Thoughts

The Great Conjunction

~ MKW Publishing ~ 1 Comment

This article is looking at the film The Dark Crystal, it’s fiction and a children’s film no less, but one I like and it’s one of those films that pops back up in thought now and again. More so recently.

I have mentioned it before in relation to a process within it, of draining energy from creatures by way of the crystal and turning them into slaves. But the overall premise of the story is a long stretching one, with conflict, battles and prophecies. Of cycles and a change in the order of things when the conjunction occurs.

“The Great Conjunction is the end of the world! Or the beginning. End, begin, all the same. Big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. ~ Aughra”

It reminds of giving thought to the Phoenix event story we have in our reality, even though it is apparently a simulated one, and of alignments in our ‘solar system’, looking like spiral path being followed. With eclipses and a termination point, or recycling point, where it all starts over. Like a clock having a countdown, or a reset I guess, as we do every day when the sun rises and we start over again.

But in The Dark Crystal, three suns align and a new age dawns – with a fair amount of adventure and peril in between of course, yet the idea of multiple suns kept coming up in mind. Making me also think of the multiple suns in Star Wars visible on Tatooine, wondering if there are other lands further from us on this realm, that have a different view from us. And when they talk of blocking out the sun, could it be because it will start to become obvious? Of the pending conjunction or that there is more out there in close proximity than is being admitted? Perhaps that is why we have stories of Niribu, one of the other suns that is visible now and again on its route, or a shadow of it is. Because while we usually think of suns as bright and glowing, perhaps there is a black sun, which may almost look as a black hole would in our astronomical imagination. But perhaps that is what Niribu is, a dark sun as the opposite of our known light sun, and I even went as far as to think that the moon may have also once been a sun – or in fact still is. As it seems to have its own light source to a point, could it be that it’s a super dim small version, but still part of the mechanical system. Playing its own more noticeable part. Just a strange a wandering thought…

(c) K Wicks

Gen X

~ MKW Publishing ~ 7 Comments

I have done an article on Gen Z, and speculating on that being the ‘zombie generation’, and how they seem to have it in society. But this one will be for Gen X, the last vestige of an upbringing and attitude that no longer exists. But the product of it does. Us. The X-ers. And recently I’ve watched an American woman do a couple of funny shorts, answering random internet people who ask, “Are Gen X-ers okay?” and “Didn’t y’all have access to sinks when you were a kid, why drink out of the hose?”. Well, her response nails it to me, and although done in a funny, punchy and humorous way, the truth in what she responds with is great. With classic timing and delivery, summing up, literally, some people’s childhoods, homelife, upbringing and influences, in a very concise and hilarious manner. Being locked out of the house all day, forgotten about by parents, had to feed yourself for the day, fend for yourself kind of thing. And if you are one of those ‘drink out of the hose’ kids, you possibly know what she means.

I have written briefly about escapades of childhood in The Hay Bale Incident, and of a time before technology in The Before Time, but I guess hadn’t fully appreciated the affects of those times on people, and how it creates a certain attitude amongst an entire generation. Mostly. There will always be ones who didn’t, or who can’t relate to that at all and within it there will be those who had extra weird childhoods as their parents were very good at even looking after themselves, let alone kids. But the toughened attitude that many in that age group now present, can’t be entirely by accident, can it? Maybe the ones from the 70’s and 80’s were meant to be the forgotten generations, the ones who fell through the cracks during recessions, financial collapses and whatever crisis they could manufacture to keep it as they wanted. Giving them an extra hammering now, and including the Millennials as they will also now be the ones with children, mortgages and businesses. The boomers having retired, and Gen-Z not quite able to get involved, and looking as though they will be locked out of ever having the opportunities we did. And it might seem like progress to think they get all new ones, and if it was anything positive and inspiring being pushed for the future, I would be behind it. It does not appear to be the case though, and if they don’t know any different, does it matter?

Being resilient, and practical, and being able to ‘fend for yourself’ aren’t traits that everyone has, or has even retained into adulthood if they did need to be a bit more savvy back in the day. Not all are able to get through childhood and life completely unaided, and despite appearances, many have their scars, emotional and physical. Understanding that what made you who you are, was often a product of someone else’s failure, distraction or circumstance. Lives overlapping and intertwining as we all end up sharing a certain space and time, whether we get on or not, or like each other or not, or can even relate to each other or not. Here we all are. But in the latest twist in society, it would seem that having those traits, or the extra behaviours that followed on from them was not entirely foreseen. Or maybe they were and that is why there is such a push to make people believe they need a label, and a medication that inevitably follows. To be convinced you are a problem, the problem, and it needs to be ‘fixed’. Because otherwise, we might have all spotted sooner that society is the problem, and how it has been set to work. It’s anyone guess whether there really are generational differences that are so easily defined by when you were born, or what you were taught. But if there wasn’t, it makes me wonder why they would spend so much time and energy separating us all out and making sure we have different societies to grow up in. That no decade can be like the last, constantly changing things to keep it all up in the air and never actually progressing, just the illusion of it…

(c) K Wicks

Maps and Islands

~ MKW Publishing ~ 4 Comments

Further to previous articles about maps and islands, An Island, Or Was It? and Atlantis? No That Would Be Silly, I spent some more time looking through maps of the 1500’s. One in particular is currently a favourite which you may be familiar with – Urbano Monte 1587. And an earlier one too, the Mappa Mundi. But in between there are others, showing places that apparently were, but no longer are. Named, routed and landmarks noted. But as far as we are told, they didn’t exist and were just bits of fiction added, or they just ‘got it wrong’, which may well be the case, we know that just because it is drawn or written, doesn’t mean it is real.

I noticed what looked to be an interesting feature on the 1587 map though, a spiral named as Vorago. Naturally I looked up the word, with its meaning being put as – An engulfing chasm : Abyss. And it seemed awfully close to where we have magnetic north showing, a strange feature which looks as though the images aren’t stitched together properly, so it appears fragmented and pixellated, like what happens when you curve something that isn’t supposed to be curved, but what do I know.

And it can be seen as a diamond formation of dots on earlier maps, this one noted as 1380 in roman numerals, seems very different from the other maps of that time, being that the mappa mundi is apparently from 1300.

And although it is speculated that most of these places noted above, are in fact modern day Iceland, Greenland, Shetlands Islands and The Orkneys – they say the others just simply don’t exist. Although, when you look at google earth today, there are shapes within the area which could have once been islands perhaps. Which leads back to a reoccurring question for me, if the water level has risen and fallen over time, to reveal land once lost, or cover land we once knew, how could that possibly happen? Could the land tilt, rise or drop? Or is it the water levels that have changed, draining every now and then and creating land bridges and bigger continents for a time, only to be covered again by a deluge from above. As the old saying goes, the waters above, and the waters below…

(c) K Wicks

Words and Meaning

~ MKW Publishing ~ 13 Comments

It seems words are being used in a very strange game at the moment, and to be honest, have always been used in some way, to control, dictate and define society and the way we are educated to understand basic things. Now they are being weaponised in a new way though, or at least new to us in this time. Already covered a bit in my article What’s In A Name, from the point of view of what you are called for your given name, and how some people use that as a basis to feel victimised. However, on top of that debacle, there is a separate yet related one making itself known too.

Terms being introduced to redefine the words of womanhood and female related issues. You may have heard some of them, chestfeeder instead of breastfeeding, birthgiver instead of mother, and now the absolute zinger of – Bonus Hole instead of using anatomical terms, so vagina is out, bonus hole is in. Woman are starting to sound like a variety of ‘rides’ at the fairground. Start with the birthgiver game, moving onto the chestfeeding section, finally winning the bonus hole round. And maybe it is a game to the ones who seek to infiltrate and redefine things for others of the female persuasion. I read an article the other day about menopause as I was interested to see how they would word it, and as I suspected, not one mention of the word woman. I am also quite bemused by the strange term being attributed to those who do not partake in a same sex ‘lifestyle’, that it seems necessary for everyone to be renamed and labelled, so there is no normal. Personally, it makes me chuckle every time I see ‘CIS’, partly because it is a label that someone else has decided to allocate to people, and partly because in my world, it means construction industry scheme, so is a tax status, not a sexual orientation. Buy hey, who am I to tell people what words they can and can’t use and what they mean or don’t mean, honestly, I love words and their meanings. How those meaning came to be defined, and redefined for purpose and general use.

And that is it really, the purpose. Look at what words have achieved so far, just in the last few years so many have been twisted and commandeered, and those that can’t be, it seems some of those are up for being removed altogether if they get in the way of ‘social advancement’. Because words can cause feelings, and feelings can be used against people, so you go back a step and work out what words will be most hurtful, meaningful and useful. As we know, within racism there are certain words that have been clearly weaponised and used for the purpose of negativity and making people feel bad, belittled and inferior. That’s literally what they are designed for, on all sides, towards different colours, genders, ideas, looks, religion etc. All of these differences are just variances of the same thing, yet people fight over them, to the death in some cases, usually started or spurned on with words.

Categories and Labels help to divide people, and vanity and ego play their part to allow people to want to be separated out. But it is an odd thing to see segregation making a comeback, I genuinely thought people wouldn’t want to be racially separated again, having hated it and fought it when it was against a certain group. But I now see white people being excluded from a comedy club which wanted a black only audience, a black only graduation, businesses that only want to serve black customers. Which kind of threw me I guess, thinking everyone wanted to be accepted in the same society and as equals. People really are people though, whatever their location, upbringing, heritage and ideals – they are all susceptible of falling into the same trap. Selectivism perhaps, or just hypocritical maybe. Becoming that which you claim to hate the most, must be an odd way to live. And equally odd, trying to be that which you clearly hate. I guess it’s the recent BLM hoo-ha that made me do a double take on it all, hearing some incredibly racist things which are now deemed acceptable because it was the ‘oppressed’ group saying it. Shocking, or not if you understand people are people, are some of them are very hateful in nature. It doesn’t matter what colour people are, it’s what they say and do that shocks or interests me, not what their exterior skin sack looks like…

(c) K Wicks