Hexvessel and Mariee Sioux

I listen to a LOT of music. I always have and always will. As a kid I liked to go to record stores and dig through LPs for hours. When I was young and first discovering punk, it was always great to find new bands. Sometimes you took a chance on a record and it became an instant favorite. One of my favorite shops had a couple of turntables with headphones set up and they allowed you to listen to the used records before you bought them. As you can imagine, I would stay in that store all day.

These days it is so much easier to find new music. As a kid in the 70s and 80s, you either heard about a new band word-of-mouth, found it in a catalog (Toxic Shock was my favorite - so much good stuff) or got the chance to give it a listen at a used record store. Since I was never really into things that get much radio play, these were pretty much my only options. Fast-forward to today and you have the internet.

Over the years, music access on the internet has improved substantially. Even rare and obscure titles are available at the press of a button. You can even find bands from all over the world using Bandcamp, Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify, etc. This is exactly how I found one of my favorite bands of all time: Hexvessel.

I cannot remember exactly how I came across them but I believe it was in a Related Artists page for another band in Spotify. Hexvessel hails from Finland but their lead singer, Mat McNerney aka Kvohst, is from England. You may know him from the Dødheimsgard album, Supervillian Outcast.

Hearing Hexvessel for the first time was like a religious experience. For anyone that knows me, you know my affinity and reverence for nature. Listening to Hexvessel is like sitting in on an ancient Druid ritual. It's calming. It's magick.

I'm really hoping to see them live some day. For now, I have to rely on my (now) old friend the internet for live videos. For the curious, there are plenty of non-live videos out there as well. Here is the first song of theirs I ever heard titled Sacred Marriage:

While clicking through Related Artists pages in Spotify another time, I came across an artist that has been populating my headphones ever since: Mariee Sioux. From what I've read, Mariee hails from California, USA. Her music is not only beautiful but her lyrical content is incredible. There are poetic stories woven into melodies that soothe and calm the listener. If you pay attention to some of the lyrics, it's like listening to old tales and myths. No matter how much I listen, I find new things to like in her songs.
The first album of Mariee Sioux's that I heard was Faces in the Rocks. At the time, I was having a serious panic attack. Laying in the dark while listening to this album brought me back to Earth and calmed me down. It was bliss. Since that time, her music always calms me and makes me feel better if I'm having a bad day. For this, I thank her.
Here is her song Wizard Flurry Home:

I've read somewhere (maybe on their own webpage) that Hexvessel calls themselves Forest Folk. I would agree with this because I feel like this description fits any music that embraces and reveres nature and the Earth as much as they do. I would also say that this "Forest Folk" term that they've coined includes aspects of the psychedelic. With that in mind, Mariee Sioux fits nicely into this category as well.
I can only hope that both of these artists tour in Michigan someday.
If you have any comments or similar artists you would like to share, feel free.

Moss Gardening

I've been into hunting and cultivating mushrooms for a while now but lately I've been getting more and more interested in moss. Hunting and cultivating mushrooms falls under mycology while mosses, lichens (also awesome) and liverworts fall under bryology. By the way, I also write a blog on Michigan mushrooms. Click here to check it out.

So...what is moss? The short answer is that moss is a plant that, rather than true roots, has what are called rhizoids. It also reproduces using spores like a fungus. The spores of a moss are contained in small pods called spore capsules. For more on what a moss is, check out the explanation from Mountain Moss.

One way to transfer and plant moss is to take pieces, plant them like sod and then fill in the space between with a moss slurry. A moss slurry is made by taking pieces of the moss, putting them in a blender, and adding a substrate such as beer, yogurt or buttermilk. I don't believe in wasting beer and buttermilk is cheap so that's what I went with. I would not suggest using a blender that you plan to use for anything else but that's up to you. I found a shitty old blender for 3 dollars at a thrift store and so far it's working great. To create the slurry, put some of the moss in the blender, add the buttermilk...and blend it! The first picture here is just some of the moss in the blender. The second picture is after I added the buttermilk and blended. It's like dirty buttermilk and smells like it. Tasty.

One thing you'll want to do is pull all the grass and other plants from the area you want to grow moss in. This will limit competition and allow the moss to take over easier. I decided to start in a fairly shady spot in my front yard. Hopefully it propagates. If it does well, I can then take pieces and spread it further. My goal is to not have grass in a few years (or sooner). Moss is only one of the things I plan to use for this purpose.

To get moss, you have options. You can buy it at some nurseries and also online at a place like Mountain Moss. You can also do what I did and find some you like out in the wild. I've found a lot of different types that I like in graveyards, the woods, etc. I found one out while I was mushroom hunting that had these awesome orange spore capsules. I took some of it (while leaving enough for it to survive of course), brought it home and used it. I also found some that I liked in my backyard. It's really not all that hard to find if you just open your eyes and look for it.

There is no need to pay for something that Mother Nature provides for free!

In the third picture here, you can see the results of my work. I pulled out the grass and loosened the dirt. I then planted the moss sod and filled in some of the space with the moss slurry. It looks pretty crappy at the moment but hopefully the moss will start to grow. I will post an update at some point in the future.

Tree Blessings

We have a very open and large backyard that I've been wanting to plant trees in for future shade. I was researching and found that the Arbor Day Foundation sells tree saplings for quite cheap. I really wanted some sort of oak but also something that would grow fast. I settled on Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra).

The trees arrived a week or so ago and I immediately unpackaged them for planting. They come tied together in a bundle with gel and plastic around the roots to keep them moist. They are bare roots so must be kept from drying out. I had ordered 6 trees and also received 2 Forsythias for free with my order. Needless to say, I had a lot of digging to do.

I wanted to plant the oak trees in some sort of formation rather than just randomly strewed across the yard. I decided to go with planting them at the points and center of a pentagram (hence the reason I purchased 6 trees). The trees needed to be planted at a minimum of around 20 feet apart so I got out the old tape measure and, once I decided on a center point, began to measure out where the trees should go. I also wanted the top point to face due north so I picked up a cheap compass to aid me in getting that correct.

You may be wondering why I chose a pentagram and not some other shape. You may also wonder why I chose oak trees and not maples, willows, etc. I actually can answer both questions with a excerpt from The Druid Magic Handbook written by one of my favorite authors, John Michael Greer. It also explains why I chose to have the top point face north:

The oak, because it attracts lightning and is sacred to sky gods in many cultures, has long been a symbol of the power of the heavens. The heather, because of its magical powers and its place as an ingredient in heather ale, a magnificently intoxicating beverage, has long been a symbol of the power of the Earth. The meanings of the two Ogham letters link them to two forms of an ancient magical symbol - the pentagram.

A pentagram is a star made of five equal lines meeting at five equal angles. Since the time of Pythagoras, who brought sacred geometry to the Western world in the sixth century BCE, it has been one of the core symbols of Western magic and spirituality. It has had many meanings down through the years. Modern Pagans who think of it as a purely Pagan symbol, for instance, may be startled to find it in the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as an emblem of Christian virtues!

In modern magical practice, it stands for the power of the element of spirit in relation to the four material elements. A moral dimension goes along with this interpretation in most magical writings: a pentagram with a single point upward is considered "upright" and stands for spirit ruling over the four elements, while a pentagram with a single point downward is called "reversed" and stands for spirit submerged beneath the four elements. The upright pentagram thus serves as a symbol of good, and the reversed pentagram an emblem of evil.

All this, however, depends on the assumption that spirit is always and only above - in the terms introduced in chapter 2, that the solar current is good and the telluric current is evil. That assumption is very common in modern occultism, but it's no less wrong for being popular. Recognize the telluric current as a power just as holy and necessary as the solar current, and the relationship between the pentagrams takes on a new and more balanced meaning.

Being the somewhat odd person with OCD that I am, I wanted the points to be perfectly placed. However, after researching a bit about pentagram geometry and trying for a bit to get it perfect (yes, I actually sat down and did some calculations), I decided close approximations to the measurements were good enough.

Once I got the trees planted, I wanted to bless them in some way. After all, my plan is for this to turn into a sort of sacred grove. Yes it's quite small but the idea is for this area to be a place I can go to meditate and "recharge my batteries" sometime in the future. I read a lot of forest folklore, druid books, etc. and have found a few different ways to bless newly planted trees. I wanted the blessing or charm to be based upon the Kalevala. Of course, I don't speak Finnish so these would need to be in English and who knows how good the translations are. I thought I would share some of what I found in case anyone out there is interested.

Searching around online, I first came across the Prayer of the Sower:

Blessing to the seed I scatter,

Where it falls upon the meadow,

By the grace of Ukko mighty,

Through the open finger spaces

Of the hand that all things fashioned.

Queen of meadow-land and pasture!

Bid the earth unlock her treasures.

Bid the soil the young seed nourish,

Never shall their teeming forces

Never shall their strength prolific

Fail to nourish and sustain us

If the Daughters of Creation,

They, the free and bounteous givers

Still extend their gracious favor

Offer still their strong protection.

Rise, O Earth! from out thy slumbers

Bid the soil unlock her treasures!

I haven't found this particular passage in the Kalevala but I haven't read the entire book yet. However, what I did find was A Sower's Charm within Poem 2 in the lines 296 to 330 and I believe the former may be an adaptation of it:

With back bent I am sowing

between the Creator's fingers,

through the hand of the Almighty

onto this flourishing land,

this growing clearing.

Woman living under the earth,

old ruler of the soil,

mistress of the earth!

Now make the turf grow,

the rich soil force up grass.

The land will not lack vital strength

never, never at all

so long as there may be favor from those who gave it,

permission from the daughters of Nature.

Rise, land, from slumbering,

Creator's grass, from sleeping!

Let stems grow stems,

and stalks grow stalks.

Send up shoots by the thousand,

spread sprouts by the hundred

as a result of my plowing, my sowing,

especially of my toil.

O, Ukko, god on high

or heavenly father,

holder of power in the clouds,

ruler of the cloud patches!

Hold folk assemblies in the clouds,

open meetings in the upper stories of the sky,

Make a cloud spring up in the east,

raise up a cloudbank in the northwest,

send others from the west,

drive others from the south.

Shed rain gently from the heavens,

sprinkle honey from the clouds

on the sprouting shoots,

on the murmuring crops.

I only wish that I could read Finnish because I'm certain this passage is even more beautiful in its native tongue.

These of course are not the only blessings or charms out there for trees or gardens. Like belief systems, they are numerous. They are just examples of a couple of them that speak to me.

Feel free to comment and/or share your own tree charms and blessings.

Shall We Start Again?

It has been months since I've posted...and the last post talked about how it had been a while since I had posted. Life gets in the way for sure. Since I've been on a hiatus from this blog, I've read a few good books but never felt like writing about them. I'm currently reading The Monk by Matthew Lewis. I've got about 50 pages remaining so will be done soon. Lately I'm having a hard time sticking with a book through the entire thing. The Monk has been tough but I forced myself to keep going.

I've decided to start using this blog for more than just books I've read. I will probably still post those but would also like to begin writing about my other hobbies and exploits. These will include, but will not necessarily be limited to, RPGs, gardening/horticulture, mycology, bicycling, and whatever else I feel the need to talk about.

Hopefully you'll stick around. If I have to write another "I'm on hiatus" post I think I'll just remove the blog. I'm hoping I keep with it again...

Holiday Hiatus...

I haven't posted in a little while because I've been reading books that I haven't felt like talking much about. I just finished up both Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt and In the Center of the Fire by James Wasserman. While both could be considered in the occult vein, I didn't really feel like posting about them...sorry.
I'll be back on track soon. Until then I may post a few small things here and there. For now, check out this great article on Michael Moorcock in the New Yorker.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock

Leaving his cousin Yyrkoon to sit on the Ruby Throne of Melnibone, Elric leaves his home to travel the Young Kingdoms. He tells his lover (and cousin) Cymoril that he will be back in one year. Of course, Melniboneans are not very well received in the Young Kingdoms and this makes Elric's travels tough.
At the beginning of the book, Elric is picked up by a ghostly ship that sails along waters between the worlds. The ship is bound for Tanelorn and Elric soon finds that his fate is tied with other manifestations of the Eternal Champion. Together they fight and conquer Agak and Gagak, two powerful sorcerers that are also brother and sister. This part of the book is the same adventure as that told in The Quest for Tanelorn from the Chronicles of Count Brass series but is told from Elric's point of view rather than Hawkmoon's.
After the battle against Agak and Gagak, Elric decides to re-board the ship. He is later told that there is a portal to his world near an island and is taken there. As the island nears, there are corpses floating in the water and a terrible moaning in the air. Elric is hesitant but is told that if he doesn't go, he may be stuck on the ship forever...so he goes.
Once on the island, Elric encounters a group of pirates that seem to be from all different places and eras of history. They attack him and, with the help of their prisoner Smiorgan Baldhead, he defeats them. Together, Smiorgan and Elric search for the Crimson Gate, a portal back to their own world. Along the way, they find a woman, Vassliss, and are hunted down by Earl Saxif D'Aan of Melnibone who believes the woman to be his lost love, Gratyesha, Princess of Fwem-Omeyo.
Once through the Crimson Gate and back into their own world, Elric and Smiorgan are found floating in the sea by Duke Avan who is on a quest to find the ancient city of R'lin K'ren A'a beyond the Boiling Sea. Since this city is supposedly where the Melniboneans came from, Elric decides to join the quest. The events that follow set off the great struggle of the Upper Worlds.
This book was full of action and I didn't find myself bored for one minute. If you're an RPG gamer, there is also lots of great inspiration within this story.

More Stormbringer RPG

I have been looking online for a decent physical copy of Stormbringer 1st edition but every copy I found seemed to be way overpriced. I finally came across a copy at $20 and was thrilled. It's missing the map but I'm fine with that. I can always pick up a copy at a later time (or print one) if I need it.
As you can see in the pic, I was also able to get copies of the 1st and 2nd companions. Normally these are quite expensive as well but I was able to pick these up for $17 each. Still a bit pricey but nowhere near the prices I've seen Demon Magic up for on Ebay ($125+). I will never understand why people put stuff up for so much on Ebay when it never sells for that high of a price. I guess they don't really want to sell it.
I've already read the rules from a PDF but am really happy to have a physical copy. I can't wait to game next weekend. We could use another player or two so if you're in southeast Michigan and want to play, shoot me a message (or comment). My only rule is a common one...no assholes. Also, we tend to drink beer and have a good time so if you're way too serious of a gamer, you probably won't enjoy it (or maybe you'll loosen up and have a good time). It doesn't matter if you're not familiar with the rules. None of us really are yet so there will be mistakes, rules made up on the fly, etc. I would rather keep the game flowing than continually argue about and look up rules (to a point anyway).
I plan to post about our gaming exploits after the game sometime.