Day 6 The Cranberry

Superfruit Cranberries are native to North America and have been a tradition at Thanksgiving/Gabon since the early seventeenth century....they are an amazing little fruit with endless possibilities, packed full of antioxidants and tart goodness....


                                                            Alaskan Cranberries

some Cranberry Promotion

Harvest Time

                                                                        Cranberry Art

and in conclusion.....The Cranberries x

with the song Linger

                                                                               

Day 5

Forget Black Friday.....today is Black Turkey Day x


                                                                         Meet Tom

Ms.Tom AKA THE HEN :P

Tom and the Lads

                                                                Tom doesn't wanna snuggle

                                                           Damn Heathens....

                                                          more anti-Tom heathen work ;)

                                                     presenting The Tom Feather Shawl...
                                                        

Day 4

Mabon

all for now gotta go!!! Have a good one!

Day 3

Here are some of the symbols and correspondences for Mabon.

The deities that you can call upon during your Mabon ritual are:

• Goddesses-
  • Modron
  • Morgan
  • Epona
  • Persephone
  • Pamona
  • the Muses
• Gods
  • Mabon,
  • Thoth
  • Thor
  • Hermes
  • The Green Man

Symbols of Mabon:

• wine
• gourds
• pine cones
• acorns,
• grains
• corn
• apples
• pomegranates
• vines such as ivy
• dried seeds
• horns of plenty (a/k/a cornucopia)

Herbs of Maybon:

• Acorn
• benzoin
• ferns
• grains
• honeysuckle
• marigold
• milkweed
• myrrh
• passionflower
• rose
• sage
• solomon’s seal
• tobacco
• thistle
• vegetables.

Foods of Mabon:

• Breads
• nuts
• apples
• pomegranates
• vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions.

Incense of Mabon:

• Pine
• sage
• sweetgrass
• myrhh.

Colors of Mabon:

• Red
• orange
• russet
• maroon
• brown
• gold.

Stones of Mabon:

• Sapphire
• lapis lazuli
• yellow agates.

Spellworkings of Mabon:

• Protection
• prosperity
• security
• self-confidence
• harmony and balance.

Day 2.........

Day 1....?

Alternative thoughts on Thanksgiving.....

PAGAN SYMBOLS OF THANKSGIVING DAY
A goose used to be the main course for harvest festivals and was replaced by the more common turkey in America with the Indians first. These birds representing the sun god or the Son of god, an imitation of the Son of God slain for others. Actually the symbols derived all the way back to Nimrod and Semiramis. Words from Wilkinson, an Egyptologist:
'The goose,' says Wilkinson, 'signified in hieroglyphics A CHILD OR SON;' and Horapollo says (i.53, p.276), 'It was chosen TO DENOTE A SON, from its love to its young, being always ready to give itself up to the chasseur[hunter], in order that they might be preserved; for which reason the Egyptians thought it right to revere this animal.' (Wilkinson's Egyptians, vol. v., p. 227)."

Apples–Celts–rebirth, healing and youth

Pumpkin is used as a symbol for the sun and is also prominent in Halloween, replacements in the Western Hemisphere. The sacred goose of Europe was used if available, but turkeys were more prevalent so were substituted for them with the same idea derived from pagan harvest festivals.

Turkey-- Native Americans–symbolized the Mother Earth and a shared Harvest

Day 4 Dreams~ Poetry

Edgar Allan Poe's poem  A Dream Within a Dream was published in 1849....

Here is a video with the words of said poem....along with stop-animation and some eerie background music...

and one more from Poe...Dream-Land, written in 1844, the only published work from Poe that year. This one read by Henry Halloway

Day 3 Dreams

Dreams everywhere....within us, in film,literature and todays topic...in song....the following songs have all been inspired by dreams.... 


To start, the Legend, Jimi Hendrix. recorded the song ANGEL first released in 1971 on the album Cry of Love...a beautiful, soulful tune whose lyrics were recited at Hendrix's funeral 

#9Dream~ John Lennon,1974............

Five Years...David Bowie from the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,1972 Based on a dream he had of his father telling him not to fly anymore and he would die in five years....

The Flaming Lips, Free Radicals ( A hallucination of the Christmas Sky) released in 2006 on the album At War With the Mystics.... Lead singer Wayne Coyne got the idea for this song when he had a dream about a singer/songwriter named Devendra Banhart where he is trying to convince a suicide bomber not to explode. In the dream, Banhart succeeds, and begins to sympathize with the bomber and understand why he would want to blow himself (and others) up

Day 2 Dreams....

                                                                   
Continuing dream analysis of the croc/alligator dream found some more insight and some great art as well:

To see a crocodile in your dream symbolizes freedom, hidden strength and power. It also forewarns of hidden danger. Someone near you is giving you bad advice and is trying to sway you into poor decisions. Because crocodiles can live in water and on land, they also represent your conscious and unconscious and the emotional and rational. Perhaps something is coming to the surface and you are on the verge of some new awareness.

Alternatively, the crocodile may be an aspect of yourself and your aggressive and "snappy" attitude. Or it may reveal that are being insincere, displaying false emotions and shedding "crocodile tears".

To dream that you are chased or bitten by a crocodile denotes disappointments in love and in business.                                                        

                                                                      

Crocodiles in dreams in a positive way represent your potential and powers capable to seize luck when it comes. In a negative sense, crocodiles represent hazards lying beneath the surface of a seemingly harmless situation. Seeing a crocodile in the dream is a warning: you are surrounded by evil-minded people.

                                                                         

As sure as you dream of this creature, you will be deceived by your warmest friends. Enemies will assail you at every turn. To dream of stepping on a crocodile's back, you may expect to fall into trouble, from which you will have to struggle mightily to extricate yourself. Heed this warning when dreams of this nature visit you. Avoid giving your confidence even to friends.

                                                                       

To dream of an alligator, unless you kill it, is unfavorable to all persons connected with the dream. It is a dream of caution.

                                                                            

Day 1

                                                                             
This week's the subject gets a little more personal....Dreams....I was not quite sure what my new subject would be until I awoke this morning after having a vivid dream. I believe when you dream like that it means something...The dream I had was eerily familiar in parts to a dream I had over a year ago.... the main aspect being Alligators or Crocodiles. When you dream about something so unusual like these creatures it is a bit alarming. I have not watched films nor read books to do with alligators therefore, I believe it came simply from my sub conscience.....

The last time I had a dream with alligators in it was 495 days ago...at that time I wrote about it and the dream meanings I had found:

To see an alligator in your dream, symbolizes treachery, deceit, and hidden instincts. It may be a signal for you to take on a new perspective on a situation. It may also represent your ability to move between the physical, material world of waking life and the emotional, repressed world of the unconscious.  Alternatively, the alligator represents healing powers and qualities. An alligator also suggests that you are thick-skinned or insensitive

. 

To dream that you are running away from the alligator, indicates that you are unwilling to confront some painful and disturbing aspect of your unconscious. There is some potentially destructive emotion that  you are refusing to acknowledge and
owning up to.

To dream that you are raped by an alligator, indicates that you feel violated or taken advantage of in some way. The alligator is symbolic of someone who is ruthless, insensitive and treacherous. This person has a strong hold on you despite your efforts to break free from the unhealthy relationship.

In my case I am always trying to get away from the beasts which makes me look mainly at this:
To dream that you are running away from the alligator, indicates that you are unwilling to confront some painful and disturbing aspect of your unconscious. There is some potentially destructive emotion that  you are refusing to acknowledge and
owning up to.


I need to examine things and see what this might be...

                                                                                

Day 7

To end this week's subject the ultimate Heroin song can only be Heroin by The Velvet Underground. 

It was released in 1967 on their debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. 

Lou Reed wrote the song in 1964...in 2004 it was placed at #455 of ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE TOP 500 SONGS OF ALL TIME. It is also included in The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame's top 500 songs that shaped rock n roll 

FABULOUS cover by Opal...with the stunning voice of Hope Sandoval(from Mazzy Star),1988

another cover by Beck, it's pretty good. There are alot of covers of the song...some of them in my opinion just terrible...reinterpreted just too much...so this will be the last.

Day 6 ~ Heroin in song.....

Today a duo.... first off The Rolling Stones with a little song called Dead Flowers, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It first appeared on the 1972 album Sticky Fingers..the lyrics ever so clearly about heroin: "I'll be in my basement room, with a needle and spoon" It has sort of a countryish feel to it, that is not my fave nevertheless it is a powerful dark song.

and a decent cover version  by Guns N Roses...live

and probably my favorite version...by The Cowboy Junkies......

Another important heroin song is by Canadian Neil Young, the song is called The Needle and the Damage done, it first appeared in 1972 on the album Harvest. He states the song was written not about himself, but about musicians he watched go down that painful road, specifically guitarist Danny Whitten..and others. Neil young also tends to be countryish and while that may not be my thing so much..his lyrics are so very powerful..in all his works. He is a true poet and I love his words.

a cover by Pete Doherty...live

and one last cover by Laura Marling...again this last one...probably my favorite version of all.

Day 5

One of the saddest songs ever written: Hurt...it was written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails in 1995 and originally performed by the band. Since, it has been covered many times. My favorite cover below is by Johnny Cash....not only the best cover but I believe it is the very best version of the song...you can feel the pain and you know it's real. It was on his 2002 album: America IV: The Man Comes Around. Cash was 71 when he filmed the video and passed on 7 months later.

 

NIN original version...also very good...the lyrics tell all, not only is it a painful song but a song about Heroin...

A duet featuring the Legend David Bowie and Trent Reznor live in 1995

and finally Sevendust....a very good moving live dedication to Johnny Cash... from their 2004 live album Southside Double Wide Acoustic Live xx

Lust for Life...art