MANTIS

brains fart and thought-trains derail into misty meadows of mixed metaphor.

so the story goes, and so my faithful and or faithless sisbrahthren, my revelations/alumination and ongoing transmutation have given birth to MANTIS: The Religion.

Now don' get mad, no don. get mad, as Jimi Said as he ejaculated lighter fuel upon his axe...

I know how summa y'all feel/reel abour re-LIJ-un, and I share your sentiments.

All the more reason to embrace MANTIS, for it is both THE religion and the Anti-religion.

And so I struggled hard with whether to pull the trigger on the launch or pull the carpet out from beneath myself and do a backflip/faceplant no points for THAT landing which is why i chose the former and why I have since come to spread the news on this scaly, scrolling blogosaurus skin.

language equals limitation that leads to misunderstanding.

All religions - Nayyyy, sez mister Ed, all belief systems/reality tunnels - are derivative, subjective, finite representations of the infinite.

I'm not here to start a holy war, but rather start and stir a heady pot of holy peas bewitchu stew.

hop into my hot tub and let your essence be infused into the cosmic broth.

all flavors are welcome here. bask in my robbins.

why MANTIS, though?

Chart the flow>


We need words and symbols we can count on that are as reliable and universal as are our (r/r) fingers and toes.

Let us begin our journey from a point of common ground. It's there at our feet, just not everywhere. Watch your step/step lightly, the labial lips of language lead to a slippery slope that slides deep into the cunnilingual chasm of chaotic ambiguity and once you're there you never want to be anyplace else.


arithmetic is common ground. we count on its omniscience and consistency to tell us the time, our weight and our value as measured by bank balance.

let's start with mathematical simplicity, the properties of equality: transitive, reflexive and symmetric.

Reflexive Property a = a
Symmetric Property If a = b then b = a.
Transitive Property If a = b and b = c then a = c.

Given Premise:

Music is music.

>

"Music is Love."

david crosby speaks the truth

>

Love is Real

(so does buddy Holly.)

>

God is Love.

jesus said it, not sure what he meant but i'll buy it for the time being.


MANTIS is music.









see for yourself:




Therefore, MANTIS IS GOD.

MANTIS also equates to "prophet" in the logos of the ancient Greeks.

There you have as solid a foundation for any belief system you'll ever imagine.

You are free to believe or disbelieve as you Will.

Mantis does not punish the non-believer, the blasphemer, or the doubting Thomas dolby's who've been blinded by science seriousness or sensibility.




MANTIS has but one rule: "you do what you want - whatever!" (merely activate the Power to Love to fuel all you do)

MANTIS is all inclusive; all are welcome in the White Light of divine alumination

MANTIS is the Master who puts the greenness in the grass. MANTIS is the sensational, aluminational, transmutational power to love WITHIN that fuels the evolution of perception and chips the sleepy snotty caked crust from the corner of our Third Eye.

MANTIS is the grinning cheshire cat; the teacher who naps neath hir invisibility cloak until the student pops the question.

MANTTS ISzszszszszszzzz....

MANTIS is a self-replicating rawk and roll revival tent roadshow traveling snake oil caravan and clown cabal circus parade of overindulgent aluminated idiocy and if you missed the last garbage scow express just get in the van and go.

The Universe is all there is by definition, once again, and by observation the universe is an evolving, mutating process-ion that iterates similarity across scale, across space, across history and across the barriers of language and other dualistic delusionary dichotomies. If the universe is everything, than everyting is real and nothing is forbidden and if my nonsensical religion originated here in this universe it is a part of this here universe and is therefore a manifestation, iteration, nano-replication of the universe itself and is therefore REAL and TRUE and ABSOLUTE and UNDENIAABLE. Ive never seen a bush burn or a waterwalker but I've seen the MANTIS pray and the manna fall from the heavens with grace and abundance.

Don't believe me. believe your ears. Don't listen to me. Listen to MANTIS. Don't follow me, follow the music.

MANTIS is the ONE that brung us to the hoedown.

MANTIS is the metaphysical gravity that keeps our pardners from flying off into a black hole void when we swing em round and round without reservation.

MANTIS IS ALL THIS AND MANTIS IS MORE THAN THAT.

but that's enough from me for now.



I'll see you in church (if you sit by the window)

I'll see you at the show if you've no place else to go. til next time happy trails,

peas bewitchU

and lentil spray for a brighter day.

Community (self)Serv-ice(cream), or How To Remain Occupied While waiting For Full Engorgement of the Great Stimulus Package

The mayascopic nanoglyphs that tickled the neural tendrils below the scalp's surface and made my neck hairs get hards-on spoke to me today of "community service" (and "roads" as well btw, which we may travel down if time allows) and naturally the monkey said, "We must wait. mutt, we ain't communists!" but in fact my closet is painted pink in a most metaphorical sense and if we can (Say it, sisbrahthren: YES! WE! CAN!) CHANGE and learn some new tricks my perky puppies, and color our cubicles outside the lines and spectrum of politypical stereotype, and Think/create Different perhaps in muted shades of archetype and drop all preconceived notions that might be associated with a particular label or symbol or word, then let me tell you why i'm a freakin' commie bastid (at least the former; as the latter 'bastid' labeling is a curious tale of false and stolen identity crises/catastrophe catalyzed and catechized by contradictory comedic catholicynicism and 'tis a tale worthy of its own tick) but back on track i'm a commie because i engage in and interact within and throughout a particular community of simultaneous multiple voluntary associations, institutions and organizations. I have conscious and comfortable individualistic, anti-authoritarian (and therefore sometimes anti-social, as authority often imposes willful INvoluntary association/participation) but no man is an island and while i enjoy solitude i also thrive on fellowship and collective celebration and family but what is "community' for me and how best to SERVE?

That is the question, my sisbrahthren, for above all, I cannot deny, i am here for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to serve up a heapin helpin of Aluminated Love. And so, once again, my quest is but a brand new menu of the same old shit.

How can the midnight moonlit howl of the coyote or the frivolous playful antics of the monkey be harnessed as the Power to Love and feed and energize across the universal digisphere of humanity. what kind of heart-healthy blue plate comfort food greasy spoon special can i toss like a UFO into the wireless ethernet and have it arrive steaming and tasty upon your virtual lap-dog/dinner-table top?

If we can, in fact as well as fairy tale, serve ourselves/each other via virtual metaphorical flying saucers/pie plates, I'll take mine A LA MODE:





if you giggle chuckle chortle or even smile just a teeny tiny bit

You Have Been Served.

The joke's on me and the rest is on the house.

Soup dejour:

A bottomless bowl - a bubbly bisque of

say it with me:

Peas Bewitchu

optional side of lentil spray.

may i become like a child, julia.

bone ape tit.

The Santa Claus Conspiracy, Part Dew

Let us return to the metaphor of "Santa Claus: Benevolent Conspiracy" as it relates to money and banks and fear and faith.

In the case of Sanity Claus, the conspirators must maintain a sufficient degree of consistency and credibility in their deception in order to perpetuate the conspiracy, to alleviate the doubt and boost the faith of the true believer. Don't ever give them REASON to doubt, for they will surely grasp upon it if the least bit curious, and eventually unravel the whole freakin' fairy tale. Inconsistency was the hobgoblin that swallowed my parents' version of the myth, and its role in my belief system. You can't, on one hand, reward and encourage a child to examine the universe from a scientific, rational, logical western perspective and then try to feed the same child fairy tales about a fat fucker with a flying sleigh.

Cognitive dissonance breeds the questioning of authority and reality.

Unlike myself, when my own children came to the realization that Santa was a crock of shit, they kept their mouths shut. For years. Their faith had been replaced with the fear that if they dared utter the truth, the presents would cease to appear.

They tolerated the deception as long as the gifts came in, we played along as long as the requests were reasonable.

They knew, and we knew that they knew and we all played make-believe and nobody got hurt because everyone played nice. If the players become either greedy or irresponsible, the game collapses.

For the kids, that meant reasonable requests.

For the adults: don't promise what you can't deliver.


The benevolent conspiracy, the Fractured Fairy Tale of Fractional Reserve Lending and debt-based currency is beginning to unravel.

The reason?

In a word, greed.

Unreasonable expectations.

Unrealistic promises.

Prosperity, abundance and the delusion that Santa can deliver whatever our heart desires has turned us into a society that engages in willful co-conspiring year round.

"Where's dinner?"

"Under the tree!"

You can only keep the fairy tale alive as long as you don't try to squeeze too much magic out of it. Everyone's gotta play nice, or else.

We have - both literally and figuratively - bought a little to deeply and selfishly into the myth that we can create something from nothing at all.

We're afraid to call out the allegedly adult co-conspirators for their deception and irresponsible actions, because we've become reliant on their largesse for our very survival.

Our faith has been replaced with the fear that if we dare utter the truth, the gifts under the tree will vanish.

The fairy tale:

Too Big To Fail.

Realty is gravity:

i.e.,

What goes up

Must come down.




Lest ye be spooked by my lunatic howlings, look at the Light Side of the Moon.

Defy gravity with levity.

Spin to the yin that completes the yang.

Decouple your perception of value from the dollar standard.

The Power to Love is an unlimited commodity; adopt it as your currency.

Measured in gigaHugz and delivered in person.

Door to door, face to face, cheek to cheek;

On demand or on the dance floor.




If we all play nice, any myth will suffice.



peas bewitchu

CHAPEAU NOUVEAU

In like a loon, out like a light?

With another turn of Pope Gregory's calendar page, and glorious Spring peeking out from just around the corner, i thought it apropos to break out some fresh seasonal headgear.


Announcing the Jockey-billed Aluminated Propeller Cap for Spring/Summer '09!



Boys and girls, make your own!

Benevolent Conspiracy: Santa Claus/Leo Strauss

The Way Out is trial by fire/ we must march into and through our deepest fears if we are to be free.

If we are to face our fears we must first identify them.

here's an exercise in levity and non-sense that actually works.

1. stand in front of a mirror.

2. ask yourself, "What am I afraid of?"

3. get real about this, don't be a coward. what scares you most? Death? Loneliness? Pain? Poverty? Cancer? Queers? Jeezerz? Islamofascists? Jooz? the Guvmint? Global Warming? Global War-Mongering? Mushroom Clouds? Muishroom munching commie hippies? Gun totin' drunken mulletted rednecks?Rush Limbaugh? The number thirteen? Barack Obama? Me??????

BOOGA BOOGA!!!!!!!

Everyone's afraid of one thing or another.

4. Think about the most horrific specifics associated with your fears. Make an equally horrific face in the mirror., one of abject terror, a Munsch-kin scream face ugly so ugly o the horror the horror and keep doing it scarier and scarier until...

(wait for it...







wait for it...)




5. You suddenly look so funny that you can only laugh at your face, yourself, and your silly fear.

Okay, my dear sisbrahthren, now that we have that opening stretch out of the way, let's get down to business.

I'm just joshing. I'm out of business, so let's get down to pleasure.



recurring themes round here include

conspiracy/connecting the dots

myth v "reality" and/or myth as reality

similarity across boundary and/or mixed metaphor

there's others, too, that take turns surfacing and submerging but we'll try to stay primarily with the short list.



let's start at the top . what is a conspiracy?

in simplest terms: A conspiracy is a secret plan.


Usually we associate conspiracies with "evil" or malicious intentions. Is that always the case? I say, "Not Necessarily."

Allow me to suggest that most "conspirators" believe that their aim is true, and that their ends ultimately justify their secretive means.

<< Enter Santa Claus, aka Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, star witness for the defense...

Attorney for the Defense of Benevolent Conspiracy: Mister Claus - Are you real?

Santa Claus: Well, that's kind of a tricky question...

AfD: Very well then, we'll skip that one for now, as I'm quite sure the jury, being mature adults, know the difference between reality and a fairy tale. Instead, let me ask you this, Mr. Claus: Why does the myth of your existence persist despite the ever-mounting physical evidence to the contrary?

SC: Ho, HO, HO!!!!!!

AfD: I beg your pardon?

SC: Ho, ho ho. Joy to the world and all that good stuff. He sees you when you're slleping/He knows when you're awake/he knows if you've been bad or good/so BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS' SAKE!!! MERRRRRRRRY CHRISTMAS!!! My myth brings joy and merriment andprosperity and the spirit of giving; spreading love and light across the world during Winter's coldest darkest days.

AfD: so, in other words, it serves the greater good to perpetuate the myth, is that correct?

SC: In my opinion, you are correct sir.

AfD: But what of the deliberate deception of the innocent? The lies? The subtle use of fear to modify the behavior of the True Believers.

SC: Eh.... who's complaaaaaining? Nobody really gets hurt, and even if a few do, everyone else makes out like a bandit! All those presents...

AfD: So you would in fact argue, Mr. Claus, that in the case of your benevolent conspiracy and the fairy tale it perpetuates, the end justifies the means because, in the end, the good far outweighs the bad?

SC: That is my firm belief, counselor.

AfD: Thank you, Mr. Clawz. no further questions. >>


This is but one bite of a mock turtle soup trial in a kangaroo court of the imagination.

Let's explore a little more.

Once again: a conspiracy is a secret plan.


As we see from the above example, not all conspirators conspire solely for ill gain. Sometimes the means are deceptive, but the intentions are certainly noble. Deception is a necessary evil when it comes to maintaining belief in a myth. Sometimes there's a supplemental agenda attached. In the Santa Claus conspiracy, "He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake has been encoded within the tale as a tool for benevolent behavior modification/control.

The idea of benevolent conspiracy is not new. Google "Plato noble lie".

Then check out Leo Strauss.

Leo adapted Plato's "noble lie" philosophy to modern geopolitical thought. Strauss believed that those in power - a tiny minority of intellectually superior elites - have not only the right but the responsibility to use "noble lies" to deceive the masses (and, at times, their "elected" figurehead leaders)thereby controlling their behavior and maintaining "order" for the "greater good" ie maintaining the existing order/power structure/global control/distribution of wealth/resources by an elite, intellectually superior oligarchy.

That was Leo Strauss' fairy tale. A benevolent conspiracy to rule the world.

I'm glad we're all adults, and can separate myth from reality.

Imagine if there really were people who believed that Straussian crap, and actually actually occupied positions of power and authority in the world... they could manipulate the truth in the press, use fear of shadowy enemies or imminent catastrophes to control our behavior, seize our wealth and limit our freedom. Hell, they could create a bogus, elaborate sleight of hand monetary policy to divert all the assets from an entire nation into the hands of a tiny minority, leaving nothing but a pile of iou's on the treasury floor.

They could wage perpetual war if they wished.

Just kidding.

We can rest assured that if such a (benevolent)conspiracy were to actually exist, the end would eventually justify the means, the noble intent of those in power would ultimately bring joy and merriment and prosperity to the world at large, serving the greater good, right?




Ho,

Ho.

Ho.




Let's boogie, my sisbrahthren. dance your cares away with me:

Yo-Dawg-ism and the Art of Mindful Self-Mastery

"I'm a mutt."

-President Barack Obama


Me too, mister President. Euro-mongrel. Heinz 57, born in '57. I'm a mixed breed; a byproduct of Divine Accidental Sloppy Conception.

With the lack of any dominant culture/tradition/religion/mythos to form the foundation for my beliefs (especially after the Santa revelation) my reality tunnel/outergarment has been constructed with philosophy that is both piecemeal and "make-believe." I borrow from all sources, and weave my blanket of belief with threads and strands of diverse material and from disparate origins.

Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?

It's a Technicolor Clusterfuckian Dream(es)Cape of a Fairy Tale, from over there it may appear that I've dressed myself in tatters, and as the warp, weave and materials are subject to universal, constant change, the perception is superficially valid, though from here I can assure you that on the inside it's warm cozy, comfy and secure. Whatever the weather, I'll take it over gortex or kenmore kardboard. Sirius Lee.

The cloth is simultaneously being unraveled and rewoven. The kinetic cenergy produced by this activity makes up for any loss of heat caused by the temporary holes that appear in the magic blanket.

A fairy tale that is mobile, fluid, and ultimatelu disposable. Imagine a hermit crab on an endless, beach dotted with an infinite array of empty shells. Further imagine that our hermit crab is imbued with a human ego, and a full length mirror before which to pose, andyou get the picture, and if the picture's seen in the context of a time lapse series, one gets a feel for the overall evolution of the process.

but our dyslexix mixtmutt metaphor on this nrom yadnom is one of dawgs, not dungeness, though dogs do dung 2, my pretty puppy, don't fool yerself you got an asshole too and its a winkin atchew the turd eye atop the pyramid of cozmic krap, you gotta bend over to see what i mean, trouble ahead, trouble behind... there's plenty o dung-ness in these exremental elocutions.

He shits me.

He shits me not...

I'm just joshin' y'all.

Today's Truth is Tomorrow's cosmic Schmuckism.
Let's B Sirius for another moment.

Whose dawg R U ?

Who is YOUR Pavlov? Who is the master that creates the greenness in the grassssszzzzz, snoop doggie?

Sometimes we hear of ideas and embrace them intellectually because they "sound"/"resonate" as being right and/or true long before we have experiential, first-hand evidence of said idea or concept.

Other times the experience comes first and the intellectual explanation much later.

Pavlov wrote the canine training manual re: conditioning. Drool... WOOF!

whose dawg R U?

I was introduced to the idea of serial re-imprinting/ redirection/ reconditioning of one's own neural circuitry at the age of 16, through the writings of a Mad Irishman the Good Doctor Leary.

It is only recently, however, that I have been engaged in the willful and mindful exercise of re-wiring and re-routing of my neural pathways for greater efficiency/understanding. Necessity is the mother of invention. i have been immersed in a tsunami of information as the result of our technological invocation of instantaneous and infinite global connectivity/communication, and hence a newer, more flexible and complex model is required for storage and categorization of the newer, larger payload.

When you're trying to make more room in a finite space, it requires re-arranging and sometimes some stuff just has to be discarded.

Buddha taught detachment. Bill Wilson, the Patron saint of Drunks wrote, in the chapter of the basic AA text entitled, "How it works, that "some of us tried to hold on to our old ideas, and the result was nil until we let go absolutely."

Lately i have become somewhat detached from the arbitrary mishmash of conventional cultural calendrical cycles imposed upon us by Gregor and co.

Like most other occurences in my life, this began accidentally rather than willfully, and only as the results have begun to avail themselves has my participation in the dance become a more conscious activity.

For the last six plus years I have not been subject to any consistent, repetitive work/play/sleep schedule. No defined boundaries. A few occasional points in time that need to be recognized for practical interactive purposes, but otherwise, a dissolution of the artificial boundaries in the calendar construct.

The results have been strange and wonderful.

I've become more aware/sensitive of the polyrhythmic nature of our universe, our lives, our habits, et c.



i have a sense of becoming gradually unstuck in any single "time"/rhythm/pattern, and instead find myself "moving" to/thru many at once.

As a result, I find myself living more in the fluid "now" without trying to "force the feeling."
Tthe mayans had their own fascinating, multi-calendrical mythical/methodological manner for conceptualizing and marking time, and lately i've included strands of their ideas in the multi-textural dreamweave of my own mutant myth, thereby adding an odd-metered half-step to my t-town toddle-dee-doo.

the dervish is dizzying, i tellya.


embrace your inner pavlov. de-program obsolete convention.

mindfully re-imprint your Self with the Power to Love.

engage novelty. activate mutation/evolution and embrace alternative universal ideological idiocsynchronicities.

Ascend the tower of babble, howl from the heavens and fill the skies with the sounds of your very own barking, drooling glossolalia.

May your bark be in harmony with your bite when your dogma is crushed under the tires of your Brand New Karma!

and, as always, my dawgzz and dawgstresses,

May Peas Bewitch You.

Whirled peas in a dervishly delicious stew of mixed metaphor.

i smell the ozone of electricity in the cosmosphere, a coalescence of nebulousness, a reconciliation/realignment of rhythm, a re-awakening to the One original, universal tune sung in the Language of Love



One Love.

Love is Real. Not Fade Away.

and/or

Nothing is Real.

This is my fairy Tale Happy Ending Included in Original Price.

Come out and play make-believe with me or play with yourself and/or others.

Just please remember, when you sit down with your calendar to write your future schedule, always be sure to make/take

Time Out For Fun.



ragelovehard.

It's Valentine's Day!

Cupid's got his sights on YOU



May his aim be straight and true




Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.



Rage Love, my dear sisbrahthren.

Rage Love Hard.

May peas bewitch you.