The Lighthouse Family

My mother came from a small town called Hayle in Cornwall located near St Ives and as a child each summer we would go to the beach of St Ives Bay ,with miles of golden sands, beautiful blue seas and a wonderful view of Godrevy Lighthouse. In my teens I learnt to surf at St Ives bay and one summer enjoyed the simple pop music of "The Lighthouse Family" by the time I attended university I was slightly disconnected from my Cornish roots and one summer was invited by two sisters to visit their family in the town of Thurso in Scotland to surf some Scottish waves , imagine my surprise after I had travelled all the way to the tip of Scotland to enter the living room of their parents house and see on the wall above the fireplace,  a painting (by their dad) of St Ives Bay and Godrevy Lighthouse.

The lighthouse "meme" returned a few years ago courtesy of the Transit Kings with their single "The Last Lighthouse Keeper " - Living in a giant candle winking at God.

Tiger Style

I have been experiencing a "Tiger flap" the last few days which began went i caught up with a mate who a mutual friend has nicknamed "Tiger".I was asking if he had heard the dubstep/grime producers "True Tiger" who have recently been given a late night show Friday night/Saturday morning on Kiss.
I started resonating "Tigers" in a big way a couple of years ago in (the year of the tiger) when my son was born and my neice and nephew took a photo of him as a new born next to a cuddly toy of "Tigger" from Winnie the Poo" every few months they would measure him in units of "Tigger" .

Prior to that I had only a vague interest in the meaning of tiger symbolism. Prominent ones being the used of the tiger by "Esso" and the "Eye of the tiger" in the rocky films. More recrntly  I wondered about the meaning of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

My recent cluster of Tiger syncs deepened when i was competing with my son to access my computer and noticed "Cosmic Tigger" had made a post referencing the Tiger in " The life of Pi" at I hadn't had a chance to read it when my son pulled up the webpage for Kellogs Frosties with its animated Tiger. This minor sync gave me the motivation for a blog post of my own and as I logged on to compose it what was the first image I saw but the one I have attached which had been shared on facebook by a work colleague.I had never seen the different breeds of tigers alongside each other like this in a photo and it seem to mirror my discovery a day earlier that there are in fact two varieties of Tiger Balm on sale red and white.

Pirates

During my childhood years my parents used to enter my brothers and I in an annual carnival held in my mums hometown Hayle (Cornwall) , our costumes were always based on a theme and one of my favourites was when we dressed as Pirates , equipped with swords and Skull and Crossbones. My Mother used to tell how our Great Great Grandfather was the Captain of a steam ship named the "SS HAyle" which ran aground in the Hayle estuary, I like to think he led a double life as actual a Cornish Sea Pirate that ran it a ground in order make off with the booty.

Hayle is a few miles from Penzance famed for its Pirates, which are celebrated each August Bank holiday monday on "Pirate Day"

The Pirate and outlaw meme was reinforced during my child by Adam Ant who played the outlaw archetype well.

The main commercial radio station in Cornwall is Pirate fm

When I first moved from Bristol to London in the early nineties I was living to a soundtrack an of Acid House, Hardcore Rave , Jungle Tekno / Drum and Bass and it was the "Pirate" radio stations the likes of F.T.P. (Bristol), Weekend Rush ,Pulse FM, Kool FM & Rinse (London) which fed the vibes. 

I had my own a encounter with the London pirates Rush FM in the mid 90's and as a DJ  on Jelly FM.

I recently discovered I'm not the first in my family to dabble in pirate radio my uncle played rock and roll from one of the infamous ships in the 60's.

Years later The Hollywood film "The Pirates of the Caribbean" brought the Pirate meme back to global conciousness, it touched on Afro Carribean traditions  & Goddess Spirituality.

These days my son watches "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" on the Disney Channel

Halloween / Samhain / Day of the Dead

As a child, my first memories of Halloween was of making pumpkin "Jack O Lanterns" , apple bobbing etc, my mum a Christian (Catholic) explained Halloween means “All Hallows Eve”. "All Hallows"  Day is the old English term for "All Saints" Day ( November 1 ) and November 2 is "All Souls Day" 

A religious  festival when people have traditionally prayed for departed relatives. In some parts of Latin America they call November 2nd "The Day of the Dead !"

These  dates were chosen by the early Christian church as they fall over the pre Christian "Celtic" festival of "Samhain". Which is the gaelic word for the festival which occurs on the date midway between the Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. A time when the veil between the physical and the spirit world is said to be at it thinest.

In the eighties Halloween was central to the film E.T. which was probably my first introduction to the UF0/Alien meme.The significant events in ET (a birth/death/resurrection story) occurred around Halloween (giving a suitable excuse for E.T. to go out unnoticed.)
E.T. also introduced me and many of my generation to; The American fantasy role playing game Dungeons and Dragons (which a friend of my mums from work warned might lead to an interest in the occult), the newly imported American BMX bikes and the American custom of “Trick or Treat”.

Halloween returned to my conscious a few years later by which time I was a punk and skateboarder,The American hardcore punk band the Misfits were lovers of American Horror films and B Movies,one of their anthem was the song "Halloween" The Misfits became increasingly interested in the occult and when they split some of the members continued in a band called "Samhain". It was the lead singer of the Misfits and Samhain "Glenn Danzig" who introduced me to the Nag Hammadi (Dead Sea Scrolls) and other "lost" books of the Bible.

In the nineties the festival of Halloween saw a re-emergence with an emphasis on themed fancy dress parties and at the extreme end adult parties along the lines of Wasteland ,Torture Garden.

By the naughties my trajectory had moved to an interest in Latin American culture where the Day of the Dead is celebrated by families holding candlelight vigils for their departed loved one at the cemetery.
I had forgotten how the James Bond (007) film “Live and Let Die” had introduced me at an early age to ; Baron Samedi , the medium "Solitaire" and  Tarot cards and different cultural approaches to death, funerals and the afterlife.

Alleluyah - the unity of religious truth

The term Hu in reference to a creator or god is linked to many cultures and religions. The modern day cult of Eckankar, ancient Egyptians and the Druid are just a few. In Sufism "Hu" or "Huwa" is the pronoun used with Allah ( God ), and is used as a name of God. Allah Hu means "God, Just He!" In Arabic Allah means God and with Hu, as an intensive added to Allah, means "God himself." Hu is also found in the Islamic credo La Ilaha Ila Allah Hu: (la el la ha el al la hu) "There is no God but Allah," or in Sufi interpretation "There is no reality, except God", or  "La Ilaha Ila Huw" a meaning "There is no God but He" Others speculate that the pronoun when used by the Sufi (and Muslim) is simply a shorter form of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton due to the similarities between Sura Al-Ikhlas 112:1 in the Quran and Deuteronomy 6:4 in the Hebrew Bible. Sura Al-Ikhlas (112:1) - Say: He, Allah, is One. Transliteration : qul huwa allah hu ahad Deuteronomy 6:4 - Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Transliteration : shema ysrael yahowah elohynu yahowah achad

Snakes

Lately I have been thinking a lot about snakes and what they represent.

David Icke's views on "reptilians" are fairly well known.I think they are sometimes taken a too literally.Certainly the study of the physiology of the human brain confirms we all have the reptilian/mamalian sections which developed at a different stages of our evolution.Perhaps we differ to the extent our behaviour is determined by different parts of our physiology. A  friend sent me this link which puts a postive spin on the whole reptilian question. 

In the Christian tradition the snake represents Satan that tempted Eve to eat from the fruit of knowledge, thereby making the first choice of free will, contary to the Divine will. This "Fall from eden/paradise" was simultaneously a realisation of good and evil and hence a moment of enlightenment.

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail. Lately I have become aware of the very fluid movements of some Martial artists who move around each other in similar way to the way snakes move, this is particularly noticeble in some Brazillian Jujitsu or Capoeira fights.

In Kung Fu, the snake is traditionally one of the mythical "five animals" Those who follow the way of the warrior sometimes use their kung fu to achieve  the ultimate goal of self mastery/enlightenment. 

 
The snake in some eastern traditions represents the kundalini energy that rises up the spine from the lower chakra to the crown to enlighten/illuminate the yoga practioner.

Bad Orb

Capoeira Angola

Jiu Jitsu




Owl and Snake

Zero

Triskellion

Crass

Zero's and Olive's

Back in the late eighties early nineties during the rave era I was particulalry inspired by a tune called "Lock Up " by the artist Zero B, around the same time I was into the fairly unkown Hip Hop act "MC 900 ft Jesus" whos DJ I believe was called DJ Zero. During this era I used to attend a underground party called Zero Gravity  and it was around this time I passing through Smurf obsession, during which I was dj'ing under the alias Blue 5 (a subtle Skywalker reference) (this syncs with another "Zero" from Star Wars "0 B 1 / Obi Wan Kenobi" 

During the same period I attended a graffiti workshop held by an artist called "Zero" we planned a couple of joint pieces with the tag ZERO/ Blue 5.

  Within the last couple of years I was surpised to find an aquaintance of mine from those years is now making music with the original Zero B ,the two of them known as the Drum Monkeys Zero B  has also worked with the Dub Pistols

The word Olive and extensions of it have also been reoccuring in my conciouness over the last few years. Discussions over the dinner table reminded me of Olive Oil from Popeye who my wife is a fan of. My wifes maiden name is Oliveira and my son has retained it (along with my surname) Oliveria is also the surname of my Capoeira Grandmaster. 

"Olives" first started resonating with me in the 00's when a female artist called "Olive" released a bass breakbeat pop tune "your not alone" at the same time my new housemate a work colleague called "Olivia" accused my existing house mate (also a work colleague) of poisoning her with his coffee. for some reason at that time it occured to that "olive" could be read as "Zero Live" 

 Over the years I have transitioned from being mostly immeresed in either Live music or recorded/electronic music. One perspective on the difference between the live / recorded  was highlighted to me and summed up in the title of a live album by Punk band "The Misfits" entitled "Evil LivE". The Misfits were fans of Halloween horror recently I discovered Zero is also the name of Jack Skellingtons dog in the nightmare before Christmas

Click the link for more  "ohs" .