New Civilization News: Dancing in Circles    
 Dancing in Circles13 comments
picture16 Aug 2004 @ 00:10, by John Ashbaugh

Dancing in Circles [link]
”Once upon a time, they say, we danced our lives through - as we worked, played, ate, slept, fought, and loved. We danced to petition and appease the gods, to help the sun rise, the rivers flow, and the plants grow and thrive. By dancing we understood our power and our place in the universe, and through dance we transmitted this understanding to the next generation. We danced to celebrate life’s rites of passage, from birth to death; through the dance we attuned to and imitated the rhythms, cycles and the awe-inspiring process of nature, and we danced to express our joy, fear, grief and hope. According to Bernhard and Maria Gabrielle Wosien, "Dancing has always been an imitation of the divine mystery in manifestation." To live was to dance.


Most importantly we danced together. We danced in a circle, the very symbol of unity and wholeness. Our circles created a sacred space, a Temenos, within which we created and recreated our cosmos and our realities. Outside was chaos and the unknown - within the circle was order, power and community.
Then came the rise of cities and trade, suppression of "pagan" forms of celebration and worship and the ravages of industrialism. We lost touch with our earth and our communal unity. Our dance became more purely social; the circle became opposing lines and squares, then broke into couples, until recently we see the ultimate in dissociation - dancing alone, unaware of the whole and isolated from one another. The circle of the dance was broken, but the need for it remained deep in our psyches, in the places where we remember our wholeness”.
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
There are now about six billion and some odd number of human body-soul combos on this planet. If 60 million of us have computers, that’s one percent. If 300 million of us have computers, that’s five percent. The global on-line community is a small fraction of the human mental aggregate.
The tradition in the United States is that approximately fifty percent of the qualified electorate never have voted and never will vote in a presidential election, much less any other election. What characteristics distinguish those who participate from those who don’t? Educational level and economic participation seem like rather overly simplistic parameters. Is this an interesting question? Fifty percent of the people don’t give a rat’s rear end in the first place. The other fifty percent of the electorate are concerned enough at some level to have an opinion, and most of those opinions are fairly well biased and shallowly defined. All of those grocery store shoppers, of whom I am one. Most of us have a tendency to become informed through commentary and analysis supporting opinions we have already decided on.
The government of the United States and indeed, the governments of all countries in the world that I am in any way familiar with are grossly and totally incompetent and fundamentally unconcerned with addressing the issue of the capitalist war machine and its burgeoning effect on human and other forms of life.
Interestingly enough, I read that there are going to be some demonstrations staged by some radical opponents of the Republican party at the New York City convention in two weeks. Hope too many of them don’t get too badly hurt. The emotional outrage needs to be vented against the regime, but as we all now should be beginning to understand, this demonstration will be like throwing a rock at a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
As the old order begins to disintegrate during the forthcoming generation, all that anyone who survives is going to have is going to be each other. Those who live closest to the Earth will be in the most favorable position. Here I am living in Albuquerque! What kind of talk am I talking? At least I’m in New Mexico. Only about seventy miles from the Los Alamos national laboratories! I wonder why the word Patagonia comes into my mind every now and then?
The Circle of Life shall prevail. The prevailing system of governmental organization is not going to change. It is going to Implode. The prevailing system of economic organization is not going to change. It is going to Implode. The global on-line community may perhaps not survive. Having seen the quality of devastation that the Old Civilization is capable of, the collective enlightened mind of the new world civilization may develop a more compassionate and humanitarian direction.



[< Back] [New Civilization News]

Category:  

13 comments

16 Aug 2004 @ 18:59 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : Dà Rathad
Carson a bu chòir dhomh gabhail
na slighe ceart, lom, fada?
Ged a tha an rathad air a bheil mi cam
agus tha na clachan a' gearradh ma chasan,
agus tha dìreadh an leothaid
gam fhàgail gun anail,
chan e an aon rud
a tha misc coimhead romham.
latha an dèidh latha.
Agus shuas air an leathad
chì mi timcheall orm,
chì mi gu bheil barrachd ann dhòmhs'
na slighe cheart, fhada, lom.
Tha thusa cumail do shùilean air an aon rud
ceart, dìreach air do bheulaibh
agus chan fhaic thu gu bheil an saoghal
ag atharrachadh timcheall ort.  



17 Aug 2004 @ 20:24 by koravya : Mystery Poet
What does this mean?
What language on Earth is this?  



17 Aug 2004 @ 22:08 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : ;-)
Two Roads

Why should I follow
the long, smooth, straight road?
Although the road I take is crooked
and the stones cut my feet,
and climbing the hill
leaves me breathless,
I am not confronted
by the same prospect
day after day.
And up on the hill
I can see around me,
I can see that there is more in store for me
than a straight, long, smooth road.
You keep your eyes fixed on one point
right in front of you
and you cannot see
that the world is changing around you.

The poem (Gaelic) is from Anna Frater's book, "Siud an t-Eilean" ("There Goes The Island")  



17 Aug 2004 @ 22:37 by swanny : Excellant
Excellant contribution Aiden and interesting entrance
It is akin to a story related to me about
Frank Loydd Wright.....
Very similar theme

and the dance that inspired its response
is very insightful
Thankyou Koravya

swanny  



18 Aug 2004 @ 05:25 by koravya : Absolutely Stunning
I Love It.  


18 Aug 2004 @ 10:07 by shawa : Me too.
:-) I find it stunning, in a good way (I mean the whole log entry + comments!)...
"Those who live closest to the Earth will be in the most favorable position."
Oh yes, indeed. That´s why I bought a mountain, lol.  



18 Aug 2004 @ 10:30 by swanny : The Picture
This is of mayan influence or at least lunar is
it not..... the 13 months.......
Very rich coloration
reminds of a picture I did many moons ago
at least the back ground is very similar  



18 Aug 2004 @ 18:48 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : S'ma bha na b ‘fhearr ann, bha,
S'mar robh leig da.

Talking of picture. Have you seen {link:http://www.fresnobee.com/24hour/entertainment/story/1531579p-9061008c.html|The Village}, Koravya? I believe you would like it, you too, Swanny and Shawa - especially you, Shawa (it's a movie for you - a lot of silent, non-judgmental questions - the rhythm is great and the photography is fabulous - I like movies like those that give the viewers room to be - just be - rather than being bombarded with a flurry of sounds and images and predigested answers - the movie is hauntingly beautiful and the questions stay with you, long after you leave the theatre.)  



18 Aug 2004 @ 20:12 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : The Village
I was just told that the link to the review is dead - sorry about that.

Following is an abridged version of David Germain's review (AP Movie Writer) to which the link was pointing:

"Unlike writer-director Shyamalan's previous films the twists and gothic creepiness are not the payoff of "The Village." The rewards run much deeper in this simple story laced with a rich subtext and, like classic fairy tales, suffused with twilight terror and repressed carnality.

The real revelation is Shyamalan's growth as a storyteller, advancing from a modern Rod Serling specializing in "Twilight Zone" zingers to a mythmaker invoking the restrained passion of the Bronte sisters and the puritanical inhibitions of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

"The Village" is Shyamalan's best film yet, demanding repeated viewings and endless discussion about the morality and implications of the characters' choices.

A date on a tombstone in the opening funeral sequence establishes the year as 1897, yet "The Village" exists in a timeless void, formal speech patterns and rigid lifestyles that hark to colonial times mixing with a more progressive looseness of expression and behavior.

A child is buried, a father grieves, a tightknit community gathers for a mournful meal, prefaced by a heartfelt mantra from village elder Edward Walker (Hurt): "We are grateful for the time we have been given."

With painstaking detail on the 40-acre set built in his home turf of rural Pennsylvania, Shyamalan introduces the villagers' idyllic lives of work, family and communal fealty. But their isolated village has its boogeymen, carnivorous creatures that live in the surrounding woods, with whom the townsfolk share an uneasy coexistence. The villagers do not venture into the woods, and the beasts stay away from town.

The balance is disrupted when sturdy, taciturn youth Lucius Hunt proposes journeying to the towns beyond the woods for medicines to prevent more young people from dying. After Lucius makes a test incursion into the forest, the creatures respond with a frightening foray into the village. The elders, including Lucius' mother (Weaver), take it as a warning.

Calamitous circumstance involving Lucius, his spitfire sweetheart Ivy (Howard), the blind daughter of Edward Walker, and village idiot Noah (Brody) forces an expedition to the outside world, which the elders forsook as an unwholesome and violent place.

"The Village" raises compelling questions about the lengths parents might go to shield their children from harm, and whether isolating the young ones from the phantoms in the closet might simply unleash the monsters under the bed.

Shyamalan's austere, almost childlike dialogue conceals hidden depths of anxiety, melancholy and yearning. When Phoenix's Lucius, cut from stoic Pilgrim cloth, finally lets his hair down, his quaintly tender expression of love toward Ivy somehow is both joyous and heartbreaking.

Phoenix, Hurt and Brody offer deeply textured performances, while Brendan Gleeson and Cherry Jones provide fine support as village elders. Weaver sadly is underused, and the film leaves the impression that a subplot involving hers and Hurt's characters ended up largely excised so Shyamalan could showcase Howard's Ivy.

Howard usurps the film with a willful performance as Ivy progresses from gentle, playful soul to bullheaded trailblazer resolved to overcome the hobgoblins that have pervaded her nightmares since childhood."  



19 Aug 2004 @ 05:38 by koravya : Musical notes
Have taken to the number thirteen
and its partner twenty
in their correlations which define the Mesoamerican ceremonial calendar
which I became familiar with through Aztec symbolism.
Together with this nifty program called Bryce 3D which allows me to invent landscapes and objects in all sorts of interesting ways.
*-_*-_
I see that The Village is currently showing in Albuquerque
and shall certainly be getting over to see it within the next few days or so.
*-_*^--_//-*-_
And now there is this marvelous visualization of the Gaelic script, and I can only guess in my silent mind how those syllables might actually sound.
Is there some CD of Gaelic music or recitation that you can direct me to,
for my ear is wondering now, and it will continue to wonder until it has heard for itself. Please.
*-_-*-_-*  



19 Aug 2004 @ 05:43 by skookum : one thing you can
be sure of with Gaelic... is that the spelling has no connection with the pronounciation lol  


19 Aug 2004 @ 06:30 by shawa : Aiden
If you come back here. :-)
Thanks for "The Village" review. Will be playing in Spain soon, and won´t miss it.  



19 Aug 2004 @ 21:02 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : *- -*- -*
{link:http://www.gaelic-scotland.co.uk/GLC-GaelicScotlandMeCriochMP3.MP3|Thig crioch air an t-saoghal agus mairidh gaol agus ceòl}

"The world will come to an end, but music and love will endure."

More {link:http://www.gaelic-scotland.co.uk/Sound-files.html|here}.  



Your Name:
Your URL: (or email)
Subject:       
Comment:
For verification, please type the word you see on the left:


Other entries in
31 Jul 2010 @ 16:29: Innovation Yantra
31 Jul 2010 @ 16:01: Randy Paush - Lessons for Life
30 Jul 2010 @ 16:30: from Baudrillard to Verger: Diversification Vs Global Norms
22 Jul 2010 @ 13:16: Cartographers of No Man's Land
22 Jul 2010 @ 02:28: PUNISH BUSH & NEO-CONS FOR WAR CRIMES!
20 Jul 2010 @ 14:24: Getting other people to do stuff
16 Jul 2010 @ 22:57: Considerations on writing
14 Jul 2010 @ 14:53: Therapy Dogs Serve our Wounded Warriors
14 Jul 2010 @ 13:35: Consciousness of Pattern
13 Jul 2010 @ 17:04: What is Consciousness? - My answer on Quora.com



[< Back] [New Civilization News] [PermaLink]?