Hunting Fire Dragons in Moravia
I’d read a rumor about a fire breathing dragon that flew around the Castle of Drahotuš near Olomouc. I’m sorry but I can’t resist investigating such rumors. So today, I and a friend set off to the Hell valley looking for the ruins of an old Castle and to see if we could find the dragon. We drove the 1 hour 20 minute trip from Brno in beautiful weather eventually arriving at Podhoři around noon. Then began the search for the Castle as it didn’t appear to be signposted at all. In the end, we asked a villager who gave us a circular route to get there and back. Hrad Drahotuš isn’t very well know to tell you the truth. It hasn’t been well preserved unlike its nearby
Read More »The Trigger for Chasing the Shaman
The idea fr my new book – Chasing the Shaman – a sort of follow on to my very first book – Inner Journeys – came from a startling and accidental meet up with a real live shaman here in Brno. Unfortunately, that first time when he scared me in an out of the way seating area beneath the Castle here, I didn’t have the guts to ask him what he was doing and why? And perhaps, more importantly, would he please teach me! I know some people will simply think I have a strong imagination – I do! – but I have been watching for signs of this guy for two Moons now – yes, Moons. He is constantly working with is stones and other objects in plain sight
Read More »Spammers’ Karma
Last week, in my business email account, I started getting a lot of messages coming back saying – undeliverable. Puzzled, I asked our internet guy to take a look. He soon figured out that someone was sending emails and making it look as if they came from my account. Yes – they can do that. They aren’t coming from your account but it looks to the receiver as if they are. What can I do? I asked. Nothing really, was the response. Great! However, I was wanting to know who was being emailed by Notme. Our web guy took some time but soon came back with the scary fact that somehow, the emails being spammed by Notme were the people who had sent us a message at our general email
Read More »Burning Witches
Tonight in the Czech Republic is know as Burning Witches. Pretty brutal name right? So, it’s 30th April and the day before Beltane and right there is a clue perhaps to the origin of Burning Witches. What people do is make an effigy of a woman suing two sticks and whatever else they can find and then they burn the effigy on the bonfire while celebrating with beer, wine and food. Of course, it is a pagan tradition in which the old woman of winter gives way to the maiden of springtime, rebirth and fecundity. What I find interesting is that it is similar to the broader slavic tradition of burning and effigy of Marzanna – the Goddess of winter – usually around the Spring Equinox. In the latter case,
Read More »Common Sense Anyone?
I read today a beautiful poem about Baba Yaga at a website written by a slavic woman living in the USA. Her website had a sub heading – Fighting the Patriarchy at every opportunity….. A quick glance around the site and it was obvious to me at any rate that contrary to fighting the Patriarchy, she was perpetuating it. Her website would have made Joseph Stalin proud and that isn’t Matriarchy – its left wing ideology – a belief system that if approached with a critical and logical viewpoint would immediately identify itself as rabidly patriarchical. None the less – the poem was very good. I watch the world with my peculiar viewpoint. I have remarked on many occasions recently that the way my mind works it puts me at
Read More »Beware Stories of Our Demise …..
Since its Earth day, lets look back at expert predictions from the 1970s… and then reflect on why we still believe these so called experts in Government and media… I’m guessing that No.10 is the only one you could claim happened and doesn’t No7 sound like the climate change alarmists of today pushing their unproven pseudoscientific hypothesis? Just look at No. 11 and consider there is so much oil in 2020 it is priced negatively…. We never learn that humanity is an opportunistic species well adapted to change with the ingenuity to solve almost all problems….. Thats the truth people. Wake up! 1. “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” — Harvard biologist George Wald 2. “We are in an
Read More »The Quality of Humanity
I saw a post on a musicians forum today – it was a meme pointing out how many likes a female selfie got versus a song someone spent hours working on. Another person commented maybe it was the quality of the music? I was scrolling through instagram last night and I noticed how some twenty something had posted a selfie of herself more or less naked. 22k likes. A photographer had posted a beautiful picture of a church. 2 likes. Sums up the modern world really doesn’t it. Artistry and talent – 0 Pointless nude selfie – 6 I wondered what that meant about quality, people and their values. I went back to the musicians forum and posted my thoughts – What does it say about the music? Nothing. It
Read More »Is there meaning in chaos?
Just recently, it seems like everywhere I look, people are trying to give meaning to current events. ‘It’s a plague on humanity, punishment for some collective crime’, we are told by some. It’s a plague sent by God to punish us for some other collective sin’, say others. Frankly, I grow weary of all of this. Did anyone stop and think that perhaps we live in a chaotic system and this is what chaotic looks like? Does there have to be a reason for these events? Does there have to be a super power or deity behind them? And, if there was a deity or intelligence behind these events – what meaning would that have? Surely, to us, it would be chaotic and unknowable? Why do we even ask these
Read More »What Works? My Inability to Lose Weight
Although in lockdown, we are allowed out to walk dogs and take walks – so long as we are only one or two people and wearing a face mask of some type. So I still get my daily exercise and combine it with my bicycle and weights. According to my apple watch anyway, I am burning 3500 or so calories a day. Neither do I think I am over eating – although there are days I have a bit. But, this last 2-3 years, I slowly gain weight. It doesn’t matter what I do. I have tried; Low carb No carb Carb cycling Eating only in a 6 hour window daily Breakfast/No breakfast Fasting Swimming a km every day and more … Nothing works! I believe I eat less calories
Read More »Life is Fun. Live it.
There are times when people make snide remarks to me like who do you think you are? There are others who think that my interest in certain topics is a reason to make fun of me. Some marvel at the range of things I do – ‘how do you find the time?’ they ask. It has been like that all my life and when I was younger, the unkind words hurt and wounded me. Even now, there are times when I realize that whatever it is inside of me that drives me, it often puts me counter to mass thinking, fashion or ideas. But sometime around 20 or so years ago, something clicked. It was this. It is my life. I have one shot. Whatever is going on around me,
Read More »