Roman Catholicism and English Protestantism sought to replace the land-based ethic of Ireland with a religion that would concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. To that end the brehon concept of honor price was removed, and the death penalty invoked for capital crimes. This precluded reparations and rehabilitation. Rather the criminal forfeited his wealth to the church state. (A historical overview)
A park, a theater guild, and a small college generated wealth for the community of Ashland, Oregon to withstand the assault of its neighbor to the south. The landscape in the summer drought was no different than ravaged forests and farmlands in California. Further north and west the wild Siskiyous and the Rogue River beckoned. Ashland was the doorway to these hidden realms. Like whispers down a mountain stream, tendrils of Tibetan energy wove their scent through the arid landscape along riparian buffers. A scrub jay broke the silence of thought stilled. The Irish, too, had taught their druids, bards, and lawgivers to still thought. From that quiet, the tapestry of truth could emerge as a distinct voice.
Mountain ash swayed above the stream currents. The dissonant beep of a garbage truck sounded over its engine growl as it distilled putrid essence within the park. The scrub jay scolded again. Cedars revived where invasive English ivy had been cut in its insidious haste to parasitize the native.
"Damn the English," Brett mused. "They gave us Shakespeare and the obnoxious flocks of black birds that are a pestilence to farmers - all because some Englishman got lonely. Rather than some three hundred year-old play or classical piece executed to perfection, bards drew from the well of life in the moment of time, where the stream flowed."
Vine maples dispersed yellow-gold light and madrones were cherished until they became Old Growth. Mordor's haste crashed against the gates of Rohan from the south. The Bard owl mated with the gentle Spotted Owl producing sterile offspring. Californians sought to weaken the Cascadian Alliance that resisted Leo Strauss and his protégé, Karl Rove. Danger now lurked in every moment, and a warrior must remain armored at all times. The scrub jay became alarmed and chided someone near. A gray squirrel moved erratically in the dust. A fly became active. A child's voice questioned. Ripples disturbed the quietness of the pool's reflection. Is this Lithia Park where playwrights sought their muse?
Murray Gell-Mann in an inspired moment named the three quarks for Joyce's Muster Mark, then the charmed life failed as new quarks were discovered; the string of linear thought petered out in an endless maze of fractal loops. "Where is the beauty in that?" Brett asked. The scrub jay chided and a butterfly flew overhead. "Remember to dream," came a voice from within. Brett turned and rose to go.
Fourteen bases were being constructed in Iraq. Eight billion dollars had gone unaccounted for and two Iraqi oil companies were for sale. Summer brought dust and heat, but the ephah lay sheltered in its cave in a clay vessel, very unassuming in character. All it needed was a node into this time and place. That had been accomplished during the theft from the Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad. Now the amphora was opened and it felt the pulse of time. Construction workers built their bases. They closed fifty U.S. bases to divert the funds. Arabs labored in the sun. U.S. soldiers guarded the engineers who drove the air- conditioned machines. Beer and hashish kept the minds of the U.S. men and women occupied after work. The blood debt from Iraqi deaths and Americans in harm's way kept the Shadow strong. A new war, a nuclear war could soon be initiated in Iran. John Bolton had been forcibly installed as the new head of U.S. interests at the United Nations. Meanwhile, the Shadow's best assault crept insidiously on global wind currents. Depleted uranium shells shattered and cast their radioactive dust to the winds. Half the planet would be dead of cancer in another fifty years. The world had gone mad.
Was there a Creator, a good God? Why did he teach his disciples to remain peaceful in face of these egregious assaults?
One weapon system remained intractable; its complexity evaded all efforts at modification. To this end a giant weather experiment was installed in a remote area one hundred and eighty miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. Chemical polymers were released into the atmosphere to deflect incoming solar radiation. They also acted as an Artificial Ionospheric Mirror to direct beams over the horizon. The goal was modification of developing weather systems. Engineers had achieved some dramatic successes, but unpredictable backlashes made their experiments politically embarrassing. It was a violation of international protocol to alter weather, if the consequences extended beyond one's national boundaries.
The problem was to avoid radioactive dust particles that might drift over the continental U.S. when periodic dust clouds moved across the Atlantic from sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, designed perturbations in the Jet Stream were best conducted over the Pacific Northwest. Modeling engineers needed more data, but time and weather wait for no man.
Conspiracy theorists abounded on the Internet in a vain attempt to place blame with the corporate elite. There were powerful communities seeking to impose their order on this burgeoning chaos. Unfortunately, they relied upon systems that were inherently flawed in their collection of information. Tibetan Buddhists used psychic energy. The U.S weather modification program disrupted that channel. Western engineers divorced from nature, used a brute force approach. Without a grasp of subtle field energies, expected backlashes were frequently created.
The Druid Order in America had accurately assessed these problems. Brett approached his elder in the community, "Brother Eodred, we are having a communication problem ourselves. Since Power is geographically specific, we have no serious problem in our own bioregion. However, I noticed that fear has so marginalized people, that even a journey from here to southern Oregon was much like a foray into a foreign country. How can we establish a recognition code when traveling from home?"
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Those who believe the universe will tolerate blatant disregard
may well be disappointed. . . . . . . .