The concept of twin souls ( more popularly known as soulmates) is as old as civilisation itself, I was fortunate to find mine, my muse , at the time of starting this blog, back in 2009, Jane Elizabeth Husband, my dear beloved' the mighty furbster, who I am thinking of today, one year after her passing. She made my life and world so beautiful,and understood the true depths of love and kinship, that fortunately we shared together, who still shines brightly within my heart. The following poem is dedicated to her memory. She taught me a lot.
Heart and Soul
Sweet cords of memory
cancel out lines of disbelief,
move moments of regret
in the distance waves goodbye,
this gift of time, who released so much love
a voice so elegant and pure,
who filled up all the empty spaces
continues to be so dear and true,
carries on dancing in the night sky
a light that cannot darken,
no one will quite replace her
gleaming now in eternity,
flowing through every day given
giving no cause for regret,
running free deep within
never fades with slipping sun,
everytime I hear an accordian
in heart and soul, we are one.
The ten year Israeli-led blockade of Gaza , the narrow enclave that is home to nearly half of all Palestnians living under Israeli occupation, which has decimated the Gazan economy and Gaza's once strong furniture, garment and agricultural sectos have been all but destroyed after more than a decade of restrictions on exports, imports and movement. Gaza has been declared unlivable by the UN, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and 80 percent of people relying on humanitarian aid to survive.
This is a place where life has long been cruel, where refugees forced out of Israel by the Nabka and families who have lved in Gaza for generations have suffered under dire conditions for nearly 70 years. But in the last decade, it has become a site of stunning misery. Ten years ago this past June, Israel imposed a stringent land sea and ar blockade on Gaza which has restricted most movement to and from the strip and pushed the tiny territory to the brink of collapse. Conditions hae become so extreme that the United Nations has stated that by 2020 the Gaa Strip could become uninabitable
The crisis in Gaza is not just a humanitarian tragedy, it should be a moral outrage. This ongoing suffering must end.
The above visual was produced in collaboration with Oxfam, and builds on Visualising Palestine's extensive work to highlight the daily realities faced by Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
View and download here ;-
A quick reminder of 2017's year of mayhem. Theresa May though remains a shambolic figure, her authority in shreds. and her lack of leadership and cohesion, and sheer incompetance is going I fear be a disaster for this country. as millions face poverty, criminally inflated rents, humiliating benefit cuts and welfare sanctions amounting to state sponsored starvation, 2018 is going to be just as painful as last year. She is the personifiation of this disunited kingdom. We need to see the back of the heartless Tories as soon as possible.
Words arrive from seas of dream
no one is illegal, no one is forgotten
with revision division abandoned
creating new traditions to handle,
we have ruined, but we can build again
taking leap forwards in faithful belief,
waiting and watching, keeping alert
creating justice and retribution,
burning free, coalescing with others
restoring paradise that no longer smothers,
beyond wars created by governments
with patience seek roads of contentment, beyond cruel apartheid walls of oppression
as the shadows play, let history books rewritten,
together we remain strong, don't give up the fight
steady and slow, darkness turned into light,
our eyes in summer,spring, autumn, winter
will glisten with rainbows and laughter,
hope returning with no ending
visions created by our human senses,
on elysian fields, no borders necessary
new gardens of eden created,
all our messages ring with love
as a brand new dawn reawakens.
blwyddyn newydd dda/ happy new year.. heddwch/peace. Cheers Ian Curtis
A Palestinian girl, Ahmed Al - Tamimi aged 16 years, from a well-known activist family who lives in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, who many Palestinians view as their hero, is currently wearing prison clothes, her only crime being is that she was born in Palestine and showed resistance to her oppressors, and called for Freedom, Peace, and ending the occupation and removing the apartheid wall. Her courage is unrivalled.
This brave girl has been participating against her oppressors ,standing up against injustices. She has been protesting the theft of land and water since 2012. She has had to endure personal sacrifice, having lost an uncle and cousin to the occupation. Her parents Nariman and Bassem Tamimi, have been arrested time and again.
A video posted on facebook last Friday shows Ahed and her mother blocking two Israeli soldiers from entering their home after occupation forces had shot her 14 year old cousin Mohammad in the face by a rubber bullet, and fired tear-gas canisters directly at their home, breaking several windows.
Two years ago a video featuring her went viral as she sought to protect her brother being taken away by a soldier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=485&v=mg1-_oIfjqc
On Tueday December 18th Ahed , was abducted from her home, during a pre-dawn raid carried out by Israeli Occupation Forces. At least 30 soldiers were involved in the raid and Ahed's arrest. During this raid, occupation forces assaulted various members of her family, including Ahed's 14 year old brother, and confiscated their cell phones and computers. Later in the day after learning that Ahed was being held at a police station near Jabaa village, her mother travelled there to be present for her daughters interrogation, only to be arrested by occupation forces on her arrival. An Israeli cour yesterday extended her detention.
Ahed is currently one of 211 Palestinian child prisoners in Israeli jails as of November 2017 http://www.addameer.org/statistics Israeli Occupation forces regularly abduct, arrest, and abuse Palestinian children and torture them while in custody.The arrest of Ahed is sadly not an isolated incident, but rather follows suit with Israel's policies and increased attacks on Palestinians since Donald Trump's symbolic assault on Palestinian sovereignty with his announcement on Jerusalem. As Palestinians continue to mobilize in light of this decision, it is imperative that the international community condemns all efforts by Israel to stifle Palestinian resistance. Israel's attempts to silence and install fear in Palestine youth , must be met with outrage, while extending full support to targeted Palestinians so they are not demoralized.
The United Nations has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory. accusing Israel of being guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people, in violation of international law.
I stand against the imprisonment of Palestinians, especially children, believing that all occupied people have a right to resist their occupation. and therefore stand with Ahed and her family in this difficult time and salute their struggle of firm resistance against their illegal occupation
Please consider adding your name to the following petitions demanding Ahed and Palestinian children are released from Israeli prisons now. The international community must put an end to the ill-treatment of Palestinian children. Enough is enough. To Ahed and the children in Isreli jails. We stand by your side, and are holding you in our hearts. We wil not give up until you are free. You are not alone. I urge fellow people of conscience to demand freedom for Ahed and her fellow detained and jailed Palestinian children in occupation detention centers, interrogation centers and prisons. The resistance of the Palestinian people has never been quelled by arrests or repression, and it must be clear that we, around the world, continue to stand alongside the Palestinian peope as they defend Jerusalem and their entire land and people under attack. This includes standing with detained and jailed Palestinian prisoners in their struggle for themselves, their people, and their occupied homeland.
It is only a few days now untill the new year, but children are still being imprisoned in the modern age. Love and peace will never die, and the people of Palestine and the free world, salute you Ahed for the courage that you have shown.
Another surreal year, the story of my life, again not popped to record stores as much as i'd have wished, have spent some time trying to get over my partners bereavement. Getting there, though I doubt, I will ever quite fully recover from the loss. Despite this , here are some musical highlights from the last year that have managed to pick me up, in no particular order.Power to the music. I feel optimistic about 2018, I believe it truly will be one of change. See you on the other side. Kick the Tories out. 1. Mwstard - Cloc
2, Nik Turner - Life in Space
3. Steve Ignorant's Slice of life - Love and a lampost
4. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
5. Benjamin Zepaniah - Revolutionary Minds
6. Lisa Knapp - Till April is dead
7. Lankum - Between the Earth and Sky
8. Penny Rimbaud -What Passing Bells : The War Poems of Wilfred Owen
Festive greetings.It's that time of year again, when we sing about peace and good will, amidst mistletoe and wine, merriment and laughter, and we have the simple impulse to give, share and support others, release feelings of mutual aid and solidarity..
As the tentacles of the capitalist market reach into every part of our lives, encouraging us to pay for the convenience of expressing our feelings for our fellow beings, through excessive gift giving, time also to reflect and think of others who have even less, and those who will be giving up their time to help others. The latter acts I believe are part of our nature, an impulse that I believe should not be be a once in a year anomoly, it is something as human beings that we should collectively daily nurture, as Peter Kropotkin wrote in Mutual Aid,' a factor of evolution that we need in order to survive.'
Today lets try not to forget the many organisations and services providing comfort to those that need it most,who will be dealing with a sharp rise in demand for crisis services at this time of year, as people face homelessness and benefits disruption over this festive period, because of our government and its policies. For some ,this time of the year is not a time of year for thinking about buying or recieving presents, taking time of work and seeing family and friends. It is a time of immense difficulty, fear and uncertainty, people left in isolation, feeling alone, as services are closed, many left cold, hungry and without support, in a downward spiral . People who feel they do not belong, who are discredited and denied their status as human beings.
So it is important especially at this time of year to look out for one another, and reach out to those in need of our help, the underpriveleged and marginalised, those too weak to look after or defend themselves. So happy Christmas to all, but please do not leave individuals standing alone, please keep sharing your mutual aid and solidarity. Together we can make a difference to those that need it the most, as some of us get a little inebriated, lets try and keep other spirits alive too, And after this holiday period has ended, lets keep shaping our society into a better place to live, for the many not the few. Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much. All the very best.
They are simply rotten , as simply as that , and currently more concerned what color passports will be post brexit , at the cost of £500 m blue is their color, They just want us all to live in an isolated monolingual mono cultural country of poverty and despair, where the hardest hit struggle to suvive, who simply want some sense and reason to come back into our lives. But the self seving elitist thieving Tories keep releasing their conscious cruelty with their deliberate punitive policies, leaving the country bedridden with austerity, suffering the fall out from cuts to services,which at end of day are purely ideological. Their Christmas gift to Britains poorest children is to get rid of their free school meals.
This is Conservatism in a nutshell. There is no such thing as a fair society under a Conservative Government. How do we stop them, we keep pushing, fighting back, for a fairer society, for the many not the few, we have to stop them in their tracks. If you can, have a merry christmas, do not them steal any hope or joy that you may have stored within. Kick out the Tories.
It's come round again, the time some of us celebrate the Festival of Yuletide, others the Birth of the Sun and, for Christians, the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a mixture of both ancient and modern traditions adapted through the ages to meet the needs of the ruling class of the time, be it Roman aristocrat, feudal lord or modern capitalist, ts roots go back into the dawn of the human experience of winter in the Northern hemisphere. People gathering around the fire to keep warm, and feasting to raise their spirits in the cold and dark; and looking forward to the return of the sun and the spring.Some people forget that many of the traditional Judeo-Christian winter holiday activities have their origins in Pagan worship, and this is particular true of Christmas which coincides with Yule.
Although Christians had the goal of spreading their religion across Europe, they were still quite fascinated by many of the customs and ways of the pagans. Clearly they were fascinated enough to pick up a few of those beliefs and traditions and adapt them as part of Christian celebrations!
At the time, all of these different groups shared one big celebration that just happerned to fall around Christmas time – the winter solstice. People living in the northern hemisphere celebrate winter solstice (or the shortest day of the year) smack bang in the middle of December, and this is why Christmas just so happened to fall around the same time as many existing pagan holidays.
Yule is associated with reindeer, mistletoe, pine, holly and the fox. It's colors are red, green, silver and gold. Gold is the color of the god and silver is the color of the goddess. Mithras, the Sun King, the Baby Sun God, Apollo, or the Great Mother can be invited.
The Yule tree has in fact been in traditions thousands of years before it became known as the Christmas tree in the 1840s. Dating back centuries before Jesus Christ, pagan cultures brought evergreen trees, plants, and leaves into their homes upon the arrival of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, which occurs in the northern hemisphere between December 21st and 22nd. Evergreen trees were seen as a symbol of continual life, especially at the time of the Winter Solstice. Allowing wood spirits to keep warm in the winter months. Bells and trinckets were hung in the limbs to chime when an an appreciative spirit was present, food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat. Sometimes, these trees were decorated with things that symbolized the person's wishes for the New Year , such as coins, lights and corn, which were meant to bring wealth, sunlight and a bountiful harvest, respectively. A five-pointed star, the pentagram , symbol of the five elements, air, fire, water, earth, and aether (or spirit) was placed atop the tree. Decorating the tree meant looking forward to spring and the fruit it would bring.
.
Most ancient cultures in the Northern hemisphere would celebrate the winter solstice in some way, and more often than not this would involve the use of plants, a common symbol of life, fertility and rebirth. Although the specific practices were different in each country and culture, the symbolization was generally the same, to celebrate the return of life at the beginning of winter's decline and to make them think of the spring to come.
Similar belief systems could be found in agricultural pagan societies in Europe.Winter marked a point of sickness from their sun gods, the solstice marked the points of transition after which the deities would start to recover.Evergreen boughs and trees were therefore a common part of winter solstice celebrations.Midwinter houred the dark womb of the mother, who is preparing to give birth to the new child of light. The old sun has died, and the new sun is about to be reborn, The new sun is a male child, and the energies of the male and female are combined at Midwinter.
The winter solstice was a huge part of pagan life. As they were primarily agricultural people, Pagans could stop farming through the winter, and instead devoted themselves to worshipping their various gods and celebrating with those around them. As winter in the northern hemisphere tends to be a dark, cold, and hungry period of time, the winter solstice was celebrated to help keep people entertained and enjoy themselves until the sun rolled around again.e year’s harvest and the chance to enjoy the company of loved ones and rest from toiling the fields.
However these traditions came under fire with the rise of Christianity, the Church desperate to abolish pagan customs. In the third century CE, the decorating of homes with evergreen boughs was strictly prohibited by church authorities and decorating or bringing a tree into ones home to celebrate the holiday was actually frowned upon by by many puritanical Christian denominations for being seen as decadent and dangerously pagan, Oliver Cromwell himself preached against them as ' heathen traditions', until that is in 1841, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle. Subsequently increasing their popularity.
Also in addition to the decorated tree, many other Christmas customs have their roots in early Pagan cultures and traditions. Caroling, gift exchanges, and mistletoe all originated from classical Pagan traditions. The mistletoe especially is steeped in pagan ritual, as it was often used by the Celts as a symbol of sexuality, fertility and abundance. Burning the Yule log was done to give strength to the sun, and a wreath served as a symbol of the Wheel of the Year, and the suns passage through the sky. Tradition states that the ashes of a burned Yule log should be saved for a year as a protection amulet, and a piece of this year's log should be kept to start the next years log,
Gift giving comes from the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, which was a weeklong event at the end of the year honouring the god of death. Friends and family members would give each other tokens as expressions of love.
So when you look at a decorated Christmas tree, the star hanging on top, and if you exchange presents, take a moment to reflect on their pagan origins, and what the spirit of this tradition was and is all about. This evening I hope to listen to music and sit by a warm fire, and in the wee hours of the morning will gaze at the moon and stars, contemplate dear departed ones. anyway that's enough of me rambling
In the midst of turbulent times it feels easy to fall into despair, but there is also an abundance of hope if we choose to see it. Stay safe out there, everybody.and enjoy this time in any way that speaks to you.. can. And if you just can’t manage it this year, keep holding on. Seasons greetings, happy Winter Solstice and bright blessings. Heddwch// Peace.
References ;-
Wicca - Vivienne Crowley
Everyday Wicca - Gerina Dunwich,
Celtic Rituals, an authentic guide to anciet Celtic Spirituality - Alexei Kondratiev, New Celtic Publishing
The Pagan Book of Days ; A gude to the festivals, traditions and sacred days of the year - Nigel Pennick
This Christmas try cut down on consumption
release some compassion, instead of greed,
avoid the Queens speech, seek alternative news
seeds of another society, that takes away the blues,
in this winter of discontent, its time to rise
keep on planting the seeds of insurrection,
because their trying to break us in pieces
in the name of austerity, and government lies,
making people, beg, borrow and steal
people in charge treating its citizens like garbage,
as media shields us from cruel reality
makes some think everything is fine,
the future must change, we must continue to fight
those that dictate, what we can say or what we can do,
beggers all of us, refusing to take the crumbs they give
merry crassmess to all, another world is possible.
