{"id":1582,"date":"2010-05-02T08:52:37","date_gmt":"2010-05-02T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2010-05-04T18:09:07","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T00:09:07","slug":"gallimaufry-with-grosbeaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1582","title":{"rendered":"Gallimaufry with Grosbeaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Black-headed<\/a>

First black-headed grosbeak of the season (left).<\/p><\/div>\n

If it’s Beltane, why I am still splitting firewood? Usually I observe the rhythms of the “Celtic” year by turning off the furnace at Beltane and relighting it at Samhain, using just supplemental wood heat otherwise. Not this year.<\/p>\n

But during a brief sunny interval yesterday morning, the first black-headed grosbeak of the season landed on a feeder, and I snapped a quick picture through the window. That’s a downy woodpecker on the shadowed side, and up above, facing the camera, a male evening grosbeak\u2014they have been hanging around for a couple of months, an unusual “irruption,” as birders say.<\/p>\n

Other stuff:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 The Beltania music festival <\/a>happens next weekend, just down the road. The weather still looks iffy. A friend on a Colorado Pagan email list said that spring weather is “manic depressive.”\u00a0 My own mental image for Beltane is snow on lilac blossoms.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I liked this quote from an interview with Lon Milo DuQuette at Patheos<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I have a new book coming out in November (from Llewellyn) titled Low Magick — It’s All in Your Head, You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is<\/em>. It’s autobiographic and contains stories of magickal operations I’ve done over the years. The title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, facetiously using the term “Low Magick” to refer to any magickal operation one actual performs rather than those one just talks or argues about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 Jonathan Ott, who gave us the world “entheogen,” had his home destroyed by fire, needs help.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 An article on depression and dreams<\/a> offers this:<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, psychologists noted that people suffering from depression also report more dreams than average. In fact, people who are clinically depressed may dream three or four times as much. The quality of REM dreams (also called \u201cparadoxical sleep\u201d) is different too: more intense emotions, more negative themes, more nightmares, and more unpleasant dreams, in general.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And consequently depressed people often sleep worse. It’s a vicious circle.\u00a0 Processed food is also linked to depression<\/a>\u2014another vicious circle. Feel low -> eat worse, etc.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Pagan Newswire Collective has two new group blog projects: The Juggler,<\/a> on the arts, and Warriors & Kin<\/a>, about issues facing past and current Pagan military personnel. They will be added to my blogroll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it’s Beltane, why I am still splitting firewood? Usually I observe the rhythms of the “Celtic” year by turning off the furnace at Beltane and relighting it at Samhain, using just supplemental wood heat otherwise. Not this year. But during a brief sunny interval yesterday morning, the first black-headed grosbeak of the season landed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,3,71,8,72,34,18],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beltane","tag-blogging","tag-dreams","tag-entheogens","tag-magick","tag-music","tag-nature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-pw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13347,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13347","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":0},"title":"Beltane and the Birds","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Beltane snuck((OK, \"sneaked,\" if you don't like vernacular irregular conjugations.)) up on me this year. While much of Colorado had more snow than usual, here on the creek we did not. It was cold, dry, and windy week after week. Finally, a combination of rain and wet snow brought two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/bird-migration-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=869","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":1},"title":"What I Will Be Doing for Beltane","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, \"will be doing.\" Some people look at the calendar and say that Beltane is this evening and tomorrow. Others celebrated last weekend, according to the \"weekend nearest the cross-quarter day\" rule. Only by that rule, it comes next weekend.By the Sun, it falls on Saturday the 5th, as this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=871","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":2},"title":"This is not my Beltane post","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"But the Beltane post is coming. Maybe tomorrow. It was interesting--meaningful in a kind of low-key way.And should I mention that it is snowing? Just another springtime in the southern Colorado foothills.","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":3},"title":"After the Beltane Festival","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kinesthetic religion: my left arm was a little sore on Sunday from helping to carry the Maypole in procession\u2014a pine trunk the size of a smallish telephone pole, ridden by a zaftig May Queen. And yes, we heard every ribald variation on \"riding the pole\" shouted from the onlookers. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":872,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=872","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":4},"title":"Baca County Beltane","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the photo, the Beltane Sun (astronomical Beltane--May 5) has recently risen. When it appeared on the horizon, it fit right into the little notch in the rock just below its current position--an alignment that happens only on Beltane and Lammas.The site, on private land, is known to the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10687,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10687","url_meta":{"origin":1582,"position":5},"title":"Scottish Academic: Runes are Hate Symbols, also Anti-Celtic","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A free download from the journal Temenos: \"Pagans, Nazis, Gaels, and the Algiz Rune: Addressing Questions of Historical Inaccuracy, Cultural Appropriation, and the Arguable Use of Hate Symbols at the Festivals of Edinburgh\u2019s Beltane Fire Society\" The abstract: Although Beltaners \u2013 members of Edinburgh\u2019s Beltane Fire Society (BFS) \u2013 can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/runes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}