The Squeep Sutra

Beer

"It is sad to think of the amount of bad beer that is drunk
in the world.
so let's not think of it..."

Feather

As I was walking to work, a mourning dove flew across the street from my side to the other and settled, with much flapping, on the roof of a green Cooper Mini.

Whether you call it Easter, Ostara, Alban Eiler, or whatever, the spring equinox is upon us.  Pesach falls later this year, I think? but the Western Church's Easter is this Sunday.  For those of a crafty nature, or those who just wanna look at pretty pictures, here's a neat article from Mental Floss on various ways to decorate eggs for the season.

For generosity, nothing to do,
Other than stop fixating on self.

For morality, nothing to do,
Other than stop being dishonest.

For patience, nothing to do,
Other than not fear what is ultimately true.

For effort, nothing to do,
Other than practice continuously.

For meditative stability, nothing to do,
Other than rest in presence.

For wisdom, nothing to do,
Other than know directly how things are.

--translated by Ken McLeod

Mars opposite Pluto
Friday, March 7, 1:01 am PST, 4:01 am EST

This fierce aspect is the third in a series that began on September 21 and is now finally coming to a head. It's a tense face-off between aggressive Mars in self-protective Cancer and potent Pluto in hard-edged Capricorn. Confrontation is possible, yet this can also be the final stage in a clearing process that began last year. Initiating Mars wants to lay a new foundation in Cancer, but the concentration required for a successful launch means that something or someone needs to be eliminated now.

New Moon in Pisces
Friday, March 7, 9:15 am PST, 12:15 pm EST

The New Moon in Pisces is a time to feed your dreams, opening your mind and heart to a more creative and compassionate life. Inventive Uranus joins this lunation to hasten the pace of change. Things may feel more hectic and unpredictable now, spurring desires to break from routine and discover alternative ways of living. Generous Jupiter's supportive sextile to Uranus from constructive Capricorn provides a practical framework that helps turn chaos into a new and more invigorating system.

Venus in Pisces
Wednesday, March 12, 3:51 pm PDT, 6:51 pm EDT

Venus is exalted in this spiritual sign, dissolving the borders of jealousy and distrust, allowing love to flow more freely. A gentle and generous spirit helps overcome competitiveness as we recognize the infinite connections that bind us together. Romance can flourish in these idealistic waters that wash away the fears of greed and unworthiness, inviting everyone to share in the infinite pool of pleasure that is too often hidden by self-doubt and insecurity.

Mercury in Pisces
Friday, March 14, 3:46 pm PDT, 6:46 pm EDT

Mental Mercury's objective edge is blunted in the wispy world of Pisces where feelings count more than facts. Compassionate communication can make for especially intimate conversations. Imagination and intuition flourish while details fuzz into the background. The mind's field widens to include concepts beyond words, requiring images to express the splendor and spirituality of what you can see but cannot clearly say.

Sun in Aries
Wednesday, March 19, 10:49 pm PDT, Thursday, March 20, 1:49 am EDT

The astrological year begins on the Vernal Equinox or first day of spring (fall in the Falklands) as the Sun fires into this pioneering, impulsive and independent sign. It's time to take the initiative and dive into new activities and projects. Patience may be lacking, but enthusiasm enables you to quickly recover from mistakes. Putting yourself in motion may seem risky and, at times, insensitive to others, yet it is preferable to act in haste than to waffle at a time when the winds of change are blowing so strongly.

Full Moon in Libra
Friday, March 21, 11:40 am PDT, 2:40 pm EDT

The opposition of the Moon in cooperative Libra and the Sun in autonomous Aries represents a contrast between the freedom to act independently and the compromises required of relationships. The dialogue is intensified now with penetrating Pluto and aggressive Mars forming tense 90-degree squares to the Sun and Moon. Conflict is easily triggered by the smallest differences of opinion. Transforming combativeness against others into fighting for a worthy cause elevates the argument from a personal dispute to bold actions that can advance your interests personally and professionally.

Jupiter sextile Uranus
Friday, March 28

This intelligent connection between visionary Jupiter and innovative Uranus sparks new ideas. Intuition soars as fresh insights reveal unexpected ways to solve current problems or present you with an exciting scenario for a brighter future. This aspect will return on May 21 and November 12, providing two more chances to hitch a ride on these shooting stars.

Pluto Retrograde
Tuesday, April 1

The planetary Lord of the Underworld's backward turn is a subtle shift that drives the forces of transformation inward. Radical change needs to be rooted in your deepest desires if it is to be effective. Pluto's penchant for power is best fulfilled with personal discipline and focus, which are prerequisites for increasing your authority in relationships and at work.

Mercury in Aries
Wednesday, April 2, 10:45 am PDT, 1:45 pm EDT

Thoughts move quickly and words can be fired off spontaneously with mental Mercury in fast-moving Aries. The mind is sparked by fresh perspectives that provide a new take on old situations. Impatience can lead to unnecessary combat and careless communication can unintentionally wound others. A moment's pause before making a significant statement can temper the flames of verbal passion with the right amount of caution and consideration for others.

This New Moon in Pisces is rich with inventiveness that shatters existing limits of emotion and habit. Energy is moving so quickly that it's easy to feel out of control, yet stifling creative impulses can be even more destructive. This is a time of imagination when the walls of tradition are falling, making way for discovery and freedom that may be beyond your wildest dreams

I think I came across this picture thanks to Mental Floss: The Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars.  Thanks, NASA!

From the BBC.co.uk: "A Tibetan monk takes pictures outside the Great Hall of the People in Chinese capital, Beijing, before attending the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)."

I liked this a lot.

January

1. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
2. Paladin of Souls by the same
3. 1,001 Pearls of Buddhist Wisdom by Desmond Biddulph
4. The Zapruder Film: Reframing the Kennedy Assassination by David R. Wrone
5. Barbarians! by Terry Jones
6. No Horizon Is So Far by Ann Bancroft, Liv Arnesen, et al.
7. On Writing by Stephen King (R)
8. The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron

February

9. The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold
10. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (R)
11. Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center by Michael Downing

I enjoyed the Chalion series very much; I am finding that Bujold Satisfies, even when she's not writing about everyone's favorite mercenary admiral ImpSec lieutenant Imperial Auditor and hyperkinetic pain in the ass.  I also enjoyed Red Mars, which went down more easily on a second read; I'm working on Green Mars now.

The Zapruder Film and Barbarians! were both interesting historical reads.  I undertook the former because I felt perhaps I should be better acquainted with the controversies surrounding JFK's assassination; after reading it, I decided I *shouldn't* become better acquainted, because it's exactly the sort of thing that will eat my brain and give me bad dreams.  Sometimes maturity means backing away slowly from what you recognize is harmful to you.

Barbarians! is kind of controversial in its own right.  Jones, a former Pythoner turned popular historian, argues that the Romans weren't the great civilizers of the ancient world, but rather the first effective spin doctors of history.  By looting tools, technologies, and wealth from the surrounding peoples, whom they defined as worthy of conquest because they were merely Barbarians, they became a superpower and successfully wrote history so that they are the Good Guys, bringing cleanliness, clothing, and culture wherever they went.  In fact, archeological discoveries increasingly demonstrate that the bog-trotting Celts actually built sound roads, invented soap, and gave the Romans the swords with which they conquered other peoples.  It's a fascinating read that turns most of what we know about the ancient world on its head, including the early history of the Church.

No Horizon Is So Far is an Antarctic book which I read in protest against unseasonably warm weather.  [g]  It's the account of the two main authors' crossing of the southern continent by ski-sailing, which uses kite-like sails to speed skiing.  You can read more about them at the expedition website.

Shoes Outside the Door really deserves a full-length book review, but it might not get one until I've read it again.  It's an account of the first major Zen Buddhist center in North America, how it grew, why it blew up in 1983, and what keeps it going.  What makes it fascinating is that it's an account written not by a journalist, but by a novelist, and in many ways, it's like reading a novel with a dozen different narrators, all of them unreliable.  Other people raced through The Da Vinci Code, but this book, a group memoir of spiritual aspiration and betrayal, was the kind of book *I* can't put down.

From the BBC's Week in Pictures: "In southern Israel, a road in the border town of Sderot is damaged by a rocket fired from Gaza."

Lotus

Ever since I was a child, I've been interested in religion, my own and other people's.  One of my earliest memories involving books is of a volume of Greek myths for children; something about the illustrations disturbed me, and I wound up lying awake in bed, convinced that a vulture was going to come out of the closet and eat my liver.  (Perhaps the worst part was that I was not at all sure where my liver actually was.)

I cut my teeth, so to speak, on Greek mythology, on Norse mythology as illustrated by the D'Aulaires and by Willy Pogany, and on Egyptian mythology filtered through books on archaeology and ancient Egyptian culture.  I pored over color plates of Tutankhamen's treasures and learned the story of the cursed ring, the original one, from the Volsungasaga rather than the Nibelungenlied: Sigurd and Brynhild, Andvari and Gudrun.

But I also got interested very early in religion as well as mythology--people's beliefs and practices, as well as their stories.  Perhaps the thing that got me hooked was that big red Time-Life volume on Religions of the World.  It had text, and I read the words, but while I was a good reader at a young age, what I remember now--as with the D'Aulaires' book and Padraic Colum's The Children of Odin--is the pictures:  The D'Aulaires' Thor glaring through his bridal veil; Pogany's slender Loki and his up-curling hair, nibbling daintily on Gullveig's burnt black heart; the two-page color painting of all those Hindu gods and goddesses,  with Vishnu and Lakshmi on one page, Shiva and Parvati on the other, Brahma and Sarasvati split by the spine, and all sorts of gandharvas, apsarases, nagas,  and lesser deities around them; the golden vestments of a Greek Orthodox priest, offering communion to a small child on a silver spoon; the intensely saffron robes of Buddhist monks. 

By the time I was ten, I think, I had graduated to books with more words than pictures.  I recall a book with some black-and-white photos that I think was called The Five Great Religions; Amazon lists a book by that title with a publication date of 1974, which sounds about right.  This book had chapters on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and one other--what was it? Hinduism?  Sikhism, possibly?  I'm not sure.  But books like the Time-Life volume, and The Five Great Religions, and Religions of the World, which must have been a college-level textbook with chapters on everything from Mesopotamian polytheism to Shinto, all taught me one important lesson.  They taught me to think of Christianity not as Religion, but as one religion among others--a great and important religion, a world religion (unlike limited and local polytheisms), but still just one of many, and by no means the most colorful or interesting one.  The pictures in the chapters on Christianity had nothing on that sensual and colorful spread of the deities of Hinduism.

Another thing that strikes me now is how very dull those books made Buddhism look.  I realize now that they concentrated on the Theravada traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Ceylon, which focus on self-liberation through the monastic life.  In those cultures, people who can't go off and live lives of monastic renunciation basically can't do anything meritorious except support the monastics and hope for a favorable rebirth in which such a life will be possible.  I'd have gotten interested in Buddhism much sooner if they'd offered me descriptions of Vajrayana ceremonies and pictures of thangkas or dancing lamas.  (That's "lama" with one "L".)