Category: Charleston, West Virginia

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Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs

The Bold

 

It started out so hot and so mangled
There was no time to breathe.
But in the end so dark and tangled
There was no way to leave.

You watch the planes flying off in the distance
But don’t dare to rise from your chair.
Just twist & chew another lock of your hair.

First you tried to speak to him in some way
That would not make him mad.
Then you tried to understand him in
Some way that would not make you sad.

You watch the planes flying off in the distance
To capture that disk bright & bold.
Nice try friends, but life makes you wait for the gold.

Things that fly through the sky
Things that lie on the floor one day dreaming they’ll crawl to the door
Things that fall deep in the night like a star
Things so lost in the woods they should just stay where they are.

You know that God is made of pure gold
And your husband is made of pure black.
He needs you to tell him that he’s winning
And tell him that you have his back.

Planes fly high in the sky and then vanish
Deep into the dark mountain’s fold.
Goodbye friends, life has its way with the bold.

 

Download MP3: The Bold

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Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Minerals, Mountains, Crystals, Ice, and White Yellow, Gold, Kings, Fathers, and the Sun

White God & Gold God

Although I’m not religious, there are at least two Gods I believe in…

1. A White God, * whom I simply call “God.” He is the man in the sky who hears our prayers and answers them, so long as they are not in conflict with our destiny or personal growth. But no matter what, when we reach out to him, he will respond with care and love. He is above all our friend.

2. A Gold God, whom I call “God the Father.” He is the watchmaker who created the laws which run the universe. There is no need to pray to him, because he has already constructed the universe to run according to the highest good of all. Plus, he is far away, standing outside the world as he watches it turn.

He does, however, contain vast reservoirs of intelligence and wisdom that we can tap into, and also the Virtues. Virtues are, of course, things like honesty, courage, kindness etc. But on the golden level, they are power sources built into the fabric of the universe. By tapping into them we release external forces as well as internal ones.

Basically, the Virtues are stars- shining above us from all directions- with some diametrically opposed to others (frugality vs generosity, for example.) When we embody a virtue, we unleash a powerful wind blowing us in that star’s direction. If we tap into the right virtue, one that is aligned with our destiny, we will experience this as powerful forces of synchronicity coming to play in our favor, helping us to achieve our purpose. But if we tap into the wrong virtue, one that is not aligned with our destiny, it can be a disaster, carrying us into a foreign life where our strengths are useless. Or worse still, blowing us into a hostile world where our gifts are liabilities.

This is why I have yet to tap into any virtues myself. I don’t have the self-knowledge to know if I ought to be jovial or sober, trusting or crafty. But one day I look forward to doing it. Who wants to slog their way through life when they could be blown swiftly away by forces beyond their control?

 

* Given the mood of the moment with everyone on the lookout for racism, I feel the need to point out that this God being white has nothing to do with “white people.” At any rate, he is not the “white” color of Caucasian skin, he is white like bones, the color of bones that all humans and animals share.

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Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs The Pine Fairy Videos

Introduction to the Pine Fairy (Video)

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Charleston, West Virginia Plants and the Emerald Kingdom Uncategorized

The Great Grains

I am starting to wonder if some of the weird problems creeping up in society- such as:

1. people searching high and low for things to be outraged about
2. people hating others for holding different political beliefs
3. people wanting to label others as bigots on the thinnest of evidence
4. people treating victimhood as heroism

could be related to having turned our back on the grains that have guided us throughout history and taught us how to live together in harmony and peace. Especially wheat, which shortly before all these problems began became public enemy #1 for no apparent reason. Suddenly every health problem could potentially be resolved by removing wheat (if not all grains) from your diet. Suddenly, a grain free diet took on a saintly aura, despite the added expense and violence of living off only vegetables and meat.

I don’t know much about the history of wheat, but I do feel that the history of grains is the history of humanity, and without their help, we would not have become human as we now understand it. I think that to dishonor grains is to disconnect from our human self.

As I see it, we have three parts- the human, the angelic, and the beastly*. They are like stair steps, with the human resting upon the beast, and the angelic resting upon the human. If we detach from our human self, we are left with nothing but the beast, since without the human foundation, the angelic in us cannot exist.

I believe it was the Great Grains of the world who taught us how to construct the human aspect of our psyche so we could rise up out of our animal nature and reach towards the heavens. It was grains that gave us the ideas, knowledge, and values that were needed to build and organize civilizations.

Because- in addition to being mostly benevolent- grains are also practical beings, who know how to balance virtue with necessity, to let us recognize ideals and move towards them, while having the realism to accept that these ideals can never be reached. Grains know how to find the compromise, the middle ground, between God and Nature, Goodness and Power. And I believe that fleshing out this middle ground between heaven and earth is part of the reason why humans were created. Hence, humans and grains are best friends forever, and their destinies are intertwined.

I have said similar things before, and I will say them again, because the importance of Grains as both food and spiritual guides to humanity cannot be overstated! It is GRAINS that give us a balanced mind! It is GRAINS that calm our emotions! It is GRAINS that give us the capacity for brotherly love, and GRAINS that will give us the vision for how to move forward as a collective!!!!! GGGRRRAAAIIINNNSSS!!! And although you can choose to befriend any grains you prefer (perhaps befriending unusual grains could even lead to novel solutions to age old problems), let us never forget the grains that fed and guided our ancestors. Let us never dishonor them and write blasphemous books like “Wheatbelly.” These age-old friends still have many things to teach us and I am sure we will never outgrow them.

Notes:
1. I recognize that these ideas sound weird and although they do make me laugh, I am still completely serious. I believe in grains!

2. I don’t mean any disrespect to animals by referring to our lower nature as beastly, but I think the word beastly captures the essence of the blood & slime part of our self, that slithers, tricks and fights its way towards power, life, and survival.

3. Despite technically being our “lower” nature, I don’t mean to imply that our animal self is lesser than the angelic. The lower self provides the passion and vitality without which heaven would just be a flaccid and never-ending harp song. The lower self is a brave man who is not good, and heaven is a good man who is not brave. Neither has much value on their own. That is why the Middle Ground (between heaven and earth) is so important. The more this ground is developed the more places heaven and earth can touch. And this is the work that humanity and grains were meant to do together.

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Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs The Pine Fairy Videos

The Arrival of the Robed Spirits (Video)

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Charleston, West Virginia The Pine Fairy

A Little More About the Pine Fairy, Part II

This particular set of songs takes place when the Pine Fairy is transitioning from the fiery redness of adulthood to the electrical wisdom of old age. But for a Pine Fairy, old age is much longer than youth. Their adulthood lasts about 60-80 years, while their old age continues for about 4,000 years after that.

Pine Fairies first set off on their own when they are around 20 years old, wandering away from the pine grove of their youth. At this point, they still have enough red blood to be visible to humans. You might spot one walking around during the day. They look much like a human, but a bit taller and thinner, and are likely to be wearing blue jeans, a red t-shirt, brown walking shoes, and carrying a brown paper bag with a sandwich in it.  By the time they are 80, this outfit will have been replaced by a robe, nightcap, and shoes made of soft swaddled cloth. But you are unlikely to ever see an 80 year old fairy, because by this point they have so little blood left, that they are more or less invisible. Not to mention that they live deep within the woods and rarely leave their home before dusk.

It is possible though, if walking through a deep forest, to happen upon a Pine Fairy’s house. These are generally small, about the size of a trailer, but more squarish in shape. They may be painted green with a red roof, or dark brown with a mustard roof. If you do happen upon one, go inside! There you will find the iron pots they cook with hanging against the wall, and their dry goods stocked up in mason jars. A bed made of iron will be pushed into one corner with a quilt lying neatly upon it. Help yourself to a stool and take a seat at their kitchen table, where you will surely find a beverage waiting. For although you cannot see them, they can see you, and will be happy you came for a visit.

One day Pine Fairies leave even old age behind, but not to die. Instead, they grow so gold and so silvery that they become indistinguishable from the angels and go to live in the sky beside them. Sometimes these risen fairies will appear to us as the shape of a bone flying through clouds. Like fairy godmothers, they can grant wishes and make heart’s desires come true. So if you ever think you see a bone flying through the sky, stop and make a wish. The Pine Fairies will hear you.

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Charleston, West Virginia The Pine Fairy

A Little Background on the Pine Fairy, Part 1

I decided I should give a little background about the Pine Fairy, so you won’t think he is just a whimsical concept I made up!  For starters, he is a fairy, of course, but that is a broad term describing all humanoids on different frequencies from our own. Some fairies, such as the Pine Fairy, are very similar to us, with emotions we could relate to, while other fairies are more inhuman, with emotional responses we might find bizarre. As a rule, the more fairies resemble us in shape and size, the more their thought processes mirror our own. And the more likely we are to see them.

Pine Fairies are symbiotic with Pine Trees and share many of their gifts. A Pine Fairy gains in magical power primarily through the experience of sorrow. Over time, grief hollows these fairies out, and colors like silver and gold pour into them to fill up the hollow places. These colors connect the fairy to heaven and the angels and he becomes a conduit for bringing this pure, uplifted energy into our reality.

Pine Fairies are linked to the evening of the day and the season of Autumn. For many fairies, it is forever the same time of year and the same time of day. This is not true for Pine Fairies, although time in their world is skewed to stretch out the hours of dusk and nightfall and condense the hours of morning and day. Likewise, the seasons of autumn and winter are stretched, while the seasons of spring and summer are compacted.

Pine Fairies become loners in their old age and spread out far and wide across the globe, rarely encountering one another. This isolation drives sadness even deeper into their bones. They do interact with other species though, and tend to be friends with many ‘inanimate objects’ such as canes, jars, and grandfather clocks.

They like to walk, especially at night, accompanied by a cane or walking stick. Pine Fairies are delicate beings and it is comforting to have a burly piece of wood with them, much as a woman might like a man to lean upon. They gain knowledge from the silver beams of moon and stars. They will walk by a river if one is near, for they can glean still other forms of knowledge from the moonbeams that float in the water.

All Pine Fairies are male. They do not use sexual reproduction. They are born inside pine cones, nestled beside the seeds. As youngsters, the Pine Trees feed them, shelter them, and teach them some of life’s basics, but eventually the fairies grow independent. And while they frequently choose to live among Pine Trees as adults, it is not a necessity, just as a man need not live in the same town as his mother.

Pine fairies enjoy many of the same foods we do, such as peas, cornbread, and cake. As young men (when they are the most red and human-like), they may even eat meat. In this most burly and masculine time of their life, they have even been known to brawl with one another and possibly kill. But as they grow older, grief eats away their bone marrow and withers their muscles. One by one their red blood cells die and they become empty shells of the men they were before. This is the time when their life is really beginning.

 

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Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Plants and the Emerald Kingdom Red, Soldiers, & Fire The Pine Fairy

Brothers (The Pine Fairy Frees a Small Man from a Mason Jar and Learns His Story)

 

 

 

 

This is a story about a little man the Pine Fairy notices is stuck to the side of one of his mason jars, just as he was about to clean it. Instead, he is able to set the little guy free to begin a new life and possibly start a new family. He is happy to learn the small fairy’s story. Although tragic from our perspective, the tiny fairy has a detached perspective on all he has experienced and sees it as part of a greater picture that is still unfolding.

What kind of fairy is the small man? I am not sure. Considering I ate paw paws and cornbread before sleeping and heard this song during the night, a baby corn fairy or a paw paw fairy would be my top choices. Probably corn, because corn fairies seem to have a detached, inhuman nature that is very accepting of death and are frequently engaged in emotionless violence.

*

My daddy he was a woodworking man and
he had six fine sons to share his name.
Three were big and three were small,
but still my father loved us all the same.

He bounced the big ones on his knee and
the little ones he placed in a candy dish.
He said the big ones would be his pride and
the little ones they would grant his final wish.

Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.

One days when we were fourteen,
cannonballs and bullets filled the sky.
Daddy packed up three sandwiches and
kissed the three large brothers all goodbye.

He said, “Now you must remember sons, that
there will come a day when life is done for all.
What matters most is you must not cry,
just stand up straight and look death in the eye, real tall.”

Many of the Brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.

We watched the brothers vanish
in the distance as dad held us in his hand.
He said, “I love you my small sons,
now it’s time to grant a wish for your old man.”

Then he dropped us all in a mason jar and
he shook us hard until two of us had died.
Then he fell on the floor and shook as though
his wiring had been shattered from inside.

Then he quivered till he grew real still and
I knew that the only brother left was me;
Just one tiny seed remained from
what had once been a big family.

Many of the brothers were sent to fight a war.
Other of the brothers were left within a jar.
I was of the brothers left within a jar.

 

Download MP3: Brothers

 

 

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Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs Purple, Magic & Sorcerers The Pine Fairy

The Pine Fairy Takes a Stroll

 

Why is the wind so cold? Shiver and shake, then shut the door…
I don’t need friends like that much anymore.
Why is the sun so silver, shining in the sky like a dime?
I must have lost track of the time.

Where did I put my glasses? Knocking the jars down with my hand
Spilling the corn meal and the sand.
Three legged stool, I think I’ll sit down on you just for a while…
Head in my hands, I’m crying now.

Time. Sky. There must be somewhere nice where all the birds go when they fly.
Space. Darkness falls casting its purple on my face.

Where is my cane, again? Oh, I see it leaning by the door.
Perhaps the two of us will go explore.
Just take a walk and let the wind try to hurt us as it will…
Friends that can bleed but cannot kill.

Time. Pain. Blood dripping in the mason jar- but not in vain.
Need. Planting us painfully with a golden seed.

And when the moon comes up we’ll capture it silver in our eyes…
Just a man and his cane walking side by side.
And when the moon comes up we’ll follow the silver it unrolls…
Just a man and his cane going for a stroll.

 

 

Download MP3: The Pine Fairy Takes a Stroll

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Blue, Black, Silver, Water, Moons, Death & Ghosts Charleston, West Virginia Music & Songs The Pine Fairy Videos

Video of ‘Ben’ (from the Pine Fairy)

My first attempt at making a video. Although I hate having my photograph taken, somehow video cameras are less intimidating.

At any rate, this is another song about the Pine Fairy, a fairy on his way to becoming a magician. Being of a piney nature, he is prone to piercing, torturous bouts of grief. However, in the end, these feelings become the key to his power, lifting him above the humdrum of life and compelling him to seek out those things which are truly eternal.