Iridescence

There are qualities to walking step in step with fate.

Calmness permeates every arrival in the flow.  It creates space into which unfolds the force of life present and waiting in each person and thing.  The heart holds unwavering sensitivity for the entangled yet nonlocal complement.  Calm listening allows every quiver and tension of the space around, within, to yield upon the true path.

…

Calmness permeates every arrival in the flow.

We are immersed.  The world around us is the ocean of time mythic.  When we are sad, it face is one of sadness.  When we are joyous, everything is a nerve ending rubbed right.  Like looking into the surface of the water, the world around us is no less a reflection – a mirror – when we are immersed within it.  Yet, each of us are stars, and the world becomes deeper as our reflections play with each other at the edges of our minds.  When we are still, like the qualities of meditation, the world expands as our perception grows – anxious with its own calm.  Every reflected bit of ‘other’ is like a stone in the river, possessive of its own sense of motion.  Our calmness, expanding, permeates each and every new arrival as it flows around and comes to know the forms.  They are known inasmuch totality as they know themselves; temet nosce - gnōthi seauton. Know that, that we know nothing.  The permeation is our doorway, our entrance into the life.

It creates space into which unfolds the force of life present and waiting in each person and thing.

As we touch and permeate each arrival within our flow, it too hears us.  This other listens to our essence, our intention, our vision.  We can unfold our nature within the perception of the other, and they can unfold before us.  All of the majesty contained and conducted by years of living lies locked within that other.  When it unfolds most completely we experience it as a port – a point to aid the venture forth – and as winds pushing, in their whim, toward one direction or another.  All of this life force unfolds when it is able.  Our calmness creates the space for this unfolding.  Our calmness holds all of our energy unto ourselves.  We do not spill out and flood the other mind we now permeate. Our calmness standing before the other allows it to enjoy the edges of its own tension and direction.  Like playing host, we grant space for the other to express itself.  Our calmness create the space for communion.  Whether this other be the mind and soul of another with which to fashion vision and fate – or a less-human thing of the world that acts like a statuary landmark in our journey unto dreamed and prophetic land.  Where mind and dreams are yet formless, the unfolding of each newly-arrived other provides roadways.  These roadways deliver us unto the direction of our intention, and we are fueled by the delight of the other.  Delight that our spacious calmness has allowed.

The heart holds unwavering sensitivity for the entangled yet nonlocal complement.

The heart hears across space and time.  What dreams and intentions are placed within it open before us a ‘path of least resistance.’  We become one with those things that are part of that fate.  Ourselves and all things present things participating in that future fate become as reflections of it.  We are entwined with it, knowing each other by being a part of the whole.  But the landscape of fate and serendipity is mostly invisible.  How and where to place the feet also comes from the heart.  It is infused with the dreams and intentions held within it.  The heart senses the things that are entangled with it.  It has the truth-hearing to know what before it is part of the fated to which it is yoked.  It can hear to what degree something, some path, some person, is part of those dreams and intentions.  As every thing unfolds within the space our calmness provides, the delicate edges of that unfolding flutter and incense.  The heart is magnetized to each movement, each aroma, that is part of its irrevocable future… a future that is Now, except for the steps needed to decloak its invisibility.

Calm listening allows every quiver and tension of the space around, within, to yield upon the true path.

Calmness too provides patience to hear all of the unfolding, so that truly the most potent for our fate becomes the activator of our next step.  The most rigid can initially be the most prominent – but this rigidity makes in less participatory in the living edge.  It is the meadow upon which the lovers play.  Moving into the space of communion reveals further the vulnerability of our most fledging and tender new edges.  Ever tender, quivering, tense edge that we find along the path is yet another face of that entangled whole.  Calmness and spaciousness with them – most – lets delight nurture their expression.  The green flame cheers bright and is innocent to any taste but its own purity.  This purity is the solid ground of our footsteps forward.  Every step along this path sprouts life and invites the light of life, and courses the waters of the soul.

This posting comes from ‘guest write’ David White, who I have been sharing the pleasure of excellent conversations.

I’m thinking more lately about telluric currents, and I’m remembering about the distinction you made between telluric currents and ley lines. That being, telluric currents flow vertically up and down within the earth, from core to surface, as opposed to ley lines which flow horizontally across the earth’s crust. I really liked that distinction and I really (no, REALLY!) want that to be true, but, alas, both Wikipedia and Britannica say otherwise:

· “natural electric current flowing on and beneath the surface of the Earth and generally following a direction parallel to the Earth’s surface.” (Britannica.com)

· “(telluric) currents are extremely low frequency and travel over large areas at or near the surface of Earth. …flow in the surface layers of the earth. …move between each half of the terrestrial globe… equator-ward (daytime) and pole-ward (nighttime). (Wikipedia.com)

At the same time, I’m perfectly willing to believe that there are such currents which flow vertically up and down within the earth. In fact, I want these to exist because their existence would lend credence to a personal pet theory of mine (which I’m sure you’ve already surmise). And, I would infer from your statement, that from personal experience/research/dowsing, you know them to exist. Nevertheless, for sake of clarity and to avoid obfuscation within scientific/engineering circles, you’d probably have to call them something other than “telluric” currents since that word is already taken for currents running horizontally just below the surface. As I write this sentence, the more ancient and mythic “chthonic” comes to mind. As telluric, from the Latin, tellūs, for earth; so chthonic from the Greek, khthōn, also earth, but more specifically the interior of the soil, distinct from Gaia, the surface of the land. Moreover, khthonios, meaning “in, under, or beneath the earth”, referring to earthy and subterranean, and designating deities or spirits of the underworld in Greek religion. [Sure, I know you know all this, I just had to get it out.]

Now, as to the electrical nature of telluric currents… I was skeptical reading Robert Neil Boyd (largely because most of what RNB writes is largely unintelligible). Nevertheless…

“The earth energies observed by the engineers of telegraphy and telephony in the mid-1800s behaved exactly like the powerfully surging earth currents… The engineers observed earth power so enormous it could not be attributed to electrostatic accumulations, nor to the weak electrical strains induced in ground systems by auroral discharges….

There’s obvious hyperbole here, but some core of it is borne out by Wikipedia:

“Telluric currents can be harnessed to produce a useful low voltage current by means of ‘earth batteries.’ Such devices were used for telegraph systems in the United States as far back as 1859.”

Are you kidding me?!? A century and a half ago they’d figured out how to power telegraphs across the western wastelands from telluric currents??? Who knew?!?! So RNB isn’t completely unreliable. Which gives me just a tiny bit of hope regarding his grander, more mythic claims:

“These currents were fiery and potent. World-connecting energies of vast, mysterious, and intelligent content. According to the alchemists, Kirchner, and many of the engineers of the mid 1800s, these energetic flows were direct representatives of Creation, direct evidence of the Divine in operation. …contained in these energies were the awesome secrets of the processes of Creation, the Power by which the real world was both constantly generated, and sustained. Those enterprising engineers who endeavored to draw their communicative power from the Telluric currents, found themselves engaged in surpassing technologies, empowered by the world-generative Source.

Okay, so now we’re talking the creation of worlds and the sustaining of reality. Pretty big stuff. But if we go back, and accept the notion that telluric currents are spiritual in nature, in addition to being legitimately electrical, then their “world-generative” nature is not too far afield. And this is where water comes in, specifically the waters of Genesis, of the uncreated world, and how separating water is what creates and perpetuates the world. Compare the Hebrew elements…

verse 1: God created shamayim and ‘erets.

verse 2: ’erets was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep; Spirit of God hovers over the mayim.

verse 6: God said, “Let there be an expanse between the mayim to separate mayim from mayim.”

verse 7: God made the expanse and separated the mayim under the expanse from the mayim above it.

verse 8: God called the expanse shamayim.

verse 9: God said, “Let the mayim under the shamayim be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”

with the Heliopolitan cosmology of Egyptian Old Kingdom…

The pre-creational world was depicted as a deep, boundless, uncreated, watery mass. This is Nun, the abyss or chaos. The primordial waters are beyond turmoil because no opposition or movement occurs in this undifferentiated inertia. Nun is the passive, inert, undifferentiated set of all possibilities, which is not the same thing as an absolute non-existence, emptiness or void. For in Nun (water) lies the capacity to create eternal repetition, the foundation of order and creation as a whole.

Nun existed before the world was created. It was a body of water that contained divine entities whose potential (and form) had not yet been realized. There was darkness, inertia, and chaos. The appearance of a solid area on the surface of Nun, the primordial mound or egg, begins transition from a formless state to a structured one. This phenomenon triggered a dynamic that culminates in the construction of the Universe… at which point the primordial waters receded to the edge of perceptible reality. These waters continued to surround the created world, threatening to overwhelm it and return it to an inert state. The material and immaterial structure of the Universe thus served as a rampart to prevent this apocalyptic cataclysm. …Gods, kings and men worked jointly to insure the perpetuity of (the) realms, of everything found in them…. Egyptian imagery thus functioned as one vector of the necessary and sufficient task of perpetuating the Universe.

So RNB/Kirchner seem to be writing from the same mythic source as both Egyptian and Hebrew creation myth when he speaks of telluric (or perhaps more to our point “chthonic”) currents as

· “direct representatives of Creation”

· “evidence of the Divine in operation”.

· containing “the awesome secrets of the processes of Creation”

· “the Power by which the real world was both constantly generated and sustained”

· “empowered by the world-generative Source”

It’s a curious side note that “…these specific Creative energies could only be summoned by direct contact with the ground at special sites, which were held to be Sacred Land. The Victorians prized locations deep within the Earth… numerous arcane grottos, and magical caverns…” to which we might add enchanted pools and sacred wells. All places of water.

Ultimately, if you pull all these threads together, you come to the preposterous question: “Is the world/creation somehow sustained because the energy found telluric/chthonic currents continues keep the firmament in place (i.e.: maintains the structure of universe), thus holding back the waters of chaos/inertia from overwhelming us all into itself?“

Psychedelic Medicine

Ed. Michael Winkelman, Thomas Roberts

It is said that a medicine’s power can heal or hurt in equal proportion.  Rarely is the sentiment more appropriate than in the study of psychedelic medicines.  The insights presented in the two-volume set, Psychedelic Medicine, edited by Michael Winkelman and Thomas Roberts, stand for the healing capacity of such medicine.  For those outside the field of clinical / therapeutic treatment of addiction, and whom may assume that all addiction is inherently linked to drugs, will find these books illuminating.

The authors are clean in presenting that they do not condone, nor even intimate guidelines for the public consumption of psychedelic medicines.  Rather, they frame what attempts have been made to define the best practices for their use within the setting of experienced and professional care.  As such, this works sets itself as a touchstone in the proper research and development of new medical practices.  It is, in this early stage of the field, an encyclopedia and bibliography of the most significant scientific studies into psychedelic medicines.

Volume one reviews social context, history, applications and legality.  Volume two carries through numerous reviews of clinical work with an object toward best-practices.  The researcher will find it indispensable.  For those that have used these substances outside of professional contexts, it is an illuminated look into the future framework by which such substances may gain acceptance.

The authors offer several important ideas in their writings.  One is the notion of “psychointegrator technologies.”  The concept is intended to highlight any technology, from a medical drug to digital media, that has a specific range of affect upon consciousness.  This forward-thinking idea is founded upon work ranging from the application of psilocybin for depression to the use of virtual reality systems in the treatment of phobias and post traumatic stress disorder.  Furthermore, the authors go so far as to propose a business plan for the establishment of a institute that leads the cultural application and advancement of psychedelic medicine and psychointegrative technology models.

The only real want for improvement in the books is in having Robert’s last chapter of volume 2 – profound in its history and perspective on the future - become the introductory text to each volume.  These works simultaneous are a banner for harm-reduction and best practices within the field of psychedelic medicine, and a roadmap for how the knowledge from psychedelics research will go beyond their use to impact culture and technologies broadly.

A friend of mine over at Premium Access Media is making some rounds with a new ad unit they’re testing.  I wouldn’t normally be given to rummaging around the advertising area of User Interface / User Experience design, but there’s some worthwhile things to think about here.

Cons

There are a number first possible issues that come to mind.

The biggest one is that bottom of the screen is sometimes a place that sites will float their own menu bar.  If such an ad unit overlays a site menu and inhibits user navigation, the advertiser and ad supplier forever be evil with little hope for recovery.  The host site will also lose lots of face.  The the ad unit to sense an existing floater in this region could be challenging – to unpredictable….  Not a happy engineering endeavor.

Also, I get used to the notion that when I scroll down, ads go away.  This breaks that relationship to ads, and may keep up any ire I develop, in forcing me to close the ad.

Pros

That said The non-rectangular ‘skline’ is a nice touch, as it allows for a new dimension of branding.  As much as I generally disfavor what is displayed to me in web ads, I actually get excited to see how companies would take advantage of this opportunity to brand themselves.  It’s a challenging area, as breaking outside of a box region can go from tacky to terrible fax paux – but the successes will be big wins, I think.

Click-throughs, CPC, CPM

I’d expect higher than normal click-through rates, but with a caveat.  My sense is that there will a sharper break-point between for traffic given on quality ads vs. terrible ads.  Since this ad unit remains on-screen all the time, I personally expect the ads therein to be more beautiful and enjoyable… as well as more yielding and semi-subtle.  This is a great opportunity to please the visitor and win brand status.  If I get any weight-loss-flashers or other wank there I’d be very upset at the site that allowed that kind of trash to be stuck at the bottom of my screen.  Even average ads will enter into the It’s Not Pretty category and be displeasing.  So I think those managing this ad unit (Premium Access & affiliates) will have to be more selective in screening & applying an ‘aesthetics policy’ to the advertisements that go out.

Given all that, I’ll also expect the cost to use the ad unit, in CPC / CPM will be higher.  Not the level of a video ad, but higher than traditional ad units.

It’s interesting that all of their initial advertisers for this unit seem to be gaming companies.  I think it says something to the comfortability that the gaming culture has with novel experiences.  The sports industry would probably find a way to put their glitter and polish out through it, too.

@Hardaway today made another sincere dive into the US recessive trends. She draws light on words from a mentor of hers, who suggests that the resources and capabilities of North America show that we haven’t really ‘lost’ anything.

I’ve heard the expression that “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.”  When I originally heard it, that statement went “Love is the only thing that’s real” – which I tend to ring with more.  If you substitute “truth” for “love” – or any sentiment of Reality / Veritas – then nothing unreal ever goes away.

A recent video YouTube of worm masses living in a NC sewer make a commentary to medical theory.

What really compels me is the pattern of behavior. These worms, asserted to be Tuberficidae, are normally soil-dwelling; but being in the sewer, without an intuitive habitat, they mass together – they treat each other as the most home-like element.

It may be a ‘bigger picture’ model of tumors and other growths – they are tissues / etc that are displaced, with volition to thrive, they act together to survive in a relatively-alien environment.  They amass together because they are more home-like than the raw stratum of their environment – and they lack the motility to go to their right place.  Their predicament is created by excess, spilling over into places that are ill-equipped to carry such things to their right place.

No environment being completely alien, these worms feed on something in the crevasses, just as body tumors find veins and other other fluid channels upon which to survive.

Forward must come models for returning things to their home.

4chan calls wormsign on the Wild China

Let me start by saying that I have a general predisposition to the notion that the way that we think and act has an influence on the events we come to live – a law of consequences that allows for stuff outside of the stringent idioms of Science.

So when 4chan spawned a meme of (Japanese) pokémon raising an overactive China, I had the sense that this was part of a ‘species’ of memes that identifies semi-structures, or emergent, patterns in worldly events.

Mostly, it pulls on the story of the over-large thing falling to supernatural forces – like the heel of Achilles.  It may play part in a larger pattern of ultimatum, such as the destruction of the Tower of Babylon, the burned Library at Alexandria, or the ‘sinking’ of Atlantis.  The root of pattern may be seen as an un-wield-able degree of energy passing through a thing – ‘the biggest thing’ – destroying it.  Such a principle also is represented in Chinese Taoist theory, of an excess of one thing inverting into its opposite.  As well with the shem-tower in Babylon, it lacked sufficient coherence of virtue to transmit the divine energy which it was built to otherwise conduct.

In this case, little island Japan – with its legendary monsters and modern evolution of them –  hold an interesting relationship to mainland China.  Indeed, this article is no place for a recap of cultural influence and political differentiation.  The notion of Japanese pokémon laying waste to over-striving People’s Republic of China hold enough ‘mythological water’ to slip deep into the domain of active memetics.

The notion that there is a ‘species’ of memes that participate in the emergence of worldly trends is a concept that I’m growing under the banner of the “Zabadogodagon” – a collection of the emergent forms that transcend human law into natural / given law.  Their mechanics in the physical world has growing recognition in mind-matter systems, global consciousness research, retro-causality, and even the wilder sides of plasma cosmology.

Hooray 4chan……

Speigel ran an interesting article on the matriarchal society in Mosuo, China.  Among the many comforting notions of no war, liberated sexuality, and other social comforts one is left with the distinct sense that men are a bit under-developed.  In the absence of challenges, the portrayal of men does not leave any sense of the kingly qualities that man, at his fullest and most noble, is capable.

The discussion of the timeline of gender-rule in societies is long-winded, with Femninsm of the past few decades leading the charge in questioning the mechanisms involved.  Many scholars, to the fringe, have argued that the oldest cultures were matriarchal – many citing primate studies.   Given the biological foundation of womb-birth, this is not unreasonably evolutionary.  However, neither than may be the ‘ongoing R&D’ that is patriarchal leadership.  

The female organism, being self and socially interested in selecting the best father for progeny, would be most inclined to find men less than their individual equal.  It’s statistical – men, having less duty of necessity, would also have less development opportunity.  What’s a girl to do if she already has the best mousetrap?  Build a better mouse.

And so arrives the invention of Patriarchy.  The handing of leadership to men so that they refine themselves beyond the bio-cultural baseline.  What better man to select than one who can rule (nearly, ‘haha’) as well as a woman?  

Why are young men sent off to war?  Perhaps to weed out the ones who fight.

An interesting article was published recently, related to mitochondria and blood in humans:

Renfu Shao, Ewen F. Kirkness and Stephen C. Barker. “The single mitochondrial chromosome typical of animals has evolved into 18 minichromosomes in the human body louse, Pediculus humanus.” Genome Resaerch. published online March 31, 2009. doi: 10.1101/gr.08318

The presence of such chromosomal diversity, particularly with respect to mitochondria, in such an ideally-simple organism is certainly worth all the more note given that said organism primarily nurtures itself on human blood.  The authors report on a specialized technique for genomic compilation, different than standard Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA), so observation is duly made for the differentiation.

The mt genome of P. humanus, however, consists of 18 minicircular chromosomes.

Casually, it would seem that the louse sanguine digestion of ‘the human code’ led to a refraction of its own genetic structure.  The ‘facets’ created may reveal nuances about the most essential system-generating elements of our own genetic structure.  The non-coding region of each of the 18 louse chromosomes is quite large, comparatively, and may windfall an opportunity to see the role of resonance in the stabilization of coding.

The performance itself was deeply inspiring.  The troupe has done well to present some of the old face of China – or, at least, what a US person is likely to see as ancient Chinese arts.  In the character performances, the stage theatrics were very good at conveying emotional dialogue.  The performance was an exercise in portraying human majesty.  For those who follow politics, it’s worth noting that the troupe is Falun Gong / Dafa.  My memory is that about 1/3 of the performances were Dafa, which accurate or not will say something for the emphasis that was created on Falun Gong messages.  Free expression is to be lauded, and I only wish they would have developed the message with more range, rather than reiterating the same thing across solos and dance.  It draws to light the degree of persecution that the Chinese government is capable, and the fervor that is generated by it.

The costuming was one the the things to which I paid the most attention.  The dress did much, in symbolism, movement, and aesthetic. The following notes are follow in series with the performance held in Tempe, AZ.  Without the ability to have any images to associate with the text, we’ll all have to do our best……!

The opening act had dancers with closed-sleeved garments.  The closed sleeved were in part a practical invention to offer protection to the emperor, since martial attacks would be inhibited.  In a way this felt like a form of veneration to the audience, being the opening act.  I noted that a masterfully-executed dance could conceal a hidden sword within the flowing sleeve.  It would be quite difficult, but not inconceivable.

Behind the actors, in all performances, was a video projection for a backdrop.  This worked well in the production, as it allowed for very elaborate control of the set without the production cost of physical stage-pieces.  One video had a streaming collage of human figures, perhaps Buddhas and Quan Yins, which took the appearance of a river of souls… which had a striking effect.  In some of the acts, figures on the video would swoop to the bottom of the screen – the stage floor – and then an dancer would jump up from behind a stage article, meshing the video and live performance in a very satisfying manner.

Mens attire  included a layering of sash, kilt, skirt, and pants.  Shoulder wraps were decorated at edge.  The Yellow Emperor’s attire included and additional belt of fine embroidery, along with other legendary attire. Pennants held aloft behind him were edged in fur.

For the Udumbara flower, ladies tunics and pants were gradiented in color.  The Udumbara flower, a symbol in classical Buddhism, was conveyed as a symbol of prophesy.  One of the striking things to me is the way in which ‘the arrival of prophesy’ is conveyed in every lifetime.  It is oft used as a pageantry and instrument of the state (even autonomous and un-landed states) to inspire its people to their achievable heights.  Whereas they prophetic story is itself rooted in timelessness, it’s arrival can be individual or cultural.  Indeed, the cultural arrival may be not more than emergence from the aggregate of personal arrival.  All prophesy then may act in a manner evocative, at very least, of the entangled, multiple, and fractional models present in physics and consciousness.  Where exists, and how large, is the tribe whose members live now the same prophesy?

A dance-line with oscillating movement had its ‘rolling’ double around the middle of the line before the wave traveled to the end.  Men pants were tied / wrapped at shins, like the finishing to high shoes or boots…. somewhat pirate-like.  Shoes revealed their ability to move quickly and strongly.

The Yi dance was like rainbows opening and closing.  Slow daintiness, then blooms springing open.  Done all by women, and transmitting an essential side of the feminine aura.

There was an act portraying an ancient character with a magic fan.  The fan was scraggly, and not pretty.   Notably, the prince had ‘rabbit ears’ that we composed from feathers (red), and he was garmented in blue and red.   Lady headdress was dangling balls and elaborate knotwork, like Masha’s at BM 2008. The fan-wielding legend rides away on a cloud at the end.

Another act had mens pants tied above knee, to accent the pant looseness at calf.  Hair was in topknot above a headband.  Belt with tassels and kilt.

The fan dance was like a divine fluid of color and motion…. that I can eat.  Ladies wore dancing aprons – a nice touch on the domestic erotic.  Their fans opened to full circles – like bloom…. and shield of enticement.

The first act to demonstrate openly that the troupe is falungong told the story of a family hurt by a punk gang outfitted in communist sickle & hammer vests.  Qian Yin and Buddhas arrive in salvation and rebirth.  The Qian Yin ladies’ shawl hangs at half-way at the back, as angel, one loop over shoulder down the arm.  It brings to mind a language of the shawl (unless there is a better name for this long strip of fabric).  What difference does the swoop at half-back mean compared with a swoop down to the waist, or just across the shoulders?

The erhu solo reminds me what that life lived in China had in part so-loved….  Only the briefest pursing of lips, once, hinted that every piece was not the musician’s favorite!

Male drummers – their bracers hold and accent loose sleeves evocative of a dress shirt. Top knots and headbands again.  They also wore breastplates, which dovetailed with the purpose of holding the drums.  In Mesopotamian cultures, breastplates were adorned with magical amulets, and were a kind of technology unto themselves.  The association of the two, magical and drum-related, both hold the evocation of a ‘suit’ for some technology.  I can’t imagine now a way to make a breastplate work in any general public scenario – it’s just too non-standard.  One military can get close, with their pins, and even then draw unusual attention in public.  But given something ceremonial or otherwise given to the ritual expression, I see a way to wear it.

For the Phoenix dance, ladies dress were decorated near the edge with weighted petals that encouraged folding and effects of motion.  It was something like a the way a fan folds, but with the increased range of the skirted pleats.  It would be stunning on an open, flowing lady’s sleeve.   The procession line of dancers composed the phoenix tail, and was sharp pageantry.

The story of the Monkey King told that he came from the stone that is the essence of heaven and earth.  He wore a beret with a slightly-pronounced & decorated band plus a pin.  The sage wore a flower-like crown with tassels that included fabric-like ‘ears’ that hung down. He wore mala beads and robes with several sewn-in bands at the level of the thighs and otherwise… almost evoking the lok of an iron-strapped trunk.   Wise man, bearded, had a necklace of huge beads and winged headband.

The Mongolian chopstick dance was probably my personal favorite. Tablewear – was taken up an aesthetic level, and was made seductive.  Love it.  Wing embroidery on dresses, which below the waist were cut in long sections, and those sections layered like flower petals, but with square cut corners.  Feathered headband. All in white and gold, creating a skyward ideal.  The bundles of chopsticks click-click-click-click off the body, silk napkin tied-with streaming along, as the the ladies twist back and forth, kneeling-to-standing-to-kneeling, in a dance that had the distinct sense that it could be done in a kitchen or dining room…..  Snap of chopsticks like the ruffle of wing feathers.

The legend of Mulan – not told in he Disney style. The Imperial scroll with decree was nice accent; presenting the Word to someone on a brightly dyed fabric of gold and held by finial-ended bars will really put someone into the mood.  The movements of her father were as to cradle her head, when right is given to her.  Upon Mulan’s return ladies were out again with Shields of Spring.  

Another act had billowing sleeves that were gossamer enough to move with slightest breeze and movement made.  The best justice to do to the description is to watch the scene in Dune were the Reverend Mother leaves the emperor’s chamber upon the arrival of the Guild navigator.

Tibetan men wore a good mix of silver and brown, with fur. Multiple bead colors mixed with turquoise, and were the same color as headbands with knot and hangs/drops of the material. Again, the long sleeves, too long for hand exposure, spoke of Peace.  We should all realistically remember that non-violent revolution is revolution none-the-less.

A spiritual performance included video of many layers of counter rotating rings of Chinese characters, that evoked the image of a fung shui compass taken to divine levels.  Men had ‘riding crops’ ending in large white horsehair plumes, that I would have been best worn at the belt when not dancing.

…. and outside at the gift shop, ‘music bags’:  tiny purse-like little decorated pouches with music boxes inside.  Lovely little things!