That’s what happens when I get started.
Few more things I wanted to go over that didn’t make it into this morning’s post.
DON’T FORGET THE METEORS
Everybody wants to talk about the upcoming eclipse. All eclipse all the time. Eclipse eclipse eclipse, yeah, yeah.
Am I bitter and jealous because I didn’t make special travel plans and New Hampshire’s only gonna get a partial experience? Yeah, definitely! It’s a huge mistake, in fact, to minimize the significance of this eclipse. I remember – and need to revisit – the great astrologer of our time, Austin Coppock, saying on the Rune Soup podcast that from a celestial destiny perspective, this eclipse is a Big Deal and it’s gonna mess with things.
But STILL guys, my point is, THIS IS THE PERSEIDS!! The greatest meteor shower of the entire year, possibly my favorite annual celestial event.
Now, they’re gonna tell you this year’s show is ruined because of the full moon. Bullshit. Perseid meteors are bright af and numerous to boot. Basically, if you can see stars, you can see Perseid meteors.
Yeah, the moon is pretty obnoxiously bright right now, but tonight I actually found that a greater impediment was a certain summery haze.
Yes, I’ve been looking pretty intently tonight. No, I haven’t seen any. But don’t let that dissuade you! Look at it this way – when you’re staring at the sky looking for meteors, the worst case scenario if you don’t see any is that you just spent a bunch of time staring off into the cosmos. There’s no downside, there. We could all benefit from staring at the cosmos much more than we do today, frankly.
The show continues into next week, and the moon’s gonna be getting smaller (and rising later) by this weekend. Get out there and look up. And tell me what you see. Or tell someone, anyone.
Jerry Garcia would have been 75 a few days ago
Or, alternately, for those of us who believe he’s still here with us (absent his corporeal body, of course), he is 75 as of a few days ago.
Am I talking about the Grateful Dead a lot these days? Yeah, you better believe it. If you haven’t picked up on it already, though it’s not the sort of thing I can (yet) formulate into something that can be explained coherently, Jerry, Robert Hunter, and the Grateful Dead broadly comprise something that I consider very sacred and religious. If you don’t like that, what are you gonna do, find another wizard? I’m the only game in town, kids!
But really, if you find even a sliver of the meaning in this music and the words that accompany it that I do, take time to celebrate. Fans call this “The Days Between” – August 1 being his birthday and August 9, today, being the day that he “checked out”, as Bobby Weir usually phrases it. He was a special man, one I would characterize specifically as a saint – not in the “he did everything without sin” sort of way, but if you think that’s how you define a saint, you haven’t read very much about the lives of the canonized. My case for why he actually qualifies, by meeting several required and established criteria, for sainthood will have to wait for another day, but I truly believe it.
Here’s a cover of a song I’m not ashamed to admit makes me cry almost every time I hear it. Listen to some Jerry and put some beauty in your day – if not this song, than some other. Jerry Garcia Band shows can’t be found on the Archive in the same way that Dead shows can, but there’s a shitton of them on YouTube. Whole shows. If you get lucky, you’ll even find the ones where Robert Hunter himself appears as a performer. I hope you get lucky.
Retreat!
Now, in my earlier post, I mentioned how I’ve been out of touch, off doing my summer thing, and that’s why I’m doing all this check-in stuff. But if you think, having said all that, that I’m above telling you that I’m about to disappear again, you don’t know me very well!
In fact, I’ve done exactly this several times before. I’m pretty sure.
So I’m checking in for a few days, I’m acknowledging that summer’s almost done. But it’s not done yet. And as I noted in that post, I still have my August vacation left to go. Accordingly, for the week leading up to that vacation, as well as for the week of that vacation itself, I’m considering myself more or less on Spiritual Retreat to get ready for the fall.
I’m gonna read a bunch of Hesse. I do this every summer. Hesse is amazing. His writing is as good as scripture, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll be sure to share anything I gain from it.
I’ve already said I’m doing a good job with meditation, but I’m gonna take it to the next level by employing, on a near-daily basis, some kind of special form or exercise of meditation and/or magic.
I’m gonna reflect on the end of the world and what that means for all of us. I’m also gonna brush up on the spirit realm.
I’m gonna reexamine the material I gathered around solstice-time and never did anything with.
I’m also gonna have some drinks and some laughs and enjoy this weird little life we have.
You’ll be hearing from me a few more times before I do this – and I’m also gonna pre-schedule some posts to drop during the retreat. It’s likely, given where we are already, time-wise, that I’ll have to release podcast Episode 11 during that time as well. Then again, to be honest, the reason this episode takes so long to put together is that it is itself a very spiritual exercise – and not the easy kind, either.
But you, you my friends, I encourage you to be easy. Find your spirit each day and try to never completely lose it.
Christopher J. DiLoreto 