the wrath of Rome

I made a short trip to Rome recently. I've never visited the town before and I was curious to see and feel it. History of the town is naturally interesting, once it was the most powerful city in the world and from there Julius Caesar led his troops taking over the lands of celtic people beyond. A city of wealth and plentifulness, of greedness which met it's less glorious end in year 476...maybe it was a warning example to the forthcoming generations of mandkind.

The plane landing was not perfect. It did not succeed at all. We could not land at all, indeed. The plane landed to Naples one and half hours later due to the unbeliavable thunderstorm which raged over Rome. I felt like all the wrath of Rome created during milleniums was sent to the sky above, sky where we tried landing.

About 4 hours later we were back in Rome and landed perfectly. City was massive and impressive, very ancient, but I will still remember that landing for a long time. The wrath of Rome.

During the trip, one evening, I was walking down a chain of streets trying to find Pantheon (temple consecrated to all gods). I did not remember what it looked like and continued for searching. At one market square I remember thinking "oh, mighty pillars" and like someone would have pushed me towards them, I walked under the outer roof of a large temple. It felt very friendly and inviting. The temple had enormous doors, but in the darkness I still could peek inside. The inner of the temple was glowing with otherworldy green. I can describe this only through a cover of age-old cartoon Alix.

This urge to walk towards this building appeared out of the blue, I did not expect it and it was very overwhelming.

In a terrace about 300 metres from the place, one friendly American couple told me that Pantheon that I was looking for was the building which I had just described. I could not believe my ears. I had not recognized it, instead I had felt it.

The pillars of Pantheon.

on diligence

It's nice to notice that by concentrating patiently on life's long projects, things will happen and you notice the needed progress. With my wife, I've renovated our house quite extensively this year. The main results is the almost ready new second floor. Now, just before it's almost ready, there are several small things that have to be done before we can move in there.

But those are things that have to be done, only after them we will have the two new living rooms. Autumn has been quite busy and it is not always to find time to do these small things. A while ago, we decided that we will just do these small things one by one, even though they'd be realised only in very small development steps.

The same set of rules apply when you are studying druidism, trying to explore new possibilities that learning new paths brings ahead. All the books I've read on druidism tell that only by being patient and practicing with diligence, concentrating, brings you results, what ever you are trying to achieve on your own path.

In my musical workings which are seamlessly wrapped within my mystical explorations, I've always tried to be honest me. I like to bring pure, primitive and forgotten, and spiritual dimensions in to my songs. And I've always tried to play in my own style. I concentrate on my strenghts and try not to copy anyone else's (who I might admire) style directly.

It's often funny and also quite wondrous to notice your own development. Yesterday, I listened few of our old synth tapes and I immediately knew how I should play them now in order to make them better. And those were tapes, I had recorded only two years ago. I believe that the diligent practice and concentrating on your own musical identity brings you nearer and nearer the pure universal source, from where the unconscius ideas pour.

Jethro Tull did not become Jethro Tull overnight, it took years and years of hard and diligent work.

ditch digging

Ditch behind my house (actually the sauna building) has been recently invaded by eager water plants. Yesterday one of my old neighbours was cutting plants on the other side of ditch. We had a small talk, the water had occassionally risen near his house (probably threatening his basement) and he was now doing some clearing in order to prevent possible flooding.

I promised to clear the ditch from my side (I'm sharing it with an other old couple who don't actually live there and visit that side only once a year). So I took care of my duty and cleared the ditch. Muddy work, but somehow very rewarding, the universal currents were in the right place.:)

This little event made me think again that I have always felt that I really prefer to live on the far edge side of the modern society. My now retired father worked over thirty years in practical agricultural work. For first six years of my life (before the school years) I had a chance to be part of that world. And his father (my grandfather) was a farmer. So, I think this lineage has always somehow affected within me and I've always felt strong belonging to this chain. Now I'm happily taking care of my garden and house, but I feel that there's something missing. I'd still like to live more of the land and take care of it. Would I become a farmer someday, why not?

the green loner

Harvest moon shined still very bright this morning.

Green colour's slowly decreasing all around, towards the year's dark turning point. Green man's old and a bit tired, his work is almost done.

At this point of year, I often see him as a lone, rolling, old, worn ball, who slowly tramples over hedgerows, walls and dead plants. Still carrying that torch of green within.