14b - Scales of Reality

Last week I realised and made great use of the ability to shift realities.

I was being set-up (by myself) on the advise of society to deprive the world, myself and others of an excellent friendship in the name of the pain of rejected intimacy. That one needs to retreat into solitude to heal when one has been hurt.

You see Society’s advice by necessity has to work for everyone within it. As such it needs to cover the lowest common denominator. This generally makes its methods cautious and time-consuming. I am not saying that Society’s advice is wrong just that if one is cunning one can usually find a better way to do it. Though I will concede one does run the risk of falling on one’s face. And only time will tell on THAT.

For my own part I was also allowing some pretty low-level patterns to intrude on my life and cause some trouble. These are patterns that I regard as relatively childish and puerile.

They are in no particular order:
• Not accepting no for an answer
• Melodramatic / have to push an issue
• Stubborn
• Must have my own way
• Moping / Sulking
• Holding a grudge / lash out / get vengeance
• Things have to be bad
• Backed into a corner
• Self-destructive
• Obsessed with sex and possession

Earlier in the year I completed the Hoffman Process (I'll post something directly about this soon) and did a lot of valuable work disconnecting from these patterns. That they rose again is testament to the strength of the lessons learned in our childhood and just perhaps I was reverting to ‘type’ after the very successful conclusion of all my life’s plans for the year!

Anyway I was able, through a very conscious decision, to sweep these aside and be the bigger person I’d like to be. This was also assisted of course by the lessons of the year’s travel – that alternate’s to this default reality do exist!

Some of the core loopholes I used were:

1) I live life according to my own rules

2) I make them up as I go along.

3) I will give as much as I can to this world for as long as my heart beats and there is a tooth left in my mouth with which to gnaw on the bones of life in search of marrow.

4) Basking in the afterglow of Burning Man and the Eclipse trip to Mongolia. These heady experiences make it difficult to mope about for very long as they were so inspirational and give one an enhanced appreciation of absolutely EVERYTHING

5) Yoga – hard Yoga, every day. I find the power of sweaty focused exercise an incredible resource for guidance and enlightenment.

6) The negative provides a perfect starting point/mirror from or in which one can see the positive alternative. Anything DEFINITE provides you with a platform to know what you do NOT want and then you can use that as your pushing off point to go somewhere (anywhere) else positive.

7) If your only tool is a hammer you will treat every problem like a nail. If you only have bristling defences then you will treat every interaction like an attack.
Have no need of a defence by not being a target. And if you aren’t a target you’ll not get attacked (so much if it after all is in one’s own head)

This last corresponds to being a victim and the pattern of ‘things have to be bad’. They don’t have to be… so when they are not don’t try to make them.

It worked for me. And I think the key ingredient’s are loophole 1 and 2.

Returning to the concept of scale and this year. Most of what I have done has given me a substantial appreciation for scale. Eclipses hint at the size of the galaxy by making it just that much more obvious to observe things such as the sun and moon. The Hoffman Process showed the wonder of our inner workings and how an unkind work spoken at the wrong moment can cast a longer shadow than a kind word said at the right moment! Mongolia’s landscapes are all about crazy scales. And Burning Man – well it’s an event on a scale in a location that defies belief.

What is also remarkable is the way in which we are so damn tiny and yet all of this practically infinite multiverse can be rendered utterly irrelevant simply by one of our own experiences or emotions.

This piece of writing is not exactly about very much. But that is just the way it is... just some creative writing for its own sake really. As after all I am clearly doing SOMETHING not nothing...

Next up some stuff about Burning Man...

But wait there's more... have a look at this image below…

Now click on it and see the real scale!

13 - E5 Mongol-time

I am a man prone to using the words “the greatest” in somewhat less than short supply. Some may say this is due to being judgemental. We are warned against being such with phrases like “judge and ye shall be judged”. But I don’t think its all bad. For example it is deemed positive to be a good judge of character. At any rate there are 2 reasons I use those words. One is that I can and am willing to make certain qualitative judgements or decisions regarding events in my life. In accordance with there being no such thing as an ordinary moment I regard all my ‘moments’ as significant but my internal measuring system allows me to accept certain as and when they occur as being the “GREATEST XXX”. Of course I offer no definition regarding “greatest”. You’ll also have noticed the “XXX” which is the second reason I use “the greatest” a fair amount. I invariably apply a rather specific noun or description of “the greatest” thing as a get-out-of-misinterpretation-jail-free-card. For example the “greatest weekend” may well not have included my “greatest night” or my “greatest moment”.

So this trip to Mongolia... Well... It’s been the Greatest Expedition I have ever undertaken.

And I choose that last word carefully.

All of our lives tell a story and all stories have an ending and they all end the same way.

For the most part Death may as well shout itself hoarse for all the attention we’re going to pay it until its usually untimely arrival.

At the end of mine I know I die. I have a feeling it will be one the most beautiful things I ever do. On this trip I paid death some attention and I feel exquisitely alive.

I have always been a fan of the unexpected and clever non-linear narrative. E.g. those books that one knows the ending to in the first chapter yet the story is still well worth the read or better still, in Pulp Fiction when John Travolta’s character gets killed half way into the movie yet then just reappears later as Tarantino fills in some earlier details in his tale.

So rest assured I am ever so happy to continue filling in more details in my story before that pre-set end. I have no idea how many details there will be and I certainly do plan to share them with you along the way.

So in short I look forward to hearing, seeing or hugging any and all of you at the soonest convenience...

Now the dramatics aside here is some of the juice...

There was a 2-day mountain-jungle hike, which gave me some good pointers as to my own endurance and willpower levels. In short I am my own worst enemy. By not relenting I got to a point in a steamy jungle of recognising that I might die by virtue of the pace and rate at which I push myself. An exploration of a glacier (see previous posting) complete with scary sinkhole moment. Followed by the climbing of Mount Malchin, which showed me just how much the spirit could carry one beyond one’s physical boundaries and complete with super scary rockslide moment on a scree slope followed by nerve-shattering ice-slope cracking incident (again see previous post). Out camping in several astonishing landscapes, partaking of nomadic family hospitality (with strange cheeses) and holding an eagle (and getting a bleeding claw puncture despite the thick protective gauntlet) provided other highlights but generally the entire trip was conducted with a high base level of intensity not least of which was the huge amount of time spent driving through one breathtaking but arduous landscape after another. All of this was in Mongolia and then at the end we had a few days of preconceived misconception smashing go on in Beijing. Sure – they are putting on a good show for the Olympics but really that town seems quite extraordinary and has awoken in me a desire to see much more of China. Other silly events surrounded Dave’s adventurous and levitating toothbrush, horse and camel-riding, yak investigations, outdoor pool madness in very local areas and eating every type of crazy bug and animal part at the night-market in Beijing plus going to the Olympic beach volleyball - a sport which specifies the maximum size a contestant’s bikini can be!







And oh yes, there was the eclipse itself! Ah, as ever a sublime dream again. The days leading up to it were the usual scurry to find a good viewing place. This time it was against the odds of terrible mountain roads. We were part of a group of 40 or so folk in a 9-vehicle convoy. It was a package tour as such but this seemed pretty much the only way to ensure we even had a vehicle let alone food and so on in the far west of Mongolia. This is a hard and very remote part of the world. To give you a vague idea, it takes 7+ hours to drive 200km on these roads though they often resemble rockslides better. Where we were was near Russia/China and Kazakhstan and it’s easier to understand the mountain goats than to crack the Cyrillic alphabet to read the Mongolian or Kazakh language. And Panoramic Journeys did a great job in extreme circumstances so well done James Moreton!

At any rate, David Haupt, myself and the Northern Californian wine-making Frey family (Johnathan, Katrina and Caroline) were released from the rest of the group along with a Mongolian guide, cook and 2 vehicles to go off by ourselves for 3 days to observe the eclipse in a place of our own choosing. We looked at several spots, each further towards China and presuming better weather prospects. Amongst the sites we checked was an astronomical tour group’s chosen location. They were in the midst of a very wide and barren plain, far from shelter, far from water. They were a nice friendly bunch but had chosen their site based on it providing for the absolute maximum amount of eclipse time. I guess about 2min 10 seconds of totality. Whereas we chose a site that gave us only about 2min 5sec!!! It does amaze me that people will make such a big deal for those few seconds. Our site was only 3 or so km away from them and offered so much more than just a few more seconds of day-darkness. I have come to enjoy this aspect of eclipse-chasing the most. The lead-up time scurrying around assessing options and pondering weather prospects. And each location in itself is an experience as it is generally just a place on the planet with little draw other than its coincidental alignment with the eclipse. And yet I get a chance to observe it and pay it some attention. There is a store of these locations in my head now. I still remember most of them from previous eclipse trips. As equally I remember many of the people I met in those locations too. Its something about the purpose of the event that makes them memorable even though it is just another form of tourism I guess. Just somewhat more random and never in a guidebook.

Anyway what I have now discovered is that the instant one finds ‘the’ location, one knows it is the ‘right’ place (which makes me wonder if that’s the feeling when one meets one’s spouse and has ‘that’ feeling). This at least was abundantly clear in the case of the Turkish eclipse and this Mongolian one. Last time it was a lighthouse with 310 degrees of ocean around it. This time we were on a hillock overlooking a salt flat. The salt flat combined super rosy beige and grey textures with the rare opportunity to have the eclipse reflected into water during totality. For all the world it looked like another planet. So we likened it to another moon of Jupiter, this time Ganymede. Thus we can now claim to have explored both Titan and Ganymede. To add to the perfection the Frey’s found a hidden freshwater spring and pond next to the flats, which provided the means to chill various beverages in the 35-40 degree plus heat. A luxury we had not experienced in a week.

Once again the eclipse itself was haunting in its beauty. This time it did not get as dark as Zambia or Turkey. We could only see 2 planets/stars but that barely matters if one gets to see it at all! Of the other features – I never saw the shadow-wall approaching but did see the light-wall coming in. Relished in the weird otherworldly glow of the 360-degree sunset and the steely-grey colour-drained rocky landscape around us. Marvelled at the solar corona. The only note worth mentioning regarding wildlife was the onset of the evening mosquitoes, which was not a welcome eclipse-effect. Photographically I am really happy with what I got. The reflection shots are my favourite. They even contain an indistinct cow skull to the mid left! And when several are played in a slideshow one can see the arriving and departing curves of the moon’s shadow. I feel the diamond rings are equally better than anything I had to date plus the fisheye material is new too – so that was good.

Over all I still remain fascinated by the phenomenon though on this occasion the general events or the entire expedition surrounding the eclipse were so extraordinary and testing that the eclipse itself had a warming familiarity about it. Perhaps after having now seen 5 I am proficient without being blasé! What was the best thing on this trip was the company of the ever-delightful David Haupt. And sharing a second eclipse with him I’d say is the highlight of our 30 years of friendship. In fact getting to spend 23 days with him was an honour and a privilege and it must be a testament to his easy affability that we never fought during that entire time. And for someone to be able to do that with me, a man who guards his time and freedom so damn closely is equally special. Hopefully it was a 2-way street. Anyway thank you David.

So enjoy the snaps. The sunset and gradients of light are so smooth on some of these that the compression required to make them internet friendly can’t handle them very well... So it goes.







To be fair too, and just in case it all sounded too good I did suffer a severe bout of bottom trouble a week after the eclipse. And believe me with toilet paper in the form of wafer thing sheets of cement suffer indeed I did! And see the shot of the toilets at the AIRPORT we flew into in Western Mongolia… nice huh?

Oh yes, one more thing...

It can be said that every Doctor has a dark side and on this trip Doctor Lobster’s was revealed as the Yeti Overlord. Most people when asked if they are afraid of the Yeti make the 2 worst possible mistakes... One they don’t believe they (its a species not an individual) exist and two they mistake them as being the same as Bigfoot... Foolish people all... I have heard the Yeti and terrible are his howls.

12 - Exploring Titan and the Mountains of Madness

Hello,

This is a brief transpond from a distant planet. These are the first images sent back from the manned probe sent to Titan.

Indeed a foreign world - barren but for the ice and liquid methane rivers plus terribly dangerous glacial sinkholes that caused no end of consternation to the psychonauts Doctor Lobster and El Dawid (aka Davey Crockett). Signs of life were certainly encountered in this patch - in fact a complete Alma footprint was found - Note distinctive extra 'ball' of the foot and single horizontally long toe plus claw. (Reality aside: The Alma is for all intents and purpose the (Mongolian) equivalent of the Yeti)



After exploring Titan's surface and being reminded of the power of Nature (said sinkhole and caving ice edges) we retreated in the face of an almighty gale to our now-broken landing pod (tent) to weather the worst ice-storm we could possibly have encountered in the height of a mongolian summer. We received about an inch and a half of sleet/snow overnight. And to illustrate how cold this was... in the morning the stream near us had frozen over. I broke the ice (haha) to get some water to make tea... Returning to the same place 45 minutes later to clean our pots etc I found that section had re-frozen. This was in the morning AFTER the sun had risen! Brr...


However after that the weather turned into the most glorious sun-baked day. We hiked and climbed for 7 hours from our base to the peak of Mount Malchin. This was an arduous climb far beyond what I thought I was physically capable of. I had approached the horizon hunt with a purpose (a magic spell if you will) and this plus the spirit of the place seized me and pulled me up to the summit. A testament to the power of the (bloody) mind(edness). By far the highest thing I have climbed I know by doing so I extended my personal envelope (and gazed deep into Russia, Kazakstan and back into Mongolia).

I have no doubt that I will add much to this in the future but in terms of Mountains and Valleys here is an insight:

If Mountains represent the remarkable learning experiences (positive or negative) we encounter in life then the Valleys are the periods between the momentous occasions in which we come to understand the lessons taught by the mountain. Because I can tell you I am not capable of climbing another mountain of this ilk in the same day. I am also happy to announce that care of David Haupt I can add that sleep is counted as very solid Valley-time. It is during sleep that we assimulate the experiences.

And finally below a few more shots of our locale.


And yet I have not even told about the jungle horror mosquitoe horizon-crossing hell-march from west of the sun to east of the moon I did less than a week ago. It involved a day's horse-ride, 2 nights out, 25km hike and a 36 hour period without seeing a soul other than my own! A sight I was quite surprised by truth be told. Its quite the thing to wander close to the edge of one's endurance. And a good thing to note for future reference. Lovely.

Ok, here's campsite 1, 2 and a lunar curiosity from there. Love ya x

11a - Out and about in Ulaanbaatar

Quite a city… they say it’s crowded and I suppose it is but where I come from its not.

You see it’s a big country with a small population. So by Mongolian standards it’s crowded. By London standards this is a breeze. Really. But it is dusty – I’ll give the guidebook that.

I’ve been in the country for 36 hours and done a lot of wandering around. Befriending the occasional traveller but mainly hitting the language barrier at full speed when encountering Mongolians. Sigh.

Still it’s the kind of place you wish you had 10 eyes in. just to take in the multitude of different sights and sounds. One interesting (and annoying) bit is getting served on plates loosely wrapped in cling-film. Is that done for some benefit of the plate or the customer or a desire not to do any washing? Who knows but it’s definitely unnecessary in my eyes.

So far I have been out both nights I’ve been here, you know getting the feel for the place and all that. I’ve also managed to find the uber-trendy cocktail lounges. And encountered the same hostess in the same outfit at both. Shame about that language barrier. All I can do so far is mutter something akin to ‘thank you’. So in the first one The Crystal Lounge, while nursing a Black Russian alone in a low chair I observed a young Mongol complete with Fohawk leave his booth, come to the bar to grab a straw for a compatriot. He dropped it on the floor. Then picked it up, replaced it back among the others, took a different one and returned to his table. Not having much else to do but watch and think about this I imagined he may have thought “I can’t give this to one of my friends now, its been on the floor and I’m sure they saw me drop it, but if I just throw it away unused then this might be the straw that breaks the planet’s back. But what you don’t know won’t kill you so I’ll just put it back and no-one will be the wise, the next dude will just use it no problem.”

Obviously he could’ve thought a load of other things but more than likely was not thinking at all merely acting on what his current level of social conditioning/learning had led him to do (and in whatever state of intoxication he may have been operating at who knows).
But the back-story for me has to be in his social awareness. He believes the group of friends would not want a straw from the floor but won’t think harshly of him for putting it back. Or he didn’t believe in the 5-second rule for him using the straw if it was for him. That said the 5-second rule doesn’t apply in trendy cocktail lounges anyway as everyone knows their floors are much dirtier than normal bars.

What really struck me about all of this was the impenetrability of his thinking to me. I had to imagine what he thought without any chance of really finding out.
You see, as I can’t even say hello yet in Mongolian there was no danger of me asking: “Excuse me, when you picked that straw up were you concerned for yourself, your friends, what they thought of you or trying to spare the planet another 3 cubic cm of plastic?”

Mind you I’m unlikely to really have risked that kind of “calibration question” in most circumstances anyway. Which is also why I try not to talk to anyone 12 hours into an expedition from 7 hours behind on almost zero sleep. That’s not really true either… actually that’s exactly what I do try to do. But it’s a good thing I’m incommunicable.

That’s what this kind of travel is like – coming to one’s own conclusions and examining what I would do in the same place. And Christ I really hope that in a similar situation I do not pause to consciously consider it! Around that moment I also considered that I had better not have another Black Russian cocktail either. It had mixed far too well with my jetlag.

So here’s another revealing incident. Foreign toilets. This one had an inner toilet room and an outer basin and mirror room. All western normality except I can’t find the light for the inner department. At all. So I convince myself there is none or it’s broken. I manage. Go back to my Black Russian. Incident above happens. Finish and go to leave. Go back to toilet to find the light is on… try to find its switch, fail again. Laugh at myself. Reminds me a bit of the things one accepts while travelling and excuses one makes for altering one’s social conditioning. All good. Except strip fluoro lighting is never acceptable.

Now all this communicating with others is good and adventurous but one also has to be very careful and always understand that a good exit strategy will help in “Survival from the Thickest” e.g. I met 2 Italian newly weds who’d Trans-Siberian expressed their way to Mongolia starting from Cracow. They tried to show me ALL of their photographs of that journey - yes very nice – Polish you say? Beautiful? Yes I see, and that’s you with all those bottles of wine? Ha-ha, very good, oh Auschwitz and Birkenau… yes… lovely… I mean hideous of course, (sigh)… for your honeymoon you say? Man that encounter sent me heading for the hills straight away.

Other than that I’ve some time spent testing my “photograph monks without them knowing” skills – not very good yet. I’m struggling with attachment issues to the $5 they ask for the pleasure. Though I understand they are not photo opportunities and need a way to fund their mobile phone and ipod purchases too - just like the rest of us. I’m managing my expectations about this. And if I sound jaded its just because I’m trying to be funny and still jetlagged, up late at night worrying about who I’m going to rent my apartment to next year. That is how much I am NOT living in the moment right now. I’m sure tomorrow will be different to this late night.

Met a bunch of folk trying to get themselves organised for an eclipse trip over to the west… a Russian, some Brits and an American. Nice people. But I’m glad I am on an organised tour for this one… just easier and I’m ok with that for once. Having thrown some money at the problems of unreliable cars and 3-hour flights rather than 4-day drives! And met a British/Japanese couple who've also been to all the eclipses i've been to so far... party people. Nice.

Not many other eclipse-heads around so far. There was a major eclipse close to the capital back in 1997, which was clouded out so I think the Mongolians have just given up on the event. Back then they expected 6000 visitors and only got 1000, tour operators lost money etc, so they don’t see it as a big tourist attraction either, … and perhaps it is not…

Anyway – tomorrow I am abandoning civilization for a whole 3 nights as I head out into the wild to see what finds me out there.

Then I am back to meet up with the eternal David Haupt – he’s going to be in for a rough time as I drag him around Ulaanbaatar while He’s jetlagged and I am not!

Right now see also this stuff about Horizons.

Oh and this about Black Moons

The snaps included here are 2 entries into the sneaky monk shots but they’re not gonna win anything – I’m just showing you I‘m trying! Note the pigeons clustering in the shade…

A man-in-the-box artwork reminding one to think about getting out of the box

A shamanic temple sign but no sign of the shamans – just some VERY drunk, very toothless types. And yes I know a shaman could look like anything but these were probably just temple guards… we’ll see… I do hope to encounter some of this business...

My offering for silly foreign sign...

And best of all a VERY cool dinosaur(s) fossil of a protocerotops battling a velociraptor. Apparently they were covered by a sand-dune midfight.


I have a bit of a pattern with writing these things... I want to communicate and really enjoy doing so. However I leave it to the last minute usually. Just like a school project. It generally means that they're a little rushed. So it goes. I'm noting that in my own life - i'm generally a little rushed... and its also often with self-imposed deadlines... awareness... disconnection... dialogue... recycle to a positive alternative...

11b - Horizons

Let’s have a chat about Horizons. Odd things. As an analogy they represent the extent of your world - being as far as you can see. What you can surmise about a horizon is that there is something on the other side. You just can’t see it right now. You can approach a horizon in two ways.
1. You can rise up, high above wherever you were as if in a hot air balloon and through this greater height you might effect a great change in your horizon too.
2. The other is to go right up to it. Depending on where it is it may change with each step towards it you take (curvature of the earth type) or it may remain resolutely the same until you are super close and then suddenly it will rush away and settle like the end of a rainbow oh so much further away and out of touch.

Either method is equally good. If there was a qualitative difference between them it could best be described as the difference between strategy and tactics. Strategy is about a longer view while tactics require much quicker reactions. For me a nice thing about horizons is that while they define the extent of your world they are never barriers or boundaries. The minute you arrive at them they effectively melt away revealing a whole new world to explore. They’re just hiding something from you. As horizons are generally crossable the limitation they emplace on you is generally just on your own imagination. That said nothing stops one’s imagination from wandering over a hill and having a fantasy! In fact at times it’s quite nice to just imagine what is over that horizon rather than really climbing to the ridge or digging out that hot-air balloon.
Though on a personal level I’m all for going and having a proper look because I quite do believe this world is a far more amazing place than my own imagination can conjure and thus I am constantly surprised by it and richly rewarded for extra-horizon peeking. And experience is the mother of all wisdom.



An interesting note: horizons tend to be on mountains. Unless you’re on a ‘valley-trended’ elevated area in front of a very wide valley plain when only the curvature of the earth supplies your horizon. So if you do look to the horizon generally you are looking up in life, to a time when after a period of success or endeavour a new world will be yours (for better or worse). Not a bad trend or general rule of thumb. Keep your gaze on the horizon. But do keep an eye on your footing. No need to stumble when the going is good but more important not to stumble when the lie of the land is treachorous.

And who would not want to have a horizon. Imagine never being able to wonder what was just over THAT ridge or what’s behind THAT dune. No thanks. A lot of my forward momentum is created by curiosity and the draw to the unknown. Many will see that as good argument to back the claim that I will never be happy with what I have etc. And my answer to that is absolutely I am happy with what I have but I will not remain happy if it all remains exactly the same. I am an experience-driven individual yet recognise even the smallest changes can be worth experiencing.
I’m also very aware that nothing remains the same – everything is bobbing along the river of time so every moment we experience is different from the last and it may be worth having continuity too.



Thinking back over the period known to me as E4 ( which began 29 March 2006 and includes E4-B and E4-B2) there have been many thunderously momentous occasions. Such as 2 Burning Man excursions, Quintiple Inter-continental Travel, Inter-dimensional Great Love-mongering, Divine Moments of Truth, Extreme Moments of Sleep-deprivation, the sweetness of First Kisses, the process culminating in my name in “Lights”, the Hoffman Process and surfing a wave for more than 30 seconds! Each of those moments have been a stratospheric expedition in the Hot Space-Balloon of my life. From each I have seen far beyond all my previous horizons. But as after each moment I sink back to the ground of my default reality I have to rely on my memory as to what is over those horizons.
Still having seen over them once, I feel much better placed to travel in the direction of the horizon I would like to cross with a better choice of the valley I would like to explore or reside in next. Useful.

Yet at times rather than being high (sic) I felt I was pretty damn close to those horizons. Nestled up against them. Sneaky like a hungry Bedouin sniper spying on a camel train winding its way to an oasis in the Promised Land. And then I’d find myself thinking, “What the hell, I’m just going to step over this horizon and into that other world”. Liberation! I could see a different place to be, could see the way to get there and had the courage to just take that step towards my goal. As I crossed that threshold the world would shift and rearrange itself with me as the new centre. Its obviously not that I am the centre of THE universe but I am the most important thing in my own life (for now – I am sure it is possible for this to change...). My Bedouin would leave his rifle, and in taking one single step be in the lush palm forest on the shores of an abundant world fresh and ready for an entirely new type of pirate! Or knight, cowboy, vampire or muppet.
But I also note that despite the wonder of all those moments I still choose to measure the period back to that previous eclipse in Turkey. And so I note its full moon tonight. Thus I am only half a lunation from that next entrancing eclipse and entering the period known to me as E5. And this cycle has been 2.5 years. Nice.
I am horizon hunting tomorrow so I’ll be away from the life-support system (laptop) and I just wanted to put something out to all of you who are important to me in case I do not get another chance before 1 August.
Clear Skies for the sake of restoring Mongolian interest in eclipses
Doctor Lobster

11c - Black Moon Rising

Black Moon Rising

Now another thing, pretty minor but I think it’s worth mentioning… You may know the phrase “Once in a blue moon” referring to something rare. And you may know that when there are 2 full moons within the same calendar month that’s a Blue Moon. Of course full moons tend to get noticed – they’re pretty obvious after all. Great heavenly altars to the Lupine Lords. But new moons rarely feature much of a mention. After all – its like they are not really there! In other words NOTHING to notice. Well this August contains 2 new moons. And that’s called a Black Moon! Does this portend anything? Dunno. I think one can read into it whatever one likes sooooo I’m gonna read into this that this is a hugely positive time. Even more so if you are in the Northern hemisphere – cos its Summer. And August is about the only reliable month in Europe. At least one can rely on the Italians not to work that month. And before you think I am being facetious – I’m not. I truly am impressed that pretty much the whole country takes that month off – I have yet to experience it at first hand but by god I plan to indulge in a Tuscan august one of these days. But not this August… this one starts with an Eclipse and ends at Burning Man. Pig - Shit -Wallowing. Yes please.

10 - There’s Something Going On… Right now… (and some Wish Theory)

But you can’t see it. It’s to do with Venus - that wonderful evening / morning star (yes I know it’s a planet but it looks like a star). Yes, sultry steamy Venus, the place women are meant to come from. (Aside – so why we’re sending so much stuff to Mars and not Venus?)

Some of you might’ve noticed that you haven’t noticed Venus in the last few days. Well – this is because Venus is directly behind the Sun. She’s going to be there for a while. She’s as far away from us as she kinda can be… you know on the Far Side of the Sun. This is called an Occlusion in Astronomy terms and its very rare. What’s interesting about this is that it means this is the midway point between the 2 transits of Venus that occur in our lifetimes (assumption). A transit is when Venus crosses in front of Sun. The first took place on June 8 2004 and the next on June 5-6 2012. But prior to 2004 it had not happened for 125 years and after 2012 it won’t happen again for another 118 (ish). I think this is pretty cool. Captain Cook invented Australia while going on an expedition to Taihiti to observe the Transit of Venus in 1769 so there are some pretty major events linked to the rarity of these transits.

Sure right now we can't see anything happening but I find it quite interesting just thinking about how Venus really is all that way away from us hiding behind the Sun. And I can only BEGIN to imagine what's going down on Venus while its so well hidden from the prying telescopic eyes of Earth's astronomers.

The shots I have included here are ones that I took from the UK of the 2004 event.

Here’s a useful link.
http://www.transitofvenus.org/

Now, to the what’s really at stake here… with Venus being absent from our skies we are deprived of one of the more common and reliable methods of acquiring a wish.

“Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have this wish I wish tonight!”

Yeah – every time you see that First star you get a wish… but not possible right now.

I am writing a segment about Wish Theory and I need some of your help. I am collating all the known methods of Wish Acquisition. Here is what I have so far, its pitifully short but it’d be great if you can add some more or provide any of the underlying sub clauses to these methods:

1. Evening Star
2. Birthday Wish (but there’s a lot of rules about candles being all blown out in one go and cutting the cake without the knife making a noise on the plate)
3. Aladdin’s Lamp – Rub it – Genie – 3 wishes etc
4. 8 sneezes in a row
5. Wishbone (chicken – 2 people break it – whoever gets the largest section gets the wish)
6. Fairy Godmother
7. Shooting Star
8. Walk on shit with your left foot (this is strictly Parisian)
9. You get a Bay leave on your plate.
10. 7 wishes at new Year in Brazil from Yemanja (Goddess of the Ocean – you have to jump over 7 waves in the sea though)
11. Find an eyelash on your face (one version holds that you close your eyes, make the wish, blow the lash off the person’s finger then to make it come true you have to kiss that person. Some people say the eyelash is on the person who found its finger and you press your finger to theirs and then whoever has the eyelash on their finger after THAT gets the wish)

And its good to know all of these as let’s face it wishes are useful and extraordinary things. And no matter how wonderful your lives are this world is not at peace so we can all at least put any garnered wishes to damn fine use.

But please send me all the others I do not yet know…

Incidentally things that are 'lucky' like 4-leaf clovers are not includable as they don't convey wishes they just add luck...

That’s me my lovelies, off to bed in this Southern African Winter.
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