Nefandous

Daily: Words ~ Archaic

Back to books in my Amazon kindle app...I just finished The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith: The End Of The Story, which is oddly enough, the first collection, written between 1925-1930. Isn't the best book I've ever read, but I read every word. Because, yes, I'm a word junkie.

Especially special Clark Ashton Smith wordsmithing:
contradistinction
athwart
discried
riven
erubescent
acromalegy
allopath
thews
carycitides
trow
nefandous
aspergillus
scayrs
adamantine
telluric
lustrums
Some of these I knew, but I love being able to press the word and a dictionary definition pops up. In the case of this book the dictionary mostly came up with blank. A real contradistinction. All these words should have been included in a virtual dictionary. (flounces from the room)

    "Once, or maybe twice, in a lustrum,
         Too much wine puts me in a flustrum,
         And when I feel gaga,
         At the end of the saga
         I fall down face-first in Ligustrum" ~ Bard of Buffalo Bayou

Rock Feet

Daily: Rock ~ Time

How long ago were these rocks buried one hundred miles below earth or ocean?
Were they boulders, or mountains,
or just sand, becoming?
Were they once wet and steaming,
or surrounded by ice and freezing?

Flat rocks warm on bare feet,
sharp gravel and no shoes, what was I thinking? I've washed my feet in glacier water, and didn't pause to wonder how far those pebbles were drug to get where I was standing.
I've picked up little pebbles and eventually bigger ideas; if I can lift it and get it to the vehicle before Rob catches me at it, it is mine, all mine, and it is under your seat so sit lightly.

"Life begets rock, rocks beget life." ~ Bob Hazen 1948-

Lamprey Thoughts

Daily Draw: Druid Animal Oracle ~ Water Dragon

I find myself in the mythological world of giant lamprey, creatures who lie deep in lakes, ponds, wells. The point of the card being deeply held knowledge, potential false memory,  and interests we haven't a clue we are interested in until they show up in our life and door knocker our brain.

Books and eyesight for instance. I see what you see, except I see it crooked, with depth perception always waiting to pitch me sideways. With few exceptions I now read books on my kindle app, so peruse my daily BookBub for reading fodder. The point being exposure to acres of books I would not otherwise considered.

Some I've liked well enough to save for rereading.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Salt: A World History, Our Crime Was Being Jewish:, A Street Cat Named Bob, Ghosts in the Snow, Life on the Mississippi, Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales, Border Babes, Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs, Flatlander: The Collected Tales of Gil "The Arm" Hamilton, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed:, Brother Hermitage - The Shorts, The Shotgun Arcana, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, to name a few. There are many others I've speed read in parts, a few I've deleted after reading a page or two.

I'm reminded by the little island behind the lamprey, of the second image, which resembles my own stomping grounds.  I'd like to be there with a quilt spread over the ground, and endless hamper of semi-healthy foods, and the books of the world, in my own little well of deep thoughts.

Hope and Despair

Daily Draw: Druid Animal Oracle ~ Frog

The frogs have been singing here for weeks. Glorious sound. Many voices, seemingly able to all start and stop the same instant. At the farm I thought a cow was in distress because it's lowing went on and on. No. Bullfrog. Sometimes as big as a plate. We have frogs here no bigger than a thumbnail. With huge voices.

I'm reminded by this frog of this post. Is my dark outlook on life and world me in the well with the frog? Possibly...I hold no hope at all for our current civilization. Odd when I have such a rich and well lived life of  my own.

"Civilization is fragile and highly ambiguous.
To hope in ourselves would be a big gamble." ~ Christiaan Mostert   Hope: Challenging the Culture of Despair 

Swords Upon Swords

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 2 of Swords

Release of aggression and conflict. Would you call the color of peace peach?
There was a time not so long ago, two or three groups could have a war and the rest of the world rolled along ignoring them, other than making money selling weapons to all sides.

I'm reminded by this card a war apart is no longer a viable option. Yes the old gray men are still providing weapons built on blood. No, I do not expect to see peace of any kind anywhere in my life. Now we can mount our computers and bully war anyone anytime. On the other hand, if I were inclined, and I'm not...I could make a quilt out of swords. I'm haven't a clue what minecraft
accomplishes, but I doubt it encourages peace.
on

Wasn't Me

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ Dark Magician

This deck has two Mages, the Dunkle and the Helle. Both must have a system, the Helle is bright but perhaps more sleight of hand conscious. The Dunkle seems direct and simple.

I'm reminded by this card how darkness brings us in because it does seem the easy way. Note unseen in the dark, left bottom, ball and chain, right bottom, scepter. The easy gets convoluted quickly, yet it is all just us, putting our own power of thought and action in pretendy hands, somewhere we can lay blame and run away.

"Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas." ~ William S. Burroughs 1914-1997

What Is Real

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 7 of Swords

The Thoth title for this card is Futility, in the Golden Dawn, Unstable Effort. The center sword is being held back and distracted by the other swords, preventing clarity of thought.

I'm reminded by this card, in today's connected 24/7 world, we limit our ability to think straight. Inability to think in the 7 of Swords, inability to carry through in the 7 of Wands. What stress is real, and what is simply time suck?

"Question reality, especially if it contradicts the evidence of your hopes and dreams." ~ Robert Brault 1963-

Worry Box Tres

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 7 of Wands

The valor to stand for rights and opinions. And limits?

This card reminds me, in my country of freedoms, to cool my jets, stop racing the engine, don't sweat the small stuff...those freedoms apply to everyone and much of what we call stress is artificial.

Worry Box Uno

Who Is Driving The Bus?

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ High Priestess

Ruts and mindfulness yada yada. I've missed one point completely, the thing that has driven my life in every way for seven years.

This is the thirty-fifth time the High Priestess has been my daily card. And the first time she has managed to yank knowledge out of my brain and leave it squirming in the daylight. No wonder I'm wandering, lost-like. I've come to whatever I am when my brain is home and finds the lights back on. Will it jinx me to recognize depression isn't running the show?

"If you know, to recognize that you know, if you don't know, to realize that you don't know: That is knowledge." ~ Confucius  551-479 BC

Ruts and Routines

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 4 of Swords

Who could say it better than the artist?
It is a picture of waiting and resting. Be patient, the right time has not come yet.

I'm reminded by this card of my impatience with ruts and routines.  This is how bad it is, I dusted our bedroom this morning. For something to do before I do all the things I normally do of a morning.

"Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy." ~ Henri de Lubac 1896-1991

Derutting

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 6 of Coins/Earth

Dimmi: What can you give?

I've been thinking about the mental rut post. And ways to get out of it even when my pleasure is involved. My 2017 words, why not, and this card of giving, caused me to take an abrupt turn, and start my day in reverse.

I'm remind by this card and my propensity to run out of steam, no law says I have to start my day blogging. That started when I was a working and if I didn't do it early it didn't get done.  No law says I need to get to the laundry on Sundays. That task started when I had my beauty shop and Sunday was towel day.  I don't have to start with a piece of fruit, that dates back years when I was doing SparkPeople. Guess what. I'm starting with yogurt. When I get around to it.

I'm giving to myself today. But if I do the same again tomorrow is my new rut filling with footsteps? Being mindful I think is the key, rather than rote.

Honorific

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 2 of Swords/Air

Dimmi: Where is the balance of respect?

I know where this is with friends, my trouble is with people I don't know personally.

I'm reminded by this card to read the press with a grain of salt.
To read every review on Amazon with a grain of salt.
To read every magazine cover with a brick of salt.
To avoid mob mentality, even when it is the comfortable place.
The more I dislike someone the more I use their honorific lest I revert to the childish. Some days it is a hard slog yet respect for others is another form of self respect.

"Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself." ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907-1972

Compass

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 2 of Fire/Wands

Dimmi: What is attained here?
Image: Compass fixed to a star.

Odd how often we think we are zipping off in a fresh direction, with shiny new ideas, only to find we've simply deepened our own rut.

I'm reminded by this image I hate my mental rut.

Herd Bubbles

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ Page of Wands/Fire

Dimmi: What kindles your enthusiasm or passion?

Occasionally sipping the kool-ade of mob mentality, akin to telling our folks "but everyone is wearing/doing/going/buying".

I'm reminded by this card it never was everybody. It was a few vocal people all doing or talking or going or buying, so it seemed like everyone. I doubt I've grown out of that bubble potential, but now I avoid the vocal folk and so far it is working.

"Mankind think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." ~ Charles Mackay 1814-1889

Delve

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 4 of Swords/Air

Dimmi: What rest, space, or growing room is needed?

These look like disembodied arms at first glance but they are cupping the belly, like a woman pregnant or carrying a baby.

I'm reminded by this card, there is more to the story than what we glean superficially or supposing, if we'd slow down and delve.

"I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it." ~ Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862)

365 Days

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 3 of Wands/Fire

Dimmi: What have you conceived? What is ready to be born?

This year I've taken on Kathryn Kerr's 365 quilt challenge. Not for the faint of heart! 3" blocks when sewn into the quilt,  with lots of pieces. I didn't conceive the idea, Kerr did.












I'm reminded by this card my conception of Kerr's challenge is so brilliant  weird different I can hardly believe I thought of it.  Well...we'll see at the end of the year if it was brilliant or different or a total cluster. One of the blocks this week had 42 pieces and took me 4.5 hours to complete.

"Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use." ~ Earl Nightingale 1921-1989

Chain Gang

Daily Draw: Di Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 7 of Swords/Air

Dimmi: What action needs taking?

Destroying mother's dementia persona in my mind. Breaking rocks in the hot sun on a chain gang would be easier.

I'm reminded by Di Vinci's study of the christ child, and the perception of a small white boy who grew to be the white jesus with blue eyes. You could break down a mountain of rocks and that perception wouldn't change. Weird that.

"Humans see what they want to see." ~ Rick Riordan 1964-  The Lightning Thief

Why Us?

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 5 of Cups

Failed expectations. Did we fail to live up to our own expectations?
Or were our expectations doomed to fail before we ever got there?

I'm reminded by this desolate view of the six of us that hung out in high school. All six of us were married within the year following graduation. Five of us are still working that original field of diamonds. I wonder what made our little group so different from the average of forty to fifty percent US marriages which end in divorce?

Amongst the dehydrated crevices of a desert earth you will stumble upon your diamonds; in between the dry skulls and cracked bones." ~  C. JoyBell C.

Brain Shade

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 9 of Swords

Mellen based this card in part on The City Of Dreadful Night

      But I strode on austere;
      No hope could have no fear. James Thomson 1884

Suggesting between hope and fear can lie a third choice, mental chaos.

I'm reminded by this card, the folk with big ones insist we barely touch on the human brain's potential. The fourth choice, total confusion.  No limit of choices actually. And most have their own shade of cruelty.

Ignominious Tombstone

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 8 of Swords

Ariadne was a minor goddess of vegetation. How is that for a ignominious tombstone? While she was vegetating she gave Theseus a sword to kill the Minotaur, and a ball of twine so he could find his way back out of the labyrinth.

I'm reminded by this story, interference is just that. Everything from yanking someone's chain to lies to black balling to killing the Minotaur. Even shouting Custard! to a custardless man.

"The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people." ~ Ezra Pound  1885-1972

Original Findings

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ Ace of Swords

What did we know and when did we know it?
In my memory that sentence relates to Watergate and the Nixon impeachment proceedings. I googled to see where it originated, guess what, it has been (over)used in relation to multiple subjects.

I'm reminded of the sword of intellect and the application of, there is nothing new. But what and when are good beginnings. Late, but better than not at all.

 "knowledge was renamed and became remembering". Bloom's Taxonomy 1956

Circular Shadow

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ Aeon

The earth is flat and so much more, we understood as truth and turns out not. The old Aeon is gone, the new is rolling past us.

I'm reminded by the new Aeon, the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) along with Eratosthenes, Posidonius and El Mamun posited the Earth was round, because of the circular shadow it cast on the Moon during lunar eclipses. We've been moving forward on self brain power since. Maybe a little faster now the round world is full of smarty-pants with computers. Pretty exciting new Aeon.

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." ~ Ivy Baker Priest 1905-1975

Vigilance

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 4 of Coins

One of those posts with dozens of paths for the mind to follow.
I got nothing...

"the stability of material wealth is powerful but limiting in that it requires constant vigilance" Melleen

Catagory...

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ Hierophant

The Rinpoche holds the bell of wisdom and the vajra of truth.

I can but wish. A recent computer update set my spell check back to pretty dumb. It recognizes a misspelled word but the dictionary it works from is neither wise nor truthful. Sigh. I had the old spell check trained in Sharynese. It used to ring the bell and shout "you'll NEVER learn how to spell catagory".  It was right.

"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places." ~  A.A. Milne 1882-1956  Winnie-the-Pooh

Overage

Daily Draw: Rosetta Tarot ~ 3 of Cups

Hold your blessings with open palms.

I'm reminded by this card of perspective. Home and family, food and health. Absolute blessings yet tenuous...they can all be gone tomorrow. What about the blessings we control, earthly goods for instance.  What about the closets/cupboards/drawers/storage units full of overage? Gets a little tricky being grateful for that which crushes us.

"What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough." ~ Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956  Jungle of Cities

Wisdom or Understanding?

Daily Draw: Rosetta Tarot ~ Empress

Her Hebrew letter is daleth (door)
Her tree of life path is Chokmah (wisdom) to Binah (understanding).

I'm reminded by this card of all the things we know and do not understand. Of all the wisdom we attain and cannot apply.
There are three crescent moons on this card.
A waxing crescent moon, or a young moon, is seen in the west after sunset.  A waning crescent moon or old moon, is seen in the east before dawn. Quite amazing information, but I haven't a clue how to apply it.

"Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Cratered by imperfections." ~  Tahereh Mafi 1988-  Shatter Me

Teens

Daily Draw: Rosetta Tarot ~ Page/Princess of Swords

Passionate irresponsibility ~ Meleen

Now there was the good old days...but at least it got it all out of my system.

"They come here thinking they are one in a million. Then they realize they are one of millions." ~ Detective Lewis ITV

On Fire

Daily Draw: Rosetta Tarot ~ 8 of Wands

Our brain channel.  Open, receptive, collating, amazing.