It is part of my nature or nurture that I am a sucker for a lost city story.  I believe that man has achieved heights that current thought would say is impossible.  Richard C. Hoagland can say there are cities on the Moon and Mars and I’m with him.

He thinks they might be the work of extra-terrestrials from distant star-systems or perhaps our fore-fathers who came to Earth after their stays elsewhere. Me? I think we started here and that if their are human habitations out there they were made by us. That is the us that made cities on Mars before we tumbled into the dark.

All that because I want to reveal the degree of my credulity.  Tonight on Coast was an interesting interview with an author and researcher, David Hatcher Childress  who looks into just that sort of thing and prepared as you are with my earlier admissions you can rest assured that I buy it all.

I wish I could buy a few of his books too. I DO love this stuff. Anyway, it seems there are all sorts of ancient, gold laden, cave cities doting the Southwest and in particular Death Valley. Apparently before it was a valley it used to be a big lake with sub-terranian condos all along the edge, stuffed with gold and 7 to 8 foot mummies. No word on whether these mummies are the 6 fingered variety or not.

Supposedly many people have found these things and one fellow even started to build a big castle there in Death Valley. His name was Death Valley Scotti.  Here is a picture of his castle. pic.

Sorry, mostly just posting the links for future reference.

LSO

I have been bothered by our economy for some time. Granted, I’m not an economist, a policy maker, or even particularily well educated, still, it seems to me that wealth creation must involve the finding and securing of resources, the refining of resources, and the creation of some useful item or at least desired item. This seems to be an idea that is not shared by the leaders of our country.

I think that people and organizations unfriendly to the United States or at very least unfriendly to our way of life have been agressively obstructing the securing of resources and for whatever reason we have fallen farther and farther behind in manufacturing the items that we use and therefore need.

Ultimately we need food, water, and shelter. As Americans we have become accustomed to having private transportation and a ready and varied supply of entertainments. The first things truly are necessary, but the other two things seem culturally to be very nearly so.

But that is today, and what I want to talk about how the past is similar to today or perhaps to America in its golden age.

In the past, golden ages involved a surplus of items necessary for sustaining life. Usually it was easy to get these things, long fruitful growing seasons securing abundance of food, unexploited raw materials, items that may not have had a use in the past, that could be gathered without difficulty, water running near by, easily aquired and reliably abundant.

These are things that may not be long so easily found for Americans. As such, unless we can develop means to create abundance again, we are leaving a golden age for a darker period.

In fiction as in real life, as we see from history, we remember the golden times. Perhaps there is time for such entertainments as remembering, perhaps artistic elements can grow and amplify, from abundance, the lives of folk who can spend their time being heroic without being forced to scrape for sustainence.

Yet perhaps these are the times that are truely the most heroic, when men must be more than they are at other times. Art is not reality, it pretends it is. Securing bare survival isn’t the stuff of legend, but if there is no survival then there can be no story either.

What a mess. I’m going to post this. I will be so humilated to see this drek I will be forced to revise and improve it. Forgive me dear reader.

LSO

The Book of Invasions lists many groups who came to Irish shores, the first three left only bones. A grand-daughter of Noah, the Parthalonians (sp?), and then the Nemedians.

Now the Nemedians are another matter perhaps, it is claimed that the Nemedians returned as both the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha de Danan and were sons of Nemed from Greece. Also an argument might be made that the Fomorians, seafarers from the north or Africa, or who knows (? (Phonecia?)) may have lived at times on Irish shores, it can also be said that their bones remained as they are reputed to have been involved in several notable battles with various Irish dwelling peoples. I wonder if the Fomor had more to do with things than just popping in to oppress from time to time and also who they might be.

Since Nemedians were the progenators of both the Fir Bolg and the De Danans one might class them as survivors if one accepted that the Milesians only drove them underground into the FaeRig mounds.

Legend and lore often focuses on the kings and their linege. If it is at all possible one might think about who the people were, the ones who carried the water and rounded up cattle and made the food that the champions feasted upon. In particular, without having read the Book of Invasions, the title suggests that someone was there to bear the successive waves of invasion, perhaps someones other than Tuan.

Well that’s a start and I really aught to fill more in, but there is little enough time except to say that Niall of the Nine Hostages (yes yes, I’m back to that) is an excellent illustration of what I’m going on about. Niall, was Irish, well, half so. Niall’s father was Eochaid Mugmedon, but his mother was a Saxon princess. That makes his blood half Saxon. But I would submit that what really made Niall Irish was not his father, but the druid who saved his life and raised him.

Much later Normans would come to conquer Ireland, again the rulers changed, but it is funny. I’ve heard it said that the Norman lords became more Irish than the Irish themselves. Is it because, irrespective of the ruler, the people stay pretty much the same?

I’ve mentioned that I really like to listen to Coast to Coast A.M.with George Noory or Ian Punit for that matter. What else is there to do in the middle of the night? Tonight was another block-buster show. Coming on the heals of the Vaccination show that is something.

I blogged about it in my Stuck with It post.

The guest tonight was Steve Quayle. Steve has ideas that run the gamit from ancient history to current events like the apparent push to murder a significant portion of the population with bio-weapons. He has been researching this sort of thing for over 30 years. Whereas it may have been easy to write him off as a loon in the past, it seems to be getting harder every day. A lot of what Steve says seems to come from a Biblical base which gives him extra points with me.

A big part of the show was information about giants that have been seen around the world. Apparently this is something that Steve has been tracking for some time. The Bible talks about giants, notably Goliath, but others of which Goliath was only like the giants of old, the Nephilim. I’m sure I’m butchering a lot of this. I need to read a bit from Steve, but it was very interesting.

Say what you will about the Bible, people do. But it has been a best seller for a long long time. On matters of history and prophecy, though doubted and mocked and endlessly ridiculed, again and again it turns out to be authoritative and more, absolutely correct.

It is interesting, listening to Coast to Coast and hearing observations that come from all sorts of belief systems, because so much of what is presented seems to be coming to a culmination. Whether it is Steve Quayle or Mayan long count calendar or alien abduction or Linda Moulten Howe’s reports it seems that the poop is definitely about to impact the propeller.

Keep your powder dry…   … oh yes, Steve also mentioned that he observed as his home was GPS’d as were all the other hunters in his neighborhood, but nobody else. THEY are coming for your guns.

LSO

I’m going to begin to talk about the Celtic legends and lore that I want to be part of my fantasy world. For those not familiar with Celtic legends let me tell you, I know pretty much everything there is to know about the topic (errr, but to those who do know, ummm, uhh, let’s just say I’m putting it out there from memory.)
Because this is such a horribly quick and ill thought out post I will be forced to follow up, refine, and probably retract much of it. Still… …here goes.
I am an Irishman, of that there is no doubt. In fact, my sister having done a little comparative genealogical work (thanks Debbie), I know that I am descended from kings. Notably I am descended from one king in particular who seems, mitochondrially anyhow, to have a lot of descendants. Common to both my father and my mother is one notable person from out of the Celtic past. The O’Neills and the McNeils both spring from the same ancestor, Niall Noigillach. Niall, I’ve been told, means champion, and Noigillach means “of the nine hostages”.
Perhaps the bye name harks back to a king who conquered the nine sub-kings, leaders of minor tuaths around him, but some say Niall, counted as a high king, Ard Rig of all Ireland, came by the name for taking hostages as assurance of support from the 5 parts of Ireland, and four others elsewhere, like France. Intriguing and I’ll have to look into that.
Another legend about this fellow, Niall, is that it was he who captured Patrick and brought him to Ireland the first time as a slave. Indeed, some legends have it that it was Niall’s son Loeigre (sp?) who met Patrick on his return and through a Samhain’s day miracle began the island nation’s conversion to Christianity. Again, this requires study, so I’m putting it out there and checking and confirming later.
Niall is also very notable for the impact he had on the leadership of Ireland. Legend has it that Niall was promised the kingship for generations and the Ui Niall dynasty, or perhaps dynasties is a better way to put it, dominated the high kingship ever after. Often it seems one son of Niall got it by wacking off the head of another, but it traded back and forth until Brian Boru broke the string.
Lest I perpetuate a misconception that I do not hold, let me just say that the true genesis of the Niall clans, the various Ui Niall dynasties, was a later descendant, Niall Glundubh (that is Niall Black Knee) . In fact, Niall Nine Hostages is supposed to be, or is claimed by other clans as a progenitor. I’ll look up some of that stuff too.
It is a rich topic, no doubt, these moldy legends of kings and kingdoms or rather Righs and Tuaths, I have not even mentioned Conn of the Hundred Battles, or Saint Columkill (I think I’m murdering the name) or Tigernmas, or even Niall’s father Eochaid Mugmedon, who seems a fine fellow until you learn that his bye name means something approaching “the enslaver” or something like that. (I like to call him grandpa.)
I think I’ve successfully created something NEW, not good, but perhaps further days will see more care and concentration of effort. For now I give you NEW.
LSO