Unicorns are not real! well sort of

A 'facebook friend' of mine posted up a very realistic 'photo' of a unicorn, to which someone replied is that real? I almost head butted the computer table in disbelief. I didn't realise that some people could be that gullible, but then why should I be? I once said me hoodie was lined with genuine yeti fur & I got a "really" in response. Unicorns are a misunderstanding of what was being seen, the most likely candidate for the unicorn is the extremely rare Arabian oryx an antelope from the Middle East which is where the first unicorns were reported to have lived, they have 2 horn but if the lose one in a fight it doesn't grow a replacement. The Indian version of such a beast was the karkadan which is mistranslation of what people saw when the encountered an Indian Rhino, which possibly is one explanation of it's scientific name of rhinoceros unicornis. The same way that the centuar is what happened when a none horse riding civilisation saw people riding on horseback & early explorers who met a phoenix fowl came back with the notion of the phoenix. As to what a yeti is I have no idea, perhaps the indigenous race wearing fur, a person playing pranks I have no idea. So go against the juorney song & do stop believing otherwise you will sound foolish

Dragons

I see many people on Pagan forums with pictures of dragons on them, some of them have the notion they walk/fly/slither among us, it does kinda make me cringe a little as my theories on dragons are less than romantic. It would be cool to have them exist, perhaps that is just the fantasy geek inside of me coming out, but as per usual I have my theories on such creatures & more & more recently I'm finding people who agree with me & have found books & even saw a TV program that also backed it up. Dragons are in fact misinterpreted dinosaur bones, it is difficult to say that it isn't feasible, they are giant hulking great lizards, some even fly some swim in whole sea serpenty way, they lay eggs, they are found underground & it they are always put in a time long ago, in times when people didn't know much about the whole evolution thing, so this was how they explained them. If you compare cultures like the Chinese, Native Americans (though they are described as water monsters, thunder birds & thunder horses) & the Greeks you will find similarities, the dragons may not not look exactly alike but then the numbers of different species of dinosaur could account for that. It does become a bit cloudier when the mythologies of dragons come to a slightly more modern mythos, with Saints killing/taming dragons it is thought that it is actually a euphemism for a Pagan Viking leader just as the same that serpents were Druids. In the case of the Lambton Worm it could have been an exotic snake such as a python or just a regular adder or grass snake that people were scared of & when it was killed the tale was over exaggerated (the I caught a fish & it was this big tale springs to mind). But then what are people seeing when they see dragons today? Are they allowing their mind to wander to a place where fantasy & reality merge, like when I daydream or go into a meditative state? Are they channelling the spirits of the past? Or is it just a trick of the eye? Or is it a face that is put on spirit of place? Whatever it is I will still be spellbound by Skyrim & legends of these mysterious beasts whatever they are, as you should never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.

Do Animals Have Souls?

Well my pathworking went well on Tuesday, didn't write anything down just in case the rustling of paper distracted people from meditation & I had regained my ability to concentrate, it was well attended as far as faith focus session went & I was pleased the way it turned out. Various people in the pathworking saw animals in their visuals in their meditations, which being a wildwood working is not surprising I guess, but it was not the the last time that animals got brought up in a spiritual context that day as later on I got talking to our Catholic chaplain (which when we get into our little discussion modes can be quite interesting, sometimes we agree, invariably we don't, but agree to disagree & without coming much to a conclusion still shake hands). But we got talking about animals which is no surprise for those who know me & we got talking about animal conciousness, do they know the divine? Are we spiritually & otherwise superior to animals? He took the traditional Christian view on the subject, I being Pagan did not.

There was the argument about an animals ability to grasp concepts of the divine, can animals see the great divine, do they have their own version of it, Catholic chaplain said no, I said I'm not so sure what is there to stop animals having an idea of such concept, just because we don't necessarily know what they are thinking doesn't mean that they don't have any idea of such a concept, my mind drifted off to Neil Gaiman's Sandman novels & I did recommend he read them (lead balloon time). Then I found something that foxed him slightly more, the elephant graveyards & no clear disagreement happened. Then there was the argument that animals don't prepare their food & i pointed out that Japanese macaque monkeys do, they wash their food before eating & only in certain springs that it will also season their food too again the argument was not so clear cut, I should have also pointed to the point that bluebottles & little owls tend to prep food in their own ways too. Then there was the beautifying argument that kinda got lumped into the food argument, if I'd separated it out from it i could have pointed out that birds like the bower bird, magpies& adelie penguins decorate nests sometimes just because they like them or to impress a potential mate who will hopefully will, so they appreciate beauty, animals groom themselves & each other so understand the need for cleanliness & appearance, so what is there to stop them having spirit/souls.

I don't see myself as above other animals, but equal to, our brains maybe more developed & we may have move dexterity in our hands & tend to be better problem solvers, but isn't that more to do with the fact that we lack the natural defences of speed, agility, strength & noxious chemicals (barring the after effects of eating curry or over cooked cabbage). We may have built bigger houses but in that respect we could argue that we are getting in contact to our in bower bird & have the ability to use a larger array of tools, but without animals we would have little food either by direct or indirect production, they provide us with companionship, some fabrics, transport & awe at such beauty, how can you not feel connection with them on an equal level, we couldn't live without them, but I wouldn't like to put a bet on it the other way around. Also when the Pagan cultures that were & still are still around when the more modern communities came into contact with them they refer to animals as brother or sister as well as the plant kingdoms & they communicate with the spirit of them to live in harmony with them & they live freer lives believing it. We are not the uber species, many manials can kill us some which eat us like lions & wolves some don't like hippos & elephants, so let us not forget that. We maybe impressive in many ways but animals can be more so so don't write of their abilities in their minds yet.

The Non Joy of Cats

Don't get me wrong I'm not looking at getting rid of my cats (well most of the time I'm not), but I have found living with my two cats somewhat problematic. I get used as a scratch post, so I occasionally look like I'm self harming. I get pestered for when their bowls are full & one minute they like a certain food, then they decide no I don't like it & leave it for it to go manky, though sometimes they will let another cat in the neighbourhood eat it & then say look at me I've eaten it can I have food now I'm hungry. They lie on their front on any thing black, on their back on anything white, so they will leave noticeable hairs on things. They do not leave you alone when you are on the computer or reading something. When they want fuss they offer you their head & before you no it you have a face full of cat butt. They do kamikaze runs at your legs when you are carrying something large enough for you not to be able to see what is at your feet, so you end up booting them across the room & spend the next 10-15 minutes chasing round to see if they are OK only they don't want to be anywhere near you now even though they the ones who decided to try & cause you grievous injury in the first place. They want to come into the bedroom when I'm trying to get intimate & will start mewing & scratching at the door, which is incredibly off putting. If you are not out of bed when they want you to be & your other half has left the door open as he is getting ready for work, they will jump onto the bed & be loud & restless until I get out of it so they can have the bed to themselves, if they feel the need to cough up a fer ball or are going to be sick, they will head straight to a carpeted area of the house even though they were in a wipe clean area when they first got the need to disgorge. If I have just planted something in the garden they decide to use the area as a toilet so it doesn't grow. Jezebel brings frogs in & Gabriel likes catching sparrows which are declining in numbers. They also like scrabbling into the bin to dislodge anything that they think will taste good & then leave it in the middle of the kitchen. They will hide in inaccessible places when it is their/your bedtime & will stand over the crux of the door when you want them either to go in or out of the house which is hugely annoying when need to leave for work. They also claw the carpet & the sofa. Can anybody tell I'm having a bad cat day?

The Easter Bunny & Others of his Ilk

So why was it that people thought that rabbits brought us eggs at Easter? The answer is they didn't, near enough everybody assumes that the Easter bunny is a rabbit when in fact the original Easter bunny is a hare, this will help explain this curious notion a little. Remember this is from the time when people thought flies had 4 legs, barnacle geese hatched from goose barnacles & cuckoos turned into hawks in winter. The reason why is makes slightly better sense it being a hare is that unlike rabbits hares don't burrow but create forms which is a scrape in the ground lined with grass to create a sort of nest for its young, abandoned forms make good nests for lapwings so occasionally have eggs in them, so it would make sense to them somehow, after all they didn't know as much about species & the ins & outs of the reproductive cycle as well back then. So to the Mad March Hare, people see them boxing in the field around this time of the year, it was originally thought it was males competing for a mate, another misconception as it is a male & female, with the female saying the equivalent of 'not now I have a headache, leave me alone you freak, I said no' clunk as she bitch slaps him in the kisser. There is also the lunar associations with the hare as people used to say you can see the hare in the moon, the are a fair few cultures that say this, though myself I have never seen this, perhaps I should look at the moon without my glasses on but then I'll end up seeing 2 blurry moons & you tell me you could see the entire works of Shakespeare on there & I probably wouldn't argue, that is more to do interpretation of lines in people's heads more than anything, but it is a good thing to tell children as they still have that kind of imagination & magic & you can tell them that are mimicking their friend the Moon Gazing Hare looking at his friend. Ah what it would be like to have that innocence again, it is all too fleeting as they grow up too quickly these days & stop believing at a younger age in such things.