The entire cave system is more than 1300 ft. long, and as mentioned earlier the original cave opening was a walk-in. Interestingly, deep in one of the first chambers at the former entrance — where the sunlight would never illuminate — there is a vertical wall covered with red dots, created by placing the painted…
A film by Werner Herzog. From the little I know of Werner Herzog, he’s a famous cinematographer renowned for his stream-of-consciousness art films. The impression I get from the article or two I read about him was that he struggles to portray the sometimes-insanity of life as realistically as possible in his films. If this…
“A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.” –Margaret Sanger My thesis was written on the Central Asian nomads of the late Bronze and early Iron Age. Since these were mounted nomadic traders and raiders, the modern assumption has been that they were a strongly patriarchal society. One of the “startling” discoveries which I…
Update: Same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. state of New York on June 24, 2011 by the New York State Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo! The law will take effect on July 24, 2011. Huzzah! I don’t often post on political issues. Today, however, I found New York State Senator Roy McDonald startlingly inspiring….
I was recently asked the following question: “Why is it important for feminists to study and comprehend women-centered cultures?” While I thought it a good question, I also think it can and should be fruitfully expanded, in that I do not think only feminists should study these fascinating matriarchies. Learning is good, and as the…
Wowzers. This has been an extremely momentous holiday season for my household and myself. I’m very excited at successfully registering for my first quarter of classes for the PhD — both on-line and face-to-face classes, it looks like. I’ve not done on-line classes before; nifty! I’m being careful for the first quarter and not taking…
Saturday’s wonderful events weren’t over yet, although I initially thought they were since we’d finished the planned ones. As an aside: I love celebrations! I love the planning, the decorating, the parties, and the gift-giving, where you choose something you feel is perfect for a dear friend. I deeply enjoy celebrating birthdays and the turns…
I’ve never been in such a super-heated, sensuously rich feeling, thick- and heavy-aired place before; nor have I ever literally poured off sweat like this — and I’ve lived in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida. At one point I have to keep wiping my face over and over every minute or so, for the amount of…
[Fair warning: many parts of the sweat lodge ceremony are a sensory blur of memory to me; I’m writing the mental images I recall, but their order and accuracy is not a given. Further, if there are any errors noted here in how a sweat lodge is run, they are assuredly mine. Also, once more:…
In the Mountain’s Shadow Drum-making & sweat lodge were simply amazing! A side note: this is mostly about me because I’m trying to be very careful with privacy issues — which is also why I’m avoiding using names . However, the woman who ran the drum-making seminar has a public website, so I’m happy to…