Cyberia - The City of Ladies

Seeds to plant a Wild Garden
Heather Blakey - April 2008

Aristotle expounded the theory that there were three different types of soul: the nutritive, the sensitive and the rational. He argued that all living things require nourishment, so that nutritive function belongs to plants, animals and men alike. He said that animals and men have both nutritive and sensitive functions and that men alone possess the rational function. The relation between body and soul is that between matter and form. Things become what they are because of their potentialities. To say, for instance, that an acorn is potentially an oak means that, given the right setting an acorn could grow to an oak. What the acorn carries within itself is the ‘form’ of the oak. In the case of a human it is the soul that makes them what they are.

Things become what they are because of their potentialities! If an acorn, given the right setting, has the potential to grow in to a mighty oak tree, what is man’ potential? Presumably, to grow in to an oak, to reach its potential, the acorn needs nourishment. It follows therefore that to reach his potential man needs nourishment. In his diagrammatic hierarchy of needs Maslow points to nutritive needs when he refers to mans need to have basic physiological needs met. Maslow argues that man needs to satisfy hunger, thirst, sex drives, safety needs, belongingness , love and esteem needs before he can fulfill his potential. Once these are met it would appear anything would be possible.

So if we take these seeds and plant them in rich Lemurian soil what will emerge? What potential are they destined to meet? What form will the Wild Lemurian Garden take? What is possible?

I have been out and about with my sketch book and visited the big bollards near the jetty and White Owl Farm. It was the most lovely day out. I had my bag, with some sandwiches and a drink tucked inside and slept to the sound of the ocean pounding near the bedroom window when I finally got back to my hideaway retreat.

(White Owl Island Archive, March 2006.)

(copyright Heather Blakey 2008.)

Last days at Owl Island before packing and going to the Land of Standing Stones with le Enchanteur and adventurous travellers. Owl Island has been such a lovely place to retreat to that I feel sure I will return soon to rest and regenerate.

(copyright Heather Blakey 2008.)

 

( White Owl Island Archive - Enchanteur Journey, April 3rd, 2006.)

 

Everyone loves White Owl Island - a space of rest and retreat in Nature with Fran’s (the Resident Crone.) wise owls for company, whispering sea grasses, and big, wide skies.  The rush of the sea is the only sound to be heard.  Time to rest, read, explore, or paint, as Heather does there.   If you want to go to Owl Island for a dose of creative R&R, contact Heather.  Lemuria is full of amazing places to explore, even if just for a day trip, not far from the City of Ladies, or other parts of this magical land.

Prometey rejects Pandora’s gift — Pandora’s box with diseases, vices and disasters.
(Engraving on bronze, 2-3 B.C. Musee de Louvre, Paris)

Pandora’s Gift

Bearing Pandora’s gift prominently on her heart
Seared by Vulcan’s reddened, blazing, branding iron
She wore the scars of self-doubt
Her battle coat stained, shredded
By the beak of the very falcon
Who relentlessly clawed, pecked at Prometheus
Vulnerable, chained,
She stood defiant
Until the raven came
Bearing the self-sowing seeds of self-confidence

(copyright Heather Blakey 2008.)

(From Lemurian Abbey Archive, July 2005.)

The traditions
within the city
continue throughout the ages
old sits comfortably
alongside new

Heather Blakey - March 2008

The Apotheosis of Homer is a marble carving which since 1805 has been kept at the British Museum in London. The carving was discovered in the 17th Century on the outskirts of Rome in the historic precinct where goddess groves and grottos were once the scene of processions and seasonal rituals. The work is by a sculptor, Archelaos, who was born in Priene in the Ionia in Asia Minor, who worked in the second and first centuries BC. It was commissioned by a poet who wished to thank the goddess and her priestesses for his success in a poetry competition. This means to us that we have a glimpse of the relationship between Roman poets and the goddess beliefs, and also a record of the way the Romans pictured the workings and theology of a goddess temple.

Laws:

1. Follow Nature

2. First know, then act. Real knowledge exists in the triangle composed of seeing, feeling and understanding.

3. Use only one vessel, one fire, one instrument. The person who takes the chosen path may succeed, while the person who attempts to walk on many paths will be delayed.

4. Keep the fires burning constantly.

(copyright Heather Blakey 2006.)

(From Soul Food Alphabet Project, Letter “A”.)

from Wikipedia
Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, possibly as early as 6000 BC and definitely by 3000 BC. Legend gives credit to a Chinese Empress Xi Ling-Shi. Though first reserved for the Emperors of China, its use spread gradually through Chinese culture both geographically and socially. From there, silken garments began to reach regions throughout Asia. Silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants, because of its texture and lustre. Because of the high demand for the fabric, silk was one of the staples of international trade prior to industrialization.

Secret

The Emperors of China strove to keep the knowledge of sericulture secret from other nations, in order to maintain the Chinese monopoly on its production. This effort had mixed success. Sericulture reached Korea around 200 BC with Chinese settlers, about the first half of the 1st century AD in Khotan, and by 300 AD the practice had been established in India. Although the Roman Empire knew of and traded in silk, the secret was only to reach Europe around AD 550, via the Byzantine Empire. Legend has it that the monks working for the emperor Justinian were the first to bring silkworm eggs to Constantinople in hollow canes. The Byzantines were equally secretive, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly; all top-quality looms and weavers were located inside the Palace complex in Constantinople and the cloth produced was used in imperial robes or in diplomacy, as gifts to foreign dignitaries. The remainder was sold at exorbitant prices.

Silk trade

Perhaps the first evidence of the silk trade is that of an Egyptian mummy of 1070 BC. In subsequent centuries, the silk trade reached as far as the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa. This trade was so extensive that the major set of trade routes between Europe and Asia has become known as the Silk Road.

Wild silks

“Wild silks” are produced by a number of undomesticated silkworms. Aside from differences in colours and textures, they all differ in one major respect from the domesticated varieties. The cocoons, which are gathered in the wild, have usually already been chewed through by the pupa or caterpillar (”silkworm”) before the cocoons are gathered and thus the single thread which makes up the cocoon has been cut into shorter lengths.

A variety of wild silks have been known and used in China, India and Europe from early times, although the scale of production has always been far smaller than that of cultivated silks.

Wild silks are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori). The term “wild” implies that these silkworms are not capable of being domesticated and artificially cultivated like the mulberry worms.

Commercially reared silkworms are killed before the pupae emerge by dipping them in boiling water or with a needle, thus allowing the whole cocoon to be unravelled as one continuous thread. This allows a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Wild silks also tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.

There is ample evidence that small quantities of wild silk were already being produced in the Mediterranean and Middle East by the time the superior, and stronger, cultivated silk from China began to be imported.

Venetian merchants traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk growers to settle in Italy. By the 13th century Italian silk was a significant source of trade. Italian silk was so popular in Europe that Francis I of France invited Italian silkmakers to France to create a French silk industry, especially in Lyon. The French Revolution interrupted production before Napoleon took power.

James I of England introduced silk growing to the American colonies around 1619, ostensibly to discourage tobacco planting. Only the Shakers in Kentucky adopted the practice. In the 1800s a new attempt at a silk industry began with European-born workers in Paterson, New Jersey, and the city became a US silk centre, although Japanese imports were still more important.

World War II interrupted the silk trade from Japan. Silk prices increased dramatically and US industry begun to look for substitutes, which led to the use of synthetics like nylon. Synthetic silks have also been made from lyocell, a type of cellulose fiber, and are often difficult to distinguish from real silk.

Silk Facts from http://www.denverfabrics.com/pages/static/Silk/silk-fabric-facts.htm

* Chinese history credits the invention of silk fabric to Yuen Fei, the concubine of an Emperor who ruled in 2,600 B.C. Legend has it she dropped a cocoon into hot tea and it unraveled. She, by reason of the discovery, has been deified and is worshipped as the goddess of silk worms.

* The finest quality silk is made by mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori, which, of course, feeds on mulberry leaves.

* The average cocoon contains 300-400 meters of silk.

* It takes about 5500 silkworms to produce 1 kg (2.2lb) of raw silk!

* One ounce of eggs produces about 20,000 worms, which consume a ton of mulberry leaves during their lifetime.

* Silk has been unearthed in the Qianshanyang Village of Huzhou in Zhejiang (China) and has been estimated to have been produced 4700 years ago!

* Early aircraft design utilizing silk stretched over a lightweight skeleton. Strength, durability and weight were critical characteristics that made silk the best choice.

* Dupioni Silk (also spelled Duppioni) is produced by reeling silk fibers from two silk worms that have spun one cocoon together and usually produces a rough yarn. Therefore, irregularity in sheerness or weight, sometimes referred to as bands or shadings, is characteristic of dupioni silk fabric. Black specks which occasionally appear in dupioni silk fabric are part of the original cocoon of the silk worm. Removing them would not only weaken the fabric but destroy part of its beauty and character. These characteristics are inherent to dupioni silk fabric and should not be considered as defects in weaving.