A vortex is not always everything it's cracked up to be. My father was once rather obsessed with a vortex. He would talk about it frequently. The vortex in question was Corryvreckan. Located in the narrow stretch of water between the islands of Jura and Scarba, it is a whirlpool of considerable repute. Being off the remote west coast of Scotland, the Corryvreckan whirlpool is difficult of access, particularly if, as was the case with my father, you were normally domiciled in faraway Oxfordshire. However, one year he made it. Up the highways to beyond Glasgow, then on the twists and turns of the byways that snake across the rarely-frequented vastnesses of southern Argyll. He took the requisite tiny boat in the direction of the famed whirlpool. It was a calm day, the tides were wrong, and all he saw was a quickening of the waters as they passed between the two islands. He returned home in disappointment.
Meanwhile, back at this particular vortex of the pale green variety, anybody considering that it needs a serious overhaul would be absolutely correct! Pale Green Vortex has been going for almost six years now: we are still awaiting a letter of congratulations from the Queen, along with that invite for tea and biscuits with David Cameron. During the whole of this time, the design - if it can indeed be called as such - has remained steadfastly unaltered. It is not, in all honesty, something that is a top priority, but we may get round to it some day or another.
During these past six years, I have become aware of a major activity of many bloggers, podcasters, and the like. That activity is questioning whether or not they are going to continue with their blog or podcast; or whether at the least they will give it a considerable break. I know of a number of instances where an announcement of cessation of activity has been made - only for them to start up again soon afterwards. This process is one that I understand very well. There has been a number of occasions on which I have come close to bringing Pale Green Vortex to a halt, whether temporarily or forever. A couple of times I resumed with renewed enthusiasm as a result of some timely encouragement from some readers.
Once you've got something going, it's easy to feel that you need to continue a regular and fairly frequent output. Last year was exceptional, in that I had more time available for writing, plenty to write about, and output flowed easily - happy days! This period is now over, though, I feel in my bones. My attention is being drawn to matters that require a longer period of gestation. What's more, they are rather more personal and clearly autobiographical (everything that goes on Pale G.V. is part autobiography), and to me fairly biggies! So I am letting myself off the leash of such regular postings, and will see what happens. I may continue to write as frequently as I have done, but I can't say. Vamos a ver. I certainly hope the fruits of some of my current 'inner work' will make its way into the Vortex.
I was in the process of preparing a piece on our good friend Richard Dawkins, but then I heard that the fellow recently had a stroke. Actually, I was writing a few nice things about him, but I still feel it inappropriate to put my piece out there just now.
So let's end this post with a quote from another good friend of ours, David Icke: "The key to 'power' is persuading those you depend upon that they're dependent on you. Just like how the whale depends on the plankton, not the plankton on the whale."
We can go as superficial or as deep as we wish with this one. There is far more to it than immediately meets the eye. If this is the key to power, than it is also the key to unravelling the grip of that power.
Who depends upon who? Maybe it's not quite like that at all. Maybe it's more like an unconscious collusion. We like to find someone to blame: the Jews, the archons, the banksters, Bilderbergers, a bunch of extraterrestrials, some deep secret black magick shamanic mystery dudes. Whoever. It makes things easy if we can point the finger, and there are plenty of folk who invest a good deal of time and energy in trying to uncover the requisite object for their finger waving. We kind-of feel secure, as if we understand, we've got things sorted, tied up. We're back in control. But I feel we need to own up to our own role in the mess. Playing the victim is not good enough. It takes two to tango. If we are not actually dependent on those supposedly with 'power', we have to organise our lives - emotionally, psychologically, physically: energetically if you will - to reflect that. This is the real work, the real waking up. And it's far more difficult than going around blaming everybody else. Not to say that we ignore the world 'out there'. It's no good being like me thirty years ago, in the middle of Buddhism and feeling that the world 'out there' is irrelevant. No, the world out there with its shadow and general energetic configuration is anything but irrelevant. We need to absorb all that it is, seeing deeply into its nature. Then we are finally in a position to skilfully weave our own independent way, shape our life in the mould of authenticity. Enough people do this, and the whole rotten system falls apart. It continues, in part at least, because we continue to validate its phoney ways. We each have to find our own means to leave it behind, create anew; in the words of Timothy Leary, drop out......
