Bah, Humbug! (An Xmas Anti-Poem)

Author's Note: For information on the Pagan roots of Christmas, this brief but insightful article is recommended: The Shamanic Origins of Christmas.

Or, for a more in-depth and very eye-opening look, this documentary spells it out perfectly: The Pharmacratic Inquisition.

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Bah, Humbug! (An Xmas Anti-Poem)

Hum·bug (noun):
1. Something intended to delude or deceive.
2. The quality of falseness or deception.
3. A person who is not what he or she claims or pretends to be; an impostor.
4. Something devoid of sense or meaning; nonsense: a humbug of technical jargon.

- I -

You see, Santa's just another version of the man in the sky;

A magical equation on which they bank for us to buy.

Despite crisis and recession — let childhood desires fly!

Long-standing tradition isn't something we question, why?

- II -

Because the unthinking parent offering their offspring to that secular idol at the mall isn't really doing it for the youngster (who'd be better off given proper guidance) BUT to satisfy their own inner child.

They repeat a cycle of indoctrination into Capitalist customs: Preparing another generation of consumers for dwindling resources (which could run out before we realize it).

- III -

Keep going, it's fine

This world has always been thus

Overbrimming with stupidity

Without shortage of cupidity

Keep towing party line

Present is blessed as future cussed

The dead are unaccountable

For their Humbug, insurmountable!

Image: The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come ...

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Alive Alone

Alive Alone

Was dead inside without you
Dragging a thousand empty days
No one else here speaks truth
To a pariah lost mid haze

Yet this scoundrel springs eternal
Both nocturnal and diurnal
There's plenty to be said
But let's keep it cryptic instead...

Constant state of rediscovery
Permutations occur in isolation
Island transformed as a sovereign nation
Waylaid by fate on the road to recovery

Eldest redwoods aren't heard falling
Except by a lone Hermit or Hierophant
Everyone else poses questions too elegant
To actually answer their true calling.

So let's break format — forsaking any argument
Being in love with oneself isn't really that appalling;

Advaita!

We are each other after all
And who'll play the gods if not us, lively starling?

Major Arcana - The Hermit

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Rubik's Pyramid

Rubik's Pyramid

                                                  

Homo Sapiens — The upright, naked ape.

Most highly evolved sentient organism on Terra Firma.

Prone to childish behavior even in adulthood

(though it's rarely acknowledged or recognized).

Also weighed down by personal phantoms from the past

and the often oppressive forces of social conformity.

Otherwise; embryonic deity that yearns for Actualization:

An accomplished state that might harmonize the star-studded heavens with the living, breathing body of humanity's cosmic isolation.

No childhood without rebirth.

There aren't any skies in the absence of Earth.

Even Jesus descended to hell prior to his resurrection.

There's no transcendence without a sense of direction!

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Perspective Analysis

Perspective Analysis

 
We are not the only witnesses 
Nor numen that wades currents
By riversides and oceans
Within a vast, unnamed expanse ...

Though our heads do dash against these stones here on the shore 
Since we can barely help but to think in contradictions 
Gravely unaware of the true scope of our visions
Forgetting that in the big picture relativity dissolves 
Into the reality that opposites don't in fact oppose
Nor do they actually preside as bi-polar compositions
Clear-cut propositions or unchanging absolutes
It is as always, a question of perspective.

Yet there lies the heart and matter of the mystery at hand: 
That when things lose their strictly human meaning 
They quite naturally regain (so to speak)
Their universal truthfulness within the silent mind of One beholder.

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Tribute To H.P. Lovecraft

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

"In His House at R'lyeh, Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming,
yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth!"

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Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft

Out beyond the confines of physical space itself
At the very heart of a much darker universe than ours
Sits the supratemporal Court of Azathoth — Nucleus of Chaos.

From there proceeded to this sphere, timeless outer gods.
Not deities in the usual sense, but rather destructive Dæmon,
Who bathed in the torrid luminescence of primordial galaxies
Long before human prehistory.
Reputedly, Azathoth's own envoy edified the earliest pyramids:
Known to us as the Black Pharaoh: Nyarlathotep.
Through him we learned of that other dread Lord, Cthulhu.
Lying in eldritch slumber among the ruins of his submerged city;
R'lyeh rests deep in the sea waiting for malign astros to align.

Soon Dagon shall roam the land as he now roams marine trenches
Alongside the she-goat Shub-Niggurath and her thousand vile offspring.

Only then will mankind recognize its utter insignificance amid such cosmic competition...
Our futile vanity outmeasured against powers which would be better left unknown!

Image: 'Black Pharaoh' Nyarlathotep from Fall of Cthulhu. AKA The Crawling Chaos, since he is considered an extension of Azathoth (aforementioned).

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Pagan Prayers (The Giving of Thanks)

Pagan Prayers

Be grateful
Sayeth the Goddess
That she is so graceful
Even though we
Unto her act disgraceful

Misnaming what isn't ours
Because life is on loan
From nature, borrowed hours
These primates rebel; alone
Against all that is at ONE

Due to Patriarchal complex
Matriarchy sits convex
And balance eludes us
Constant conflict among specks
Broken trinity \/ /\ baseless triplex

Well come to third millennium
Leave old beliefs behind in ante-annum
And show gratitude for this opportunity
To actually use one's cerebellum
Who else gets such gratuity?

Don't be an ingrate
Try to appreciate
Gifts no less great
For being invisible
Highest Spirit is clearly Indivisible!

Image: Gaia by Alex Grey

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Hermeneutics 2.0

Hermeneutics (n):
1.     the science of interpretation, esp of Scripture
2.     the branch of theology that deals with the principles and methodology of exegesis
3.     philosophy
     a. the study and interpretation of human behaviour and social institutions
     b. (in existentialist thought) discussion of the purpose of life

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Hermeneutics 2.0

- I -

Confusion multiplies exponentially with each consecutive word in any sentence

This is mainly because connotations accompany these like fleas on a Pyrenees

To say little of any agenda at work within either context or subtext

Hence, for Epistemological purposes, we must cleanse the air

Of those lingering phantasms from yesteryear

Such as outmoded religiosity or this arbitrary pomposity...

- II -

Having cut through that haze

We can commence to rephrase

What ever baffles and betrays

Due to common folks' ways

During contemporary days

- III -

It's all mirrors and smoke
Like a bad tasting joke
The Grammar Nazi misspoke
Now roll this page up and toke
'cause we're going for broke

- IV -

Are you confused yet?
Perhaps you have begun piecing
Together what was far flung
Back there by verbal tether? 
Did you decide on whether or not
Homonyms make for fair weather?

- V -

Letters are the DNA of language
Especially any committed to record
Ideas may be portrayed by an actor
But despite many a way to say the same thing
Some dictates become encased inside amber
Solidified so long as pneuma appeals to timeless noumena!

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Proverbial Pinball by Guest Thinker M.P.L.

Editor's Note: Is there no middle ground to be found between the camps of Free-Will and Fate? Isn't life (like playing pinball) more a mix of both? This week's contributor divulges a compelling stream of thought on said subject ...  

M.P.L. Is a world traveller, professional driver, and an accomplished bassist with a flair for the dramatic. He plans on winning the lottery, purchasing an island, then building a biosphere on it and flying into space to found and rule his own colony!

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Proverbial Pinball

Only through the trials and tribulations of this thing called life are we able to consider fate and chance as plausible conditions of the human spirit and persona, because the attributes we personify are in direct cognitive relativity to the Being which we've become due to the experiences we've endured thus far.

We have a choice to reflect upon the days passing. Whatever information we choose to process and how we deal with particular circumstances is completely within our own free will and up to one's ability to cope. 

Options for adapting alongside the developments of any given situation always become available in due process.

Engaging thought patterns and contemplating the directives of a message before reacting to an interaction may rather entice us to reply with a rhetorical question in order to clarify any misconstrued ideas and thus allow for improved communication.

Only through constant reevaluation are we able to inhibit or exhibit changes in ourselves.

Of course the plethora of knowledge acquired from vast past experience can help out just as well - providing that such memories don't result in victimizing us. Correct?

Image: Screenshot from Dragon's Fury pinball game.

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R.I.P.

R.I.P.

Passed on
From a plenitude of pain
Onto platitudes so plain

Everyone's a saint in their eulogy
But neither lament this frail corpse
Nor glorify it unduly

Give credit where it's due
Without speaking untrue
Words twist and memory misremembers

Moving on
Learn from our dear departed
Lessons that shouldn't be discarded:

Any fool can prattle like lowly chattel
Few are those who grab the bull by its horns
Most conform and go along with the common cattle

Don't ever settle
Or be that pot calling the kettle
Black as a widow who mourns

Carry on
If one's legacy benefits all
Another shall surely come to heed the call...

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Capitalist Cult of The Car

"Buy this car to drive to work;

Drive to work to pay for this car." ~ from Hand$hake$ by Metric

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Capitalist Cult of The Car

You wake up early everyday
To commute to a faraway place
Which for all intents and purposes
Could best be described as:
"The Height of Tedium".

You climb the corporate ladder
High enough to afford a new vehicle
The company cafeteria offers donuts
And co-workers congratulate you
With warm welcoming smiles.

That's how we here survive
While economies elsewhere take a dive.
Feeling blue? Fill the tank up for a drive!
Another war wins fuel for us to thrive
Don't think, just work — from nine to five.

Not sure whether or not evolution
Would have wanted it this way?
Repetitive stress makes a fine mess
Within this vicious cycle of duress
But whatever the case, dress to impress!

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Leo Ascending

NOTE: For a more thorough Leo forecast, see: Horoscope 2016.

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Leo Ascending

Pride be your emblem

King and Queen of Savannah

When the concealing curtain lifts

We will witness highest drama

Creative vision soars overhead

Courage roars while cowards dread

Chivalric courtship leads to cubs

Clones lacking romance are already dead

But you were born free and wild within concrete forests

Truly standing up for justice, lest legal system regress

So wage the best of battles unto any bitter end

There's no substituting nobility; although many may pretend!

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Homage To Mercury Retrograde

Author's Note: Whenever a planet appears to be travelling in the opposite direction of its usual path through the Zodiac, Astrologers call it a Retrograde Transit. Of course, this is merely an optical illusion created by our Earthly perspective. Nonetheless, such transits hold a rather special Astrological significance. The most notorious of these is known as Mercury Retrograde (since it occurs 3 to 4 times every year).

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Homage To Mercury Retrograde

Pay close attention now dear siblings

To that Trickster in purest form

But do not shoot the messenger

Because he brings news of a storm ...

Missed calls, mixed messages, misfired e-mails and texts

Blasts from the past, familiar faces, falling in bed with an ex

Expect delays, accidents and costly mistakes

Don't be in too much of a hurry

Or you'll see what waste haste makes

Misunderstandings, communication breakdown, arguments abound

Device malfunctions, forgetfulness and loss all around!

Grounded flights, transport strikes and commerce grinding to a halt

Such incidents are far more common

When young Hermes is at fault

Sign no contracts, hold off projects, don't bother buying phones

Or they will surely bear out marks of retrogressive overtones

Still there's a silver lining

Underneath this awkward show

One's subconscious mind is shining

In pregnant silence, lessons glow!

For further information on the current transit, you may want to read this: ARTICLE.

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Self-Portrait In Epithets (Rare Birthday Edition)

June 27th 1978, San Salvador, capital of El Salvador (Central America). The first stirrings of a lengthy and bloody civil war were being felt as the so-called Cold War reached its boiling point outside the U.S.A.  

Leftist FMLN guerillas were organizing to challenge the right-wing dictatorship of the ARENA party, igniting one of the most brutal conflicts the region has ever known.

Into this political hotbed, a boy who would later renounce his Christian name was then born. Like other Central Americans, Salvadoreans are a Mestizo people who descend from Spanish Conquistadors as well as the Tlaxcaltec tribes that happily helped to overthrow the Aztec Empire. Indeed, the Tlaxcaltec's migration from Mexico over many centuries is why Nahuatl (the imperial Aztec language) is still spoken by some natives so far South.

Itz (Obsidian) Quauhtli (Eagle) had parents who were on either side of the armed struggle and hence fled elsewhere until ending up in North America, where Latinos are the most overlooked and underestimated 'minority' despite being present everywhere.

Having already learnt how to read and write in Spanish, young ItzQuauhtli soon mastered English too.  Still, he couldn't help noticing that even though it was his second language, he seemed to have a much better handle on it than the average Anglophone. This simple fact drove Itz to write with increasing grandiloquence, making a game of how impenetrable his writing was becoming to the majority of readers.

Adopting the tenets of Chilean Anti-Poet Nicanor Parra, ItzQuauhtli took things a step further and started developing many as yet undiscovered variations of Poetry, which may remain thus forever (since he also spurns the commercialized spotlight).

If all this sounds like the tooting of one's own horn, then you're probably onto something. Today, for once indulging in poetic prowess, he lays out a list of his favourite soubriquets for himself ...

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Self-Portrait In Epithets

Chief Without Tribe

Late-Blooming Upstart

Karma's Enforcer

The Most Depressed Optimist

He Who Sings Always

Mr Human Thesaurus

Contradictory Cancerian

Slave To The Music

Him Blessed by Shiva, Beloved of Kali

Ever Moon Thirsty

Destiny's Jester - Outcast On Its Dance Floor

Heretic To All Faiths

Inamorato Incognito

Zavala La Bala

Taco Grande

Dirty D

One Super Paratrooper

A Feline Prince Among Underdogs

Herculean Sisyphus

Balam Quitze (Smiling Jaguar) 

ItzQuauhtli (Obsidian Eagle)

Quetzalcoatl's Final Loyal Descendant

Image: Cuauhtemoc (Diving Eagle - Last Aztec Emperor)

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Meta-Poetics Vol. 3: Reworking Titles

"The words you speak become the house you live in."  

~ Hafiz

 "The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. " 

~ Chuang Tzu

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Meta-Poetics Vol. 3: Reworking Titles

The one where he or she breaks up with "ye"

Yet another unrequited love song

A piece about how dark and mysterious you can be

Protests harping on heartstrings of our common throng

Mourning for loss at end of road or while aborning

Laughter provided at somebody else's expense

Praising heroes; subjecting villains to scorning

Walking a fine line betwixt eloquence and pretense

To hell with it all, Poets are dead in the water!

Stagnating cesspools of egoistic absorption

Imaginary irons close circuits like solder

Determenistic feedback loops give rise to distortion

New Hermeneutics are needed to break this old cycle

Wittgenstein's ladder will no longer suffice

Incorporate the whole gammut from somatic to psycho

Blaspheme every Meme — offer Self — sacrifice!

Image: Ladder To The Moon by Georgia O'Keefe

Further Readings:

Meta-Poetics Vol. 2

Meta-Poetics Vol. 1

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Felix Felidae

Felix Felidae

The House Cat does groove with subtle rhythms (quite smooth).

Dubstep, Jungle, Trance and Techno, all hark back to hippie Disco.

Hosanna! Worship our global supersoul with pussyfoot Pronoia.

From sundown to dawn may funky Electro rock thy Casbah!

Rush of plasma, pumped up jam leaves us out of breath like asthma.

Out of body ~ free your mind ~ pop those Mollies ~ sip some wine.

Malkin libertines; shrug away life's troubles by busting liquid bubbles.

Digits | pop n' lock | tutting / Hotshots look too cool while strutting

Purr on ye happy kitties, whether aged or younger bitties.

This temple has kept the tempo—so now—Run The Trap past GO!

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Immortals of The 27 Club (Mythic May Vol. 12)

"Though the favourites of the gods die young, they also live eternally in the company of gods." 

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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Immortals of The 27 Club

Hail Robert Johnson (1911 – 1938), who is rumored to have sold his soul to Satan at a crossroads for supernatural guitar skills. His influence on The Blues and Rock & Roll remains undeniable.

Pay heed to Brian Jones (1942 – 1969), founder of The Rolling Stones and a talented multi-instrumentalist. If it weren't for him, we might never have heard of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Bow down to Jimi Hendrix (1942 – 1970), Voodo Child and left-handed guitar god. Pioneer of high-gain distortion, feedback and phaser effects. Perfector of the Wah-Wah pedal.

Hats off to Janis Joplin (1943 – 1970), Queen of Psychedelic Soul, whose explosive vocal chords blew everyone's mind at Woodstock and during Festival Express. Her voice reverberates in memory.

Genuflect before Jim Morrison (1943 – 1971), Dionysus incarnate, Lizard King, rock poet and sex icon. His heart fused with an American Indian chief's soul to make him the shaman of an era.

Hark Kurt Cobain (1967 – 1994), spokesman for Generation X, whose mad lyrical wisdom pierced the psyche of MTV audiences everywhere. Forever abide in highest Nirvana.

Give it up for Amy Winehouse (1983 – 2011), who wouldn't say yes to rehab. A magnificent musician and vocalist, well aware that you only live once, yet now she lives on in kindred company.

All tragic examples of what this world does to its best and brightest... Like brief Roman candles, lighting up encroaching night. May they shine eternally in our collective remembrance!

Image (from left to right): Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse.

Further Readings:

Full List of 27 Club Members 

Mythic May 2012

Mythic May 2010

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Ye Gods, What Are Thee? (Mythic May Vol. 11)

"Light and matter are both single entities, and the apparent duality arises in the limitations of our language."

"There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality."

"The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite."

~ Werner Heisenberg

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Ye Gods, What Are Thee?

Who be the gods and goddesses, if not we?

They are fundamental archetypes within the Zero-Point-Field.

A Priori noumena underlying A Posteriori phenomena.

Resounding echoes from past and parallel universes.

Constantly collapsing wave functions of quantum potential.

Luminous forms coalescing within our Ethereal Noosphere.

Celestial bodies vibrating at subliminal frequencies.

Intelligence beyond thought; knowledge needing no words.

Neuronal apprehension of supramundane comprehension.

Primordial Buddhas awakening to their own intrinsic transcendence ...

Soham - Tat Tvam Asi!

Image: Athena springing from the mind of Zeus.

Further Readings:

Mythic May 2012

Mythic May 2010

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Axis Mundi (Mythic May Vol. 10)

"History is ending because the dominator culture has led the human species into a blind alley, and as the inevitable chaostrophie approaches, people look for metaphors and answers ... what we need is a new myth, what we need is a new true story that tells us where we're going in the universe and that true story is that the ego is a product of pathology ..." 

~ Terence McKenna

Read the whole article HERE.

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Axis Mundi

Oh Enkidu — lead us lost humans

Back to those ancient forests

Beyond these cities' woes

Mankind be won by nature!

For we've seen from space

The damage we're wreaking

Upon Gaia's gorgeous face

A virus threatens humanity's place

Our technology ought to be wed

To the ecology, 'til all are fed

So that we might learn by analogy

The actual function of spiritual symbology

As it stands, nothing is sacred

Virgin mother desecrated, splayed naked

How can anything evolve in isolation?

Mistaken domination brings about damnation!

Lo Enkidu — we humans verge on extinction

There's not enough identifying (only distinction)

Poetry is powerless to move

People who refuse to improve.

Image: Gilgamesh mourning his friend and equal, Enkidu (who was created by the gods to help him).

Further Readings:

Mythic May 2012

Mythic May 2010

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