12-9-98:
Plumb boggles the mind to think that in a few short weeks it will be 1999.

Those who think the world is about to end should ask themselves,
what if it doesn't?

Thought on Tarot Trump 14 Temperance
When drawing water out of a natural spring for drinking, I find it helpful
to use two vessels: one smaller one to dip with, and one larger one for carrying
it back to the house. I use a 3 qt pitcher and and a 5 gallon bucket this way. If I
dip with the bucket, it never gets quite full, and it stirs up the silt on the bottom.
This is OK if I'm not sharing the water with others, (and if I'm not too picky myself
that day!) But for sharing drinking water or any other occasion where I'm aiming
for a full bucket of really clean spring water, two vessels is the way.

Got siding, insulation, Tyvek for house today. Hope to have the place resided within
a few days or a week. No more wind blowing through the walls!

Just spoke with Datura and Tamriel from Katwood. They say they have info on
Celtic sweat lodges built of stone (no pix though.) I told her anything they sent me
I would post here at the site.

12-10-98
Started on the renovation. Been thinking about spiders. In the Fall here at Arcadia we get a lot of writing spiders. At some life stages these ladies are huge and black and yellow. They build intricately geometrical webs, often enough across the paths. They are called writing spiders because some people think the patterns of their webs resemble language, or perhaps seem to carry messages. The idea of associating spiders with storytelling seems to be everywhere at once. I could not speculate on where it started.
But there is something else. Last year I read an article in Discover magazine (I admit it) about some new archeological discoveries having to do with textiles. It seems archeologists in the past downplayed the importance of traces of decayed fibrous material. These traces were harder to find and study than say, stone spear points or other gross artifacts, and so although they had been found again and again, archeologists had not really tried to explain them. Until now. New analysis technology (doesn't technology always save the day in these articles?) made it possible to determine that these fibers had once been nets, almost certainly used for trapping and snaring game.
A new paradigm emerged. Gone were macho men going off to spear mammoths while women folk smashed seeds with rocks. Now we see whole communities taking part in making nets, stretching them, and then flushing or driving mainly small animals into them. Think of it: everyone working together on a project to feed them all, complex division of labor without the necessity of rigid hierarchy (unlike previous notions of cooperative hunting.)
The article gave me hope. Naturally, the article did not tie these nets in with spiders, but I do. Just as proto-humans are thought to have learned pack hunting behaviors from imitating wolves, I suggest they learned this net making and hunting behavior from watching and imitating spiders. This would make the spider as important a totem as the wolf in terms of the importance of its contribution to humanity.
Spiders. Webs. Nets. Communities. Examples. Writing. Geometry. Spiders.
"Hey Mavis, is that there a key word list or is it some kinda weird Haiku?"

12-22-98
Mission accomplished. New siding, insulation, home wrap, all installed before Yule. A few loose ends remain, but in bulk, it's done. It's so warm and comfy I'm starting to feel downright middle class.

I think the main lesson of the past year or so has been that I can trust my intuition... and nobody else's.

The first big cold front of the Winter has arrived. The air carries that touch of mercilessness that indicates an Arctic air mass, but without the wetness that says it came in over the Great Lakes. I have not seen a map to know where this weather came from, but I'd bet it passed through South Dakota on the way here.

But here in the New Improved Witch's Cottage (no longer a Witch's Shack,) I laugh at the cold, and the wind is something that occasionally makes noise outside... Not like it used to be, when you knew the wind was REALLY blowing when the plastic you put on the walls for warmth literally ripped loose and started flapping all over the room. It's already started to be a fond memory.

If anyone needs help sleeping in the cold, here are some things that help:
1. Hooded Sweats (the Unabomber can't be wrong) keep your head and neck warm.
2. Sport Thermal Underwear. Better than waffle type long johns. Worth the money.
3. Companionship. Friendly and warm-blooded preferred. Nothing like a pile of cats and dogs on the bed to keep you warm.

12 23 98
There's that 23 again
I Ching Hexagram 23:
Mountain over Earth: LOSS
"Do not go anywhere.
1. Hitting the bed with the foot.
The dream bodes ill.
2. Hitting the bed with the knee.
The dream bodes ill.
3. Hit it. No fault.
4. Hitting the bed with the shoulder.
Misfortune.
5. Using a eunuch as a servant.
No objection to intimate trust.
6. Refusing a fat plum.
The gentleman gains a carriage.
The common man loses his house."

source: I Ching by Kerson and Rosemary Huang 1987 Workman Publishing, New York.

Well that seems like good advice on a day like this, with a precocious mix of Winter precipitation. A good day to stay home.

While working on the house, it was necessary to remove a fairly large amount of detritus from the walls: carpet scraps put in the walls as insulation years ago only to be incorporated in a huge network of squirrel and wood rat nests, wasp nests, semi-comatose wasps, black widows, etc.
It seemed appropriate to call this stuff History, as in
--Don't breathe. I'm about to yank out another bunch of History, or
--That, my friend, is a piece of History, or as James Joyce put it
--"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken."

This gives us answers to many of life's puzzling questions:
q. What "Makes History?"
a. Rats, Squirrels, Wasps, Spiders, and Time.

q. Does History inevitably repeat itself?
a. Eventually, yes. But good home maintenance can stave it off for decades or even longer.

q. What can we do about History?
a. You just gotta rip it right on out of the walls, and replace it with fiberglass insulation, which functions better than other materials partially because it's an irritant to anything that tries to nest in it.

This kind of work is best done in the Fall. In the Summer, the stinging insects are far too active, but in Winter it's too cold to tear the house apart for a couple of weeks, and in Spring, there is just too much else to do, and besides, next Winter is very far away.

12 24 98
Freezing rain. Frozen in, for the most part. This storm will probably have real economic impact, disrupting the holiday decadence.

Winter at Arcadia is the time for looking at the stars. In Summer, the trees block the view; the sky is hazy; and the nights are short. You know it's Winter when Orion the Hunter rises in the early evening, easily locatable because of the three stars almost in a line that form his belt. Hanging from his belt is his "dagger," containing the Orion Nebula and I think the Horsehead Nebula as well. These nebulae are the birth places of stars. So, every Winter, we get to watch the Great Hunter in the sky who ejaculates stars... and this is REAL.
In front of the Hunter is Taurus the Bull, its head a V formation of bright stars, and his tail is comprised of the Seven Sisters of the Pleides. Behind the Hunter, and below, is Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star in the sky other than the planets.
I find it useful to receive Stardate Magazine from the University of Texas. (Must remember to check their web site, and maybe put in a link.) This magazine tells you what is going on in the sky at any given time. It's particularly useful for learning to recognize the planets. It really helps to have a reference, so you know which ones you are looking at.
Each of the planets has a different "feel" to it as you observe it. Too many people who claim to believe in astrology have never taken the time to look at the sky.
 
 

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