Secondary sight & Other views

What say you to the idea that sight is but the secondary purpose of our visual system?
This is the claim of a German man, Peter Grunwald who currently lives in NZ. His sight was once so bad that he wore glasses in the shower. Now he travels the world (& his shower) without specs & teaches his 'views' to those with ears to hear. He sees our eyes & all they are attached to i.e. us, in a radically different way. And as far as he is concerned the primary function of our visual system is the coordination of our mental, emotional & physical states.


X marks the spot?

I have been working on a kind of widescreen format of ideas lately & this secondary idea fitted well with where I have wandered & wondered...



Which is contemplating more & more the idea that life is not at all like we think we know it.

Contemplating that what we do & what we see are two very different things indeed. Contemplating the idea that we are supposed to be creating & linking with magic, each day, but that somewhere along the way we had the magician knocked out of us.


As mentioned In the Ma'at Ariel World, I have been looking at material about material for a while. The whole world of spinning & weaving has drawn my attention time & again, especially in relation to the bigger picture of the universal tapestry within which we currently find, or have lost, ourselves.

For century upon century, spinning & weaving (& the fabrics that they birthed) were highly valued. We in our world of hard logic will no doubt say that this was because they needed clothes & blankets & suchlike for warmth & survival.

Well what if clothes'n'blankets'n'suchlike were the secondary purpose of weavers & spinners?
What if their main function, was the co-creation of their world? I'm suggesting that as they spun & wove their threads, they were also symbolically & literally spinning & weaving their world - a partnership with reality (of epic creative proportions). What if the peoples of old were (k)not blots on the landscape, rather they were the weavers of it? What if as their hands spun & wove, a ritual was carried out, one that ensured the continued creation of life?

And...

What about food? What if it's function as nourishment for our bodies is it's secondary purpose? What if food has a vitally important primary function? What might it be?

How about as a re-connecter of humanity?
There can't be many more pleasurable experiences than sharing a meal with friends. Food is an absolute essential of all celebration, why is that do you think? Just what exactly does our daily bread or focaccia actually symbolise? And why is Jesus a wafer?



I recently asked a French pastry chef I know, if he thought that food was more than just food. He gave me a slightly 'Are you stupid or what?' look before replying "Of course." Keeping up my 'Yes I really am stupid' image I asked further "So if someone said that nourishment was the secondary reason for eating would you agree?" he answered "Yes" with absolute certainty. I trust a Frenchman with an answer to a food question in the same way I would trust a child with a question about play.


Is food the nourishment of the human (& humanity/Earth) bond? The daily affirmation of our RITE to be? I have been wondering about all those times when people have starved to death - did death came because of the lack of cell nourishment or was it primarily through the denial of the bond that food asserts? Just as babies will die without touch, will humans cease to exist without the sacred bond of what perhaps should be called, 'soul food'?




When I was growing up food was a definite issue. Both my sister & I struggled mightily with a vicious cycle of unvarying & unappetising food, one 'offering' in particular would often make us retch. Emotionally & spiritually my family got very sick & I spent a number of months in hospital as an anorexic. Until I started contemplating food as more than food I could never understand the gut wrenching feelings that this issue brought up in me.


Perhaps the reason we find it hard to cook just for ourselves is because at a deeper level we understand that food is really about connecting & reconnecting.



A third secondary look I want to touch on, is touch. This topic has been a big part of my recent researching.


Touch is the first sense to develop & thereafter it never switches off. All of us learned this world through the touch of our mouths (as babies) & later through the direct contact of our hands & various parts of our anatomy. Our first emotional bonds are created through skin (& the food it brings). We only know something when we have touched/felt it. We learn by 'hands on' experience. Our fingertips & mouths are laden with sensors for feeling, touching, tasting, interacting & communicating with each other & with our world.

We are a world within a world designed to interact in a deeply physical way.


Mention the importance of touch & I virtually guarantee the topic of Romanian orphans dying from lack of touch will, be introduced. The media has made damn sure we understand that touch is important for the development of babies - hmmm... I wonder if in today's media-medicated world, a 'development', is the collective noun for a group of babies?

What if 'development', or it's softer (but still media-popular term) 'nurturing' is the secondary role of touch?

What if touch is about the transference of ancient knowledge?



What if touch grounds the toucher or touchee in the same way that the earth grounds lightning - opening the door to our bodies by unlocking the tower door of our minds?







What if our skins talk to each other, releasing our untold stories?

From the sculpture "The Skin Speaks a Language Not It's Own" (Bharti Kher)

A book I'm currently reading states there was a time when touch was a very important part of healing, but the use of drugs removed that need - I wonder why?

"It seems that we're communicating less and less through touch. Apart from technology that stands in the way, increased awareness of inappropriate touch is also discouraging positive touch."
What I'm looking at here with thoughts of weaving & food & touch is but a taster of what can be looked at. I'm suggesting that we are a physical race whose primary existence has been vandalised & denied. I suggest that for every secondary-scientific-reasoning applied to humanity (& this world), there is a primary purpose that is felt but unseen, known but hidden from us, craved (by the human heart) but denied existence by the business of maintaining a society directed to increased productivity.


When I went looking to see if I could see where we lost touch, I was drawn to the Industrial Revolution, or should I say When the Machines Came.




I recently read an interesting book called The Body has a Mind of It's Own. Although the authors prefer to stay within scientific parameters, it did contain new ways of seeing. My understanding of what was said goes like this -
'as far as our brains are concerned we are more than the body which greets us in the mirror. Our brains map all the space within arms reach as a part of us. Whats more when we are holding or using something, then that too becomes mapped as a part of us.


The knife becomes an extension of the self. And even though it's made of metal we can feel the food as we reshape it. We can also feel our way (& our selves) through larger objects like cars - it's as if they become a part of us.

But what would happen if machines got too big for us & we could no longer feel our way?

"The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the United Kingdom. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way... Historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was one of the most important events in history."

"It changed the Western world from a basically rural and agricultural society to a basically urban and industrial society."

What happened when a people used to working with hand-held tools, were driven by necessity to work with vast & previously unheard of machines? What happened to a people that could no longer connect with the goods they made because they themselves were now simply a cog in a machine or part of an assembly line? What happened to a people whose time was legally stolen by industry? In what must be one of the greatest business coups of all time, employers claimed both the time & the production of their workers, the magnificent two for one deal that still applies today.

What happens to the soul when all the hours of daylight are confined within factory walls

"She locked me in a jail of dismal walls
unjudged & yet condemned
to spend my life enslaved
amongst the grief & groans of men"

What happened to a people when quantity or increased productivity became a god?

I feel that this is the time period where humanity began to lose touch & that which is the Western World began to creeper it's way into the fibres of our beings. Here is where the race of the rats began.

A woman 'alone', stands beside a combing machine. Once upon her time, a hundred women would have combed the stuff of life into those threads.

Now up till a short while ago, I thought I would give some examples to round off this theory & leave it there, but some symboly thingys caught my eyes, did a little jig in my brain & insisted that I take a walk on the ritualistic side & wonder a while longer.

What if it is vital to live life symbolically? vital late 14c., "of or manifesting life," from L. vitalis "of or belonging to life"."

What if the actions I undertake during my day, are, at some level ,vitally important to the well-being of this world. What if I am meant to imbue my activities with blessings & create with passion because it is that which fertilises the world that will be my (& your) tomorrow?



If this arousing time period is a chance for us to break out of an energy-prison, then those who have much invested in keeping the door padlocked, must have seen this prison break committee a-coming. A build up of a couple of hundred years would have been about right - a period of intense traumatisation & dehumanising of humans, combined with the phenomenally successful mind fucks of two world wars, topped off with a new religion, Hol(l)yworld & a nouveau god, the Webbed-One & hey presto you have m'asses of asses.

"Of particular interest to anthropologists has been the role of ritual in structuring life crises, human development, religious enactment and entertainment.
Certain anthropologists... treat ritual as social action aimed at particular transformations often conceived in cosmic terms... they become a sort of cosmic event, one stretching into "eternity".

In order to weave some magic unspellings we first need to ride our time machine back prior to the Industrial Revolution (don't worry I've packed some sandwiches.)

The Wiki page on 'When the Machines Came' apprises us of the following;
"However recent research... has challenged the traditional, supply-oriented interpretation of the Industrial Revolution.
Lewis Mumford has proposed that the Industrial Revolution had its origins in the early Middle Ages, much earlier than most estimates. He explains that the model for standardised mass production was the printing press and that "the archetypal model for the industrial era was the clock". He also cites the monastic emphasis on order and time-keeping, as well as the fact that medieval cities had at their centre a church with bell ringing at regular intervals as being necessary precursors to a greater synchronisation necessary for later, more physical, manifestations such as the steam engine."

Now I find I'm becoming a picky little sifter when it comes to being tolled things - I find there are a few nuggets to keep & many, many dusty words to discard.

Here's what I found in my symbology-sifting word-pan.

In the beginning (of the Industrial Revolution) was the word (printing press). Not just any words, but the written word. Just what impact was there on humanity when the tradition of passing stories through the voice ended. What happened when our eyes replaced our ears?

"In mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device which converts continuous rotational motion into an oscillating or back and forth motion, creating the familiar ticking noise... The importance of the escapement in the history of technology is that it was the key invention that made the all-mechanical clock possible. This development in 13th century Europe initiated a change in timekeeping methods from continuous processes, such as the flow of water in water clocks, to repetitive oscillatory processes, such as the swing of pendulums." (wiki).

Is this where time got (c)locked? Is this where humanity learned what time looks like? A machine ticking forever past 12 frozen numbers - an endless mechanical circle counting down our days.

Words & numbers -
Two special spells to initiate the touch down of the Industrial Revolution?

Now look at this;

"Starting in the later part of the 18th century there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animal–based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal... The introduction of steam power... underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity...The impact of this change on society was enormous." (Wiki)

What if creation must take place on a symbolical level? What if the Industrial Revolution was a giant 'initiated' creation. Before I plough on & in case you hadn't realised, I will mention that I work simply & deeply with intuition & gut feelings, often mixed with synchronicity & a great deal of research. I'm not an expert or initiate of anything. What follows is pure gut-work

If the Industrial Revolution was a spell, I would expect to see the four elements of magic -earth, air, fire & water being invoked. Here's what I have seen;


Earth - "Iron was needed to make the railway tracks, steam locomotives and the giant Watt steam engines that pumped the mines and provided energy to run factory machinery"
"the Earth's core is believed to consist largely of an iron-nickel alloy constituting 35% of the mass of the Earth as a whole. Iron is consequently the most abundant element on Earth."

"Iron in mythology and folklore has a long and varied tradition throughout the world. As human blood smells of iron of which it is largely constituted, and blood in many traditions is equated with the life-force, similarly iron and minerals have been attributed as being the blood or life-force of the Earth."

"The metal iron was sometimes represented by the symbol for the the planet Mars. This is also the symbol for 'man'."



Air - "It [the Industrial Revolution] started with the mechanisation of the textile industries" - ahhh the fabric of the universe? That which in ancient times was believed woven by a variety of goddesses. I can't help but equate fabric/textiles with the element of air.


Fire & Water - The combination of fire & water created something very potent-

"The steam engine was arguably the most important technology of the Industrial Revolution"


"The Corliss steam engine was a symbol of the nineteenth-century belief in progress and industry"

"RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912"

From our phoenix's point of overview we have a huge concentration of the elements within a relatively short period of time. A whole new world was born from machines, the only human labour involved was that of feeding their time (lives) to the new metal mothers.

Now there was one more revolutionay industrial element that kept calling my attention. I won't give you three guesses because I just don't think you're going to get it.

"Also important was the 1756 rediscovery of concrete (based on hydraulic lime mortar) by the British engineer John Smeaton, which had been lost for 13 centuries."

Be honest now, who was really going to say that?

If there was a nifty little descriptor for the mess we've gotten ourselves or been herded into, I reckon 'concrete' would fit nicely. One pair of cement boots per adult is provided free of charge on entry into the adult world. We live in concrete jungles. Anywhere there is a large population of human, there will you find copious quantites of concrete.



What if it's existence as a building material is a secondary function? Could it have symbolical significance? What might be it's primary purpose?

What about freezing time? Or even human transformation, in the same way that concrete blocks the growth of nature in cities. What if our concrete junglar city (b)locks, are built to (b)lock out a positive energy or hold in in a negative one? What is the effect on our visual pathways of constant concrete vistas? Why did concrete magically reappear here at the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution after an absence of 13 centuries?
"Concrete is a very strong building material. Historical evidence also points that Romans used Pozzalana, animal fat, milk and blood as admixtures for building concrete." Nothing ritualistic there then. I wonder what today's mixtures contain?

Back to Mr Smeaton;
"Smeaton's work led to a more widespread use of concrete throughout England and further advances in technology" & "Smeaton's research into the use of better raw materials in concrete led to expanded use of concrete thorughout Europe in the 1800s."

Wiki says this of Mr Smeaton
"John Smeaton, FRS, (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer – often regarded as the "father of civil engineering" – responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a more than capable mechanical engineer and an eminent pysicist. He was associated with the Lunar Society. He was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer."

You did spot it didn't you?

"The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent industrialist, natural philosophers and intellectuals who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England..."

WARNING: We interrupt this wiki regurgitation for a gullibility test. If you have NOT taken your Gullibility Prevention medication today then please DO NOT attempt to read the next sentence;

"... At first called the Lunar Circle, "Lunar Society" became the formal name by 1775. The name arose because the society would meet during the full moon, as the extra light made the journey home easier and safer in the absence of street lighting."



Well that was a good thinking wasn't it. Clever name too, almost sounds like it could have been a little knees-up of the Industrially Revolutionary forefathers. Forefathering does seem to be soooo important in this new age.

"... a group of Birmingham-area men prominent in the arts, sciences, and theology. Members included [James] Watt (steam engines), Erasmus Darwin (grandad to Charles), Josiah Wedgewood and Joseph Priestly (discovered Oxygen-not sure where he found it). The Society met each month near the full moon. Members of the Society have been given credit for developing concepts and techniques in science, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution."

Interestingly a set of 8 sandstone memorials called Moonstones were unveiled in 1998 in Birmingham, as a tribute to "various members of the Lunar Society... The stones also each have a phase of the moon carved on them, with Watt's (the man of steam) being the full moon"

Mr Smeaton, the Man of Concrete used his skills to construct the Eddystone lighthouse in Cornwall, England (finished in 1759 - "The shape of Smeaton’s lighthouse was inspired by that of an oak tree" (know your symbology!) - It was dismantled in 1877 and moved, stone by stone, to the Hoe where it was re-erected" ( what a dedicated little bunch of lighthouse worshippers).



And a little more for no extra charge - "The lift equation used by the Wright brothers was due to John Smeaton." However they "determined with wind tunnels that the Smeaton coefficient was incorrect and should have been 0.0033" (interesting choice of numbers by the lads).

So where do I finsh?

Let's go back to the beginning, back to seeing differently.

The modern world seems to be incredibly oriented towards the sense of sight. Hearing lags a fair way behind, while the soul builders of taste & touch are nowhere to be seen. What is it about how we see the world & how we 'view' the past, that is so damn important that no expense is spared to keep our eyes locked onto all & sundry media menus?

On a recent walk I jotted down the idea that 'our eyes are keys'. Could this be so? Do our eyes/visual system bring things to life? We're trained to see images flowing in through our eyes, but what if something flows out? Is it powerful? At the beginning of this year someone invaded my space so inappropriately that without thinking I turned & 'looked daggers' at him - not a word was said - he avoided me for rigorously for 6 weeks. So I guess it is powerful.

Can we perhaps sow something amazing through our eyes? If sight is secondary, perhaps we can play even further. Children play make-believe continuously, they have the ability to turn a cardboard box into a house or a boat or a rocket. Or a pot of tea with grass clippings into a delicious beverage. They are always sacredly serious with their play - is that because they have the power to see & work with the symbolical world that is the primary basis of this world?

All actions that children & animals undertake, they make sacred. Why is that? What do they understand that we do not? What do they see that we do not? How do they see what we see not?

one small thought for man, one giant belief for mankind

You know I wonder if we should be more concerned with the black holes in our lives as opposed to the possible black holes in space - ha that's funny really isn't it, I would have said space was a black hole (sorry sometimes I can't help myself slipping into non-scientific jargon).

Anyway, I've been contemplating wordy black holes - you know those letterly arrangements lurking in far too many (life) sentences, waiting to suck the unwary reader (or speaker) into the twilight zone.

The particular black whole that has brought forth this short (yes you can relax, I shall be brief(ish) this time) is that lying little bugger believe (it can also be found lurking in trees disguised as a 'beleaf').

I suggest this word could do with a loooong period of confinement in a wtf-holding-cell somewhere in way-outta space.

Can someone tell me what it means??

Surely it's an arrangement of seven letters that leads nowhere. I'd say it actually belongs is in a seven worded sentence

"I do not know what I believe."

And that's the whole point of it! The instigation of this word 'believe' is a cunning device to get you thinking you know something that you do NOT. AND this process of thinking you know something you know not, leaves you literally & metaphorically tied up in nots & knots.

According to the online etymology site that is a favourite haunt of my Mus musculus, the ancestry of the word believe goes like this "O.E. belyfan ... (W.Saxon) "believe," from P.Gmc. *ga-laubjan "hold dear, love," from PIE base *leubh- "to like, desire".

Now this little noword has one of the largest followings of the humankind - it's power sweeps unhindered across the great divides of religion, race & sex & is unanimously accepted. Once implanted (no need for microchips here) it turns it's followers into a pack of questionless disciples. It's certainly not only religion that has it's flocks 'believing' what they are tolled.

And lest we forget, 'belief' has become the catch phrase of the 'New Age'. Come on I'll bet you've said it too, I'm know I have & Google certainly has (many times) - "Results 1 - 10 of about 174,000,000 for you get what you believe in".

"You can have anything you want if you give up the belief that you can't have it" hmmm...

So let's make like a pathologist & perform a little auto-spy on the Noveau Temps slogan.

"You get what you believe in".

If we'd stayed with the origin of the word, then to get what we held dear would be very grand indeed. But belief got taken by over by religion (FYI religion is also worth a backward glance- "popular etymology among the later ancients (and many modern writers) connects it with religare "to bind fast" - hmmm...

Sorry I digressed. We were looking at the 'B' word - "belief had by 16c. become limited to "mental acceptance of something as true," from the religious use in the sense of "things held to be true as a matter of religious doctrine".

So that's pretty much where we stand & dither on belief today - "mental acceptance of something as true". What's missing here is experience, because it's all just in the mind. Perhaps that's why it's gotten to be such a good little earner for the New Age gurus, well who hasn't got a penthouse suite of the mind.

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just" A-Bee Lincoln said this double-speak was so.

Something I've been wondering is how much we can really 'create' without some kind of physical experience or body knowing. Lately I've been looking into the physical world & also looking into rituals - always some kind of hands on experience is required, it's not a mind only job.

I've been wondering if the masses have been fed a lot of stale air 'words'. Verbs are supposed to be doing words - but verbs like 'believe' & 'hope' don't go anywhere. They are waiting words. Have you noticed how much of our lives revolve around 'waiting' (wait (v.) c.1200, "to watch with hostile intent, lie in wait for"). Do the words that keep us waiting have some form of hostile intent?

Another waiting word is faith "c.1250, "duty of fulfilling one's trust" - a rather bizarre wording, n'est-ce pas?

I suggest that these words could be viewed as peasant food for the masses - a glutinous substance that binds the mind & weakens the body/soul.

I got started thinking about beliefs because of the extremely popular self-bashing system whereby we acknowledge our 'destructive beliefs', yet are completely unable to make the most basic changes - we can see the truck of life that's about to hit us but are unable to step aside. I've been hit by many of these life trucks & am amazed at my inability to either avoid the impact or launch a missile & blow the bloody thing up.
This dilemma has led to the idea that we are not victims of the mental black holes called beliefs. Instead what we are dealing with is a very definite set of inner 'instructions' - we don't move out of the way of the truck du vie because there is within us an override-order to stay put.

Matthew Delooze has written a stunning article which I'll link to at the bottom. He tells of a dream whereby people with mouths stitched shut absorb words in a way similar to how we breathe air. With each word absorbed they become more & more lifeless.

Is that what these words do do us?

There is one more word, well phrase I want to mention before I go.

A conversation with my friend from West Africa a little while ago led to his revealing his irritation with the phrase 'making love'. He told me that he often translates words back into his native language in order to get a better understanding of them. He told me that in his language it is impossible to translate that phrase - that you cannot 'make' love. He sees it, & I agree, as a marketing device. That phrase has been inserted deep into the Western World's psyche - why?? When two (or more!) people get together & make like a sewing machine, love is NOT being made, rather sex is being had. You may have extremely deep feelings for your playmate, but love is not being made.

This phrase may well be behind much of the male-female discord, for VERY different things in-deed seem to be being sought by the parties involved. Another friend of the male persuasion has told me that 'he has never made love.' Research across the generally male dominated blogosphere has introduced me to ideas of a very similar nature - the male of the species DO NOT make love, they seek out & enjoy sex (well when they can get it :)

The more I look into words the more I seem to see a wor(l)d of spells.

Why is it that our world of words echoes the management committee of Planet Earth - a very select few, in in-your-face-positions, overseeing the many?

Perhaps it's time to spell our own words?



Link to Matthew Delooze's brilliant new article

The Ma'at Ariel World

Would it surprise you to learn that the answer to to all you are seeking, is antimatter.

No wonder then, that like that slippery customer Mercury, it's always one step ahead of us.

"answer (n) O.E. andswaru "a reply," from and- "against" ... + -swaru "affirmation," from swerian "to swear"... suggesting an original sense of "make a sworn statement rebutting a charge."

Quite a big hop, skip & mercurial jump then from the "solution to a problem" or "clever &/or correct reply" that we are accustomed to expecting, n'est-ce pas?

My hope in both researching & writing is to find or create new ways to look at things. Over the course of the last few years I have found that 'answers' seem to come with cement boots. They weigh me down & prevent me from striding irreligiously through the thoroughly cultivated lands of the modern world, turning over whatever rock takes my fancy.

Fancy a spot of rock tumbling?

During research for an article on hanging a few months ago I re-membered knot magic - an ages old practise that is now mostly forgotten. That in turn led me to contemplate this world in a much more material sense.

..................six hours (& many miles) later..................

Got stuck. Had lots of info & didn't know which path to travel. Went for a drive. Ended up here. Never been here before...

...This is Huia Point Lookout & we're gazing out over Manukau (man-noo-cow) Harbour to the Manukau Heads, where the Tasman Sea flows into the second largest harbour in NZ.

The beaches on that part of NZ's West Coast have black sand & hardy surfers.

I stopped for a coffee with a friend on the way home. My head was in the writing zone & not the best for chit chat. But we got talking about a subject that my son brought up this morning & thus one coffee & one decent sized bush walk later, I had found my way, article-wise, again.

Our talk centred around the idea that we are living out of touch (& reach), in a material world.



Well this just won't do! Please note, I do not advocate alcohol for cats under the age of 18.

We can live 'out of touch' in a spiritual world, because it has no apparent substance, but while we're in this place we are designed to feel & get to grips with what's here.

Let's get etymological about it;

"feel (v.) O.E. felan "to touch"." Say no more!

Back in the 1950's neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield developed some telling maps maps of the brain which have been translated into 3 dimensional images. They indicate "the relatively large proportion of the brain involved in sensitive and complex movement, particularly ... the face and hands"


The hands & the mouth - the biggest ways we touch our world


How babies read their new world - 'hand (& in this case, foot) to mouth'

"The Hand by Frank R. Wilson, is a book about the influence of the human hand on the evolution of our species... how the evolution and use of the hands has shaped “the brain, language and human culture” ... The fact is, the hands prompted the mind."



If you believe in passion then don't skip the next paragraph.

"When personal desire prompts anyone to learn to do something well with the hands, an extremely complicated process is initiated that endows the work with a powerful emotional charge. People are changed, significantly and irreversibly, it seems, when movement, thought and feeling fuse during the active, long-term pursuit of personal goals. Serious musicians are emotional about their work not simply because they are committed to it, nor because their work demands the public expression of emotion. The musicians’ concern for their hands is a by-product of the intense striving through which they turn them into the essential physical instrument for realization of their own ideas, or the communication of closely held feelings. The same is true of sculptors, wood-carvers, jewellers, jugglers, and surgeons when they are fully immersed in their work.... The word “passion” describes attachments that are this strong... I would argue that any theory of human intelligence which ignores the interdependence of hand and brain function... is grossly misleading and sterile" (from The Hand by Frank R. Wilson, pp.5-9)

I believe that in order to live, as opposed to the current trend of existence, our hands need access to ... well everything we can lay our hands on. In so many ways our hands are our connection to this world, just as the roots of a tree are it's connection to the earth.

connection 14c., connexion, from O.Fr. ... "to fasten together, to tie, join together," from com- "together" + nectere "to bind, tie."

Now we are going to stitch together some ideas as to why touch is so important & why we are so much out of touch. We are going to weave together some seriously playful feelings & un-sigh-entific ideas that suggest we really do live in a material world...

..a spun, woven, knitted & embroidered, material world.

"Myths of weaving exist around the world as metaphors for creation. The spindle is often an axis mundi and its whirling whorls serve a cosmogonic function. Plato, for example, had a vision of the great goddess Ananke, "Necessity," spinning the universe; the sun, moon, and planets were her spindle's whorls; sirens sang through the webs of time and fate that she wove, and souls endlessly moved through the strands on their way to and from death and rebirth. Many goddesses are spinners and weavers: the Fates of ancient Greece; Athena, also of Greece; Neith of ancient Egypt; in Teutonic myth the Norns spin secret meanings into life; in the American southwest, Grandmother Spider Woman spins all life from the shimmering threads in her belly."

Before any of us ever existed and before anything was ever created, only the Sun Spirit, ... was here. He created a proto-type earth, and from it, he created ... Spider Woman ...[who] continued the creation. She spun her spider silk from North to South, then to East and West, and this is what drew the earth into being. She sang as she spun, and from her beautiful singing, her two daughters came into being. These daughters helped their mother by creating the moon from dark black rock, yellow stone, red rock and turquoise. They saw that it was not quite light enough at night, so they created the Star People with sparkling eyes so that night would never be black again...



...Spider Woman went to work creating people, and she did this by molding the red, yellow, white and black clay of the earth. For every person she made, she spun a fine line of spider silk that she attached to their heads, so that they would always be connected to her and have access to her wisdom and teachings. As long as they kept the doorway from the top of their heads to let in the spider silk, they would always be protected by her. She sang the Creation song over the newly formed people, and they came to life by hearing her beautiful voice. The people began to call her Spider Grandmother, since she gave them life

Just pretty (or pretty fanciful) tales?

Why then is our language so thoroughly interlaced with material words? Why are we tied up (& down)? Why do we spin tales & yarns? We get stitched up. Things loom over us. We cotton on to things (except when we know knot what we do). Evidence in the never ending supply of crime shows is immaterial or a tissue of lies. Boring things are run of the mill. We judge people by the cut of their cloth. We are a part of the fabric of society, which is neatly folded into that other fabric, the time space continuum. We are daily entangled in a web (O.E. webb "woven fabric,") of worldwide proportions.

Meanwhile the ubiquitous uniform of the Western World, soundly echoes the very threads of our cell'ad dressing.

'jeanetic materials anyone?'

I'm no scientist, as you might have observed, though I did just take a little trek into the quantum world of string theory. And beat a hasty retreat back out again. Just can't get a grip on them big words.

Matter however, is a different matter. If we sneak in through the back door of our material world & climb the spirally staircase for a wordly overview, something interesting happens.

"material - Etymologically, material is simply a derivative of matter"

My much prized word origin dictionary tells me that the wor(l)d matter comes from the Latin materia & was originally applied to the "hard inner wood of a tree,' and etymologically denoted the matrix or mother from which the new growth came (it was derivative of Latin mater 'mother').

So this gives us an interesting line-up.

Material - matter - mother - the building blocks of the universe?

I find it rather interesting that acquired name of THE Material Girl echoes one of the most revered mamas of all time

Madonna & Child, a favourite subject for Renaissance artists.

La nouveau Madonna has put a modern twist on this age old scenario with a junior amour named Jesus. I don't follow the gossip columns so this was a new one on me. While much is made of the age difference between the dynamic duo, there seems to be a rather glaring omission of the incredibly 'coincidental' name twinning, especially bearing in mind that the baby Jesus' surname is Luz, which translates to 'Light'. I may be imagining this, but I'm sure I've heard of another who went by the name Jesus & was the light of the world.

Ok back to us - you & me. Look closely now & you just might see that we(a)'ve been woven together.

Weave got strands of DNA, spinal cords, grey matter, skin tissue (c.1366, "band or belt of rich material"), ligaments (c.1400, from L. ligamentum "band, tie, ligature," from ligare "to bind, tie,"). Broken bones are said to knit back together. The etymology of Mitosis, the splitting of one cell into two, is "coined from Gk. mitos "warp thread"... So called because chromatin of the cell nucleus appears as long threads in the first stages." Mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell get their naming from "Gk. mitos "thread" + khondrion "little granule."

Here is a wonderful work of art. An anatomically correct knitted presentation of our brain - can you feel the connection?

What one being has stitched together let no scientist pull asunder

It's now time to get a little crafty & weave together & strange set of threads that suggest even further our woven nature.

I am of a rather sleuthy nature & enjoy muchly following where clues dare to thread - (clue - phonetic variant of clew (q.v.) "a ball of thread or yarn," with reference to the one Theseus used as a guide out of the Labyrinth).

I got to wondering about the spinning & weaving nature of the world. Could the sowing of seeds be likened to the sewing of stitches, embroidering the earth with plants. If we shake up the spelling of thread we find earth'd.

Sowing seed has been used as a describing of the male part of the sex act. And indeed, etymology fits hand in glove with this picturing.

"sperm late 14c., probably from O.Fr. esperme, from L.L. sperma "seed, semen," from Gk. sperma "seed," from speirein "to sow, scatter"

"sow (v) O.E. sawan "to scatter seed upon the ground or plant it in the earth"."

Now this is where etymology & me part company for a moment - for it says that sow & sew are not related. Now I'm a questing human & I reckon that it's jolly interesting that these two words ring out the same tone. I felt the inclination to lift up both these rocks & see what lurked beneath.

So returning to etymology we find the origin of the word 'sew' is "O.E. siwian "to stitch"." Ok, cool & groovy, lets look up stitch.

"stitch (n) O.E. stice "a prick, puncture"."

"prick O.E. prica (n.) "point, puncture, particle... Earliest recorded use for "penis" is 1592"

You see I can't help noticing an amazing similarity between look & action of the penis during sex & the movements & action of a needle on a sewing machine. Both needles have an eye through which something binding is passed - thread? (O.E. þræd "fine cord, especially when twisted" (related to þrawan "to twist") - think DNA spirals. The jeanetic material of the sperm (warp?) may reach an egg (weft) & the process of weaving a new individual may begin.

Amazing how similar loom & womb sound. "loom (n) O.E. geloma "utensil, tool," ... Originally "implement or tool of any kind" (cf. heirloom); thus, "the penis" (c.1400-1600). Meaning "a machine in which yarn or thread is woven into fabric" is from 1404."

Ancient knowledge is always worth a second look. "The word tantra comes from two words, tanoti, which means expansion, and trayati, which means liberation. It also means to stretch or to weave" & "tantra type of Hindu religious book, 1799, from Skt. tantram, lit. "loom, warp".

Were we once the children of the loom? Were we cast on?

Loom is a funny word because if you upside down & back to front it, it transforms into the substance that is it's raison d'etre - wool. Is there but one universal substance from which we have all been woven. Are we all part of one great ball of yarn? Is this why our world 'spins'?

That needle trek also called to mind the copious obelisks that presently peirce so many city skylines. obelisk - "rectangular stone column, tapering at the top," 1569 ..." from Gk. obeliskos, dim. of obelos "a spit, pointed pillar, needle."

There seems to be a general internetly consensus that the "Obelisk is an ancient phallic symbol of the male energy and solar energy. Obelisks were originally erected in honor of the sun god."

In keeping with the probing of this latest materialistic angle, my memory pointed me to two of these piercing structures - Cleopatra's Needle, London (bet you didn't know she was a seamstress)...

... & the queerest erection you ever did see (currently lancing the skyline of Dublin).

from wiki: "The Spire of Dublin, officially titled the Monument of Light (because we just don't have enough of them, do we?) is a large, stainless steel, pin-like monument 120 metres (390 ft) in height, located on the site of the former Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell Street in Dublin." Horatio you may remember, had his socks (& the rest of him) blown skyward by the Eye of Ra in 1966.

...Hmmm all this talk of needles puts a whole new spin on that oft repeated phrase: "The pen is mightier than the sword"!

One last point of interest.

If we were more material than the current scientified & objective viewing allows, we would expect that those in the know would be knowledgeably using the material approach for their own bested interests.

"The Bank of England is "the central bank of the whole of the United Kingdom and ... the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based... established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK Government."


"The Bank's headquarters has been located in London's main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known by the metonym The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street"

Probably just a co-incidence.

Way back when I was beginning this article my son made a comment about how if given the choice he will always buy a smaller & more expensive glass bottle of cola, rather than one in plastic. A converstaion ensued about why neither of us like plastic & was further delved into when I met up with the friend mentioned earlier. A deep dislike of plastic opened a marvelous path into how we have lost touch with this world.

So much of our physical contact now is through plastic or something that equates to plastic - the keys I'm typing this on, the 'money' I use to 'live' on, the daily conversations that centre on news or other media tripe to name a few.

I have some more info that I want to add to try & express these ideas a little more clearly & hopefully that won't take too long to get here. I found a great book on touch at the library the oter day & want to incorporate a few ideas from there.

We & the world around us are meant to be fully interacting, that is what we & it are designed for. Why are we not doing this??? Some more ideas to follow...



"Therapist Donald Winnicott claimed that it is in playing and only in playing that the individual (child or adult) is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative the individual discovers "the self."