The Sacred Pines.

Having been raised in the alpine region of Colorado, USA and spending countless hours camping or backpacking within the vast pine forests here, I have grown very fond of those trees. In European nature based spirituality, the pine trees are symbols of immortality. This makes sense given they survive year round. They never experience the mass loss of leaves like deciduous tree leaves that shrivel up and blow away, which is otherwise quite the visual portrayal of death.

Years of backpacking have taught me how to live as close to nature as possible living my the principle of "Leave the land how you found it." The sacred pine tree offers the initiate an infinite number of useful tools in the wilderness. The most essential thing to accomplish when first backpacking in the deep wilderness is to get your shelter up. You might be hungry but the weather can turn from 78 degrees to 45 degrees really quick at high altitude. Or you can easily be enjoying the blissful rays of the sun god before minutes later the rain gods empty the sky as though someone tore a gash in the sky. Besides, most tent shelters these days come with a small vestibule to cook under with a backpacking stove when Mother Nature decides to storm about in unpredictable turmoil. The last thing you want up in the alpine is to caught out in a chilling storm without shelter.

In preparing my shelter I often sweep the ground area to be used with a pine branch--the bunches of needles splitting off from the branch are great for using as a broom. Then I discover in my researching of old, dusty, websites online that pine was often used to sanctify outdoor ritual areas by sweeping the ground clean. Interesting. Yeah, I always had a feeling when I swept the ground clear for a camp site that I was making a grounding, spiritual gesture with the Earth. Especially with the strong, fresh, cold, cleansing smell it emits, like an incense offering wafting through a contemplative spiritual gathering. I'm going to remember this the next time I go backpacking. It will mean even more after learning additional information about the sacred connections.Whole, dense, forest of pine trees sway in patterns at times like waves. An ocean of eternal green. At other times the vast stands of trees seem like a city of green skyscrapers. Yet always, a stoic and often silent army of the animal and plant communities of the labyrinth style forest floor. Haunted by the grey ghost that is the mysterious and elusive lynx--my favorite species of cat with whom I feel a strong connection to. If I could morph into cat form it would be the lynx. The pine forest is a netherworld of secrets, wisdom and mystery--and the lynx is the recluse of that world.May the scared pines remain dense and strong, so that they will reveal their secrets of life to the next generation, and further still down the rabbit hole of the future. Hail the great pines!! Respect.

Whale Shit: Eco-Gold.

When the International Whaling Commission meets in Morocco next week to discuss lifting the moratorium on commercial whaling, delegates might pause to consider an unexpected fact: the faeces of sperm whales is helping to save the planet. Australian researchers have found that the iron-rich faeces of sperm whales living in the Southern Ocean boosts the growth of phytoplankton, marine plants which suck in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

They estimate that the whales are responsible for removing 400,000 tonnes of carbon each year, twice as much as they contribute through respiration. According to the scientists, based at Adelaide's Flinders University, they would be disposing of 10 times as much carbon were it not for commercial whaling. "If we hadn't decreased sperm whale populations from their historical levels, we'd have an extra about two million tonnes of carbon being pulled out of our atmosphere every year."

Green Man: Whale SHIT!! I find it fascinating and remarkable that nature is so balanced that it has even factored in how whale shit can best benefit the overall eco-system. Everything was in harmony until man decided to go into a parasitic binge with the start of the industrial revolution. Nature has all these built in filters for carbon dioxide and built in oxygen tanks yet man thought we could mess with the environment all we wanted and it wouldn't affect us in the least. Nature was something that we arrogantly assumed either got in the way or was independent from us. We were so arrogant in fact that we figured since plant matter wasn't "intelligent" that it must be expendable.

Well, the destruction of nature might not have shown much danger for centuries but now we're learning a very painful lesson on just how much delicate and important nature is for our survival. We have no one to blame but ourselves and seeing how we are being humbled into the reality that we are just another cog in the wheel of nature, just like anything thing else, and that if nature goes down in flames--so will we. How we could observe the co-operation within the natural world and not assume we were apart of it, and interdependent upon it for survival is pretty amazing.

It's that damn monotheism that claims we are special creations from some old bearded white man in the sky who are meant to dominate the Earth and given the go-ahead to do whatever we wanted upon it. That was a big bet that the monotheists made for us but I don't take any joy in saying, "I told you so" regarding how that attitude led to the toxic environment we inherited today because I'm not sure how or whether if we can fix it. I do find it deliciously fitting, however, that whale shit is doing its part, so in that regard I hope whales shit all over the place!!

ADDENDUM: Obama wants whaling to go ahead again. So much for his claim to being a friend to environmentalism with his announcement of offshore drilling right before the BP explosion. As well as this whaling decision. And here I thought the guy was supposed to be a Liberal!! I keep being disappointed with him but where else am I going to turn? Conservative? That'll be the day when you know to haul me off to the mental hospital--for good!! I don't think it's in my DNA to be right-wing.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

God Allows Jesus to be Stuck by Lightening.

Monroe, Ohio

A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

Green Man: Where was "God" on this one?!! The method of destruction is deliciously ironic. Especially for those of us who have to put up with fundamentalist, loud-mouth Christians given that being struck by lightening is often seen amongst many fundamentalist Christians as "God" punishing you for saying something blasphemous, or other "sin." I get annoyed with Christians who claim everything is a sign from "God" but when their church gets flooded or this statue burns to the ground it was just a natural accident. Well, that's convenient isn't it? Maybe "God" and Jesus got into a bit of an argument up within the boardroom of Heaven Inc., and "God" took out the statue to remind the kid who was still in charge.

Maybe the churchgoers weren't praying enough, so "God" nuked the Jesus statue, which brings up another Christian conundrum that I often stump people on. I stole this from the late, great, favorite comedian of mine, George Carlin. When loved ones die despite their relatives praying fervently to save them they often say, "Well, it was 'God's' will that they died. He must have needed them up in heaven." To, which I say, "Well, if 'God' is going to do whatever he wants anyway then why pray in the first place?" It seems pointless, illogical and disrespectful to that very "God" toward whom Christians usually say, "Thy will be done." In praying are you questioning his authority to decide what is best for everyone. These are obvious questions to me and I can't understand why Christians can't see the paradoxes within their own religion such as these. Especially coming from the many well-educated ones.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Thanks, but I'm Just Passing Through.

Though I walk amongst them I am a visitor to this world of the humans--at least that's how I often feel. I can't relate much to the people around me because they're not on my level and it's frustrating to have to live amongst beings who seem to do everything in their power to destroy this world. I feel like I'm a visitor from a further evolved world that is stuck having to live with peoples' ideologies that were long-ago abandoned by the evolved civilizations in the vast, mysterious Universe. It often feels like I was kidnapped in another dimension, brainwashed, cursed and shipped off to be stuck on this world of backwater humans. Forced to spend the rest of this existence as an adult living amongst kindergarten or primary school level beings. I don't mean to sound condescending, it's just that I feel so completely different than where most of humanity is on the the deeper things in life.

I didn't plan it this way but in nearly every aspect of my life I don't fit in with the greater society. I live in America, which is a country that is traditionally conservative--I'm as liberal as they come. I live in a country that is predominately Christian--I'm not. I live in a part of the world that rejects the arts, which is where my talents lie. I honor nature and understand the importance of protecting it, yet I live amongst environmental cannibals. They are like parasites that shed anything green, swallow it into the belly of materialism and shit out black, acrid smoke. I have a rare, severe mental illness called schizoaffective disorder in a society that shuns, hides and ignores people like myself. I'm a sensitive male who isn't afraid of expressing emotions and celebrating my feminine side in a society that finds that kind of male behavior to be defective and something to be mocked.

I feel like a stranger in my own species, and people wonder why I like being alone and spending so much time amongst nature. Nature isn't difficult to understand--nature doesn't reject anyone. Nature doesn't ask questions nor condemn you. As long as you can live in harmony with her, she will care for you. And while nature can through you some real difficulties at least she does so without making it personal. I can't think of a more natural death then having it occur out in the wild. Let the animals live off my carcass--It would be my last gift to the cycle of life.

PHOTO: Painting from one of my favorite artists, surrealist Salvador Dali. Titled, "Geopolitical Child Watching the Birth of the new man, 1943.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Pictures of Oil Choked Animals that BP Doesn't Want You to See.

Above: In some cases the birds are so soaked and coated with oil that volunteers can't tell what type of bird it is.If it was up to me the CEO and other executives of BP would be the ones cleaning off these birds one by one. I would also not just charge them for every gallon that is leaked but charged for every bird and animals found saturated in their oil.I never understand the people who think it's no big deal when animals die. People who think animals are just "collateral damage." As if the loss of animals doesn't impact humans. Well, these people are dangerously ignorant because what happens to animals are warning lights to our future. The "canary in the coal mine" if you will. They are people who forgot about the whole eco-system and interdependent food chain.Oil soaked eggs in the wetlands of Louisiana. Can you imagine how fast we'd get off oil if millions upon millions of gallons of it washed over our houses, us, and/or our children like the babies of these birds? We need to start seeing the reality that we're all interconnected and what happens to one species could affect even we humans who have gotten so arrogant that we no longer think we're apart of the chain. Stupid humans. Meanwhile, the latest projections show this oil spreading not just past and around Florida. As well as up the Eastern seaboard but up into the UK perhaps, which would be fitting since BP is a British company.

~The Green Man has Spoken~