Large Fierce Mammal

Found shared upon the internets. Whosoever shall rise up and claimeth credible right of origin shall be duly credited.

“Understanding and being able to recognize and avoid logical fallacies is helpful in everything you do, whether it’s an argument, not being fooled by advertisements or politicians, choosing a good teacher who teaches from a solid foundation, or recognizing whether what you are being taught is what you need to learn.” ~ Maestro Adam Crown, The Four Fallacies of the Apocalypse

At its fundamentals, democracy — exercise of power by direct majority rule — is not what is actually meant when people and politicians refer to, “Western democracies”, “Making the world safe for democracy”, or declare someone/something, “A threat to democracy”. If everything was up to a popular vote, nobody would have time for anything other than making sure they kept an eye on what everyone else was getting up to, lest one day a gang shows up at the door with a line like, “We all decided that Joe’s family would be more comfortable living in your house, but he wants your wife to stay.”

And so we have the version we know and love today wherein elected representatives keep an eye on what other folks are up to so you don’t have to, passing laws to legitimize their decisions, and thus ensuring that if Joe ever does come after your house and wife, he can get it all straight up and legal with justice both done and seen to be.

Now of course I’m laying it on a bit (but only a bit) thick with this example, but recent history highlights how ready people are, as they always have been, to demand level playing fields  and evened scores with a cavalier disregard for such pesky speed bumps as some people are just more hard working, talented, or genetically blessed than you. That rules of evidence, due process, and innocence until proven guilty are even a thing. A slippery slope greased with calls to cast aside the aforesaid speed bumps in favour of unquestioned acceptance of any narrative in which the alleged offense and demographic of the victim come from a select and unassailable subset. (more…)

Moon-phases by livinglightningrod. (Source here.)

There are those who live their lives, and would judge all others, by standards excremental (to paraphrase the Esteemed and Right Honourable Master At Arms James A. Keating).

Their mettle never tested, forever self-excused by the acts of others, their only measure of strength is relative to how far an audience can be drawn to stoop by the millstone of sympathy and misplaced atonement. Be not so base as to find reason in bowing to such is an abdication of responsibility for laying absolute claim to this title — Greatest Living Authority of Myself.

But as in all things, it’s one thing to see it, another to be it.

Authority

By LFM

No wise writ tome rides any shelf
By greater scholar of Myself
Than I, my deeds both foul and fair,
Their scars are solely mine to wear.

My dreams are sweet and ne’er impugn
What acts I’ve played before the Moon,
And choices made beneath her gaze,
She assures were but a phase.

Ignore the clutter. We’ve been busy. (Veritas 2024 by Deviantartist Firehead65 — Source here.)

Welcome back to our fireside, goode and weary Pilgrim, and this 15th Season of Dark Sentiments. Here, by the grim and unflinching Watchstone, we can take our ease, speak freely, and match observations with the utterances of those who would proclaim laws to have it otherwise.

We don’t cater to weakness here, nor do we sow the seeds of Fear except where its cultivation is necessary to yielding the essential ingredient in the Time Honoured recipe for Courage.

The world abounds with the granting — self or by what “powers” be — of unassailability, from which place of “safety” uncontestable “truths” may be hurled. Yet there are real, observable, predictable Truths, tried and tested throughout History, even as the aforesaid unassailable would uninvent the meanings of both, and any feelings you may have or come to have about the bearer of the lips that utter them has no effect on their veracity.

Our dedicated researchers do not shy away from picking pearls of Truth that mayhap gleam upon the slopes of otherwise steaming dungheaps, for they are Truths nonetheless, uncontaminated by the asshole that gave birth to them, even should it be mine. Shunning not the long hours of toil picking fly shit out of pepper with boxing gloves on; and know this Pilgrim, that when the whisky makes its rounds, cursed be he who insults the hand that passes it by wiping  the bottle’s mouth before drinking.

All this to bring us here tonight where no man is of a piece, unless that’s all you’ve left of him.

Now, onward into the darkness …

Our featured Artist weaving cordage from grass fibres in his (equally skillful low tech) element. (LFM Photo)

In these waning hours of September, the last few lengthening nights before the onset of that most blessed month of October, launch of the 15th Season of Dark Sentiments is breathing down our necks.

Eleven year old #1 Son Viktor is a young Man of many skills, and no small amount of self-propelled motivation to acquire and hone them. In but one field of interest, film making, editing, digital animation, and special effects, his powers grow daily. Pause a moment to view this experiment, resulting in a cinematic solution to a closet full of nothing to wear … (more…)

Piper Bill Millin was the personal piper to Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, and led Lovat’s commando brigade into the surf of Sword Beach on D-Day. While the Crow is unidentified, this statue of Bill Millin stands in Caen, France (Source: The Heroic ‘Mad Bagpiper’ Of D-Day)

Songbirds

By LFM

When you think of “songbirds” and sweet melodies they make,
What you’re about to learn will seem a terrible mistake,
But Truth is Truth, however harsh and earthy be the song,
Uncaring of opinions where things do and don’t belong.

I speak, of course, of Crows, long may they flock and croak and caw!
A perfect child of Nature and devoid of any flaw!
Yet their overt musicality to many counts as din,
Such is rudely superficial as their Music lies within!

As one who’s called to Bagpipes may attract unfair disdain,
And bitter enmity from those who’d think him better slain,
There’s yet a brilliant number who strong take the other lean,
For Pipes and Crows, but Love and Hate, with nothing in between.

The Crow’s sweet caw, the Piper’s skirl, hear now this call to arms,
These serve a good far greater than mere causing of alarms,
For primal heart and spirit lies behind what comes to ear,
And lesson learned that many things are not as they appear.

Source: HERE

This Vegetative State

By LFM

A plant may heal, a plant may kill,
‘Tis neither good nor evil.
And left alone in sweet repose
Will rarely cause upheaval.

Each has its Way along its course
As Nature would decree it,
And any good or evil there
Takes human eyes to see it.

Bent one way to human will
A plant may end your pain,
Or save the life of one you love
As hand and skill would fain.

Another plant may nourish
And well feed the belly’s need
With infusions of vitality
From but a “lowly” weed.

Another bloom, bent darker still,
May serve as ward to menace
For he of heavy purse
And mortal enemies in Venice.

For those who treat with spirits
In dark wilds scarce known to men,
Grow sprigs of Power, and what they are,
Few but the Shamans ken.

So learn the Ways of plants my son
Lest come to bitter end,
You grind things under foot on which
Our very lives depend.

Source: HERE

This poem sprang spontaneously from the offering of a very tasty clutch of nuts proferred to my hand this morning by Mrs. LFM with the words, “I went shopping hungry.”

The advice that follows is something we’ve all heard, even as some of us know better than to take it too far, if at all, because Hunters and Cooks know better.

A Song of Groceries

By LFM

We’re warned to never shop for food
When hunger rides along,
Lest your real needs give way
To things that don’t belong.

For there the merest gust of wind,
No stronger than a fart,
May blow from shelves the damnedest things
And land them in your cart.

Are ya FEELIN’ me???

I would like you to read the following passage, consider if it is something that could be said of you, and if not then whether you need to broaden your horizons by paying more attention:

Some of the greatest Teachers I’ve ever had lived under rotting logs, swarmed me out of a half buried and long abandoned paint can, or charged me with horns lowered. Still others accepted and tolerated my presence for reasons of their own, and coming forward I will not limit my quest for knowledge to its delivery from those of my own Tribe. ~ To Sting or Not to Sting

Continue now to this rumination on the symbiosis of Predator and Prey, holding True whether or not you choose to participate:

The Hunter, likewise a part of the forest and regardless of species, is not alone in his predation, for the imperatives of competitors, his own kind and others, must be recognized and understood …

… Each seeks a quarry that evolution has imbued with an absolute oneness with its place in the scheme of things, and that lives its life not in the expectation of being hunted, but in the absolute certainty that it is being hunted at every moment. ~ On Hunting

Now, coming as we do from a species that has learned to substitute words for substance and expect absolution from consequences, there is this fundamental Truth on the subject of Communication: (more…)

Image courtesy of The Swordmaster’s Grimoire.

For those of you who don’t recognize the Latin phrase in today’s title, I will point you to my explanatory article A Bit About In Ferro Veritas which was published here more than a decade ago as part of a series that you can peruse by clicking here.

Let that stand as an introduction to today’s guest speaker, none other than the Esteemed Swordmaster Adam Crown who as always speaks to Universal Truths through the Veracity of steel. I encourage all of you to shut up, put your tail in neutral, and watch each of these brief video presentations to its conclusions. If you learn nothing else, it will be not to judge the value of a lesson by its framing. (more…)

LFM Photo — Click to enlarge.

“The steel is strong and solid providing a clear and imposing shell, while the sand shifts and subtly changes form depending on gravity and the action of the wind.” ~ J. Turner

A recent business matter at a far flung corner of the province afforded an opportunity to harness revenue generation in service to immediate gratification of the spirit of adventure. And so it was that on our return trip we espied the tip of this object projecting above its surrounding trees. An adjacent plaque explains its reason for being there …

LFM Photo — Click to enlarge.

The Artist’s website is here and her specific page for the piece featuring a dazzling autumnal photo of it is here.

“Edge presented, broad and stout, Point thrust clean through clouds of doubt …” ~ LFM (LFM Photo — Click to enlarge)

Learning of the sculpture’s intended dynamic interaction with wind and sand (in Winter, no doubt also with snow), and engaged on every level by its aggressive presence, this bubbled up …

Force of Nature

By LFM

Wrought of steel by Human hands,
And thrust toward the sky it stands
To slice the wind and pierce the mist,
Embodying the Artist’s gist.

Edge presented, broad and stout,
Point thrust clean through clouds of doubt,
Hilt in grip of Mother Earth,
Who gave its very essence birth.

So gritty tides now ebb and flow
Before this blade’s persistent blow,
In noble cause or basest crime,
Steel ever shapes the sands of Time.