Monthly Archives: January 2014

Faith and Spirituality, Garden, Great Wheel, Great Work

Ancientrails The GreatWheel

Leave a comment

Winter                                                       New Seed Catalog Moon

I’ve begun to mull a second blog, one that would focus on the Greatwheel, dividing its posts into 8 seasons:  Samhain, Winter, Imbolc, Spring, Summer, Lughnasa, Fall and Samhain.

Over the course of those seasons I would write a beginning piece for the season as I do now on Ancientrails, but then continue through that season posting thematically about the season, holidays in that time period, special days of the year, phrenology, gardening, environmental and climate matters, probably some astronomy and archaeo-astronomy.  I would include myths pertinent to the season, too.  Perhaps some I’ve translated from the Latin.

This appeals to me because I’ve tried to lever myself into a theological treatise on the my neopagan faith, but the idea has never taken off.  I think the notion is too abstract and the fact of this tactile, coarse spirituality, one that gets its hands dirty as an act of devotion, lends itself better to this kind of over the course of the year exposition.

Any feedback anyone might have would be welcome.  Ancientrails would continue. It’s a well ingrained habit at this point.  If I decide to start, Imbolc, February 1st, would be a good time.

Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses, Writing

Into the Next Year

Leave a comment

Winter              New (Seed Catalog) Moon

The new year has begun, or as I thought about it in light of a post below, the next year has begun (Happy Next Year!).  It finds me following trails laid down in other times.

In the morning I went through, for the second or third time, parts of the Lycaon story that I have previously translated.  The goal now is to sight read the passage, translating with minimal helps.  Right now I have to write a definition over the word, perhaps a grammatical note, but the way to get fast is to read Latin as I read English.  That’s a long way off, but I can see the horizon line of that skill.  When I reach that point, I’ll be able to do serious scholarly work as well as learn great stories.

In the afternoon I picked up Loki’s Children, itching to get my fingers on the keyboard, putting some pages behind me.  Got waylaid looking up material about Thor, who is a very interesting god, probably the most loved god in Norse antiquity and mainly a giant-slayer, though he had a sideline in the inadvertent killing of dwarfs.  He killed Alvis, for example, by asking him questions until the sun rose and the light of dawn turned Alvis to stone. Alvis wanted to marry Thrud, Thor’s daughter.  Thrud, not exactly an elegant name, is it?  Maybe it sounds better in Old Norse.

 

The research turned out to be very useful, allowing me a thread I can use for building a strong throughline in Loki’s Children.  Sorry, but that part’s top secret.

 

Humanities, Writing

Why Write

Leave a comment

Winter                                                                 New (Seed Catalog) Moon

Chronicles and manuscripts were given due consideration during Mughal reign in India. Here is an excerpt from Ain-i- Akbari, book by Abu’l Fazl, courteir of Mughal King Akbar*, on importance of writing:

The written word may embody the wisdom of bygone ages and may become a means to intellectual progress
The spoken word goes to the heart of those who are present to hear it .
The written word gives wisdom to those who are near and far
If it was not for the written word, the spoken word would soon die, and no keepsake would be left us from those who are passed away.
Superficial observers see in the letter a dark figure, but the deep-sighted see in it a lamp of wisdom(chirag e shinsai)
The written word looks black, not withstanding the thousand rays within it, or it is a light with a mole on it that wards off the evil eye.

*Akbar (IPA: [əkbər]; 14 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), known as Akbar the Great, wasMughal Emperor from 1556 until his death. He was the third and greatest ruler of the Mughal Dynasty in India.  Wiki

Minnesota

I’m a Minnesotan and I’m OK

Leave a comment

Winter                                                   New (Seed Catalog) Moon

Not only is it New Year’s day, but it is also a new moon, a propitious beginning to 2014.  A cold beginning too, well below zero before today and well below zero for the first few days of the New Year. Appropriate for our state, bordering as we do with Canada, sharing the great inland sea, the Boundary Waters, Lake of the Woods and the Minnesota Angle.

Minnesota as a place nourishes me, the Boreal woods, Lake Superior, having wolves and moose and bear as part of our state fauna.  There is, too, the vast stretch of glaciated, watered divots in the earth that give us our 10,000 lakes. The Anishinabe and the Lakota both have ancestral lands here, now much reduced in size by reservation, yet still here and still affecting the culture of us boat people.

The Scandinavian first influence dominates this mostly German state, giving us more of a Norwegian and Swedish and Finnish caste than perhaps we might have had otherwise.  We have a large co-op movement, pockets of truly radical politics and an engaged citizenry.

The Twin Cities have a remarkable abundance of cultural offerings:  museums, theaters, dance companies, many well-known writers and support systems for novices, a gathering of significant musical institutions like the SPCO and ?the minnesota orchestra?  We have as well recording studios for hip hop and rap, Prince’s Paisley Palace and Bob Dylan’s hometown.

The containers for all this, St. Paul and Minneapolis, have great park systems and multiple lakes within the city limits, 22 in Minneapolis alone. In recent years the Twin Cities have become one of the most bike friendly cities in the country with bike lanes, the Grand Round full city bicycle tour and several bridges specifically for bicycles.

Cuisine may not be our shining star, but it’s pretty good.  Our downtowns are not in ruin, far from it, in fact both cities have clocked in-migration in the last few years.

Health care in Minnesota stands next to that of Hawai’i as first in the nation and stands up well in international comparisons, too.  That’s important to us third-phasers.  Educationally we have the University of Minnesota, Carleton, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, Macalester, St. Thomas and a fine system of technical schools.  We also have a dramatic and unfortunate and unnecessary achievement gap between white students and students of color.

Plus we have winter.  And it keeps the riff raff out.

Third Phase

As If We Insisted On Using an Outhouse

Leave a comment

Winter                                                              New (Seed Catalog) Moon

Our newspaper has been late the last two mornings.  Yes, I know that shows our age, as if
we’ve insisted on the outhouse in a day of indoor plumbing, but as Kate said yesterday, “I like the feel of it in my hand.” (the newspaper.) As a long time newspaper carrier myself, I know the problems of getting a newspaper consistently in the hands of customers.

In this case it could be a difficult to start car, a substitute (my guess), a late start, late delivery of the bundled newspapers and, in the case of a substitute, one who’s slower or who’s delivering the route in a different order or who has forgotten us.  At any rate my empathy is with these folks who get up so early, the newspaper is almost always here before 6 am, and who deliver throughout the year, come rain or come snow.

I doubt any of them do it 7 days a week, probably a week and a weekend route, but it’s still a lot of dedication for what I imagine is not a lot of money.  At least they don’t have to collect.  When I carried the Alexandria Times-Tribune, I had to collect each Friday and it made those evenings much longer than the rest.

Anyhow, a tip of the hat here to all those involved in the old fashioned work of producing a physical means of delivering the news.  Up here in Andover Kate and I still appreciate it.