Psychopomp
A psychopomp is a guide, whose primary function is to escort souls to the afterlife, but they can also serve as a guide through the various transitions of life and the planet. The term originates from the Greek words pompos (conductor or guide) and psyche (breath, life, soul, or mind). Stories of psychopomps are widespread throughout the mythological tales, religious texts, sacred narratives, and real-life stories of people around the world.
Art, is my religion, its the way I exercise my ‘demons’. I find I really enjoy the products I produce but, it often takes a long time even for me to understand my own art.
I wrote a ghost story tonight, but it scared the bejeezuz out of me, so I’m not ready to post it. Instead enjoy the below selection of my art that deals with the subject of well, soul travel.
illustration by me, She’s Sui Generis from a short story of the same name, but essentially yeh, she’s a psychopomp. BTW if my witchy friend is reading this, thank-you! meeting Dianne was just what I needed, I don’t know how you did what you did but I’m ever so grateful, and no – no one told me anything… I just knew. And Know.
the below poem is from Allpoetry, the place I stashed my trash. I say stashed because I can’t remember what email address or password or anything I signed up with outside of my pen name, Slender Spider.
Drop of golden Love-Light;
I heard about your fall.
I stormed the gates,
I chased the lakes,
I lit the fires
of the darkest place.
Come to me, come to me;
Come back to me,
My Foal.
But don’t count your chickens quite yet, you may have won the war (which is just a matter of perspective) But this trophy ain’t up for grabs. Pass it on.
Sometimes all I want is to do pull the fetid bandage off quickly and toss it in the trash. You?
FWIW The XMas spirit is killing me too. Goddamit!
PS I Know I have a mean streak a mile wide, but I haven’t got a sarcastic bone in my body.
It’s a personal flaw.
I mean what I’ve said here with utmost sincerity and I want you to know that. GBYAD!
Xox
Bina con Fida.
This is the channel I’m dialed into
I already know you, are dialed in too
This is the channel I’m dialed into
and I already know you, are dialed in too
I already know you are dialed in too
I already know you are dialed in too
Yup that’s right. Police have identified 2,000 possible murder suspects of women and girls along our major highways, one of which we all know and fear as the Highway of tears.
But wait, there’s more. 5,000 other people have been identified as possibly involved with the 2,000 possible killers. That’s 7,000 possible leads! That’s also 7,000 possible people with knowledge about who is killing our sisters. The silence from these 7,000 possible people is deafening.
I’m leaving you with a poem I wrote regarding this wholesale slaughter a couple of years ago.
a poem by Hazel Main.
It’s Silence
That kills us
That drives us
Onto the streets
Underground
It’s Silence
That causes us
To stick needles
In our arms
To spread our legs
To fuck the pain
Away
It’s the Silence of
Our Teachers
Of our Coppers
Doctor’s and Preachers
It’s the pressure
To put Up
Or
Shut Up
That begins the inner decay
Absent Officers
Corrupt Soul Catchers
Perverted fathers
Moronic Mothers
Silent
Neighbors
Wholesale Slaughter
of Unwanted daughters.
Silence, Silence
Go Away!
The Vanishing Point is A Five-Part Investigative series by the Vancouver Sun.
read the full story, for the first time, of the Highway of Tears victims that raises questions about other similar unsolved cases.
She’s been playing tricks on me that sly little minx. Oh well I forgive her because she’s just that special.
So this one’s for Her,
Cheers!
The Queen’s Rebuke.
I’m made of bones of the branches the boughs and the brow-beating light
While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy high
And my fingers extend to the leaves in my Eves, and the bright
Brighter shine
It’s my shine
And he
Was a baby abandoned
Entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was a soul who took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a faun to inhabit by day
Brightest day
It’s my day
And you
Have removed this temptation that’s troubled my innocent child
To abduct and abuse
And to render her rift and defiled
But the river is deep to the banks and the water is wild
I will fly you
To the far side
About Her theme by Malcolm Mclaren from the movie Kill Bill Vol.2.
Gorgeous video created by diablo238
Lyrics
My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Well no one told me about her
The way she lied
Well no one told me about her
How many people cried
My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Well no one told me about her
The way she lied
Well no one told me about her
How many people cried
But it’s too late to say you’re sorry
How would i know
Why should i care?
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there
My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Well no one told me about her
Well no one told me about her
How many people cried
But it’s too late to say you’re sorry
How would i know
Why should i care
Please don’t bother trying to find her
She’s not there
She’s not there…
I was sent an Op Ed Piece written by Stevie Cameron this morning. (Thanks Wayne!) We’re about to mark yet another National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Stevie Asks, “Have we forgotten the dead?”
It’s an excellent article, as per usual for Ms. Cameron. However it was the public discussion that followed her op-ed that inspired me to actually sign up with the Globe & mail so I could comment.
I’ve read a few comments from men who are feeling villainized due to the continuing debate about who’se responsible for violence against women. I’ve read that they are sick of being generalized as more violent than women, and less peaceful. I want to assure these men, I agree with them. The violence going on is the responsibility of all of us, male and female. Remember, would Pickton have been so successful if he didn’t have women help him lure other women to the farm? Would Garrido have been successful in keeping Jaycee Dugard as a sex slave if he hadn’t had the help of his wife Nancy? Would Paul Bernardo have graduated from raping to killing had he not hooked up with Karla? I want those men and men like them who are feeling hurt by these current conversations to consider how violence perpetrated by men against women victimizes everyone, including innocent and peaceful men. I want them to consider how their feelings of being villianized is part of the fallout of societal violence. I would like these sad and possibly angry men to look past their own pain and realize they are not alone. That they are our brothers, fathers, son’s, husbands, lovers and friends. And we need you.
Thank You Stevie for this wonderful op-ed piece.
Hazel.
For the whole letter follow the link…
The revised and expanded version of PRONOIA is lusher and plusher because it benefited from the personal adventures that ramped up my understanding of pronoia these last few years, as well as from all the mojo that my readers blessed me with as they told me about their experiences with pronoia.
Shall I say more about those personal adventures that ramped up my understanding of pronoia? This isn’t yet the time and place to go into them in detail, but I’ll mention one part of the process.
In the last few months of working on the original edition of PRONOIA back in 2005, I kept getting ever-more inquisitive telepathic messages from my future self. He said to me, in effect, “This is quite useful information you’re setting down in your book, my young friend Rob, but are you . . . uh . . . shall we say . . . . truly ready to live your life by the fine and noble principles you are espousing?”
The truth is, I knew I wasn’t completely ready, and I told my future self that. I knew that the whole project of me working on the book was a classic case of the teacher having to learn the very lessons he wanted to teach. Even though I’d spent years meditating on and experimenting with memes like crafty optimism, ingenious compassion, and the art and science of cultivating happiness, when the book came out in 2005 I was far from a master of any of that good stuff.
For example, I was still plagued by many of the usual personal fears that we’re all tormented by; I still suffered from the bad habit of criticizing the world more than I praised it; I was still susceptible to the paranoid fantasies about civilization collapsing that are part of the air we all breathe.
The good news is that I really have made progress in the four years since the first edition of PRONOIA came out. I read my own book, practiced its recommendations, played with its riddles, and in response changed the way I thought and felt and lived.
And so, hallelujah, as of the fall equinox of 2009, I have developed significant new skills in creating happiness for myself. I have a more resilient and robust — I almost want to say a more teasing and mischievous — relationship with my fears, so that even if I feel them gnawing at my heart, I don’t necessarily believe wholeheartedly in the visions they try to scare me with. That, to me, is a triumph.
Maybe most importantly, I have fully integrated into my emotional body one of the central ideas I articulate in PRONOIA. That idea is this: Civilization may be unraveling in a lot of areas; some of its structures may be collapsing; but it is also in the midst of a tremendous upheaval of creativity — a flood of innovation and genius and love pouring out of millions upon millions of people — a Great Awakening that is far louder and stronger and more interesting than the sleepy resignation and corrosive maliciousness and ignominious decline that the media prefers to focus on.
I still have a long way to go — am maybe 78% practicing what I preach today, as compared to 57% when the 2005 edition of PRONOIA came out. But it feels good to be doing the work of getting more and more in alignment with my ideals.
To close this message, here’s a word of encouragement. I really mean what I’m about to say, and am not just acting disingenuously humble: If an ex-cynic and angry rebel like me could figure out how to ripen into the ideas of pronoia, making them a part of my actual lived experience from day to day — and without muffling my discernment or losing my appreciation for the inherent paradoxical nature of everything — then I think pretty much anyone can.
horoscopes for week of December 3, 2009
When Carolee Schneeman was a kid, her extravagant adoration of nature earned her the nickname “mad pantheist.” Later, during her career as a visual artist, she described her relationship with the world this way: “I assume the senses crave sources of maximum information, that the eye benefits by exercise, stretch, and expansion towards materials of complexity and substance.” I hope that you’re attracted to that perspective right now, Aries. To be in most productive alignment with the cosmic rhythms, you should be in a state of nearly ecstatic openness, hungry to be stretched — like a mad pantheist.
“Dear Rob: Last night my son and I were star-gazing. When we focused on the constellation Cassiopeia, an owl started hooting. Then a brilliant shooting star zipped by as a huge bat flew right over our heads. Was this a bad omen? Bats are creepy — associated with vampires. And in Greek mythology Cassiopeia got divine punishment because she bragged that she and her daughter were more beautiful than the sea god’s daughters. But I don’t know, maybe this blast of odd events was a good omen. Owls are symbols of wisdom and shooting stars are lucky, right? What do you think? Are we blessed or cursed? -Spooked Taurus.” Dear Spooked: The question of whether it’s good or bad luck is irrelevant. Here’s what’s important: You Tauruses are in a phase when the hidden workings of things will be shown to you — the mysterious magic that’s always bubbling below the surface but that is usually not visible.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
The week ahead will be a ripe time to pull off magic reversals. May I suggest that you try to transform dishwater greys into sparkling golds? Or how about recycling the dead energy of a lost cause in such a way as to generate raw fuel for a fresh start? I’m confident, Gemini, that you’ll be able to discover treasure hidden in the trash, and that you’ll find a way to unleash the creative zeal that has been trapped inside polite numbness. Now ponder this riddle, please: Do you think there’s any mystical significance in the fact that the word “stressed” is “desserts” spelled backwards?
Need more help deciphering the riddles and enigmas that fuel your destiny? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
Lately you remind me of the person Robert Hass describes in his poem “Time and Materials”: “someone falling down and getting up and running and falling and getting up.” I’m sending you my compassion for the times you fall down, and my admiration for the times you get up, and my excitement for the times you run. It has probably become clear to you by now that the falling down isn’t a shameful thing to be cursed, but rather is an instrumental part of the learning process that is teaching you marvelous secrets about getting back up and running.
No one knows you better than you do, but maybe I can help you dig up even more self-knowledge. Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
“I burn for no reason, like a lantern in daylight,” writes poet Joseph Lease. I think that’s a succinct formulation of one of your central issues, Leo. Burning for no reason, like a lantern in the daylight, can be the cause of either failure or success for you, depending on subtle differences of emphasis. This is how it can be failure: When you’re mindlessly and wastefully burning through your prodigious reserves of fuel without any concern for the benefits it may provide you and others. This is how it can be success: When you are exuberant and self-disciplined in shining your light and radiating your warmth just because it feels so good and so right and so healthy, and without any thought about whether it’s “useful” to anyone.
What better adventure is there than learning about your soul’s code? For more hints, listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
In one of his short poems, John Averill describes a scene that I think captures the essence of your current astrological omens: “Today is the day of the photo of moonrise over Havana in a book on a shelf in the snowbound cabin.” Here’s a clue about what it means: The snowbound cabin is where you are right now in your life. The moonrise over Havana is where you could be early in 2010. How do you get there from here?
Got enough clues to chew on for now? If you need more, listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE, where I go further in exploring your mysteries.
An estuary is a bay where the salt water of a sea mixes with the fresh water of rivers. These days you remind me of such a place. You are two-toned, Libra. You’re dual-purpose and double-tracked. You’re a hybrid blend of the yes and the no, the give and the take, the extravagant and the traditional. And somehow this has been working out pretty well for you. You’re not so much a dysfunctional contradiction as an interesting juxtaposition. You’re not being crushed by a squeeze of opposites so much as you’re getting massaged by the oscillating throbs of complementary influences. Keep doing what you’ve been doing, only more so.
For more help in understanding your relationship with the game of life, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
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Big shiny egos with flashy tricks may be mucking around in everyone’s business, calling narcissistic attention to themselves as they pretend to do noble deeds. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll be doing the hard, detailed work that must be done to serve the greater good — quietly and unpretentiously improving people’s lives without demanding major tribute. That approach will stir up some sleek, silky karma that will come in handy when you undertake the building of your masterpiece in 2010.
Would you like further inspiration as you strive to make the most of life’s opportunities? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
“Dear Rob: I love to be proven wrong. That’s not an ironic statement. I actually get excited and feel creative when I acquire new information that shows me I’ve been operating under a misunderstanding. One of my very favorite life moments occurs when I am convincingly liberated from a negative opinion I’ve been harboring about someone. As you can tell, I’m quite proud of this quality. The way I see it, emotional wealth and psychological health involve having so much self-respect that I don’t need to be right all the time. -Sagittarian Freedom Fighter.” Dear Freedom Fighter: Thanks for your testimony. The capacity you described is one that many Sagittarians will be poised to expand in 2010. And this is an excellent week for them to start getting the hang of it.
What exactly are you looking for? It’s possible my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE could give you additional help in figuring that out.
In an early version of the tale of Pinocchio, friendly woodpeckers chiseled his nose back to its original size after it had grown enormous from his incorrigible lying. From a metaphorical perspective, Capricorn, a comparable development may soon occur in your own life. A benevolent (if somewhat rough) intervention akin to the woodpeckers’ assistance will shrink an overgrown, top-heavy part of your attitude, allowing you to proceed to the next chapter of your story with streamlined grace.
Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
“There is light enough for those who wish to see,” wrote French philosopher Blaise Pascal, “and darkness enough for those of the opposite disposition.” I’m hoping you will align yourself with the first group in the coming week, Aquarius. More than ever before, what you choose to focus on will come rushing in to meet you, touch you, teach you, and prompt you to respond. Even if all the smart people you know seem to be drunk on the darkness, I encourage you to be a brave rebel who insists on equal time for the light.
To further explore the ripening challenges and blessings in your life, tune in to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE.
White dwarfs are small and extremely dense stars. They’re typically no bigger than the Earth but as heavy as the sun. You currently have a resemblance to one of those concentrated balls of pure intensity. I have rarely seen you offering so much bang for the buck. You are as flavorful as chocolate mousse, as piercing as the scent of eucalyptus, as lustrous as a fireworks display on a moonless night. Personally, I’m quite attracted to your saucy and zesty emanations, and I think most people with strong egos will be. But some underachievers with lower self-esteem may regard you as being more like astringent medicine. My advice: Gravitate toward those who like you to be powerful.
M.O.W.
My favorite Bitch is up to more mis-chef,
by recruiting all fans to Facebook, Nadia G has big plans to feed the world! I know, I know we’ve heard this one before. Unlike the Vatican scheme of not so long ago, this idea is down to earth, practical, and cheap!
So go ahead be friendly, nurture the needy, learn how to cook! Join Bitchen Kitchen’s fan list on Facebook and feel good about yourself!
Maybe I’ll see you there, Bon Apetite!
I’ve always been partial to Animal. There’s just something about those bad boy drummers… Enjoy!
