Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Summer of the Red Sun and Another Totem Journey From Lummi Nation in Whatcom County / 2015



















Although yesterday morning brought exquisitely clear skies, the sun rose red this morning due to ongoing massive wildfires east of the Cascade Mountains. Somewhere I read that our current air quality in Whatcom County is much like that which has become typical in Beijing.

Totem Pole Journey 2015



















From komonews.com:

"A Native American tribe is taking a 22-foot totem pole from Canada through the Pacific Northwest to Montana in opposition of proposed coal export terminals ..."

"... The projects would export millions of tons of coal annually to Asia. The tribes say the terminals would disrupt treaty-protected fishing rights, contaminate air and water, and harm sacred sites ..."

"... The totem pole was created by the House of Tears Carvers at the Lummi Nation. It took four months for a team to create it, said the tribe's master carver Jewell James.

Traditionally, totem poles use powerful symbols to depict visions, pass on tribal mythology or mark important tribal or family events, Jewell said. They're used at ceremonies, to honor the deceased, or to record stories.

But over the past years, the tribe has put them to a novel use; tribal members have taken the totem poles off the reservation to areas struck by disaster or facing a crisis, as symbols of strength and wisdom, Jewell said.

The Lummi have delivered totem poles to New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., after the 911 terrorist attacks. Last year, the tribe took a totem pole to Sioux territory in Northern Alberta to oppose tar sand mining, and the previous year to Vancouver to protest a proposed oil pipeline.

The symbols carved into the current totem are to encourage wise decisions that protect the environment, Jewell said. They include a medicine wheel, which symbolizes the transfer of traditional knowledge to tribal members; a flying eagle, which stands for spiritual knowledge; and a turtle representing the earth ..."

Monday, August 10, 2015

Art That I Can Hear





From the Friends of Silence newsletter for July and August of 2015:

Art is both love and friendship, and understanding; the desire to give. It is not charity, which is the giving of things, it is more than kindness, which is the giving of self. It is both the taking and giving of beauty, the turning out to the light of the inner folds of awareness of the spirit.
~ Ansel Adams in a letter to Cedric Wright, 1937, as quoted in ART AS A WAY OF LIFE, ed. by Roderick MacIver

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

That Lucky Old Sunrise With Crows Flying West From Their Rookery At Lake Whatcom


"If you look deeply into Crow's eye, you will have found the gateway to the supernatural. Crow knows the unknowable mysteries of creation and is the keeper of all sacred law."

"Since Crow is the keeper of sacred law, Crow can bend the laws of the physical universe and 'shape shift.'"

"Crow is an omen of change. Crow lives in the void and has no sense of time. The Ancient Chiefs tell us that Crow sees simultaneously the three fates -- past, present and future. Crow merges light and darkness, seeing both inner and outer reality.

"Crow medicine signifies a firsthand knowledge of a higher order of right and wrong than that indicated by the laws created in human culture. With Crow medicine, you speak in a powerful voice when addressing issues that for you seem out of harmony, out of balance, out of whack, or unjust."

(from Medicine Cards: The Discovery Of Power Through The Ways Of Animals, by Jamie Sams and David Carson, 1988)

"... An' I have no sense of time..." (from "Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again," by Bob Dylan, 1966)

In the 1976 version below, he doesn't sing that verse:



From "That Lucky Old Sun" (music by Beasley Smith and words by Haven Gillespie), sung by Bob Dylan in concert on July 11, 2015, in San Sebastian, Spain:

"... Send down that cloud with a silver linin'
Lift me to Paradise
Show me that river
Take me across
And wash all my troubles away
Like that lucky old sun
Give me nothing to do
But roll around heaven all day

Good Lord above, can't you see I'm pinin'
Tears all in my eyes?
Send down that cloud with a silver linin'
Lift me to Paradise
Show me that river
Take me across
And wash all my troubles away
Like that lucky old sun
Give me nothing to do
But roll around heaven all day