Real Celestial Navigation
All Life on Earth springs from sunshine, tides, and seasons.
All Life on Earth is governed by the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.
At night most men can reliably find their Pole Star, which in the Northern Hemisphere is Polaris. If you can find the pole star you can travel in any direction you wish. In daylight it’s easier, all you need to find north / south is sunshine and a stick, although a watch does help.
Why would anyone need any of this when we have satellite navigation? You will know if ever your batteries fail. Even the Navies of the world are going back to teaching celestial navigation.
But there is more to it than that. Our very personalities may well be driven by the relative positions of the sun, moon, and the stars. I would bet that everyone reading this knows their star sign. Mine is Aries, and I am an archetypical Aries.; selfish, quick-tempered, adventurous, impulsive, foolhardy… Almost every guy and all the woman I know are fairly typical of their star sign’s supposed character traits.
How does that work? Damned if I know. It could be gravitational, day-length, cosmic rays, or the etherial spirituality of the cosmos… One thing I can guarantee, a real astrologer can tell almost everything about you if they know the time, date, and place of birth.
There are some fundamental questions we could ask ourselves;
Should I be able to read a map?
Do I always need to know where north is?
Is it only very stupid people who rely on satellite navigation systems?
Should I make a habit of asking women what their star sign is before I date them?
When my personal astrologer makes a prediction, do I need to take it seriously, or can I safely ignore her?
Ask yourself, is the truth really out there?
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the impossible dream
~
Be careful what you pray for. Your prayers may be answered.
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
San Jacinto Peak
If you like mountains and cable cars
Etherial views in crisp clear air
Look west from Palm Canyon Drive
If you like mountains and cable cars
Etherial views in crisp clear air
~
pictures by jack collier
& the girl riding shotgun
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Make Love ~ Grow Your Own Meadow
A meadow in bloom is an uplifting sight.
Growing one’s own patch of meadow is easy ~ more or less. There are some basic pointers;
- Poor soil is no handicap for a meadow. What you want to keep from among your flowers are strong grasses and pernicious weeds ~ both of which will romp away in good soil.
- Clear the ground, or at least dig out strong growing grasses and pernicious weeds ~ making certain you get out all of the root stock. Personally, on a large area I couldn’t be arsed with that and use weedkiller.
-
google images stock picture of poppies and lupine
Dig over, rotavate, plough the ground, and rake to a coarse tilth.
- Choose wild flower seeds suitable for your conditions ~ adding Yellow Rattle, which weakens said strong grasses.
- Water if you have too.
- Direct sow the seeds, a mixture of perennials, biennials and annuals ~ keep the damn birds and other critters off your seeds. You can sow any time from late summer until spring ~ but not during or right before frosts.
How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold. ~ William Wordsworth
The first year the show of flowers will be annuals. Don’t pull out anything you do not recognise ~ remember you will have unfamiliar bi-annuals and perennials coming through.
Collect seeds from your own area when you have the opportunity ~ just chuck them on your meadow.
Maintenance involves;
- Removing pernicious weeds before they have a chance to self-seed / spread.
- Cut down the meadow when the last of the flowers begin to fade ~ only cut in dry weather and leave the hay on the meadow for a week / two weeks until it’s dried. This will ensure that all the seeds among the cut hay fall back onto the meadow.
- Remove the hay from the meadow and give it to your rabbit / chickens / horse. Taking away the cut hay keeps the soil poor, which encourages the growth of just your wildflowers.
There are some real benefits to a meadow;
- Low maintenance and cheap to establish.
- Encourages wildlife.
- Requires no watering ~ maybe except in extreme drought.
- Helps reduce climate change.
- A meadow is pretty, calming, and a part of the real nature. Hence it will increase libido and desire if you are connected to the Earth Goddess.
You have never truly made love if you haven’t loved among the meadow’s fragrant embrace.
~
pictures by jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Essence of Idealistic Unconscious
Reality as we each know it may not be as it seems. Our individual realities are mental constructs seen through the lens of our past lives and experiences in this life. Reality is experiential and epistemological ~ my reality is not your reality, and my life is not as you know life. There is no logic in the comparison of my verisimilitude with your plausibility. We each see the dawn differently
Even mine own actuality does not always follow a logical path. There would seem to be an abundance of psychic phenomena interfering with my analytical realities. However, respectable scientists and psychologists consider parapsychology a pseudoscience. One should always begin from the standpoint that respectable scientists don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong. ~ Arthur C. Clarke.
Most scientists are prepared to accept that the lower animals have senses that go far beyond ours, and even beyond the senses we have imagined. How do birds know when it’s about to rain? How are dogs aware that their owner has a cancerous tumor? Come to that, how do dogs know when there’s about to be an earthquake? How do cats know everything about the human they live with?
Memories are not real. Memories are conjured as we require them. Memories change over time and to suit the situation we find ourselves experiencing at a given moment. My memories and physical existence may be coloured by the certainty that a woman I care about has more than a passing acquaintance with the mystical realm. She may well be a witch. I certainly receive her thoughts and feelings over a distance of 5,256 miles. She can instantly wake me from a deep sleep at her will. From the deepest of sleep I am suddenly and instantly awake with the absolute certainty that she is thinking of me. This is known as Telepathic Communication.
Growth of consciousness does not depend on the might of the intellect, but on the conviction of the heart. ~ Wayne Gerard Trotman.
I have also experienced Pareidolia, Apophenia and Hierophany.
Often I see patterns, (not necessarily familiar patterns), where there are none. I can see form and composition in random things, such as the incoming surf. I am sometimes aware that my higher power, my Goddess Aphrodite, is with me. As you might expect these things often happen when I go down to the sea to pray.
(Did you know that the noise of the surf is caused by tiny bubbles?)
I am perfectly prepared to believe that there are logical explanations behind all of these psychic phenomena. Even the supposed telepathic communication may be explained away. My friend and I could be thinking very similar things at just about the same time, and we could both get an urge to talk about these things at one in the same instant. However, that would raise another intriguing concept ~ that I continue to evaluate, assess and reason when I am asleep.
Thinking during sleep, is an accepted construct. Accessing and developing one’s relational memories, is now considered to occur mostly during sleep. You may think you mind is quiescent during your slumber ~ it seems not.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. ~ William Shakespeare.
I firmly believe that when I am meditating, almost asleep and completely asleep, my unconscious mind is creating idealistic solutions to the troubles, worries and complications which beset my psyche. I do know my anima is strong during my sleeping hours ~ perhaps that is when my soul is restored.
During my waking hours I am extremely practical. When I am fully roused I tend to be aggressive, arrogant, callous, competitive, compulsive, cunning, cynical, impulsive, suspicious…, just add a lot of other very male characteristics here.
During and immediately after sleep, meditation, dozing, I seem to have many more idealistic, caring and nurturing, female characteristics. That makes me believe that the essence of idealistic unconscious runs strong in me.
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Dances Without Music
dancing in the darkness
dancing with madness
exploring past promises
sensual love incarnate
roughness tastes loveliness
eyes see forbidden desires
chooses night magic
contentment in cruelty
prancing with no music
~
words by jack collier
stock pictures and by jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
RMS Queen Mary
Once the grandest ocean liner in the world the 1,000 foot long, 81,000 ton Royal Mail Ship Queen Mary was built to capture the Blue Riband, (the record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean with the highest average speed). Launched in 1934 she took the record at an average speed of over 3o knots, before losing it to the French liner Normandie. Queen Mary retook and held both the Eastbound and Westbound records from 1938 until 1955 with average speeds of 31 knots, (35 mph).
You can only appreciate the sheer size of the RMS Queen Mary from close to. She is big, slightly larger than the modern aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, and far better looking.
The interior of the Queen is magnificently art deco. If you are interested in that style, or if you are interested in interior design at all, you will love wandering around the passenger areas, and don’t miss the magnificent bar towards the ship’s bow. Snacks and drinks are not so expensive in there.
During WWII the Queen Mary was painted grey, had all of her luxury fittings taken out and was used as a troop ship on the Atlantic run, carrying 15,000 troops at a time from the USA to England. She was so fast that she sailed alone, apart from one escort cruiser. Tragically, in October 1942, she ran down her escort HMS Curacao, cutting her in half without the huge Queen Mary feeling more than a slight shudder. Because the Queen Mary was forbidden to stop to render assistance some 240 of the Curacao’s crew lost their lives.
The Queen’s huge engineering spaces are fascinating. Even for those who don’t have an engineering background it gives you a view back into another age, when men were men and computerisation hadn’t even been thought of.
Some of the machinery is on a huge scale.
Right aft in the engineering spaces you can go outside the ship, through to a special pool that gives you a view of one of the Queen Mary’s four propellers. Personally I found that quite spooky.
The Queen Mary is now at Long Beach in California and a stop to visit her makes a good day on any Californian road trip. Trust me, I’ve been there and done that. If you like history, ships, engineering, or spooky ghostly stuff you will love to spend a day on the Queen Mary. Just visiting the propeller pool was spooky enough for me.
The Queen Mary is also a floating hotel with magnificent art deco staterooms. A midweek special isn’t very expensive. Booking on-line at http://www.queenmary.com/stay-aboard/stay-aboard/
~
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
The Myth of Iron
By blood I am an engineer. I can design, make and fix just about anything that has recognisable components in it.
That also means I know a thing or two about materials, and as with all engineers I have my favourites. Like most men I like wood, and iron.
Iron is not an easy material to work with ~ to work iron one needs fire, and not just any old kitchen fire of the kind that’s good for roasting meat. To work iron one needs a temperature of around 1,800F, (about 1,000C). The hottest one can get a wood fire is about 1,500F.
To work iron you really need a forge and charcoal, (which makes a better fire than sulfurous coal).
Wood, iron, fire, forge ~ these are all manly words, and working iron is a manly task, because one also needs an anvil and a hammer.
Back in the day, the first thing a man made from iron was an engine of destruction: knife, hammer, axe, sword, armour ~ and the most difficult of these is a good sword. A bad sword will break, will not take an edge, will not keep its edge. A truly great sword sings and has myths woven around it; Excalibur, Caledfwich, Claiomh Solaris, Blodgang, Hrunting, Arondight, Durendel….
I am King. And this is Excalibur, sword of kings from the dawn of time.
Heating iron makes it change its colour, (wavelength of light theory), and heating iron in charcoal or coke makes carbon ‘stick’ to the hot iron when you strike it.
Do not wait to strike ’till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
Iron and carbon make steel, and swords are made of wrought iron / steel which is tough, malleable, corrosion resistant, and will easily ‘weld’ to itself. All good swords are made of layers of wrought iron / steel welded together like the pages of a book.
English long swords, like Excalibur, would be up to six feet in length, (a yard is a more manageable length for a sword), and forged from three pieces of iron. These are heated, and then twisted together ~ sort of like a hot iron rope. This is then heated, struck, reheated and struck again until the final shape is made. The sword, (part steel / part iron), is then ground, with progressively finer materials, until a mirror finish is achieved. The ‘grain’ of the three original pieces of iron can be seen in the metal in a really fine sword. A great sword is a beautiful thing.
Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
The Japanese Katana is forged by folding, (shita-kitae), one piece of iron / steel called tamahagane up to 16 times.
There is more to it than all of that, there is also annealing, hardening and tempering ~ which may be done differentially across and down the blade. All of this is done by the colour of the hot iron.
In myth and folklore, iron is a very magical thing ~ cold iron will bind a witch, repel a ghost, ward off evil spirits, hold the souls of the dead, and bring good luck. Iron is used in chains, compass needles, nails, axes and crosses, all of which are elements of sorcery, magic, myth and religion..
Gold is for the mistress ~ silver for the maid ~ Copper for the craftsman… But Iron ~ Cold Iron ~ is master of them all.
Of these; I have made an axe, a short sword, and a knife, and a good knife is a very short sword. Working iron takes time, patience, strength, skill ~ and a willingness to believe in legend.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
English Gentleman,
moineguerrier
Quantum Mechanics and Life
Poetry has rules, the sea has rules, even chaos has rules. Quantum mechanics breaks all the rules that make sense in real life. Yet, if you look really carefully, some of the principles described to explain the sub-atomic world are perfectly logical in daily life.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle says that it’s possible to know some things, but the more you know about one thing the less you know about another. I know some people who are world experts in their field, but I wouldn’t trust them with a can opener ~ they have concentrated on knowing everything there is to know about one thing, to the exclusion of knowing anything at all about everything else. That is a perfect example of being a hopeless human being. A real Renaissance Man knows a lot about everything, and at one in the same time can do most things ~ from making a wooden chair to designing a boat, and then building it.
Quantum logic also states that the very act of observing something changes the thing / person you are observing. We all know this is absolutely true. As a gross example most people will not scratch their groin if they think there is anyone watching them. A more subtle example is to be found in your significant other. He / she behaves differently when you are around to the way she / he behaves when she is alone or with a circle of friends that does not include you. Normally your significant other is much better behaved when you are observing them than when they are free of your scrutiny. Most sane people will not have sex with another person / several people when you are watching them.
In fact, if you are watching something / someone, both of you stop being independent entities and become one system. For example, professional sports cannot exist without a crowd, and the crowd becomes part of the game.
And, then there is the damn cat. Schrödinger’s cat lives in a box and is both dead and alive at one in the same time. The assumption is that the cat is neither dead or alive until you open the box and take a look. As far as I am concerned the only lesson you can take into real life from this bit of quantum logic is that it’s pointless to worry about anything until it happens. Don’t dig a grave until you have an actual dead cat.
Schrödinger’s cat leads into the probabilistic nature of the universe. This says two things;
- Nothing is certain. There is only a choice of probable / possible outcomes which range from the very likely to the almost totally impossible. But, any of those outcomes is possible.
- Even the most unlikely thing can and will happen.
Someone will win big on the lottery the first time they buy a ticket. The Americans will honestly believe they know how to make a cup of tea. President Obama will not make a fool of himself in Africa.
The multiple universes claimed to exist by quantum theory mean that anything imaginable is possible. For example; Isis and Aphrodite exist today, King Arthur is alive and well and still has Excalibur, and I may finally come to terms with the true nature of spirituality. No, that last will never happen.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
English Gentleman, moine guerrier
Goddesses and Myths
Just as I seem drawn to the sea and the moon, I am fated to have a deep bond with the feminine elements of the cosmos. Sometimes this connection directly manifests itself when one of the Goddesses answers a question I have needed to ask. The question has to be simple and has to couched in such a way that I am obviously asking for help. Usually I will ask a specific Goddess for her grace.
Most of the time I will receive an immediate and clear answer to my plea.
This is where things start to become difficult and complicated. To begin with, there is only one Goddess.
In Celtic Mythology, (I am Celt, or a Briton, or an Englishman), the Gods were powerful, but the Goddesses even more so. In Celtic mythology the Goddesses are associated with the land, nature, the forest, trees, water, and the moon. The Goddess exists in a triple manifestation;
- The Maiden
- The Mother
- The Crone
and she is linked to the seasons, to birth, fertility, and growth. She is the giver of life and love, and she is the one who bestows sex and death.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show’d some truth.
This single Goddess in three separate identities is common across all the mythologies I know of.
In fact, the single Goddess who exists in three manifestations appears in all cultures and through the ages ~ at least as far back as 24,000 B.C.. She is sometimes called the Earth Mother, and she is responsible for all creation. In Egypt she was Isis, the Aztecs knew her as Toci, the Sumarians called her Ninmah, for the Greeks she was Cybele, Hera and Aphrodite. To Christians and others she is Mary. At the tomb of Jesus she was Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary of Jacob.
One of the Celtic Goddess was known as Mairiae.
I have no fixed belief in God, Gods, Goddesses and spirits. As it goes I am an agnostic atheist. I believe that the true nature of the cosmos is unknowable.
However, I know that I have what practitioners of 12 step programmes term a ‘higher power’. For my own peace of mind I anthropomorphise my higer power as the Goddess Aphrodite, or sometimes Isis.
It may be that my higher power is Aphrodite, or it may be that it’s my own subconcious, which I am accessing using a technique borrowed from Neuro Linguistic Programming. If that’s the case I’mas close to sorcery as it gets, or maybe magic. Or, it may be that the Goddess exists, and finds time to look in on me every once in a while.
I don’t know, and I don’t care. What I do know is the it would be a bad move to anger Aphrodite.
I go down to the sea to pray. Isis and Aphrodite answer my prayers, and the answer is seldom no.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Englisj Gentleman, moine guerrier
JackCollier7 
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