THE BADGER Autumn Winter Volume

THE BADGER The Badger is a fierce animal, very much respected and honored both in Northern American Native traditions and in European Celtic ones.

A badger will not let go and will continue tenaciously to look for another way to tackle his/her goal, just like a good healer will not let go his/her search until the best solution is found for the person in need. Badgers have their homes underground, so that they can go to the roots of things, the good healer does the same and keeps looking until she/he can find the most profound reason for a dis-ease or a psychological issue.

We use the term healer in the very broad sense of somebody who takes care of a another person, be it a MD, a nurse, a psychotherapist, a physiotherapist, a masseuse, a spiritual healer.

Whenever there is a person in need and somebody who takes care of her/him, that is a healer.

Sometimes the need is subtler and more profound than a simple medical intervention, the human touch is needed and it really is the Panacea that cures all diseases.

We believe all artistic expressions in their beauty, science for everyday life, spirituality, philosophy, food and the healing arts are beneficial to restoring that balance, health and sense of worth that each and every human being deserves.

We offer you THE BADGER, the persistent healer, all the articles come from experts in different fields, each person has his/her own idea of what a balanced life is, they are here to pass on information, give inspiration, receive your comments, suggestions, contributions.

Each human being holds in his/her hands at least one of the keys, let's continue our quest!

THE BADGER

Year 5 Volume 2

September 2019 Dear Readers, here I am, listening to the delicate sound of the small waves gently kissing the shore, looking out in the distance at the little villages dotted around the almost circular volcanic lake.

What a sense of peace and tranquillity, of timelessness. Here I can hear my thoughts and re-organize them. What a contrast with the big, noisy, busy city where everybody seems to hurry around in perennial haste, without ever being on time.

I am not extolling the praise of country living over the urban one: to each his/her own. But I have made my choice and choices define us.

At the end of the day, it is important to look into our inner mirror feeling happy for the choices we have made.

However different, far out, outlandish they may seem to others, we know why we made those choices.

We are never stuck in a place/situation/relationship: we can always choose differently any time or we can re-commit to our choices with our daily labour and full presence.

I wish you all a good darkening season, where the fruits of our work come to fruition and we can start dreaming the new seeds to plant next spring.

Antonella Vicini Director THE BADGER Quarterly LTD Cover photo by Antonella Vicini, courtesy Non Company Graphic lay out Antonella Vicini You can find all our past volumes, videos and our blog in our website: http://www.thebadgerquartelyltd.com/ and links on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/THEBADGERQuarterlyMagazine/

CONTENTS Equinox in Harmony Choices Life Craft Poetry Into the Matter Voices from the Stars Becoming Medicine Magic Quilting Away Human Lathe Biosas

F. Rico A.Vicini F. Lehrman G. D'Annunzio - D.Fisher A. Exo L.Bottagisio D.Kopacz A.Rooke L.Perry T. Tewell M.Brancaforte

CONTENTS Druidry

P.Carr Gomm

Under the Skin

F.Gandini S.Fumagalli

Apothecary

Jo Dunbar

Food is my Ally

A.Vicini

Travelling North

R.Vicini

Entertaining Interlude

The Authors

C.Borromei

short bios and photos

Thanks

and links to previous volumes

Adverts

products and services we believe in

EQUINOX IN HARMONY Francis Rico September 23rd Equinox, 2019 Nature always gives plenty of notice to all of her creatures about what's next: the hot days but cold nights of Indian Summer presage Winter.

Flower buds in early Spring hold the promise of Summer.

And every morning, the sky lights up well before dawn.

There is a profoundly deep gift natural beauty and wonder held for us within this past Equinox, Monday morning, September 23.

It's a gift that illuminates the new world emerging - showing us that there is a way of love without fear.

Global mystic, visionary seer and Holy Man, Grandfather Tslew-teh-koyeh ("Beautiful Painted Arrow") spoke recently of this opening, this opportunity: "We're at the end of calendar time - at the end of artificial created structures imposed on our lives. What can emerge now is a new world that we create with our hearts. Our intentions for a compassionate and caring world are now supported by all of creation."

He's talking about the new world we all know is possible.

Yet, here we are - running around like crazy people just to keep up – and dealing with realities that are anything but compassionate and caring.

In the old wisdom traditions, what we call balance, and see as something precarious and very easily upset, was understood to be harmony.

Being in balance is being in harmony with the flow of life's energies.

Knowing this brings a new light to what this Equinox makes possible: equal day and equal night.

At the moment of the Equinox, an energetic opening of deep harmony will occur - an opening you can pass through - passing from the "rat-race" into Presence - passing from our cultural three ring circus with it's hyped up flashing mindshare grabbing distractions to connection with the deep flow of love and sparkling intelligence that is Creation evolving in Awareness.

It won't spoil the surprise if I tell you that we're being offered the opportunity to co-create reality from our hearts, including everything we've learned and everything we've yearned for - peace, abundance worth sharing, well-being for all, and a compassionate world.

In a cosmic sense, according to Grandfather Joseph, a new world is as easy to create as a new day: this Equinox sings the song of a new world in harmony.

It helps to be in a place of wild beauty - outside under the open sky. And it's good to gather with your family and friends - your community. Because after all, we're all in this together, celebrating the gift of life!

But where ever you are, and, even if you're by yourself (not really, because you're with all of us!) become quiet.

Let a Living Ceremony move through you - a recognition of the sacred.

Let yourself feel this deeply harmonious gift filling you with its luminosity.

Listen! with love, Francis Rico Bodega Bay, California

CHOICES Antonella Vicini The hall is completly covered in white, so that we can have no perception of where the stage begins and ends.

The lights are minimal, after all this is the result of a workshop, not yet a proper show.

The tension of discovery is palpable in the hall, we are all going to be lead on another journey by the wise hands of a master magician.

One after the other the dancers walk, jump, slide on the stage, as white as the set itself, almost invisible, if it weren't for the shadows dancing and multiplying their images.

Then one of them breaks the monotony of colors, wearing blue, then another and another, then red appears and their transformation begins.

Inspired by the cycle of frescoes by Luca Signorelli in the Duomo of Orvieto, Non Company has produced a series of workshops from 2018 (Finis Mundi) and now Gloria Caeli exploring Apocalypse and the Final Judgement. All this amazing work will become APOCALISSE NOVA in 2020, a perfomance co-produced by Non Company with the Asperformance, HochXTheater Munich.

I have had the good fortune of seeing different stages of this work and, after each one, I can really say they were needed.

Exploring our human lives and destiny, the difficulty of letting go of our attachments, even to our dark side, feeling the final judgement upon us, might make us more aware and accellerate our lightening up process.

By the way, who is judging? Who is being judged?

The only real infernal judge and censor is inside each one of us.

Sometimes pushing us up to be our best, sometimes pulling us down.

So, again, it is a matter of choices, who do I choose to be on a daily basis?

Do I walk my talk? Or have I even forgotten the talk?

As Alessandro Pintus, the driving force of this project, told us after the performance: for a dancer it is essential to go beyond what he/she knows, to risk something into the unknown, where all the beauty resides.

Divided between good and evil, each dancer has experimented inside their bodies the polarities so clearly and beautifully portrayed in the frescoes inspired by Dante's (Divine) Comedy.

The body could incarnate light and darkness, human and angelic, masculine and feminine and the tension created ephemeral, yet unforgettable shapes in the air.

It is almost impossible to explain the beauty of what I saw, even more difficult it is to share the deep emotion that touched me and left me in tears during the slow flight towards the higher sky.

We are made of body, mind, emotion, spirit and infinite nuances of each of these elements, the Butoh training explores them all and gives us viewers the entire human experience, so that we can appreciate it, cherish it and live it fully.

Even the gods need to incarnate in order to proceed in their spiritual journey, so this human path is honorable and needs to be respected by all of us, giving our best each step of the way.

This is my quest at the moment, the questions I asked at the beginning are my own, although I do believe they are the eternal questions for each human being who wants to have some understanding of the world within and without.

I admire the courage of the dancers who make their bodies alchemical forges where the elements of their physical vechicles are mixed, refined and transformed into new substances.

I wonder if they even realize what they are creating while they are performing for us. Probably not and I think it is appropriate that they are unaware of their work, only in hindsight, maybe a few years down the road, they will know what a gift they gave us.

When we are deep into the process of creation, we cannot think of anything else, the labour of birthing a new project takes over any other concern, even the comprehension of what we are actually doing.

Isn't it what life is all about? Being so caught up in it, so deep into its processes of light and darkness, joy and pain, success and failure, that we forget to look up into the sky and be grateful for the abundance of choices we have daily.

The development of human life, from the instinctual stage to the height of mysticisim, has always been my life motivation, the push behind my back, urging me forward, so that another step and yet another could appear on my path and lead me onward.

Life is worth living in every condition, it is an amazing and incredible gift to be honored.

The dancers of Apocalisse Nova reminded me of the ancient knights who left in search of the Truth beyond all truth, of the explorers into new lands, of the scientists exploring the universe both physically and metaphorically.

This year the human race has celebrated 50 years since the first human expedition to the moon (July 20 1969), a space station new mission will launch on the day before the anniversary.

At this point in time we are again collectively looking at the stars for new homes for our descendants, perhaps because we know we are poisoning our Earth home. What strikes me is that the future attempts on the moon will be organized together by different countries, as a joint effort, the space is huge and going into it together makes more sense than facing it alone.

Weren't our ancestors doing the same when they left Africa so long ago in search of new lands? In spite of all the technological advances, the phobias and mental issues created by our contemporary hyper technological world, we are still, luckily, social beings, we need to be together to face the great darkness: the void of the universe surrounding our planet.

This seems to be the direction indicated in this amazing performance that has given me the inspiration for my article.

From the humble and obscure beginnings, human beings have learnt how to unravel their potential towards the light, the immensity within and without, but the only way to conquer them both is in loving cooperation with each other, choosing the mystical path daily.

Antonella Vicini

What Is “LifeCraft?”

Fredric Lehrman

To begin, let’s say that “LifeCraft” must include skills that are important for everybody, regardless of culture, language, social status, educational level, physical descriptors, financial resources, or most other factors in a long list of the ways we identify each other.

The list of LifeCrafts would include self-awareness, ability to observe and participate in group activities without loss of one’s uniqueness, efficient use of one’s own mind and body, the skills of solitude as well as the confidence and sensitivity to participate in groups of all sizes while honoring our own chosen boundaries. Add to such categories all the ways we are offered opportunities for new knowledge and to use our ability to integrate what is useful and meaningful with what we already are and know.

In summary, LifeCraft concerns what we are able to be in all that we can do and enjoy. LifeCraft skills are of value to ourselves and potentially to all those with whom we may meet on the road of life. These innate or acquired productive “habits” and “freedoms” in each of us are part of who we are. They allow us to enter new situations and meet new people from a place of open curiosity founded on self-acceptance rather than insecurity and fear of rejection. To the extent that we have LifeCraft skills supporting our unique traits and talents, we can join with others to achieve together that which can be shared, thereby enriching all who may want to broaden their experience of Self and Life.

We started this curriculum as our bodies took form in the privacy of our mother’s womb, even before we arrived in the outer world of bright light, open space, gravity, and all that first most profound transition of birth includes. Every one of you reading these words entered your body from a different realm that some people remember, while most do not. But there is increasing reason to allow for the possibility that we do not arise from nothing, as we come with genetic “knowledge” from our ancestors latent inside us, and possibly even with a plan that may perhaps become the focus of our highest purpose.

My own story led me at a pivotal point to a group of people who were researching the effects of our individual birth experience on later repetitive patterns of unconscious choices that could be traced through the entire life of each individual. I will go further into that information in later articles, but for now I’ll share an example of how deep this aspect of our mind can take us.

While assisting clients in exploring a simple process of relaxed breathing, I have witnessed several spontaneous “rememberings” of overheard prenatal conversations, as early as the fifth month of pregnancy, between parents anxious over what the arrival of this baby would mean in their daily lives, such as new financial demands and emotional responsibilities they might face in caring for that child. The parents were very worried about whether they would be able to cope.

How it is even possible that we can hear these voices and understand what is being said, even before we learn to speak a language, is certainly a fascinating question. Memory itself is amazing, and we will explore the mysteries of consciousness and perception later in this series as we go deeper into the unfolding of self-awareness.

To validate what these clients had reported subjectively, I suggested that, if their parents were still alive, the recall of these “dreamlike” memories could be presented to them by their now adult child to see what kind of response the actual living parent might have.

The first time I saw this happen, the client, Mike M. (then in his forties), took my advice and called his mother right after his first breathing session.

He asked her, without explaining why, whether she remembered how she and his father felt about the upcoming changes to their own lives while she was pregnant with him, her first child. When she replied that they were both very happy to become parents, he asked, “Didn’t you ever feel panicky about how you were going to pay for all the things my newborn presence would require over the first few years?”

His mother’s reaction, he said, was a shocked, “HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?” He then recounted the conversation he had somehow “heard” during his breathing session. She was as amazed as he was, because she recalled saying those exact phrases.

Given this validation, and with more time to notice the surfacing of more memories, he was gradually able to understand for the first time how his underlying feelings of guilt throughout his early years about the stress his birth had brought for his parents. These unspoken tensions in his family had driven him to compensate by becoming a billionaire by his midthirties. He realized now for the first time that he had blamed himself for their stress, even though he was absolutely intrinsically innocent.

Only after this astonishing personal realization was he able to finally relax and breathe freely, enjoying his wealth, and using his acquired financial skills without the lingering shadow of misplaced guilt he felt for his mother’s anxieties.

There is a great deal of genetic theory concerning how we inherit patterns from our ancestors, whether it be physical resemblance or personality traits of one or both parents. However, some people, seem to “skip a generation” and find that we are in some ways much more similar to a grandparent than to either of our immediate forebears. It was only after my maternal grandfather died that I learned more about his early life, and found that I had myself followed a very similar road to his as a young man newly arrived in America. He became a traveling salesmen around the Midwest for Wurlitzer’s, the largest music and instrument dealer in New York City.

By the time I was born over thirty years later, he had long since stopped that job and established himself as owner of a sole-proprietor jewelry shop, and that was how I had thought of him when I would see him perhaps once a year, either in New York or in Chicago.

Without knowing what work my grandfather did when he started his family in Chicago, I had expanded my own teaching career, leaving my home base in New York and traveling to five other cities each month in a two week period, even circling through some of the same cities he had on his route. Many other corresponding details were too exact to write off as random chance or coincidence. He was a former soldier who brought the tools of music to new students. I was a musician who introduced the newto-America martial art of T’ai Chi to groups of students in the heartland of America.

I am also equally intrigued when I meet someone who does NOT resemble anyone else in their household or further up the family tree, even though they were not adopted. Reality seems to be designed to keep us guessing and testing (or, as scientists would say, Theorizing and Proving, although many accepted “proofs” have later failed to explain newly observed phenomena). ˜˜˜ Now it’s time to get personal. My life has seemed directed since early childhood towards becoming the person who can tell you this story.

In this series of articles I’ll be explaining how I had “no choice" because I eventually realized that I had already agreed to this life long ago, and I finally felt that I was in fact on the right path (for me).

To explain this in the most simplified terms, I remember having a great time in Kindergarten! I think I was happy every day I was there. However, I can say that as soon as I started school (by that I mean “First Grade in the US Standardized Educational System) I sensed that something did not feel right. Why did we all have to sit in straight rows at rectangular desks and look at someone telling us what we must learn for almost a whole hour at a time before we could move around?

So I kept learning on my own at every opportunity, somehow emerging from college and graduate school without having lost my curiosity. Only then I could finally pick up completely on my self-education project where I had left off three decades earlier.

Although I was obliged to major in Musicology in college, as at that time the classical guitar was not yet taught in any of the professional music conservatories in the US, I added to my studies as many other areas of learning as I could fit in. By choice, I became a “Generalist” instead of a “Specialist,” as I felt that everything was related, and what I learned in any one field would add a useful awareness to my knowledge of everything else.

When I was 18 I was focussed on being a classical guitarist, and spent two summer months in an advanced masterclass in France.

I also wanted to learn choral conducting from the famous French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, and was able to arrange an early morning interview with her at her residence in Fontainebleau just south of Paris. I waited as instructed on a stone bench beside a side entrance. The warm morning sun was very relaxing.

Suddenly she was there. “Follow me,” she said, and turned and raced up two flights of marble stairs faster than I could keep up.

Madamoiselle Boulanger, a tiny 80-year in formal black Victorian dress with her white hair flawlessly tied in a bun, scrutinized me through rimless glasses from across a large and magnificent antique desk.

The interview was in her studio with three grand pianos, the walls lined with framed photos of her famous pupils, leading performers and composers of the first half of the 20th century. She said, “Young man, tell me about yourself.”

So I told her about how much I had learned by listening to her exquisite recordings where she conducted Monteverdi’s early Baroque vocal music, and gave her an outline of my musical training. I went on to say that I was also very interested in psychology, art history, philosophy, and had been.studying French and German.

Then I stopped talking.

After a short silence, her response was not what I anticipated: “Young man, life is short, and you can only do one thing. When you’ve decided that it is music, come talk to me again.”

The interview was over.

I was shaken by this for about 24 hours. Then I woke up the next day, and realized that she was right. I could do only one thing, and that thing was My Life, not hers. I am a musician, but I also realized that some of us have to keep an eye on the Big Picture, as Music is a part of Life, and Life is Musical. Standard education aims to get us into the right pigeon-hole; but pigeons are meant to fly in the wide sky.

So for the next 10 years I performed as a guitarist, explored life and love, read, worked, traveled, studied and eventually lectured on a widening range of fascinating topics, until one morning I woke up with an idea in my mind that had assembled itself while I was asleep, and which combined everything into the curriculum of the true university, which is “The Universe.”

That was decades ago, and now I see that there is a rapidly growing educational renaissance in this direction springing up all around the planet.

The leaders of this 21st century movement are using language identical to what I started saying in 1974, and published on this topic in 1986.

So in this new series of writings I will articulate to the best of my ability the principles of unique-to-the-individual Self-Education, which is by nature interdisciplinary and multi-cultural, and allows for practical methods of exploration in the pursuit of discovery and personal excellence.

The educational paradigm of the previous century was an industrial plan to mold you into a “professional” and give you a diploma that promised a place in the social machinery of business and commerce for a certain term, followed by “retirement” and social security. But now those times are over, as Bob Dylan warned us 50 years ago, and we are in a period of such rapid change that what you learned in school is now almost outdated by the time you graduate.

Looking back across history, first we learned to walk on two legs; then we learned to tame animals and let them share the work; next we learned a craft, and traded our skills with others who knew what we didn’t know, but needed.

Then suddenly within 170 years we had powered ships, railroads, cars, air travel, and now we have an internet that allows us to explore the world instantaneously from our screens, and suddenly we have Virtual Reality and 3D printing, with commercial spaceflight right around the corner.

What will your work be in this new reality? ˜˜˜ A dynamic new definition for “Intelligence” might be phrased this way: Intelligence is “The ability to adjust one’s awareness or action in useful response to varying situations, immediate opportunities, and applicable past experience; intelligence is an ongoing learning process.”

The more fluent we become within the changing flow of time, the more we can contribute on the road of life. I invite you to think about this and to use this conversation to continue that path that will help you define and embody your highest purpose.

Every one of us has an important reason for being, as unique a code as our own fingerprints. Your distinct way of learning offers the best of the gift that is your presence. It’s why we are here.

You are the pot of gold at the end of your own rainbow.

Your life is your craft.

Fredric Lehrman September 2019

POETRY La Pioggia nel Pineto TACI. Su le soglie del bosco non odo parole che dici umane; ma odo parole piĂš nuove che parlano gocciole e foglie lontane.

Ascolta. Piove dalle nuvole sparse.

Piove su le tamerici salmastre ed arse, piove su i pini scagliosi ed irti, piove su i mirti divini, su le ginestre fulgenti di fiori accolti, su i ginepri folti di coccole aulenti, piove su i nostri vólti silvani, piove su le nostre mani ignude, su i nostri vestimenti leggieri, su i freschi pensieri che l’anima schiude novella,

su la favola bella che ieri t’illuse, che oggi m’illude, o Ermione.

Odi? La pioggia cade su la solitaria verdura con un crepitìo che dura e varia nell’aria secondo le fronde più rade, men rade.

Ascolta. Risponde al pianto il canto delle cicale che il pianto australe non impaura, né il ciel cinerino.

E il pino ha un suono, e il mirto altro suono, e il ginepro altro ancóra, stromenti diversi sotto innumerevoli dita.

E immersi noi siam nello spirto silvestre, d’arborea vita viventi; e il tuo vólto ebro è molle di pioggia come una foglia, e le tue chiome auliscono come le chiare ginestre,

o creatura terrestre che hai nome Ermione.

Ascolta, ascolta. L’accordo delle aeree cicale a poco a poco più sordo si fa sotto il pianto che cresce; ma un canto vi si mesce più roco che di laggiù sale, dall’umida ombra remota.

Più sordo e più fioco s’allenta, si spegne.

Sola una nota ancor trema, si spegne, risorge, trema, si spegne.

Non s’ode voce del mare.

Or s’ode su tutta la fronda crosciare l’argentea pioggia che monda, il croscio che varia secondo la fronda più folta, men folta.

Ascolta.

La figlia dell’aria è muta; ma la figlia del limo lontana, la rana, canta nell’ombra più fonda, chi sa dove, chi sa dove!

E piove su le tue ciglia, Ermione.

Piove su le tue ciglia nere sì che par tu pianga ma di piacere; non bianca ma quasi fatta virente, par da scorza tu esca.

E tutta la vita è in noi frescaaulente, il cuor nel petto è come pèsca intatta, tra le pàlpebre gli occhi son come polle tra l’erbe, i denti negli alvèoli son come mandorle acerbe.

E andiam di fratta in fratta, or congiunti or disciolti (e il verde vigor rude ci allaccia i mallèoli c’intrica i ginocchi) chi sa dove, chi sa dove!

E piove su i nostri vólti silvani, piove su le nostre mani ignude, su i nostri vestimenti leggieri, su i freschi pensieri che l’anima schiude novella, su la favola bella che ieri m’illuse, che oggi t’illude, o Ermione.

Gabriele D'Annunzio

(Alcyone 1902-03)

Rain in the Pinewoods Hush. On the threshold of the forest I do not hear words you call human, but I hear newer words spoken by droplets and leaves far away.

Listen. It rains from the scattered clouds. rains on the tamarisks brackish and burned, rains on the pines scaly and spiky, Rains on the myrtles divine, on the shining brooms of clustered flowers, on the junipers thick with fragrant berries, rains on our faces sylvan, rains on our hands naked, on our robes light; on the fresh thoughts that the soul unfolds newer, on the beautiful fable that yesterday deceived you, that today deceives me, Hermione.

Do you hear? Rain's falling on the solitary greenery with a crackle that stays and varies in the air according to the foliage more sparse, less sparse.

Listen. An answer to the weeping is the song of cicadas that the Southern wind weeping does not frighten, nor the ashen sky.

And the pine has one sound, and the myrtle another sound, and the juniper still another, instruments different under countless fingers.

And immersed we are in the spirit of the forest an arboreal life living; and your drunken face is tender with rain as a leaf; and your hair is scented like the bright broom flowers, o earthly creature who are named Hermione.

Listen, listen. The accord of aerial cicadas little by little duller becomes under the weeping that's rising; but a song mingles with it hoarser that from down there is rising, from the damp distant shade.

Hoarser and weaker it fades, disappears.

Only one note still trembles, fades, rises again, trembles, fades.

No voice of the sea is heard.

Now is heard all over the foliage pelting the silvery rain that cleanses, the pelting that varies according to the foliage thicker, less thick.

Listen.

The daughter of the air is silent, but the daughter of the silt faraway, the frog, is singing in the deepest shadow, who knows where, who knows where!

And it rains on your eyelashes, Hermione. rains on your black eyelashes so that it seems you're weeping

but from pleasure; not white but almost made green, as coming out of the bark.

And all life is inside us fresh scented, heart in the breast is like a peach untouched, between the eyelids the eyes are like springs among the grass, the teeth in the sockets are like unripe almonds.

And we go from thicket to thicket, now joined now separate (and the rough green vigor interlaces our ankles entangles our knees) who knows where, who knows where!

And it rains on our faces sylvan, rains on our hands naked, on our robes light, on the fresh thoughts that the soul unfolds newer, on the beautiful fable that yesterday deceived me, that today deceives you, Hermione.

Gabriele D'Annunzio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G5MjlTO978

THE BADGER is very happy to welcome here the poems by Dominic Fisher, British poet who has won several prizes in UK.

A fox’s late winter blessing May soil go soft beneath your claws to give you beetles grubs and worms the alleyways be full of food, the roots and stones conspire to keep you dry.

May your nose know all the languages of dead and living. May everything by its nose learn your range and kin, your songs shake sleepers from their dreams.

May cats and dogs who think they’re hard see your teeth and think again.

May seagulls never get there first and wires and highways not restrain you.

On long green evenings or belated dawns, may your own kits play on and on, moon after moon, and even after this city itself has gone.

Dominic Fisher from Ladies and Gentlemen's of the Dead 2019

INTO THE MATTER “Congressus Cum Daemone�

Andrea Exo

Among the most debated aspects of the esoteric world, there certainly is the invocation/evocation of the "so called" Demons in order to obtain something, even if the word intelligences would be more appropriate.

Every man is a representation of the universe, therefore he/she is a microcosm, as such every individual can "play" any role in the colourful tapestry of humanity. This happens litterally in movies, when an actor, after reading his script, plays what is written there: if he needs to be a saviour, he will become the archetype of the warrior, if he plays a victim, he will become the archetype of the innocent.

Knowing the 12 Jungian archetypes will make this process easy to understand. In the 22 major arcana of the tarot cards we can find all the vicissitudes of the human condition.

But it is in the 72 demons that things begin to be interesting...

Invoking for knowledge – Evoking for being

Whoever has ventured into the practice has asked him/herself, after some time: "What happens inside and what happens outside? Where are these demons?"

Invoking means calling.

Evoking means remembering, calling back.

In the usual cults the invocation is typically done by priests and the faithful during religious celebrations. Invoking the Virgin Mary is a calling of virtue itself. The prayers for the saints follow the same process.

Evocation, instead, happens when we think of something of the past; when smelling a certain scent we can recall the sweet memories of our childhood, a relationship, a loved person dead or alive as he/she might be.

But it is also our fear from unresolved situations, from our uncertain future, from financial problems, or failed loving relationships.

How can the practice of invocation/evocation helps us in our daily life?

Imagine you have to do some manual work, the wisest thing would be to observe and learn from somebody with experience in the job.

For example: if you have to cut some wood you will invoke a carpenter; if you need to work on metal you will try to learn as much as possible about the blacksmith.

This is knowledge, yet knowledge has not helped humanity in making progress towards new frontiers.

The Genius does not happen outside, the Genius is inside.

Jung defined the human community as a shadow, nobody can avoid it.

So when one person evokes evil, vengeance, violence, oftentimes he/she flees from him/herself in order not to succumb to the temptation of evil.

Evil, jus tlike love is part of the human community.

Evoking a demon means we are evoking what is blocking us, that aspect that does not allow us to go beyond the trauma, the fear or any obstacle to our path.

In the picturesque description of the demons of King Solomon we can find a bit of everything: fleeting Bael teaches us the art of secrecy; Agares is a destroyer, a destabilizer; Vassago teaches vision in the fire, the sun, timeless knowledge and is a protector. Marbas is the healer, the shaman, the logic.

However, if we take the list and read it without names, don't we see humanity here? We can find Castaneda in Marbas, Agares in some politicians, Vassago opposed to them? When we want privacy and confidentiality, aren't we evoking Bael?

Each demon is inside us, each one of us has both the virtues of the saint, the lack of piety of the killer, the calmness of the negotiator.

Times have changed, information travels at the speed of light, but history repeats itself.

When we read the description of the demons' arts, of the archetypes, or the tarot cards we are making the first step into understanding our own shadow. The unconscious part of our being, the part that we have never found before due to our family, education, social context, because we were so engaged in playing our roleHow can we be Vassago, if we have only lived through violence in our youth?

How can we be Agares, if we have never hurt a fly?

The demon can be first invoked, looking for the historical people who incarnated that demon/archetype. Then it can be evoked looking into our uncoscious for our inner Leonard or Nero.

Nero, veyr likely, didn't act on his own volition only, but according to circumstances. Perhaps he could have been a Leonardo? But did he ever try?

And you? Will you try to use the method of evocation in order to know what is hidden, but is always with you? The seals, the stones, the colours, the correspondance between the seasons and the stars they are all pieces of a puzzle that, in the end, will reflect only one image: Yourselves

Andrea Exo Edited and Translated by Antonella Vicini

VOICES FROM THE STARS 2019 – 2016 Uranus in Taurus part 1 Laura Bottagisio

Uranus cycle moves one step of about 4 degrees per year, this means that this planet crosses a very smal portion of the sky in one year time.

Uranus is beyond Saturn orbit, in fact it is the first planet that is not visible to the naked eye. The interstellat space between their two orbits acts therefore as a boundary/watershed between what is visible and what is invisible.

"What is essential is invisible to the eyes", says the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Uranus is the force that shatters the narrow limits of Form in order to free the Essence from it. From this release a new Form will rise, one that is more suitable for the following evolutionary step.

Uranus has appeared in 1781, the year of its discoveries, when its presence was finally revealed. Coming out of the thick fog of the collective unconscious, Uranus has accellerated the evolution towards a new consciousness, that Unity Consciousness that we are so slowly and hardly acquiring.

By opening the door to the fathomless world of the Invisible, Uranus has started the experimentation and study of the energies present in each life form, pulsating with cosmic breath.

Uranus orbit is circular, but its axis is almost horizontal, inclined at 90 degrees, this peculiarity makes it unique in our solar system.

In the astrological language, its orbital eccentricty reflects its tendency to break off any kind of coercive bond, above all, it leads to question the intransigences of the mental framework that sustain it: trying to go against this attitude is a lost cause!

Its propulsive force towards change is wanted by Life itself that directs every evolution, cosmic and planetary, to which nothing and no one can escape.

It is a force much more powerful than us, little creatures, present in this boundless cosmic space of which we are a part but of which most of the time we have neither perception nor awareness.

Our gaze is almost exclusively directed downwards, we no longer know how to contemplate the universe that pulses within us and, in our eyes, the firmament has lost its poetry. We are so involved in the new technologies that use up our time on a daily basia. We forget the real exchange and sharing where our presence needs to be total both physically and spiritually.

The action of this indomitable planet has its origin the invisible but it develops and "drains" its ardor in the material reality. Uranus is the planet in charge of the tangible action that gives concreteness to every project.

"Acting" is the key word to understand its function in the third dimension.

Uranus travels the entire Zodiac Wheel in about 84 years and then passes from one sign to another every seven years, a period in which it is in transit through it. For a few months now it has definitely entered Taurus where he will be present until 2026. How will its disruptive energy act in a calm and hedonistic sign like Taurus?

THE ZODIAC Every cosmic planetary event is reflected on the Earth and gives rise to all material manifestations. The sequence of the zodiac signs traces the necessary steps with clarity and determination so that the invisible energy can wear a Form.

Each event can therefore be traced in the Zodiac through the passages of the planets that travel through it, because it is the instrument capable of calculating the times of long ages, as well as the time of an individual earthly life.

The planets, as archetypes coming from the First Source, move and direct the matter represented by the zodiacal wheel. By knowing the language of astrological symbols, we can read and interpret both the evolution of the macrocosm in very long times and the very short evolution of the human microcosm.

The temporal spiral that unites all these planes is also traceable within us, it gives us the opportunity to increase our ability to open ourselves to the broad universal breath and above all to feel part of it in its continuous flow.

Taurus represents the phase in which the Soul, after incarnating in a physical body, needs food to grow in the dense matter.

Taurus is therefore the Mother Earth who supports and nourishes her children and her symbolism refers us to the life-death-rebirth process with which Nature completes its seasonal cycle.

In mythology all this is described by the myth of Proserpina, the goddess who lives half the cycle on earth and the other half in Hades, the dark kingdom of the dead.

This biological clock flows fluidly through the three kingdoms, vegetable and animal minerals, while for the human being it becomes more complicated, because the mechanism gets stuck in the intermediate phase of 'death', the great taboo for contemporary materialistic humanity.

But it hasn't always been this way. As waves: Masculine and Feminine alternate in dictating the fundamental canons of the progress of human evolution; the divine energy takes on the form of the Mother Goddess during the Matriarchy, that of the God the Father in the Patriarchate, and each Era maintains the unconscious memory, or regret, of that which preceded it.

Millennia ago the monotheistic religions have replaced those linked to the figure of the Mother Goddess, giving way to the patriarchalism that has since raged and which is now declining its final phase, a phase that is very degenerate and "barbaric" as we can well see.

"The precession of the equinoxes results from a movement of the Earth that makes the orientation of its axis of rotation change slowly but continuously with respect to the ideal sphere of the fixed stars ...." from https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precessione_degli_equinozi (“La precessione degli equinozi risulta da un movimento della Terra che fa cambiare in modo lento ma continuo l'orientamento del suo asse di rotazione rispetto alla sfera ideale delle stelle fisse….” )

“In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In particular, it can refer to the gradual shift in the orientation of Earth’s axis of rotation in a cycle of approximately 25,772 years…”

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession The Zodiac, as we now know it, lasts about 26,000 years. This is the period in which, according to the precession of the equinoxes, the vernal point shifts by one sign every 2,100 years. The qualities of this sign will determine the fundamental characteristics of that historical time.

This slow succession of eras happens hand in hand with the alternation of polarity, male or female, which gives form to behavioral patterns.

Now we have almost completely crossed the sign of Pisces, and the Age of Aquarius is slowly approaching. The Aquarius is the anti-patriarchal sign par excellence, in contrast to the opposite Lion, seat of the archetypal Sun of the father god.

The decline and decay of one polarity is functional to the advent of the other. By returning to Taurus, Uranus is able to activate the energy of the Mother, finally awakened and ready to come out of the heart of the Earth, an intimate place that has guarded the secrets of its healing power.

Through the sacrifice on the cross in the age of Pisces, the Christ energy has given way to liberation from a Masculine who has become haughty, selfish and possessive. Now it is time for us to reap the benefits but we need to participate fully in the change!

Uranus in Taurus thus acts on all levels: as a transformative moment of a cosmic cycle, a generational historical cycle, the individual ones.

It works to awaken in us the Maternal Principle of the Great Feminine.

Like a plow that cleaves the clods and brings stones and material not suitable for new sowing to the surface, so the action of Uranus in Taurus brings to the surface what we have buried in the unconscious depth of our cellular memory, freeing ourselves from the chains imposed by a now corrupt patriarchal wave.

Unpredictable events can happen, sudden detachments and as many sudden resolutions: everything will present itself to make us fit to overcome the great obstacle that stands between us and our true fulfillment, the great obstacle we have called 'death' but which in reality is the only true principle of Life!

Our response to the call of Uranus in Taurus will be to open ourselves to the healing power of the Mother's love or to remain anchored in a program that involves the destruction of nature, its trees and animals, in the name of new technologies that increasingly want to replace the divine Power of Light?

And what about this crop circle that appeared on June 21, 2019 in the UK at Netherme-on-the-Hill? Is it an ant in a circle or could it also represent something different?

Laura Bottagisio Edited and Translated by Antonella Vicini

BECOMING MEDICINE Words Create Worlds Part 2 Rebecca Solnit and Calling Things by their True Names

David Kopiecz Words create worlds said Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

What we call things creates not just discourse, but reality. The words that we use and the words that we do not use lead us in certain directions and have different effects. Words are not just words, they are tools that shape, and give expression to, reality.

Words are spiritual and the world is spiritual, too.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything that was made, (John 1:1).

Neil Douglas-Klotz renders this from Aramaic as: In the very Beginningness was, is and will be existing the Word-Wisdom of the One, the ongoing Word and Sound the Message and Conversation that has not stopped and has never started because it is always Now.

Advaita Vedanta of Hinduism also recognizes the importance of the Word: There is nothing to know beyond the Word. The known, knowledge, and the knower meet in one presence in the Word…In never-ending beats, it continues in quantum pulsations of energy, to be calculated in split seconds or in millions of light-years, while new and unknown galaxies leap within the ken adding to wonder that is dumbfounding.

Similarly, Southern Ute mystic, Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow) sees the connection between sound and reality, as he writes, the “true basis for Universal Intelligence is sound. Out of sound comes everything.”

It is through perception that creation comes into being.

“We are perceivers, and it is in our act of perceiving that vibrations become sounds, smells, feelings and colors. In our act of perceiving, things take form.”

Words create our reality and our current reality is in crisis.

Across the world, in many different countries, politicians are rising to power using words of separation rather than words of union. This political crisis is a spiritual crisis because using words to create reality is a spiritual act.

In our forthcoming book, Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality, Joseph Rael and I felt that we had to include something about the pathway that the world is heading down, a pathway that can lead to a loss of peace, to the start of war.

The world is currently on a pathway that is being paved with words of separation: racist words, belittling words, disrespectful words, manipulative words, fundamentalist words, totalitarian words, and fascist words. Common to all of these words is an underlying attempt to recreate a world of separation, isolation, and hate.

Joseph has long been committed to world peace and he has worked toward this through the development of his Sound (Peace) Chambers on four continents.

In Becoming Medicine we write about Spiritual Democracy, which is the opposite of fundamentalism―it is about opening our hearts to others and seeking to act in such a way that encourages others to open their hearts.

Fundamentalism is idolatry―the worship of a fixed thing.

Spiritual Democracy is about allowing ourselves to be shaped and continually reshaped by Breath-Matter-Movement, by Wah-Mah-Chi (the Tiwa word for God).

I came across Walt Whitman’s concept of Spiritual Democracy in the work of Stephen Herrmann in his book, Spiritual Democracy.

Adopting the big idea of Spiritual Democracy, the realization of oneness of humanity with the universe and all its forces, can help people feel joy, peace, and interconnectedness on an individual basis. It can also inspire us to undertake sacred activism, the channeling of such forces into callings that are compassionate, just, and of equitable heart and conscience, and give us some tools to start solving some of these grave global problems, while uniting people on the planet.

The Crisis of this Moment is Linguistic Rebecca Solnit’s Call Them by Their True Names (2018) examines the uses and abuses of language in politics, stating that “one of the crises of this moment is linguistic.”

The linguistic crisis confuses us about what is real, what is true, about who we are, and about our relationships with each other and the natural world.

“Calling things by their true names,” Solnit writes, “cuts through the lies that excuse, buffer, muddle, disguise, avoid, or encourage inaction, indifference, obliviousness. It’s not all there is to changing the world, but it’s a key step.”

Solnit has long been concerned with the use of language and power in her writings on hope, trauma, community, and environment. She writes artful and thoughtful memoir that weaves in the political and the creative spirit.

Her writings are not overtly spiritual, but I imagine she would be comfortable with the concept of spiritual democracy as she writes about human rights, human dignity, environment, and on women’s and indigenous rights. Her writing is a form of activism and she encourages us to make the world a better place. She sees that we are currently going down a pathway of brutality and if we do not start calling this pathway by its true name, we risk being swept into deeper brutality.

“Once we call it by name, we can start having a real conversation about our priorities and values. Because the revolt against brutality begins with a revolt against the language that hides brutality.”

One of the elements of the current pathway the United States (as well as many other countries across the world) is walking down is a pathway of isolation. Isolation and separation are based on dividing people into the “good and the bad,” those who belong and those who do not, those who have rights and those who do not. Anyone with a sense of history can pick out words and phrases that were used in racist, totalitarian, fascist regimes: “enemy of the people,” “those are some very bad people,” and “send them back.”

Glorious Disconnect Solnit writes about what she calls a “Glorious Disconnect:” If you boil the strange soup of contemporary right-wing ideology down to a sort of bouillon cube, you find the idea that things are not connected to other things, that people are not connected to other people, and that they are all better off unconnected.

Solnit points out how this underlying philosophy of disconnection and separation, which results in concrete policies, is also behind the current proliferation of “fake news.”

“Taken to its conclusion,” she writes, “this worldview dictates that even facts are freestanding items that the self-made man can manufacture for use as he sees fit.”

This worldview influences our interdependence and interrelatedness with each other and the environment. In the mania to deregulate social and environmental protection, she sees the attempt to “deregulate meaning.”

If you begin by denying social and ecological systems, then you end by denying the reality of facts, which are, after all, part of a network of systematic relationships among language, physical reality, and the record, regulated by the rules of evidence, truth, grammar, word meaning, and so forth. You deny the relationship between cause and effect, evidence and conclusion; or, rather, you imagine both as products on the free market that one can produce and consume according to one’s preferences. You deregulate meaning. ...

And this is how the ideology of isolation becomes nihilism, trying to kill the planet and most living things on it with a confidence born of total destruction.

This pathway of isolation is rooted in and creates loneliness, in fact, Solnit has an essay entitled, “The Loneliness of Donald Trump.” She writes about this loneliness coming out of power and privilege that insulates and isolates, until,

In the end there is no one else in their world, because when you are not willing to hear how others feel, what others need, when you do not care, you are not willing to acknowledge others’ existence. . . . When you don’t hear others, they become unreal, and you are left in the wasteland of a world with only yourself in it. That surely makes you starving, though you know not for what, if you have ceased to imagine that others exist in any true, deep way.

Gerald Arbuckle, a New Zealander living in Australia who is a Catholic priest and anthropologist, also sees the current crisis of global political and religious fundamentalism as being rooted in loneliness and creating loneliness. His follow-up book to Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad (2017) is named Loneliness: Insights for Healing in a Fragmented World (2018).

Arbuckle points out that the United States is extreme in its individualism and that the “American Dream” includes contradictory values of competitive utilitarian individualism and egalitarianism. This pits the “rights of the individual” against the “common good.” The founding “myth” of the United States includes this tension between individualism (when it is extreme can create isolationism and loneliness) and egalitarianism (which can create community and equality).

Arbuckle draws on his training as a cultural anthropologist to understand how groups function and to diagnose the various forces leading to our current epidemic of loneliness and fundamentalist totalitarianism. He points out how and why people use tactics of scapegoating, splitting and separating people into us and them, into “member” and “stranger.” He also draws on his training as a Catholic priest to point out how we can treat the current epidemic through creating love between neighbors.

“The universal call to love one’s neighbor commits us to struggle for the common good. Individualism and individual and corporate greed contradict this imperative,” he points out.

He quotes Pope Francis calling for a revolution of tenderness. “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you. And then there will be another ‘you,’ and another ‘you,’ and it turns into an ‘us.’ . . . When there is an ‘us’ there begins a revolution [of tenderness].”

Doing the Work that Matters Both Solnit and Arbuckle tells us that our civil society and spiritual values are being degraded and negated. They point out how our current global epidemic of loneliness and totalitarianism is rooted in our use of language and how we use words to create worlds. We have a choice between worldviews of separation and worldviews of union. Making this choice begins with the words we use to describe and create reality. One of our choices is whether we focus on “me” or “us.” The words that we use create different stories, and we need to choose whether we want stories of inclusion or stories of exclusion.

The only power adequate to stop tyranny and destruction is civil society, which is the greater majority of us when we remember our power and come together. The job begins with opposition to specific instances of destruction, but it is not ended until we have made deep systemic changes and recommitted ourselves, not just as a revolution, because revolutions don’t last, but as a civil society with values of equality, democracy, inclusion, full participation—a radical e pluribus unum, plus compassion.

This work is always, first and last, a storytelling work, or what some of my friends call ‘the battle of the story.’ . . . To sustain it, people have to believe that the myriad small, incremental actions matter. ...

To believe it matters—well, we can’t see the future, but we have the past.

Which gives us patterns, models, parallels, principles, and resources; stories of heroism, brilliance, and persistence; and the deep joy to be found in doing the work that matters. With those in hand, we can seize the possibilities and begin to make hopes into actualities.

Doing “the work that matters,” this is what we are called to do. Joseph Rael reminds us that “work is worship,” so this work of activism, this work of story, this work of loving our neighbors, is a sacred work that we are called to do and that we are called to put into words so that we can create, instead of a world of hate, separation, and war, we can create a world of love and peace.

I will continue to write about some of these topics of how our “words create worlds.” In working with Joseph Rael, writing our next book, Becoming Medicine: Pathways of Initiation into a Living Spirituality, I felt compelled to write about the responsibility of mystical, visionary, and shamanic experience—that we must work toward “Spiritual Democracy.”

At its deepest point, mystical experience leads to an awareness that we are all one and this comes with a responsibility to challenge words of separation which ultimately lead to fascism.

Mystical experience is a pathway that leads us to question who we are and gives us a responsibility to use our words wisely to create worlds where we are becoming the medicine that our world needs.

As Rumi says, “We are pain and what cures the pain.”

David Kopiecz NOTES : 1. Life Between the Trees blog, https://lifebetweenthetrees.com/2012/08/06/wordscreate-worlds-monday-morning-parable/ 2. I first came across a shorter instance of this quote in the Omid Safi reference below.

John 1:1, The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Edition, Second Catholic Edition. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006.

3. Neil Douglas-Klotz, Original Meditation: The Aramaic Jesus and the Spirituality of Creation, 42.

4. Nataraja Guru, The Word of the Guru: The Life and Teachings of Narayana Guru, 75, 78.

5. Joseph Rael, Sound: Native Teachings + Visionary Art, 2.

6. Steven Hermann, Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward, xiii.

7. Rebecca Solnit, Call Them by Their True Names, 4, 1, 4.

8. Ibid., 43.

9. Ibid., 43.

10. Ibid., 50.

11. Ibid., 13, 15.

12. Gerald Arbuckle, Loneliness: Insights for Healing in a Fragmented World, 215216.

13. Solnit, 184-185.

14. Rumi, “We are the mirror as well as the face in it,” The Essential Rumi, trans.

Coleman Barks, 106.

MAGIC A Dream come true.

A pilgrimage to ancient Orkney Adrian Rooke I wonder if you know what this feeling is like, when a place far away, calls to you, sings a song to your soul, through time and space year after year after year.

Orkney was that place for me. Unfortunately, my and health life experiences coupled with the remoteness of the islands somehow prevented me over the years from making this dream manifest. this year, with the help and support of Jo’s (Dunbar) impeccable planning skills, the dream came to fruition.

Of course, as with many dreams, sometimes when you embrace the reality behind the dream, one can be left disappointed.

Was I disappointed with the Orkneys? Not at any level. In fact, the reality far exceeded anything I could have dreamed about.

The islands are an incredibly beautiful place with wild hills black with heather, shining golden with gorse, surrounded by crystal clear bays, and still lochs glittering in the sunlight offering a deep connection to the elements and the mysteries of the water kingdom.

The landscape was scattered, almost bejewelled, with empty crofts and with more ancient sacred sites than I have ever seen. This was made even more astonishing by the knowledge that untold chambers, tombs, cairns, villages, brochs lie quietly beneath the earth, still awaiting discovery.

For several months of the year, the winds, rain, snow and fog calls to each of those who live there to dig deep into their reserves of strength and tenacity of character and resourcefulness, to create a supportive community that echoes of times gone by.

A first impression could be of a bleakness and one becomes aware of an absence of trees which presented us with the opportunity to see long distances across the islands. This offered us an awareness of how reliant the peoples that inhabited these islands were of the local stone to provide their comfort and sanctuary from the harsh Northern winters.

Truly these are islands sing to you of the deep connection to the elements of Earth, Air and Water.

Every Orkadian we met was welcoming, interested in where we have come from, what drew us to the island. They were passionate about their islands culture and history, and very proud to still be living their lives in the lands of their father’s fathers.

To get to the islands in the first place is a challenge in itself. Involving a flight from Bristol to Inverness (we chose to fly due to the fact that ill health prevents me from sitting in a car for any length of time). We hired a car in Inverness and drove to our first guest house in the highlands. This in itself was a magical place – a 400 year old manor house with a broch and a rich family history.

A broch is a Bronze/Iron age stone walled cone shaped house of many metres in height with double walls and complex inner architecture.

Absolutely ingenious.

The only local pub for miles informed us that he was fully booked (with 3 customers) and that the kitchen was closed now that it was 19h30. My heart sank into my hungry belly and was resurrected only by our very gracious landlady who offered to cook for us. We subsequently enjoyed one of the tastiest meals I have ever had, with Jo and I having exclusive access to their very sumptuous family dining room. After the meal, the lovely aunty took great pride in sharing with us around an open log fire, her collection of Neolithic flints, arrow heads and tools that she had excavated from their lands.

Leaving early the following morning, we drove to the ferry at Scrabster.

The magic began almost immediately as the islands unfolded from the mist. We sailed close to the land, and it felt as if I could reach out and the Old Man of Hoy (one of the very beautiful natural formations that we were about to discover).

We landed at Stromness, and the adventure began in earnest. We spent four days visiting some of the most perfectly preserved neolithic iron and bronze age structures anywhere in the world, pre-dating the pyramids of Egypt and giving us a glimpse into a structured, functioning, intelligent society up and running in these lands of Albion, far earlier than has been discovered anywhere else in Europe.

We left no Neolithic stone unturned as we charged about the island visiting all that we could squeeze into our 5 wonderful days. To describe them all would take up a small book as each and every one of them was magnificent in its own structural and energetic individuality, but I would like to describe one or two in some detail.

Our first morning began with a visit to the Stones of Stenness, and then onto The Ring of Brodgar for a picnic lunch. Looking out from the stones over the heather to the still waters of the loch with the sharp cries of birds bright in the sunny air was one of the most sublime moments of my life.

For a brief moment, time meant nothing, I felt that universal sense of connection with everything past, present and future.

It seemed like we were then teleported into an awesome ancestral tomb called Maes Howe, aligned with the winter solstice sunrise and bedecked with runic graffiti engraved by a band of lost Vikings sheltering from a snow storm a thousand years ago.

That night we sat around a peat fire being enchanted and beguiled by an Orkadian story teller weaving legends of the history and the mystery of the selkies and the fin-people who are interwoven into the landscape and seas of the islands. The storytellers informed us that in the field behind the house was an unexplored burial chamber – one of the many still untouched by modern human hands.

Beltane morning broke fine and sunny. And is there a more magical place to celebrate our Beltane ritual than on the cliff tops in front of The Tomb of Eagles. To enter the tomb, you lie on a trolley and pull yourself into the chamber by a rope. In the womb of the chamber, complete with ancient skulls you feel that sense of being deep in the belly of Mother Earth with just glimpses of the mysteries and celebrations that were enacted here, once long ago.

As I said, there are far too many incredible experiences which touched my heart and soul but one which I shall never forget was Beltane evening with the gorgeous hospitable Kate and Corwen who took us on a guided tour to the Broch of Gurness.

Here Corwen beguiled us with his knowledge of the site. Situated on a grassy plain right on the coast, this beautiful place gave us such insight into a vibrant community so long ago. Both the story teller and Corwen impressed upon us how the ancestors farmed both the land and the sea.

After sharing an ancient tradition of burgers and chips in the local pub, we embarked on what was to be for me, the highlight of my whole trip. I did not believe that anything could have surpassed the myriad of amazing experiences that these incredible islands have gifted me, and yet when we entered the Tomb of Cuween ……….

After a vigorous walk up the hill, in quickly fading light, we crawled in the dark on hands and knees into the tomb, known as the Tomb of the Dogs.

We penetrated even deeper into the hollow hill by entering into the four chambers, but reserving the most difficult for the every sprightly and supple Corwen.

Together we honoured ancestors and spirits of place by singing Deep into the Earth I Go, followed by 3 magnificent Awens which it seemed to us woke up those spirits of place for the whole hill seemed to shimmer with excitement. And we were breathless with awe.

There was a deep sense of sadness when the time came to leave the islands, and I now fully understand why so many people choose to move there.

The lovely Helen and Mark, which whom we shared a coffee and a lovely catchup, the illustrious Kate and Corwen forging a new life on the edge of the British isles, and I am left with a question that were I twenty years younger and in better health – would I have had the courage to have answered the islands call?

Ebb and flow the tide Wax and wane the moon

Adrian Rooke

QUILTING AWAY Autumn: A Phase in the cycle of life Lida Perry After the summer’s sparking colors, the thriving blooming of the flowering plants, the abundance of the harvest, autumn marks the moment in which not only the fruits of the earth are gathered, but the soil is prepared for the winter pause. “ I am at my balcony that overlooks my garden, a small square of land between my neighbor’s edge and the car parking space, I look out and from my high position I have a global view and in the golden late afternoon light of an autumn day, what I see gives me a sensation of caos, of decadence…

Wet and dark decomposing leaves, plants that seems having given up any productive activities, earth hardened by a torrid summer, that even a sporadic rain could dampen it.

I feel frustration and sadness.. I have to do something…

In the next few days I try not to notice the sadness, the annoyance, the discomfort the feeling of death that the sight of my garden elicit within myself.

Then one day equipped with all the tools and a strong determination, I begin to cut, and uproot everything I touch. I am vaguely aware that my approach’ would most likely, horrified an experienced gardener, but I proceed undeterred, and with some aggressiveness . Eventually this frenzy is appeased. I take a break. I look around and what I see is only caos, confusion and devastation.

I realize that I did not pay any attention to what I was uprooting and cutting. I realize that my garden with its flowers, its plants have given me pleasure and joy, they responded to all my caring gifting me with their beauty, their fragrance, their colors.

I think of the way in which I enter their space: blindly, without awareness or respect. I follow only my impulse my need to put things right without any consideration and regard to the meaning they have had for me.

What a metaphor!!"

In my work as a psychologist, I have often met people that come to therapy with the strong desire to feel in harmony with themselves, to find meaning in who they are and what they are doing, but often are so distracted by anxiety that all they want is to put order in their confusion quickly, to eradicate the roots of their conflicts, to uproot the behaviors and the deep-rooted attitudes and limiting thoughts, with the compulsion to tear away all that brought pain and anguish.

The profound judgment that we hold about our actions, our thoughts, and our being and who we are does not let us to appreciate what we have built around our essence to protect us, we are not able to stay with the discomfort that the conflict creates.

We are pulled between wanting to change because we don’t like how we feel and what we see in ourselves, pushed by the natural drive to achieve some balance and well being, and the at the same time we feel the restricting energies pulling us back into the old limiting thoughts and behaviors.

Most of us are not able to stay inside this conflict and see what are the potential for growth in this experience.

Nature teaches us that everything is a process that evolves and changes in endless cycles, it drives us toward the manifestation of the best of our potential and toward harmony.

The therapeutic process tills the soil, it frees the terrain from the weeds so that there is more room for the new seeds of thought, for new awareness, new energy for the changes needed and therefore, new growth.

Nature is about cycles, Autumn symbolically is about the cycle of reeping and preparing for a pause before rebirth. This pause gives us the opportunity to enter into a deeper space where we can touch our essence and honor all that we have been, who we are , and who we are becoming.

Lida Perry

HUMAN Tanya Tewell I am sharing this painting for the “The Badger” as it was a very meaningful experience for me within the process of painting it.

It was an extremely centering and relaxing image to compose.

To borrow a phrase, it felt as if I had been transported “to the land of dreamy dreams.” It is not just an interpretation of my individual dream life. It is more about a universal connection in the collective unconscious, the web of dream imagery that occurs cross-culturally and across time.

The woman in the painting is a model that I have worked with for years.

Her personal background is Ute Indian and she has recently moved to the state of Colorado to be closer to relatives on the reservation. Her striking face and body have always inspired me in my paintings. Her facial expression in this particular image seems almost trance-like which was a deliberate choice. I will miss painting her as her physical presence embodies an eternal quality which is difficult to find in a model.

The background is, of course, derived from an Etruscan tomb painting.

It is an image that haunts me and seems to embody a profound joy in living. Its meaning, for me, is beyond just the act of fishing and being in a boat in the beautiful Mediterranean. When I study the tomb painting, it always transports me and reminds me of the depth of the spirit in the context of nature. It speaks so profoundly of an ancient people who understood the gift of being alive. It connects me to the power of the symbol in art to interpret the deeper meanings that seem to define us as creative human beings. The fact that the painting has survived to be appreciated and understood by people thousands of years later gives me hope for the future.

Tanya Tewell

λάθε βιώσας* Marcella Brancaforte Joyful, smiling, vibrant and above all full of wonder and lively, this is the world created in each image by the gifted hands of Marcella Brancaforte, another artist who has chosen to live and work from the small town in the country side that keeps attracting artists from everywhere.

Marcella animates the pages of real and invented stories with her illustrations, but in her case the soul of the tale the “anima” is supplied by the colourful and passionate images that seem to flow effortlessly from her fingers.

Whenever I enter her small studio, I feel I am in a magic place, where stories meet and greet, live together and learn from each other.

The artist is also a story teller, singer, performer, mother of two, teacher... the list is endless, because Marcella is really engaged in life.

Born and bred in the magnificent Sicilian city of Catania, where baroque architecture mixes together the white of the southern cities with the black of the volcanic stones from Mount Etna, Marcella has been moulded in that fertile territory so rich in cultural and artistic expressions.

Marcella's father was professor of Philosophy at the University of Catania, while her mother, a middle school teacher and painter, was her first mentor and inspiration for her artistic development. In such a favourable environment Marcella was free to pursue her studies and passion for art.

Let's listen to Marcella's words about her life and works:

After my childhood and adolescence in Sicily, when I was 18, I went to Urbino to study Animated Design, there I learnt how to be by myself in the silence and fog of the Montefeltro hills. I then completed my university degree in Graphic Design, with Illustration as my major.

Illustration had always been my passion, together with listening and telling stories, listening to both classical and folk music, every aspect of my daily life has contributed to my becoming who I am now, personally and professionally.

When I was 5 years old I “illustrated� Andersen's Mermaid tale. I had already decided that I would add my images to the books I loved to read, since some of them didn't have illustrations like the ones I imagined.

Actually, when I was 8, I wanted to run away with the circus in order to become a trapeze artist, but my Mother stopped me.

If I think of my sources of inspiration I can say: reading and studying a lot! I learnt also from my collegues at school Gianluigi Toccafondo, Cristiano Carloni, Silvano Bacciardi who sparkled my interest and enthusiasm for photography.

Some of my teachers were Michele Provinciali and Pino Parini at ISIA, Enrico Ricci and, many years later, I was lucky to meet another great teacher: Domenico Di Mauro a traditional master in painting Sicilian riding carts.

One of my favourite projects from the past is La Bella dalla Stella d'Oro. I liked it because I could tell a story from the Sicilian Oral tradition using the elements of folk painting. I first prepared a big poster with all the scenes of the story, like a painted story board, then – as a proper story teller – I told the stories adding images to the text.

I believe it is a very democratic way of recounting a tale, because the reader can choose to interpret the writing and the illustrations in any way he/she likes. (https://vimeo.com/9933189 2010 interview on the Bella)

My work is always a form of story telling, (in Italian it is litterally called Singing Stories), as a consequence it has always come naturally to me to sing, thus telling a story and using evocative images to create the right atmosphere. This has been a very Sicilian tradition for a long long time.

Even if I do it less than in the past, singing for me was and still is very important because it keeps me balanced, I obtain the same effect by sitting in my studio drawing for hours in complete silence.

Since a very young age, I have also been a teacher in different schools, probably because I had such good examples and mentors. At the moment I teach at the Liceo Artistico (Art High School) Midossi, near Viterbo,.

My great passion is promoting reading and illustrated books.

Since 1998 I have been supporting and working closely with Kids Libraries, while since 2010 I have worked with Marco Trulli at the project Libri Immaginari. http://librimmaginari.blogspot.it/

What a rich, intense, colourful, involved life Marcella has, it looks from outside like many lives rolled into one.

Thank you for sharing the beauty of your work with us at THE BADGER, wherever there is joy of the heart and a desire to make people participate in it there is great art in all its different manifestations.

Antonella Vicini

* λάθε βιώσας (living in hiding) Epicurus considered friendship the highest good, both materially and spiritually. However friendship can only be cultivated in a small circle, away from the storms of life.

The motto: Live in hiding (away from the crowd) is especially appropriate for art that often hides from the glitter of the media market, in order to achieve peace of mind and greatness of spirit. In 2015 I started this journey introducing you to a secluded piece of land where several artists have chosen to live and work, following the ancient motto of Epicurus in their own ways.

All the photos were chosen by Marcella Brancaforte who owns the copyright.

http://marcellabrancaforte.blogspot.it http://www.arciviterbo.it/librimmaginari/ http://librimmaginari.blogspot.it/

DRUIDRY Philip Carr Gomm Current world events – the fires in South America and the Arctic, the ecological and political situation in many parts of the world – evoke in us feelings of hopelessness, wounding, and despair. They make us feel like victims – or like children overwhelmed in a world of adults acting destructively and out of control.

In feeling this way, I remembered a quotation we use in the Order’s training It says something like: “When you feel lost, take a child by the hand, and you will no longer feel so lost.”

This is the way I assuage those difficult feelings – not by denying them, but by allowing them into my awareness and then reaching out to others from a place rooted in what I believe is good and true – rooted, essentially, in my sense of soul and of the values it is guided by. You know when someone is ill or in a crisis and you succeed in ‘rising to the occasion’?

You are no longer thinking about yourself, but about others, acting like those in the caring professions who do this every working day of their lives.

So this is the strategy I’m adopting: I’m accepting my feelings of despair and vulnerability and powerlessness, but then I’m trying to be a good, caring person who tries to make decisions and live in a world that is constantly challenging.

Well this is all very well – and rather trite you might say – but how do I act the adult, how do I act mature, anchored, responsible, amidst all this turbulence? I think there are many things we can do, but for today let’s focus on just a few ideas, about how we can ‘resource ourselves’ to use that awful phrase!

Above is a photograph from our recent One Tree Gathering – an annual event where members of the Druid and Hindu community come together. At the end of each weekend a participant offers to accept the statue of Ganesha to keep safe until the next meeting.

I’ve put them into a triad, my three sources of comfort: knowledge of the Divine Origin of all Creation, inspiration in the teachings of mystics and sages, support in the fellowship of like-minded souls.

This is what helps me keep going – what helps me offer my hand as we all walk through the difficulties of this world: my belief in and experience of the Divine helps to anchor me; the teachings of mystics help to inspire me and give me hope; being with like-minded souls, fellow seekers on the Path nourishes me with a sense of community.

From that inner place I can act in whatever way I can to help make the world a better place. If I can shift my centre of gravity from a sense of childlike helplessness to a sense of adult responsibility I think I can be of more use.

Philip Carr Gomm

UNDER THE SKIN Alchemical Initiation in small steps Part 3 Rubedo Samantha Fumagalli and Flavio Gandini The Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of stages represented by colors: nigredo, a blackening or melanosis (THE BADGER Year 4 Volume 4) albedo, a whitening or leucosis (THE BADGER Year 5 Volume 1) rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis Rubedo, or red work, is the phase in which matter is made spiritual. This is the time when spirit expresses itself through an individual, yet it is still in contact with the source that permeates all of creation.

The alchemist has now purified him/herself, he/she has connected the opposites from duality into a unifying vision, he/she has re-aligned masculine and feminine, thus re-creating in him/herself the androgynous.

In this phase there is no more separation between I and the Other, because he/she is aware and in touch with the source of life within and without.

The alchemist during the day remains present to him/herself, this state of presence is the substance obtained from the destruction and purification of the various Is. The presence in him/herself is a non mechanic state of consciousness that is voluntarily chosen by the initiate. He/she stays in the present, here and now, as well as restoring the lost energy.

Energy, from the Greek ἐνέργεια, en intense, ergheia action. It it the the force that can complete an action or a job.

Rubedo Colour: Red Process: Creation of the Golden Body and access to the Philosopher's Stone Symbol: Phoenix Metal: Gold Planet: Sun Energy: Union of the opposites Element: Fire

From the Divine Comedy Mentre ch’i’ rovinava in basso loco, dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto chi per lungo silenzio parea fioco.

Quando vidi costui nel gran diserto, «Miserere di me», gridai a lui, «qual che tu sii, od ombra od omo certo!».

Rispuosemi: «Non omo, omo già fui, e li parenti miei furon lombardi, mantoani per patria ambedui.

Nacqui sub Iulio, ancor che fosse tardi, e vissi a Roma sotto ’l buono Augusto nel tempo de li dèi falsi e bugiardi.

Poeta fui, e cantai di quel giusto figliuol d’Anchise che venne di Troia, poi che ’l superbo Ilión fu combusto.

Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia? perché non sali il dilettoso monte ch’è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?».

«Or se’ tu quel Virgilio e quella fonte che spandi di parlar sì largo fiume?», rispuos’io lui con vergognosa fronte.

«O de li altri poeti onore e lume vagliami ’l lungo studio e ’l grande amore che m’ha fatto cercar lo tuo volume.

Tu se’ lo mio maestro e ’l mio autore; tu se’ solo colui da cu’ io tolsi lo bello stilo che m’ha fatto onore.

While I was rushing downward to the lowland, Before mine eyes did one present himself, Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.

Wen I beheld him in the desert vast, “Have pity on me,” unto him I cried, “Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”

He answered me: “Not man; man once I was, And both my parents were of Lombardy, And Mantuans by country both of them.

‘Sub Julio’ was I born, though it was late, And lived at Rome under the good Augustus, During the time of false and lying gods.

A poet was I, and I sang that just Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy, After that Ilion the superb was burned.

But thou, why goest thou back to such annoyance?

Why climb’st thou not the Mount Delectable, Which is the source and cause of every joy?”

“Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?”

I made response to him with bashful forehead.

“O, of the other poets honour and light, Avail me the long study and great love That have impelled me to explore thy volume!

Thou art my master, and my author thou, Thou art alone the one from whom I took The beautiful style that has done honor to.

Rubedo and Dermoreflexology Rubedo, the spiritual step in the path, can only be reached when there is peace with our Shadow side.

This pacification requires the courage to look into the face of our dark side. The acknowledgment of the hereditary, educational, social and sometimes illusionary elements created by our imagination. The last part is the final acceptance of the tasks and support supplied by the Shadow, the part of us we cannot do without, but we should never feel ashamed of.

The only further learning has to do with keeping control, so that shadow cannot take control over us.

Using a literary metaphor: if Doctor Jekyll had known of his inner Mr. Hyde, he would have been able to avoid the conflict and its tragic ending.

This is the result of knowing how to remain present to oneself, in a state of presence, with all the positive consequences on the energy level.

Finally, returning to the concept of bio-energy, recuperating entirely our Vital Force is not magic, nor an exception to the bio-physical laws: it is the condition we should all aspire to achieve.

If the inner tube in a bycicle has a hole, and we repair, so it doesn't lose air anymore, is this magic?

In the same way, if a person is swimming against the flow and he/she stops dissipating his/her energy to resist a force that is dragging him/her to the abyss, he/she then realizes that following the flow is a way to be saved... this is not magic...

Samantha Fumagalli and Flavio Gandini Edited and Translated by Antonella Vicini

APOTHECARY Elder – tree of transformation: Jo Dunbar As I write, the year is on the edge of the Autumn Equinox, tipping from hot summer days into those lovely golden days of autumn.

The hedgerows are dripping with dew spangled spider webs and black elderberries.

The elder treeis beloved by gypsies, who declared that the Elder provides a remedy for every ailment known to man.

I think they probably knew more about the Elder than I do, but as medical herbalists, we do use the Elder tree for several very common everyday problems.

I love the wisdom and generosity of Nature, so abundantly demonstrated by this wise old tree. In June, when hayfever is plaguing so many of us, the tree produces its gloriously fragrant blossoms.

These flowers are excellent mucous membrane anti-inflammatories.

A simple and very effective remedy for hay fever is to simple drop a full inflorescence into a cup of boiling water. Inhale the perfumed steam to soothe your agitated nasal passages, and when cool enough, drink the cup.

Within minutes, you will find that your symptoms abate. The effect lasts for about 2 hours, and then you will need to do it again. My nose was running like a tap, and Elder flowers turned off the tap.

I have also used it for patients suffering from prickly heat, or heat rash.

This occurs when the skin doesn’t sweat, but the Elder flowers open up the pores, and allow the body to cool itself with a gentle perspiration. One of my patients had suffered from heat rash every summer, but this summer, with the help of our lovely Elder – no rash.

Now, in the autumn, when the viruses are flying about, the blue-black berries provide a good dose of vitamin C to boost our immune systems, and are potently active against viruses.

The ancient herb books mention an elderberry preparation which was ancient even a thousand years ago, and it was known as Elderberry Rob. I make a version of it every year, and below is my recipe.

Elderberry Rob: Collect your berries from trees which are far away from traffic pollution.

Once you have them home, rinse them off, and using a fork, pull the berries off the stems.

Discard the stems, and cover the berries with water in a saucepan.

Turn up the heat and bring to the boil, and then turn down to a simmer.

Once simmering, I squash the berries with a potato masher and add to this brew a good handful of fresh grated ginger, some fresh turmeric, some cinnamon quills, a few cloves, unwaxed lemon peel (all of which have anti-bacterial properties).

Now, because I am a medical herbalist, I would also add a handful of dried Echinacea, Astragulus and Elecampane (or whichever other herbs I think will be helpful).

You can add handfuls of fresh (or even dried) Thyme or Hyssop to protect against chest infections. Turn off the heat, and quickly cover with a lid to prevent the aromatic volatile oils from the herbs escaping.

Leave overnight to macerate, and in the morning, strain the cooled liquid, reserving the fluid carefully and sending the exhausted herbs to your compost bin so that they may enrich the soil once again.

Now reheat the fluid, and when warm, keep adding sugar until it will no longer dissolve to form a super saturated solution.

To this I usually add the juice of several freshly squeezed lemon, which add to the vitamin C content, and also to cut the sweetness of the sugar.

Bottle and keep in the fridge. To enjoy your brew, add a hearty dollop of your Elderberry Rob to a cup of hot water and drink as a hot toddy every evening. It is delicious, tastes a bit like spiced port, and is very good for you.

PS: Always, always ask the Elder Mother if you may pick before taking, and never take too much. It is an important lore of the hedgerow.

Jo Dunbar

FOOD IS MY ALLY Antonella Vicini Cooking is a passion of mine, since my childhood I loved watching my Mother prepare dishes upon dishes for our big family. How exciting it was to prepare meals for special occasions, the smells coming out of the kitchen were delicious and tempting, they filled me with their intensity, possibly this was the reason why I was never hungry and I had a hard time eating in my childhood.

So many years later the pleasure of cooking for friends and relatives has not left me, sometimes it is great to nourish the stomach as well as the spirit.

So here it is a simple, however laborious, recipe for the autumn and winter times, some warm and comforting food to prepare for a special occasion, maybe together with your loved ones.

GNOCCHI DI ZUCCA E PATATE Potato and pumpkin gnocchi for this recipe you will need: 350 grams of boiled potatoes 350 grams of raw pumpkin 1 egg 150 grams of flour, I choose a mixture of rice and corn/buckwheat flour 3 grams of salt a pinch of nutmeg You will need to cut the pumpkin, once you have peeled the skin, into thin slices that will cook in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

Once they are prepared, you can place the cooked slices in the mixer, until you obtain a firm and dry mix.

The potatoes need to be still hot, since this is the time to use the potato masher. Place the mashed potatoes onto your board, then add the pumpkin mix with some salt and the pinch of nutmeg.

Create a space for the egg and add the flour around the potatoes and pumpkin, start working the dough until it is firm. Be careful not to overwork the mix or add too much flour, or the dough will become hard and unplesant to eat.

When you have a firm dough, let it rest for 10 minutes. You can prepare the melted butter with sage, or if you prefer use only EVO. Cut the dough in small pieces and work until you make long strings, 1 centimeters thick. Cut in small pieces, it is up to you if you want to leave them plain, or if you prefer to roll each gnocco on the fork for a more traditional look.

Once you have completed these steps you can cook and taste your delicious gnocchi, you can either boil them in water or cook them directly in a pan with either EVO or melted butter and sage.

Add parmesan cheese to complete the dish and enjoy the result of your labour!

Have a joyful autumn and winter season

Antonella Vicini

TRAVELLING NORTH Raffaella Vicini Going North This year I have had the chance to travel north to the Scandinavian countries and further on.

I have never really been attracted by cold weather, but I must admit I was fascinated both by Norway and Iceland.

The Norwegian fiords left me speechless with their beauty, the mountains, the many waterfalls, the silence surrounding me, the shining summer light, the incredible fiery sunsets, they made sure I could not escape their stark yet real charm.

When we sailed through the fiords, I could feel enveloped by nature, the only noise was the constant sound of the waterfalls. Alone in the presence of such pristine nature, I was relaxed and embraced by all the sights and the amazing "music" of Mother Earth in this part of the world.

The small towns and the villages seemed to come straight out of fairy tale illustrations, filled with houses of different colors, and geometrical shapes.

Then I met the Trolls, gnomes of the mountains, always present to protect those remote places.

It was a full sensorial experience, again and again I stood in admiring silence in front of such visions. I saw the many sacred places where the local people still honor the "invisble inhabitants" of the places, we may call them energies.

The colours of the water mesmerized me, unfortunately no photos can recall the effect it had on me.

Driving around Iceland on the almost deserted roads, I saw the domineering volcano, meadows and hills, streams and ponds, black volcanic rocks covered in white and yellow moss, geysers erupting huge quantitities of boiling water, natural pools of thermal water....

All these sights were immersed in dazzling light until midnight when new explosions of colors announced the 2 hour long sunset, immediately followed by a new dawn, another spectacle without an end that is etched in my eyes and does not leave me.

Iceland was really magic, thank you for the wonders and gifts you have given me, I will never forget you!

Raffaella Vicini

Text and Photos Edited and Translated by Antonella Vicini

ENTERTAINING INTERLUDE

“HORI OSHI” Death of a Japanese Tattoo Artist Part Seven Cesira Borromei " Are you talking about Andrea Barbieri and the crime, aren't you?" Emma interrupted their conversation.

"Yes, fair lady, do you by any chance know him?"

Asked Tommy with half a smile. " For sure – lied Emma nonchalantly- we met last year in Rome and we were supposed to meet here or in Amsterdam. I was going to be his guest, staying with a friend of his, but now I am not sure how I will be able to find him. Do you by any chance know a guy called Mark who lives on a houseboat?"

Tommaso's eyes were full of suspicion. "I might know him – he said eventually – but I am not going to talk about him with you, my dear.

Nobody has introduced us, as far as I know you could be a journalist, they are flying around us like vultures, or even a police woman. So, if you want a drink, you are welcome, but do not ask questions, ok?"

Disillusioned Emma answered: " You are too susceptible, do I look like a journalist or a police woman? Sorry to have bothered you, I will take my leave.

Thus speaking, Emma stood up under Tommaso's suspicious gaze, and, precariously holding her drink and some crisps, went to sit down at a free table in different area of the bar.

To herself she was thinking If I don't eat something soon, I will be drunk very quickly, what a mess I am.

Then she looked at the counter and she was pleased to notice that Mikey was staring at her with some interest, perhaps not everything was lost.

Emma raised her glass as in a toast. He smiled happily and, fending the crowd, he reached her table.

"May I sit here?" he asked her politely.

"Yes, sure" answered Emma.

"You are not used to drinking, are you?"

"Is it so obvious?"

"Well – he answered – 2 cocktails were enough to give you a red nose and soft eyes. Beware of those eyes, if you look at men like that, you are inviting them to jump on you!"

Emma looked at him with a shocked face, but he just burst into laughters and she could not help following suit.

They both had tears in their eyes from so much laughing.

"At this point – he added – we could introduce ourselves, don't you think?"

"No, no -shouted Emma- I know who you are!

You are Mikey and I am your Kim!" All right – said he, suddenly going serious – but if things are so, perhaps we should go out, what do you think? Some air will do us a lot of good" Grabbing her hand, he litterally dragged her outside, pushing through the incoming crowd, still under Tommaso's curious and suspicious gaze.

Outside it was cold, he hugged her.

"How did you get here?" He was asking her.

"On foot" she answered softly. The night air was clearing her brain, an inner voice was telling her to be careful and put some brakes on.

But she very well knew she would not do that. Emma felt her legs very soft and a plesant sensation of heat in her lower abdomen. When she raised her head in order to look at him, he kissed her tenderly.

"Where shall we go" he asked while he was opening the door of a vintage car, Emma had not seen one like that for years, it was beautiful.

"My place" she murmured giving him the address, while she was getting into the car.

During the short drive, she felt happy, listening to Paolo Conte's music with her eyes closed and a smile on her face.

They took off their clothes in the hall and made love under Orfeo's enigmatic gaze. Then they ate spaghetti with garlic, chili pepper and olive oil, they spent the rest of the night making love. At first light Emma noticed something on his side: " there it is, your seagull!" she then went back to sleep with a happy smile.

She woke up late, he had already left, but when Emma went to the kitchen, she could hardly believe her eyes: the table was set for breakfast, there was a small bag with some warm croissants with a note for her.

Emma started the coffee pot and sat down to read his note.

" I will call you tonight, please delay your departure. I need to talk with you. I heard that you were asking Tommaso about a certain Mark. I know that Andrea has an Irish friend with that name, he lives in Amsterdam in a house boat, but we can talk about it later. I have seen from your luggage that your name is Emma, mine is Pietro Florian, pleased to meet you.

Talk soon".

Emma thought that she should tell Nakano about these developments, but there was something in that man that she didn't like. Besides now she had become part of this story, her detective spirit would not let her rest until she could understand by herself how things were going/where things were headed.

She raised the phone and called Alitalia to book a flight.

Cesira Borromei Edited and Translated by Antonella Vicini

AUTHORS

Antonella Vicini http://badgermedicinespirit.wix.com/tirthayatra Writer and editor of THE BADGER, author of Talking with Gods, Sages, Fairies.... (a novel published in 2014). Steeped in classical and indological studies, I have spent all my life learning from people as well as from the ancient texts that keep revealing their immortal, thus contemporary teachings. I am happy when I can share new visions and face new challenges. I am a professional rebirther and trainer (since 1987), Reiki master since 1991, stress management and leadership trainer, writer and visionary. I also lead workshops on shamanic journeying and soul healing. I am deeply grateful to all my teachers and elders. Badger Medicine Spirit

Adrian Rooke I am a person centered therapist specializing in addiction and the consequences to family, I counsel the bereaved, and supervise other counselors. I am also a massage therapist and Reiki practitioner. I am a member of the spiritual companions and practice as a celebrant conducting Handfastings and funerals. I have been a member of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids for over 20 years, where I have served as the press officer for 12 years and a Tutor for many years. I have an interest in Wicca.

Composer, pianist, Italian teacher. Andrea "EXO" Garella began studying piano at 9 years old under the guidance of Walter Ferrato who shared with him the art of improvisation and composition. Between 16 and 20 he reaped the fruits of his studies with long concert tours. In everyday life he works in education and training in the field of safety. He is also a licensed designer for mechanical and thermotechnical projects. He has always been interested in occultism and esoterism. He is about to publish a book where he will delve into these studies connecting such Masters as H.P. Blavatsky, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung, A. Einstein, Jeremy Narby, C. Castaneda,Rick Strassman, Jean Dubuis and more. Here you can find one of his musical pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FmaMRyjF6o

David R. Kopacz, MD The focus of my work is bringing creativity, spirituality, and healing to my work with clients as well as to the larger challenges that face health care and society. I work at Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Seattle in Primary Care Mental Health Integration and have an appointment as an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. I am board certified through the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, the American Board of Integrative & Holistic Medicine and the American Board of Integrative Medicine. I have worked in a number of practice settings over the years. Prior to moving to Seattle I spent three and a half years in New Zealand where I worked in Assertive Community Outreach at Manaaki House Community Health Center and also served as Clinical Director at Buchanan Rehabilitation Centre.

Fredric Lehrman http://www.nomaduniversity.com/ is one of the original “Wealth Psychologists” who looked deeply into the subconscious habit patterns that may either support or thwart personal financial success. He began teaching these insights in the early 1970’s, and his seminars, articles, and coaching have been the launch point for many of today’s best known experts and authors ever since. Fredric’s personal career has included intensive study with master teachers in many disciplines, and professional success in music, psychology, martial arts, photography, and global entrepreneurship, networking and innovation. He founded Nomad University in 1974 as a way to expand the concept of education as a life-long individual path of self-directed learning. The ideas he articulated then are now starting to appear in new schools all around the internet-connected world of the 21st century.

Laura Bottagisio www.laurabottagisio.com is an astrologer and seeker. She started studying astrology at the beginnings of the 80's with Lisa Morpurgo, she later worked with the Cosmos Institute of Milan, where she learnt about the theory and practice of Vibrational Waters. She has attended seminars with gerard Athias and Jp Brebion on new medicine and bio analogy. She shares her discoveries in her blog. She also creates tableaux with recycled materials, in this way she creates images out of emotions and inner worlds.

Philip Carr Gomm http://www.philipcarr-gomm.com/ Philip lives in the wide open landscape of the South Downs in Sussex, England, with his wife Stephanie. In his teens, he began studying Druidry as a spiritual path with Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Later he took a degree in psychology from University College London, and trained in psychotherapy for adults at The Institute of Psychosynthesis, and in play therapy for children with Dr Rachel Pinney. He also trained in Montessori education with the London Montessori Centre, and founded the Lewes Montessori School. In 1988 Philip was asked to lead The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, and he combines this role in the Order with writing and giving talks and workshops.

Raffaella Vicini Born a double Scorpio, she has a degree in Law and has been working as lawyer for about 20 years.

Her rational side has lead her to the law, while the deep, profound and mysterious side of her soul has guided her towards a path of personal growth (Rebirthing, Reiki, Yoga and other techniques).

She loves to travel and learn about different cultures, she has met people of all colours, creeds, languages, learning and sharing their experiences.

Samantha Fumagalli and Flavio Gandini http://www.vega2000.it/ http://www.dermoriflessologia.it have been researching for over 20 years in the field of psyco-alchemy. They are the creators of DermoReflexology and DermoAlchemy.

In 2000 they founded the Association Vega for the study and publication of the new discoveries. Their professional course in DermoReflexology has been acknowledged by ASI/CON since 2012 as part of the natural and holistic arts.

Cesira Borromei My childhood was spent among the fog of the milanese province. I studied languages at the Catholic University there, but I dropped out of school when I moved to Rome, over 50 years ago.

I write to avoid boredom and pain, so I can use all my self irony. I have travelled most of my life for work and leisure, with my partner, then alone.

Jo Dunbar www.botanicamedica.co.uk Medical Herbalist for over 18 years , hypnotherapist for over 10 years. She founded Botanica Medica herbal apothecary. She has reached Druid level (member of OBOD). Author of Spirit of the Hedgerow, winner of the 2016 Local Legend spiritual writing competition, finalist in the Wishing Shelf book awards, author of Stress, Burnout and Fatigue (Self-published), and How to Cope Successfully with Candida (Wellhouse Publishing). Leader of many workshops in herbal medicine over the years. Currently running Magical Forest retreats with Adrian Rooke .

Lida Lodi Perry https://www.facebook.com/lidaperry?ref=profile Lida was born in the North East of Italy (Vicenza) after graduating from a teacher Institute she came to the USA, where she continued her education at the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Psychology and later a Master in Social Work. She worked for many years at a drug clinic in the local hospital. In 1984 she went back to Italy to work with abused children as a director of a residential facility. She moved on to work as a supervisor and Psychologist at Milan Cancer Institute where she is still consulting, while having a successful private practice as psychotherapist.

She was also cofounder of the Rebirthing Institute with Antonella Vicini, she became a Reiki Master in 1992, she is still active with the local and international Reiki community.

Francis Rico www.shaman.zone Musician, feral shaman, and author Francis Rico combines ancient and modern wisdom assisting clients, students and fellow adventurers in awakening to the gift of their lives. His book, A Shaman's Guide To Deep Beauty, shares stories and lessons from a lifetime of dedication to the shamanic pathways and teachers of indigenous wisdom traditions. As a guide to the world's sacred sites, Francis brings insight, humor, and music along on every journey. His home lies in Northern California, where he shares the beauty of the wild coastal mesas, cliffs, and ocean.

Dominic Fisher has had poems published in a wide variety of poetry magazines in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. He won the international Bristol Poetry Prize 2018, and his collection The Ladies and Gentlemen of the Dead was published by The Blue Nib in 2019. www.dominicfisherpoetry.com and www.thebluenib.com

Tanya Tewell is a Professor of Art at a Middle Tennessee State University in Tennessee. She has taught at the college level for almost thirty years in painting, drawing, and artistic anatomy. Her teaching experience has also included working with gang members in South Phoenix, artists on the Navajo reservation, and prisoners on Death Row in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions and ten solo shows. She has also initiated, directed, and participated in painting murals in South Phoenix, Punta Allen, Mexico, Muro Leccese and a very large mural for the former art building at Middle Tennessee State University.

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