kept them for so long in the hovel of this slave and what they could possibly have found that would be of the slightest interest or value.<br /><br />Mendoza's heart and mind were in tumult. Bizarre, incongruous, conflicting and even blasphemous images ideas and comparisons tumbled through him.He saw himself as if at some counterpart of the Holy Birth, carrying this unholy child in swaddling clothes from its manger in the lair of beasts and slaves. He saw in front of him a tableau of three unwise men, not bearing gifts, unless the awe and curiosity of everyone present counted as some sort of gift in the order of myrrh and frankincense and gold.The ranch hands approximated to shepherds. Momentarily the twigs in front of Abel's head appeared as a crown of thorns whilst his wrecked garden was behind him. The priest knew that the route from Abel's Gethsemane to his Calvary would not be long. Alarmingly he had a feeling that Don Roberto and himself might qualify as two thieves to be crucified alongside Abel. <br /><br /><br /><b>The Holy or Unholy Book</b><br /><br />Huge excitement was felt throughout the district in the following days as news of the amazing discovery reverberated throughout the villages and estates. People flocked to see it or talk to those who had seen it. Tales about it spread rapidly, and lost nothing in the telling. Ladies and gentlemen were allowed into the house to see it as it lay in state on a table in one of Don Roberto's waiting rooms, under constant armed guard. No one but the priest was allowed to touch it, but once a day he would approach and slowly turn the delicate pages under the awed gaze of the assembled gentry.At other times, to prevent the peasantry from becoming too clamorous, they were allowed to file slowly past it when its table was carefully borne outside and placed on a veranda under additional guard. Many of them genuflected or crossed themselves as they passed the magic book, muttering prayers. <br /><br /> Abel had not lasted long under interrogation. He denied knowing of any other ancient objects. He claimed that this had been his only heritage from the past, handed down from those he thought to have been his ancestors. It had always been associated with the old house, so far as he knew. He had no descendants and only remote relatives among the other slaves. So far as he knew, no one else had known anything about it. It had been kept buried as it had been found, to protect it from animals and thieves who would destroy it. He had only a rudimentary knowledge of the language, gained from his parents but never used with the other slaves; although he thought that previous generations of slaves had spoken it. He had even less understanding of the pictures and of the situations and society which they portrayed and could not make much sense of what the articles meant. He had only the vaguest conception of who these people had been or what they had done, but he was convinced that they were his ancestors and that they had been greater and more powerful than those living nowadays. He had found solace in his hard life from making his little garden on what he considered to have been his ancestral property, and had experienced the same awe and wonder that the public now felt, from just holding and occasionally looking through this last literary fragment of his cultural inheritance. He had not thought of telling any of the other slaves about it, and assumed that after his death, it, like the house, would just continue to crumble away.That at least is how Father Mendoza and Don Roberto understood him.They had not meant to kill him; that just happened as a result of Don Roberto's men applying more enthusiasm than skill in their efforts to beat additional information out of him. By Don Roberto's orders he was buried quietly in his little garden, with as headstone a piece of the rubble from the house upon which a mason carved his name, ABEL. Neglected, the garden soon died also. <br /><br />The Don and the priest had expected that the discovery would be a nine day's wonder and that life in the district would soon resume its slow pace and even tenor. They were mistaken.<br /><br />The gentry were impressed by the find. They were amazed by the intensely realistic depictions of an entirely different way of life, repugnant as much of it may have been. They were awed by the seemingly impossible pictures of natural phenomena.They were astounded by the obvious and casual revelation of wealth and power apparently commonplace among the vulgar.They were puzzled by the proliferation of strange mechanisms whose functions and means of operation were opaque. The more intellectual of them understood that the language was probably an antiquated version of English; but English, ancient or modern, was of no relevance and little interest in the modern world, and none of them knew of any scholars who might be able to translate the writing. <br /><br />The reaction of the peasantry was much stronger and more emotional. Among them excitement turned into hysteria. Something long buried but not quite dead seemed to have come to life in their emotional and superstitious nature. They were fascinated by the discovery of a 'magic book' and convinced that it contained great secrets of sorcerous power,- as obviously it must- since it pertained to the fabulous and sinister Old Times. They were in any case hag-ridden by fears of ghosts and suspicious that each man's, and more particularly each woman's, neighbour, was a sorcerer devoted to the service of the Devil and cunning in afflicting their good neighbours -i.e. themselves - with illness,loss, crop failures, child death and animal disease, and indeed mishap of every kind. The appearance of the 'magic book' from the earth of the accursed Old City or City of the even-more-accursed Old Ones, the feared but fabled Gringos, whose evil had resulted in their destruction and the reduction of their descendants to the status of despised and miserable slaves, had a powerful impact on them. It seemed an awesome portent of some inscrutable power for evil or good. The fact that was written in an unknown tongue, supposedly that of the Gringos of old, added greatly to its power and prestige. Some of them had a nodding acquaintance with written Spanish, the language of the books owned by some of their superiors and of the religious texts of their priests. That the language of the Gringos was as much a mystery to their religious and secular superiors as it was to themselves added to the imagined potency of the magic book. Furthermore, according to the tales told by those who had seen it, the magic book did not deal with religious matters; instead it seemed devoted to sensuous pleasure and how to obtain much more of every variety of pleasure and desire. Knowledge of how to obtain such things had surely been the property of very powerful sorcerers. It must have been their influence which had kept this knowledge safely concealed for so long in the earth of the Forbidden City. Perhaps the influence of these dead sorcerers was ending, just as the number of their descendants was dwindling away, and that was why the magic book had now made its appearance among them. Perhaps Abel had been the last degenerate scion of their line and since his death the power of the book might have been freed to seek new masters - or servants! Was this a sign that it wished its power to again be known and put to use, and that some of them might prove worthy to attain it, or on a more modest level, just to share in its beneficence? Their ordinary lives became subordinated to this new excitement.<br /><br />The book began to appear in the dreams of some of them, offering vital but indecipherable advice and instruction, warnings of hellfire or promises of spells which would control this very hellfire and place the chief demons under their personal command. Other rumours flew about it. Soon it was being said that prayer to the magic book had cured illness and disease, and the sick and infirm began to make their way to Don Roberto's house begging for a chance to see and even to touch what had quickly transformed itself in the popular mind from a 'magic book' to a 'holy book'. Already sects and dissensions were appearing amongst those who believed in its power. There were those who accepted its power but believed this to be derived from evil sources; in bitter dispute with the more optimistic who expected that it would lead them to long life, wealth, power and happiness and place them on a par with the favoured ones of the Old Times,if not in this life, then in another.<br /><br />Crowds besieged the Villa Baltazzar and became a nuisance to the conduct of its normal life and business. Don Roberto's men could push them back, but they always returned, and he was no longer confident in the loyalty of all his men. The crowds and the lurid stories soon attracted further pests. Entertainers, jugglers, pick-pockets, tumblers and touts, all manner of loud voiced carnival barkers, liars, hucksters and thieves came to infest the area along with the literal dung flies as the crowds turned the vicinity of his house into a dung heap and cesspit. Crowds in search of water and sustenance invaded and trampled his garden and committed depredations on his crops and livestock. He and his family were outraged but could do little whilst the hysteria lasted. Don Roberto was not a patient man. He was used to being obeyed and treated with the utmost respect by the common people, and not slow to apply physical chastisement when he deemed it necessary. In normal times legally and practically his word was pretty much the first and last word on all matters in the district, particularly in relation to his people and on his property. The time was no longer normal. He knew that if he pushed the crowd it could easily turn into an enraged mob which would storm his house, killing himself and his family and servants and such of his men as remained loyal, before looting and destroying everything in sight. God or the Devil knew what they might do after that, particularly if the 'Holy Book', which he now regretted ever having had anything to do with, remained in existence and in the possession of some rabble-rouser. The mob might ignite a fire of religious excitement which could consume the whole country.Already some of his servants had slipped away, anticipating disaster.<br /><br /> He knew that this situation had to be calmed quickly, probably by the departure of the 'Unholy Book' as he now thought of it. When their excitement deflated to disappointment and boredom the people would drift back to their normal ways. If they did not, he knew that he would be in fatal trouble. Already, peasants and servants from his neighbour's estates had slipped away to join the excited rabble around his house, adding to the emotion and chaos of eschatological expectation, which must soon boil over or be snuffed out. God forbid that it should be dispersed into further regions by mobs of excited peasants driven to madness by religious fear or enthusiasm. The life of the district was being disturbed, normal work was no longer being done, and he knew whom his neighbours would blame for their losses. Reports and rumours would be spreading to other areas and would soon come to the attention of higher authority. He well knew whom they would blame for disturbances in his area. He understood the sneers that would be circulating, 'a nobleman who cannot even obtain the normal respect due to his rank is surely no nobleman!' 'If he cannot maintain order and tranquillity in his district he is surely unworthy of his estates and position, and someone more worthy should have them'. 'A nobleman who causes expense and inconvenience to the state and to his neighbours because he fails to control the disorders of the common people is a liability not an asset of the body politic, and should be eliminated before his example infects others.' The Church would also be displeased, and that was not a displeasure which could be lightly borne.<br /><br /> The priest was even more alarmed, for the souls as well as the bodies of everyone involved. The theological implications of these developments appalled him. He felt responsible, and knew that the Church would hold him responsible, for unleashing a pack of heresies to endanger the souls of very many people. He foresaw that he would be condemned as a heresiarch and probably burnt, if the mob didn't do it before he fell under the condemnation of the Church.He was surprised at the speed of developments. These people had not had more than a glimpse of the magazine. They had not even seen its contents before they fell into the clutches of error, and errors moreover which were not even those stated in the text so far as he had been able to guess at the contents.This in itself was suggestive of an immense power to cause evil. He continued to be tormented by imaginations, visions or hallucinations which he believed were sent by the Devil.In one he became, or was forced by the mob to become, the Priest of the Book, being borne across the country as leader or prisoner of the dionysiac rout, preaching a mad collection of vile heresies to the mob as it laid waste to towns and villages, plantations and estates, robbing, burning, raping and looting as an ever swelling horde, until disease, dissension, starvation and finally an army of nobles and professional soldiers put an end to their existence, and his <br />own. A variant of this was that the mob succeeded in overwhelming or converting the entire country and he became hailed as the founder of a new religion which would be spread across the whole world by his successors. In another he was martyred by the mob and managed to become both martyr and heresiarch and also to end in hell burning for eternity.None of his imaginings contained any hint of salvation, although he now spent all his waking hours in heartfelt grief and prayer, for everyone around him including the mob and all those unknown to him who would be affected by these terrible occurrences, as well as for his own soul. <br /><br />The Don saw that day by day the crowd was becoming more organised and more aware of itself as a powerful entity. Already they had regular speakers or leaders and through them had demanded that each day he and the priest would appear on a balcony bearing the 'Holy Book' and hold it up before them for their veneration, and as assurance that it was still there. He expected that tomorrow they would demand possession of the object and keep it under their own guard. He must act that very night. Dona Maria secretly sewed a bag to contain the magazine, which the priest could wear around his neck and under his robe. There was no difficulty in taking it because the Don no longer had sufficient loyal men to guard it at night. Nicodemus was well rested, fed and watered, ready for another long journey. As most of the people in and around the Villa Baltazzar slept that night, the Don, disguised in peasant garb, led Father Mendoza and his mule quietly away from the back of the villa, choosing the route that was likely to least frequented through the estate and its environs.The Don had supplied Father Mendoza with food and water as well as cash and advice on a route to take him away from the area whilst avoiding attention. They parted with whispered good wishes from the Don and an unstated but heartfelt wish that he would never again see either the priest or his 'Unholy Book'. Silently and stealthily Mendoza and Nicodemus faded into the hills and Don Roberto returned to his back gate where Dona Maria was waiting to admit him.<br /><br /> That afternoon, just before he expected the delegation from the crowd to arrive, the Don appeared on his balcony wearing his most sober black clothes. He appeared to have been weeping, and continued to raise his anguished face and his imploring hands to the heavens, uttering mingled cries of sorrow and joy. He faced the gathering crowd with his arms outspread and cried, "Attend me closely my people! Draw closer so that you may hear. I have great and miraculous news for you. It is both a sorrow and a joy." He broke off for a while as more and more people came to join the swelling crowd, whilst he continued to show signs of the most intense and mixed emotions.As the crowd thickened and grew still he resumed his speech. " In recent days we have been blessed by a miraculous occurrence, the appearance of the Holy Book among us.But, as you know, miraculous events may not last for long, lest people become used to them and forget their holiness. Our Lord Himself was only on earth for a few years, and the people who lived to see Him were specially blessed. We have been specially blessed by the appearance of the Holy Book among us, but like Our Lord it can only be here for a short time." Murmurs started. "Where is the Book? Show us the Holy Book!" Don Roberto raised a hand imperiously and the crowd fell silent. "Listen well, my people. Let me tell you what has happened. Jesus could only stay for a few years and He was far more holy than the Book, which could only stay with us for a short time. That time has already passed." He raised his arms again as a louder clamour of sighs, groans, queries and demands arose. "The Book has gone!" Over the immediate hubbub he shouted "That is the sorrow for which I weep and join you in weeping. Now let me tell you about the joy." Curiosity vied with sorrow, surprize, anger and suspicion in the faces and voices of the crowd. Again he gestured for silence."At dawn, as the priest and I were kneeling in prayer before the Holy Book, an angel of The Lord in glorious robes of light appeared behind the table. As we trembled before him and marvelled, he said 'Peace be upon you, and upon all the people of the Book. The time of this book has passed. It must now depart.Weep, but not too much. The priest shall go with the book to be instructed in its wisdom and to impart it to others when it may be time for the book to appear to other people far from here.You Don Roberto must remain here to tell the people what has happened and to ease their sorrow. Tell them that they have been specially blessed and will not be forgotten, although they shall not see the book again. They were accounted worthy to have been the first to see it for many years. Let this experience lead them to behave with increased piety and additional charitable good works'". The people were silent, absorbed in his story of the angel. He drew renewed breath and continued boldly," The Holy Angel then told me that part of the reason for the appearance before us of the Holy Book was to bless the Old City and to thus remove the curse that had lain upon it for so long. No longer should you fear it as a haunt of ghosts. Instead, it has been sanctified. Let the hovel of Abel, where the Holy Book was found be made into a shrine for the book. Let those who treasure its memory visit the shrine regularly and pray there." Here the Don paused again, glad to see that the people were silent, most of them happily approving his story of the angel and its good news, already adjusting to the loss of the book. He raised his arms again and said, "My people, this is indeed good news. Now let me claim the honour of being the first among you to perform a charitable deed for the sake of the Holy Book. I will raise the Shrine of the Holy Book on behalf of us all and bestow a suitable memorial. I will also request the good brothers of San Geronimo to bless and consecrate the site. You may feel safe in going to pray there." Some of the people, although silent were eyeing him strangely, yet most of the crowd seemed happy. He felt that he had negotiated the tricky corners and was well into the home straight, so he drew another deep breath and made a dash for the finishing line."As the Angel finished speaking it became even more brilliant so that its light covered the Holy Book and the priest and I could no longer see them. I fell into a swoon, and when I awoke the Angel and the Holy Book and the priest had all vanished. That is the news which I have for you. It is sorrowful and also joyful and most wonderful." A final inspiration came to him and he grasped it as a means of sending the crowd home happy. "Before we part to resume our normal lives and to pray over these Holy things that have been revealed to us, let me also announce a pious deed as the Angel commanded. In this we can all share. I declare that each year on the anniversary of this day there shall be a procession to the Shrine of the Holy Book, where additional prayers and offerings may be made." That seemed to please them, right enough. It would also disperse them for a year . "Now let us depart in peace, giving praise and thanks to the Lord and all the saints, and to the Holy Book." He bowed his head as if in prayer as the crowd slowly dispersed. "Thank you Lord" he whispered sincerely as he saw the people drift away to resume their normal lives, "I think that you really saved me there."<br /> <br /><br /><b>The Cardinal</b><br /><br />One morning, some two years after these events had passed, a small sleek haired man wearing <br />spectacles and sober clerical garb, sat alone in a cool room, at a highly polished desk.As his fingers slowly played with his prized family heirloom of an antique fountain pen, so much more impressive than the goose feather quills used by his secretaries and other scriveners, his mind and gaze turned from the view over his palatial gardens where his servants toiled amid the splashing and tinkling of carefully contrived fountains, to the three documents in front of him. One was the notorious ancient magazine or 'Unholy Book'. The second was as detailed an analysis and commentary upon it as Father Mendoza had been able to compile. The third was his own note on the matter. He had determined that all three should be kept together in a locked leather briefcase in a secret archive, and he hoped that none of them would again see the light of day until long after he and all those involved were dead, if ever. He could have destroyed the magazine as almost every other remnant of this remote past had been destroyed, but had decided not to do so for a variety of reasons. He would preserve it in secret and make Father Mendoza, the only man to have fully withstood its influence, its guardian.<br /><br />The Cardinal accepted responsibility for what had happened. This had been one of many regular journeys of visitation on which he had sent Mendoza and other priests to maintain contact with remote monasteries and parishes, in order to check tendencies to slackness or incipient heresy. They also provided means to maintain social contact and discreet religious surveillance of the provincial gentry and their administration of the peasantry. He had a personal interest in history and antiquities and he took the opportunity of these visits to have his priests seek out any tales or artifacts which might gratify it. He had a small collection of antiquities scavenged by such means, including some stone arrowheads and curious fossils, together with a few small remnants of the Old Times, being fragments of obviously manufactured objects of unknown purpose and means of construction. His most interesting object of this type was a smooth white vessel without handles or ornamentation, made of that cool and slickly surfaced material known to the ancients as 'plastic', although indeed it was not malleable. He attributed it to the Ancient American Plastic Beaker People and it was prominently displayed with such a label in his cabinet of curiosities. <br /><br />All these objects, especially those that were man-made, exerted a certain fascination. Men of intellect and culture wondered briefly about the circumstances of their creation and use, how and why they had been made and what they might reveal about the attitudes and ways of life of the long dead people who had produced them.The Unholy Book was of an entirely different order of fascination and danger. It was a portal into the minds and souls of those departed people, and posed immense risks for those whose intellectual arrogance and curiosity or whose emotional and sensual desires led them through it. The Cardinal well understood why the Church had destroyed the writings of the ancient Maya, as indeed they had destroyed nearly all the writings and culture of the much more attractive Greeks and Romans and Egyptians. He also understood why, very much later, scattered remnants had been of such interest to men of discernment, including many Princes of the Church, and in spiritually,intellectually, and emotionally diluted form, had acted as a beneficial stimulant on their societies. The ancient Americans had gone into the same darkness, but in distant times after a millennium or several had passed - the Church was patient - similar scattered remnants might have a beneficial purpose, but that time would be long after his own.<br /><br />His mind turned to the strange influence which the Unholy Book appeared to have had on his priest. The poor man had endured a hellish journey following his hasty departure from the Villa Baltassar. He was in a mentally and spiritually disturbed state and had fallen into delirium, soon losing his way and wandering in the desert, if not for the biblical forty days and forty nights, at least for an extended period. He was beset by intense visions or hallucinations, in which he was convinced that the Devil haunted and taunted, tempted and tainted him. It was about the Unholy Book of course. The visions of power and perversion were more intense than they had been. In his confused state he sometimes felt there was also a female figure who called herself the Soul of America, who both tormented and comforted him, seeming to express the best and worst capacities of that ancient people and who pleaded with him to be allowed to continue influencing people in the present. He would gladly have laid down his burden or destroyed it, but he knew that it was his duty to endure this test and to bear the Unholy Book back to the Cardinal. It was the instinct and endurance of the beast which saved him, bearing him at last out of the desert, far from their starting point, when they were both almost dead of thirst. Fortunately, the people who found them were strangers who had heard nothing about the events we have described. As Good Samaritans they tended man and mule and set them on their way by easy stages back to Santa Fe, but the Father Mendoza who returned was not the same man who had left. His experiences had changed him, and it showed in his face and manner.He had gone through the fire, his mettle had been tested, much that was inessential had been burned away. What was left had the ring of steel. <br /><br />His Eminence had been alarmed and impressed. He was alarmed at how easily the danger of a <br />spiritual and social calamity had arisen. At that time he had not heard of what Don Roberto had said to the peasants about the disappearance of the 'Holy Book', but the very fact that there had been no rumours or reports of social upheaval suggested that the wily Don had probably defused the problem. He was concerned for the spiritual and physical well being of Father Mendoza, but he was very impressed by his fortitude and spiritual stamina. He had instructed him to examine it thoroughly and to write a report about his findings. It would serve not only as an intellectual and theological review, but also show whether the priest had fully mastered the power which it initially had had over him, and help him to complete his recovery. <br /><br />The priest had calmly accepted and completed this task.The Cardinal and such scholars as he had been able to find, had helped Father Mendoza to improve his knowledge of Ancient English and had been delighted to have an additional text in this archaic tongue. For scholarly and theological reasons they had accepted his right to be the first to study it in depth. They had accepted the need for secrecy which the Cardinal, using the authority of the Church, had urged upon them, so he felt fairly certain that no rumours would be spread from those sources, at least in his lifetime. <br /><br /><br />He had discussed his report and examined the magazine several times in the company of Father Mendoza, as well as independently, and had compiled his own report which he had not discussed with anyone. Superficially the 'Unholy Book' was just a commonplace object of little importance in its original context. It was just a popular news magazine. Small magazines of a not altogether dissimilar nature had still sporadically appeared in his father's and grandfather's time, although their circulation had been restricted to intellectual, artistic and religious or political groups amongst the gentry and the clergy. This magazine however was much more impressive in several ways. It consisted of far more pages and may have been published as frequently as weekly. It's content seemed aimed at an uneducated audience, more for entertainment than for instruction or to encourage thought or devotion. Amazingly, it seemed to assume widespread basic literacy amongst the common people, and even more amazingly that they had the wealth and interest to spend on such a thing and were allowed to do so. It's topics seemed, well, 'topical', but pertained to the whole globe as if such news and such publications were collected and distributed very rapidly widely and cheaply.Its paper was glossy and it contained much that was vividly coloured. Perhaps its most impressive feature was the large number of beautifully detailed and realistically coloured pictures which it contained, as if viewers were actually looking at the people places and objects right in front of them, rather than seeing paintings of them. Quite obviously it would have been very difficult to make so many drawings so rapidly and distribute them so cheaply. He understood that the technology of printing had survived from ancient times but the quality of production of this trivial ancient object far exceeded anything more recent that he had ever seen. The pictures must be specimens of the lost art of photography. He had felt awe at the casual power and intricate skills deployed to make and distribute vast numbers of things of such charming appearances but such sinister purposes. Here, he was convinced, he was seeing a Devil's picture book where the images were enticements to idolatry, seductions to glorify the senses rather than inspirations to put them to noble uses. It was not entirely bad. The pictures of Nature and of people could in themselves lead to awe and appreciation of the might and majesty of the Creator, but here they seemed to be used to glorify human pride; Pride, the sin of Lucifer which had led to his downfall. In some ways, the impression of the society of these ancient people was that, in line with the Parable of the Talents, they had indeed striven to increase and make full use of their God-given talents, which was admirable; although disturbing in that it implied many such ways were no longer available, or that he and his people were slothfully, like the Foolish Virgins, failing to make good use of their capacities and apply them to the service of Our Lord. However the main objects this publication seemed to serve were human lusts and Titanic pride. Good in the service of Evil became debased, a means of misguiding the unwary. <br /><br />It would have been a matter of idle historical curiosity to have known the date of the magazine. That part of the page where it was expected had disappeared, perhaps torn off long ago for some unknown reason. So far as he and those experts in the somewhat sketchy history of the late period of the Old Times whom he had consulted could determine, it probably dated to the closing decades of the 20th century or the early 21st.That had been the apogee of American power or even a little past it. This impression was reinforced by the fact that some of the contents referred back nostalgically to the vaunted American Space Programme, which apart from their rapid settling of the continent had been their greatest and most famous achievement. <br /><br />Some of the academics whom he had consulted were of the opinion that the American Space <br />Programme had been the re-writing of myth, or an outright diabolical lie. They expressed disdain for the idea of men walking on the moon. They queried the attachment of the name of the ancient Greek god of light and the sun to the programme, and the superstitious coincidence that it had supposedly been the unlucky number thirteen in the sequence of voyages which had come to grief, like Phaeton falling in flames to earth because of his inability to control the Sun's chariot or Icarus flying too close to the sun and melting his wings. After seeing the photographs in the magazine of the Earth seen from space and of strangely garbed men supposedly on the moon, the Cardinal was convinced that the Ancient Americans had indeed had such incredible technology that it would be difficult to discern just what they could or could not have done, in fact rather as the Bible reported of the builders of the Tower of Babel.<br /><br />As to the other contents of the magazine he was much in agreement with Father Mendoza, whose comment had been that as an educated man, he had been aware that the ancients had had horseless carriages, but he had never seen one or even a picture of one. He was fascinated to see colourful pictures of what appeared to be these self-moving machines, but repulsed by the sinful avarice with which they were advertised, and the expectation that every common man and woman should have at least one of these, surely noisy, and possibly blasphemous, monsters.They appeared to be each made out of many hundred kilogrammes of metal, which must have been a grotesque extravagance. He had never seen so much metal in a single object, yet here were streets filled with them. It was most unsettling to see such a disdainful display of extravagance; all the more so as the arrogant attitudes of the populace would have been hard to take in an assembly of nobles and notables, let alone being quite devoid of the humility and decorum properly expected of common people.Then there was the scandal of the women.<br /><br />Many of the pages not devoted to pictures of horseless carriages, were given over to beautiful women advertising clothing as scanty as their morals. Even the pictures of the people in the streets showed that ordinarily the women were indecently, and even lasciviously, dressed. Their attitudes were quite brazen. No doubt all of this had contributed to the wrath of the Almighty which had fallen upon them, as upon Sodom and Gomorrah.<br /><br />He understood that the forces manifest in the ancient people were latent in the souls of himself and his people, and that intellectual and emotional exposure to this ancient object however innocently it had been created and preserved, might re-awake them in a form that was no longer appropriate, if it ever had been. He felt that the Old American Form or Soul, which had dominated the world in its own time, would attempt to do so again if given a chance, and the consequences would not be good. To destroy the magazine was too simple a solution and itself a temptation, as the priest had seen.There was, for instance, no assurance that something similar or even more dangerous might not come to light at any time, and fall into less cautious hands.It would be better to learn from it and be more able to deal with further manifestations - and not least, learn that its temptations could be withstood, with the help of The Lord. Good might be drawn from Evil, and might provide something beneficial or even necessary at some future time.<br /><br />His Eminence was well aware that the common attitude of the common people would be to see the possibilities inherent in these capacities or technologies as great sorcerous powers which could satisfy their basest desires - perhaps not so different from the attitude of the Ancients to whom the magazine had been addressed. He also knew that the attitude of the Men Of Power would be little different, except that they would treat it as Black Alchemy which would generate wealth and weapons to increase their own power. He wondered indeed, whether the fabled 'Science' and 'Technology', those idols worshiped by the Ancients, had ever been more than Black Magic, in intent and outcome if not in form. <br /><br />It struck him that the 'oil' which had so obsessed the Ancients and provided them with the financially cheap but spiritually expensive energetic fire which they craved, came from a sort of fiery liquid found under the ground in desert regions.It contrasted with the life-giving effects of water as it only imparted a false form of life to machines.It amused him that the civilizations based on olive oil had been worthy of the name, those based on rock oil, not so much.<br /><br />The Cardinal knew the lines from an old American song, <br />'John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,<br />but his soul goes marching on.'<br />He considered it high time that John Brown's soul rejoined his body and that they were left in peace to continue their mouldering. For his part he would let the Unholy Book, which somehow seemed to express so much of that restless titanic American soul and to induce distorted and disturbing reactions in the soul of his own people, resume its slumber in the darkness of time until change and decay reduced its potency or converted any remaining influence into a fertilising compost.<br /><br />His Eminence had made cautious enquiries and had been gratified and amused to hear of Don Roberto's speech or sermon and of how events had transpired around the Villa Baltassar. Perhaps an unseen angel had guided him after all. There had been an unexpected consequence. Some of the peasants had been so impressed that they now regarded him as a holy-man, and he was coming to be known as Don Roberto the Blessed. It was even said that he was trying to live up to the name!<br /><br /> It was difficult to find priests for such remote and unfashionable parishes, which is why the vacancy there had remained unfilled for so long, but His Eminence had now ensured that they would have the good offices of a down to earth pastoral priest for at least the next couple of years. He hoped that would help them to avoid any recrudescence of the hysteria that had nearly overcome them and to ensure that lingering memories of the 'Holy Book' did not become a source of heresy and dissension. <br /><br />The courage and resourcefulness of the Don and the faith and sanctity of the priest had been tested and not found wanting. He wondered why he himself had not been tested so severely, at least as yet, and prayed that he had not already unknowingly failed, and would not do so in future.<br /> He reflected upon Biblical parallels.God had tested Moses by attempting to kill him, and Jacob had gained a blessing and a new name by wrestling an angel of the Lord, despite having a leg put out of joint. It was noteworthy that those who measured up to the test benefited as a result. He could see that it had brought Father Mendoza closer to sainthood. The Don had also survived and enhanced his reputation. It might be that further good might be wrought from further tests. He would preserve the object in secret and make Father Mendoza, the only man to have fully withstood its influence, its guardian.<br /><br /> <br />Finally His Eminence gathered all the documents into a pile before him. He tinkled a small hand-bell and Father Mendoza silently entered the office and stood before him bearing a leather briefcase under his arm and a lighted candle and stick of blood red sealing wax in his hand. The Cardinal inserted the bundle into the briefcase and locked it, removing the key. The priest melted the sealing wax over the lock and the Cardinal impressed his official signet ring into it. Father Mendoza took the briefcase away to lock it in a secure cupboard. Both men turned their attention to other things.<br /><br /><b>Postscript</b><br />And what of the Shrine of the Holy Book? It is pleasant to note that Don Roberto had been as good as his word. Abel's hovel became a site of local pilgrimage. The garden was re-established and lovingly tended by the local peasants, with a little judicious encouragement from Don Roberto the Blessed, who proudly led a procession there each year and paid for a fete and for regular blessings by the local priest and the brothers of San Geronimo. Memories of the exact nature of the Holy Book faded but it became firmly entrenched in local lore as a beneficent presence. Strange to relate, the slave Abel had a greater career in death than he had in life. Before many years had passed he had become a well loved local celebrity, albeit unrecorded on any list of saints in the Vatican; Saint Abel the Hermit whose Holy Book had cured the afflicted of many ills. In another generation or so his bones were piously dug up and distributed as holy relics, but his sanctity endured. Thus we see how eras may change. The Last American, as he may be termed, found a treasured place in the affections of his successors, not, to be sure, in life, but when death and the tides of time and circumstance had turned his memory into an adornment, 'something rich and strange' that their souls could harbour and honour.<br /><br />And what of that magazine, the Holy or Unholy Book? It continued undisturbed in peaceful slumber and decay, forgotten in a back storeroom in the Cardinal's palace.Bell, book and candle; had they exorcised the unquiet ghost of America? The sensitive or fanciful soul might intuit a link between the gardens of the Shrine and of the Palace and that their waters perhaps sparkled a little more brightly and that the bees buzzed and the butterflies fluttered a little more sweetly and that the winds sighed with less sorrow, but who can tell everything that goes to make really good compost?<br />
<br />Odin's Ravenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10138497698247404499noreply@blogger.com0