#9 Embracing the Patriarchs (Before their time is up)

This week I'm back in the studio on my own, contemplating how come I've ended up with three older white men in the first ten episodes of the podcast, but how that this is a reflection of current astro-events, as we dip one final time back into the patriarchal world of Capricorn, through the lens of Pluto, before we fully enter into the Aquarius age. We have much to learn from our elders and to harvest from this era, before we head on into the craziness of Aquarius for the next two decades.

I then pull a rune that leads me to think about the journeys life has taken me on and how the old saying 'This too shall pass,' is a vital bit of wisdom to hold onto as we stumble our way through this thing we call life.

The music and artwork is by @moxmoxmoxiemox

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Hope you enjoy listening to this week's episode!

Transcript

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The mountains and the caves. Wicked witches. Crusting the unknown. Uh, Uh, Hello and welcome back to the Nonsense in the Chaos. As you can possibly tell by the sound quality, I'm sat back in my studio, which is the little recording studio that I've got set up in my living room. So I'm hoping that the sound quality is much improved. And I'm very grateful for you coming with me on the journey of exploring making podcasts on the hoof, on the move. I'm so excited that I'm able to do it because I'm on adventures nonstop. So this has made things even more exciting because, oh my goodness, it was such Mercury retrograde. So I was trying to upload two podcasts. Well, in fact, in total, it would have been four. So two interviews that I had done with friends, who I'd interviewed before leaving for Boomtown. And then also two podcasts I did on my own, to, to go in between. And so I had all the raw material and all I needed to do was edit it and then upload it. And Mercury Retrograde began and without, I mean, I'm not kidding. It was just absolute spot on timing. My internet just stopped working and I don't know whether it's because I've been uploading too much material. I've only just started doing this podcast, so I'm not quite sure how that might be working in terms of, my monthly allowance. it's meant to be unlimited, but, I definitely need to move over to Starlink, which ideally I will be doing as soon as possible. at the moment I don't have the funds to do that. patron supporters, you are my. Ticket, hopefully to being able to swap Starlink and then being able to upload as much as I want and having really good internet, which also means that I'll be able to interview people in a much more relaxed manner because at the moment it's quite perilous trying to interview someone over a video call when my internet is so bad. I am now able to record podcasts whilst I'm out and about and that is just incredible. I'd recorded these ones beforehand and then, with the Mercury Retrograde, I tried to upload them, nothing would upload. It was so, Ridiculously annoying. I was at my friend's house really late at night trying to make it happen. in the end I had to admit defeat and think, okay, it's not going to happen. It's fine. And so then took the risk of downloading some apps and seeing if I was able to do them while I was away. it was almost like the Mercury retrograde forced me to explore a new avenue that I wouldn't have done otherwise. And I often find that with Mercury Retrograde, I actually really enjoy them and quite often I find the world when it's not in Mercury Retrograde more clunky and crunchy than when it is. there was a point where I used to have a person who used to turn up every single Mercury Retrograde in some form or another and kind of make my life a living nightmare. It was someone who I worked with and they would always ask me to write a funding bid or do some really annoying piece of work right at the beginning of the Mercury Retrograde so what they taught me, this person, and I owe this to them, is they taught me boundaries and that's what the Mercury Retrograde was teaching me. It was teaching me to say no to this person and put boundaries in place and I actually ended up doing a binding spell, which is the only time I've ever done a spell. Like about a person because I don't think that it's appropriate to do that for me everything that I do in terms of witchcraft is about tricking my body and my mind into thinking that something's already happening. So people ask, when I walk these really long pilgrimages and I walk 500 miles how do you do that? Literally, you just put one foot forward. you take that first step, and then you take the next, and then you take the next, and then the next thing you know, you've walked 500 miles. And it is literally as easy as that. for me, spells are physically doing something like I, for me, developing boundaries. One of the things that I did in order to do that was, Was I used to, do a lot of egg magic, egg magic seemed to work best for it, where I'd get a boiled egg and write boundary around the outside of it. And I draw sigils and symbols on it that kind of represented feeling strong, feeling protected, you know, I'd put runes and stuff on and then I would. break the shell of the egg and then I'd eat the egg intentionally and I'd nourish myself with the intentions that I'd drawn on the shell of boundaries and then I'd bury the shell I did that lots of times and one day someone who'd known me for a long time just turned around to me and said you have much clearer boundaries now it was such a cool thing for someone to actually say the word that I had been Spelling into being I feel like I'm much clearer with my boundaries now and that that's come to pass obviously I was having to do other things like get braver about saying no and being stronger in myself but part of what was making me feel capable of doing that was the fact that I'd done these spells to support me. So that's how I use magic. when it comes to someone else, like someone doing a love spell or a hex I just think that's dangerous, it's none of my business, someone else's life. But with this person, I did do a protection spell, I wasted a lot of time and energy thinking and stressing about this person. And so by doing a binding spell where they'd given me a teaspoon, and I just bound some string around it, and as I did it I just said, I'm protecting myself from you. and I haven't heard from them since. things have moved on in our relationship for that to have happened, but yeah, then, then don't turn up every Mercury retrograde now. I don't think that I've done anything to them. I don't think that's a horrible thing, but what it feels like in myself is I've stopped worrying about them and spilling energy out. we've just been in Mercury Retrograde and we've just come out the other end of it. my experience was this complete technical, malfunction and it did feel like the Mercury Retrograde this year was teaching me. To, learn to do podcasts on the move, because I wouldn't have done that. Otherwise I would have been all set up. I would have had them all logged and ready to go. I would have put them, dated so they'd publish on the right date and everything would come out on my, social media on the right day and everything. So I wouldn't have had to have worried about it, but because, everything broke down and I wasn't able to upload them before going away, it forced me to learn to do. Podcasts off my phone whilst on the move. And that was way better because I ended up with some brilliant podcasts, which is really exciting, but also I'm always away and I'm always doing amazing things. So that's changed everything. And I've got the equipment now. And when I go away, I can use it to interview the incredible people I know. So I'm extremely excited about that. So that was awesome. something else that I noticed, which is going to continue as a theme for the next person that I'm interviewing is that I'm interviewing my valued patriarchs at the moment. it began with Jonathan Kaye, who is my greatest teacher. He is my main teacher, I've been learning fooling now since 2002. it is the bedrock of my creative and spiritual practice, which are the same thing for me. Spirituality and creativity are the same thing. But yeah, it makes sense that he would be early on in the podcast, lore, but also, Mad Jack. I, Didn't expect to be interviewing Mad Jack, but the universe brought him to me and the Mercury Retrograde meant that I was making podcasts at Kentwell. the fact I got to interview him was just stunning. I'm really chuffed that that happened and he's been an inspiration my whole life. Never in a million years thought I was going to be interviewing him. So that's worked out wonderfully. And I have another one, which was the one that I was trying to upload to share with you It's of my friend Dennis. Now Dennis is an energy worker who, I met on the first pilgrimage I went on, with Extinction Rebellion from Brighton to London. And then he's been on all of my, uh, he, the first pilgrimage I did on my own, I didn't see him for that one, but he joined the one up to COP26 and the following two after that. he's such a special person, A friend of mine, Ben Christie, said, Life's just better if Dennis is around. And it is like that, it feels like you're on the right path if it's attracted to Dennis. And he is a very special guy. I really enjoy being around him and talking to him. he's going to be the next podcast. I will be putting that out next week, but it does mean I've had three older men in the early part, I haven't even done 10 episodes yet. that's quite a high percentage. I was reflecting on this and I was thinking, I wouldn't normally choose to do that. I would try to diversify as much as possible, the people that I'm interviewing and, you know, I know an incredibly diverse group of people. But then I was reflecting on what's happening astrologically at the moment. And part of the inspiration for this podcast is that we're entering the dawn of Aquarius with Pluto entering Aquarius, which it's been in for most of this year, and will continue to be in for the next, 20 years. But it does lots of retrograding. it kind of dovetails into the next sign. it moves very slowly. it's 20 years in each sign. And we've spent the last 20 years being in Capricorn, which is the sign of patriarchy and institutions and father figure very much a masculine, wise, older vibe. And we're dovetailing into Aquarius, which is young and vibrant and full of new ideas and very airy and buzzy and exciting and much quicker. We have one last retrograde that's literally just starting now, where we're retrograding back into Capricorn with Pluto for two months, and then it will be back in Aquarius for the next sort of 18, 19 years. So in a way, by interviewing and connecting with these older gentlemen at this point in time, it is a bit of a nod to The old ways. And, you know, these are wise old men. These aren't horrible, toxic, masculine, patriarchy, oppressive beings. These are the men that have inspired me. And I do feel like as someone who was Jonathan Kaye's producer for, seven years, the thing that Flabbergasted me was how irreverently he was treated. And in a way that's kind of cool. the English don't like success stories. they don't like, masters. The French are really into masters, we pretend that we're on an even playing field, even though we're not, the amount of people I know who are a completely different world of middle class to me, who call themselves middle class, and I'm like, well, am I? if you're middle class, then I'm working class. But apparently we're all middle class. Even like landed gentry who own estates, I've heard them calling themselves middle class. So it's always like we like to try and equal ourselves and we definitely like the underdog, you know, we're always on the side of the underdog. So for someone to be, I don't think you could even call yourself a master here. that just seems, impossible for me to think that you could just say, I'm a master of my art in England, whereas you do in France. but also no one would say it about another person, like that feels quite a huge thing as well. I am saying it about Jonathan Kay. He is a master of his art. And so is, Mad Jack. what people do describe him as, which I think is the closest we get to saying that someone's a master, is saying that he's a renaissance man. some of the Tudors described Mad Jack as being a renaissance man, which means that he's amazing at loads of different things and, interested in, basically a master of many things. And then Dennis as well. He's done so many things. he was a film documentary producer and was at the forefront of making documentaries about meditation and, The whole kind of guru, psychedelic yoga scene in the late 60s, early 70s. when the Beatles discovered it all and made it mainstream, he was making documentaries about it and was in Nepal Tibet and all over India. studying monks and meditation practices. he knew all of the stars and he's such a total lovey darling. He's hilarious. He's absolutely brilliant. So I'm really looking forward to hearing his podcast. in a way that's an element of an apology It's three white older men, so close together at the beginning of this podcast. But I do feel like there is an element of that being a reflection of the last nod to the Capricorn age, taking what we've learned. So these next few months are about us pulling together harvesting and, labeling what we've learned from the last 20 years. what the discoveries have been, what the gains have been, what we've harvested, and then for us to enter into the Aquarius age and embrace this new crazy frenetic madness that we're entering into already. So I feel like, going over my masters, the masters that I know, these wise, incredibly talented, beautiful souls, older men that I know, is, not a bad thing to be doing. And then we'll be, slipping into a much more modern and younger bunch of brains and realities after this. I've reached out to my mentor, my absolute life mentor, an older woman. I'm hoping that I'll get to speak to her soon It feels like she kind of fits with this set of cards. once we move, Beyond that, everyone will be a lot more young and vibrant. I'm expecting. So that's my excuse for three older men in the first 10 episodes. we are entering into this Aquarius age and. I'm excited about what has been happening with Boomtown and, going off to Kentwell Hall as well. So, we did the pilgrimage, which you've heard about, went and opened Boomtown, which was the most amazing thing I've ever done. It was four minutes long or six minutes, really quick and it felt quick. I was calm and really enjoyed every second of it, but I would love to relive that moment again and again. It was so incredible standing in front of that many people, I was getting all this energy from the people, but I could really feel The energy line coming into the basin that I was pulling up and standing on and being part of being fully intentionally aware of what I was doing felt so powerful. And then the impact that we saw our venue and the teachings that we were sharing in our venue, having this moment where I walked through the crowd and saw these young people that had been in our room earlier and how much they glowed was one of the Greatest achievements I've ever experienced I just felt really proud that we'd made these people glow and reassured me that what we were doing was on the right path and was making a difference because they literally were shining and that was so cool. and yeah, made friends with some amazing artists that I'm hoping that I will get to interview and also will be coming to visit me in Sark, which is really cool. then went to Kentwell and being at Kentwell is such a privilege We're all people that for a long time were mocked and ridiculed for being weirdos and silly buggers, going and being Tudors, like, what's that all about? And now there's a huge folk revival and that's, you know, an amazing thing. And there's these people that are now getting into mumming and Morris dancing folk music pilgrimage and all these things. it's like, well, we've been doing that for 35 years. We really are masters of that. When it comes to being a master of something, I've literally been mumming for 35 years. So that's exciting. But also just in terms of learning to live in a world where we don't have electricity or the internet, knowing that that's possible and having the skills to survive. We all know we have them. We all know that we are people who know us in the outside world, We know that we're their apocalypse person because I know how to make cheese and butter. I know how to make bread. I know how to throw pots. I know how to do glass and blow glass. I know how to, and I don't know how to do it. As well as the people who do it as their job, but I've seen it being done and I've listened to their spiel and watched things go wrong. I know that I would be making loads of mistakes the first time I tried to do it and, it wouldn't be easy, if YouTube went down and we didn't have anywhere, we'd have to find books on it. I would at least have had some visual. experience of how things are done. carding wool spinning it dyeing it I've watched people doing it and their spiel to the public for 35 years. So I've got an idea of how pretty much all these things are done, like weaving fabric, cooking, growing vegetables, what herbs to use, all that kind of thing. How to make a camera obscura, how to brew beer most importantly, and which herbs and things to put in the beer that makes them taste really nice. Like the rosemary ale this year at Kenwell was delicious. So yeah, things like this. And yeah, I, I came away just feeling very, uh, like it's easy on suck to. I love living here. It's amazing, but it is very small and it's a small community people here are a bit weirded out by weirdness, which is what my upbringing was like in Essex. You know, it was a small town and that kind of small town mentality of like, Oh my God, you're a weirdo. And it's like, Oh, you're going and being a Tudor. You're a weirdo. And then you go off and you do these things like, open boomtown and then go decameral and you just, it's really nice to be reminded. a couple of times a year that you're not a weirdo. your finger is right on the pulse and that you ought to make yourself do big things and push yourself out of your comfort zone. So you don't believe the haters that you just don't let them. Make you be small because it makes them feel less threatened. I'm absolutely over that. I was over that when I was 18. That's why I moved to Sydney. But, yeah, it's been interesting to come back into that reality, having spent 20 years, which is the Capricorn 20 years. So that last 20 years of my life I've spent in. A world that was the absolute opposite of Capricorn. I lived in the world of trans, queer, alternative misfits. That's what I did. I spent 20 years living in that reality. In a Capricorn 20 year era, which made that normal to me. It made that my institution. It made it my reality. now I'm living somewhere where. I'm being reminded that not everyone thinks like that and that it's not just safe to think the world is okay because everyone around you agrees with you. That's not how the world is. the world's full of millions of different perspectives and points of view. And we need to learn how to connect with each other and we need to learn how to create a reality into being where we all thrive and where there's room for all of us. And that's why I was sharing at Boomtown. That was the kind of teaching that I was sharing. I'm going to pull a Rune and, see what the universe wants me to talk about I don't know what I'm doing with my life. this podcast, then please consider signing up to my Patrion account. Patrion forward slash Jolie rose, J O L I E R O S E. This is a full-time thing for me to be doing. It takes a lot of time and energy for me to create the podcast. And I want to be able to give them away for free. And I also offer moon ceremonies, every dark and forming, which are also for free. You just have to join the zoom link can take part. And I also create video blogs, but are every week or fortnight. That I share on my YouTube channel, which is Luna coven. So I like to create this work for free that's for everyone to enjoy news. And I want to make this work as accessible as possible because I just want to share things with the world. I want to share the ideas and stories that. Uh, around me and that I'm experiencing and all the incredible people that I know, and to be able to create a platform for them. But I also need to live and I need to eat. And I can't do this and spend the time and energy that it takes to do this. Unless I'm getting some income from it. Now the way that I like to do that, which makes it, um, generous and, and an act of kindness is that if you have the money and you're able to, if you're able to just donate a few pounds once a month to my patron account, then it means that I can create the free content for everyone to enjoy. And, um, I I'm able to make a living from it. I live on this tiny little island and I'm in the middle of nowhere and it's actually really hard to. Make a living as an artist here. Because I can't put on a play or put on theater, put on events and expect to make money from it because. It's to 500 people. Not, not all of them will want to come. It's just, it's not, you know, I've moved here as an make a living and work out ways of doing it and doing things online is the best way for me to do that. this is a brilliant opportunity and a creative way for me to make a living. But I do need the support of those who can afford it. If you can't afford it, it's fine because the contents free and you can just enjoy it. someone who has the money is paying, and that means you get free podcasts or you get a free lovely cycle of kindness and generosity and people helping each other out. So But also if you don't have any money and you're not able to do a regular, on Patrion, then. I tell people about the podcast. And rate and review it, just share it. these things make a difference. If you rate and review it, it shows up more in the algorithms. And if you tell people about it, then that opens up more possibilities of people listening and hearing. And I really, I want to reach as many people as possible. So that makes a huge difference. So if you can't support me financially, no problem at all. Please share and tell people about it. If you enjoy it. And someone else probably will too. Hopefully. much for your support. I love doing this and I love that you're listening. It's a huge hugs and thank you so much. Now, back to the podcast. Okay, Wheel of the Year. Radio. So this is an R. It's a, like a capital R, but with a short, diagonal line. And this rune represents the turning of the seasons. This was the rune that I pulled for the second pilgrimage that I did to COP26. Oh, I do remember, it was the blank rune, yeah. The beginning rune was Raidou, which is the Turning of the Wheel, and the second rune was the Blank Rune, which meant anything was possible. It's kind of like the Fool. So that was a very exciting, rune reading to Paul, because, Raidou means this too shall pass. And that feels very much where we're at at this moment in time. I am absolutely ready for autumn and winter now. I'm shattered. I'm so tired. It's been a big year even though I haven't done a pilgrimage. what have I done, in January I wrote my book, the book of the first pilgrimage over winter, and I'm going to write the second book over winter this year, I'm going to start planning a book tour for my first book next year along the Michael and Mary line, so I'm going to walk along the Michael and Mary line again, walking Land's End to the Norfolk coast, I'll be doing a shout out to see if anyone wants to join me because I always work with certain groups of people from the COP26 pilgrimage I did, which has been great. lots of people have watched that happening and have been, wanting to get involved. So what I'm going to do is a shout out and make it open to everyone again and see who wants to come. we'll be doing a mama's play and part of it will be once a week, I'll do some sort of book signing, book launch thing, I can share my book for that route and people we will stay with and know are in the book the landscapes plants and animals will be in the book. So it'd be nice to do that as a book tour. I spent winter doing that doing a digital detox and a health detox as well and lost weight for the wedding but also got rid of my wheat dairy and sugar. Addictions, that are really detrimental to my health. I'm allergic to them, but I cleared my system out and felt really healthy I also completely burnt myself out. trying to put the festival together for Beltane, which was also when my wedding was this year. I can't do that again. I need to have people in place who can help me for. next year. I definitely need support. then we had the Beltane Festival and me and Dizzle got married and it was incredible. And all of my friends and family came to the island and that was mind blowingly wonderful. But I was totally burnt out. so that broke me. And then in June I went to Glastonbury and, and had quite a full on emotional sort of soccer punch to the stomach, just before I left with something that happened in terms of the government, me being in the government in Sark and being, You know, having to make difficult decisions and it not landing well with people and that being a really horrible emotional thing at the same time as having a horrible piece of personal news, that was not quite a grief, but was pretty close to and I, yeah, it was quite big emotional, punch in the stomach that, I then had to go away to Glastonbury and perform coming back and it's summer and it's always crazy here in summer but was building up to knowing that I was going off to Boomtown and was to do the biggest thing of my life and get up in front of 30 40 000 people I was, sort of, trying to gather myself to be okay to do that, as, at the same time, I was trying to run an island, and also earn some money, because I was absolutely skint after the wedding. And then going and doing that, and doing Kentwell afterwards, was all amazing, and now I'm back and I am so, so happy. I really want to hibernate and hide and just have a nice chilled winter. so I'm aiming for that as a radio for me feels like that. It's the turning of the seasons. It's, acknowledging that you're now coming to this autumn phase and to take stock. So we've got the Virgo dark moon. Coming up next week, one thing that's good to do for that dark moon is to make lists and go through what you've learned this year, what you've gained and harvested, because this is the time of harvest, but what needs doing, what's the next bunch of things that you need to get sorted? All the way from the house needs a deep clean because, you know, in the summer I just sort of dump things and we're not in the house that much. So the house needs a deep clean and I need to sort of arrange a time with Diz when we're going to do that. But also things like, getting a team together to, Do the festival next year. I need to start planning the book tour and the pilgrimage for next year now. So I can apply for funding a couple of times and have enough time to hopefully get it and concentrate on the things that I need to do here, like the government stuff Getting ready to write my second book and just getting things together so that I'm ready to do the things that need to be done. So thinking about that in terms of your own life, where are you coming to the end of summer? We're entering into the next phase. Where are you at? And what do you need to take stock of? if you think about when you bring things in from the harvest, you would look at what you've got and work out what the rationing is for the winter. what needs to be put in place so that you'll survive the winter. this read for me at the beginning of the pilgrimage was really interesting because we arrived at the isle of wight and there was a motorbike festival happening so there were millions of wheels, this is the rune of the wheel, of the cartwheel so literally there were loads of wheels but also that was the beginning of We'll just, yeah, we, we walked through autumn and that's why my books are called Walking with Autumn because it feels so special to walk with this transitioning time. This is going to be the first autumn that I haven't been walking for four, well, it's five years since I last was not walking with autumn. And I definitely was intending to, I was trying to find times to make that happen. I did do it a little bit with Walking to Boomtown, but that was just a few days, but it did feel like a whole pilgrimage in one It was amazing because we had the turmoil, the. Injury, the sickness, the exhaustion, the people getting lost in disasters, but also the epiphanies, the magic, the miracles, the beauty, the awe, the connection to spirit and to the lines. It all happened in three days. It was amazing that it was possible for someone to get a full taste of a big pilgrimage in three days. So that was useful to know. but yeah, I, I, I feel weird that I'm not walking this autumn. However, it's nice to have a break and to be then starting a new body of work with it. just to look at where. where this too shall pass. Sometimes it's useful to remember that when it feels like you're really stuck and something's, painful and grinding. It's good to know that this will not be like this forever. Also when things are good, this will not be like this forever. I find My life is less good times and bad times. It's now more of a marbled mix. there are things always happening that are good and things always happening that are bad and they're all kind of in the mix together. And I just feel in myself, the foundation of being connected to the higher version of myself and my higher purpose, which means that whatever life throws at me is kind of absorbed and taken as nourishment rather than. Oh, I'm owed, you know, I don't deserve this or the universe owes me something. I should, things should be like this or I wish they were like that. I just don't feel like that anymore. I feel like everything is part of a process and everything's happening for a reason and I don't believe that in a like, I think that it's very privileged to be like things happen for a reason and then you are with a really nice life because if you've got people that are having a horrible life, how do you explain to them that everything happens for a reason? how do you explain to the children in Gaza who are starving, their parents have been squashed to death in front of their eyes with mortar, or being raped or whatever is happening, like everything happens for a reason is not. Not a cool thing to be saying to those people. So I don't believe that what I do believe is that we can find a reason for things to happen. Like we can find the reason within ourselves. So you can have two people going through horrific times one optimistic one pessimistic you can have two people in absolutely incredible splendor being spoilt, rotten, having literally a life of luxury and one of them's completely optimistic and appreciative of what they get and the other one's absolute arsehole, you know. not even necessarily as an arsehole. Someone could be really unhappy. it's what you make it mean that we have control over. And so this too shall pass at some point, the storm is your greatest teacher. That was something someone taught me once, which I found really useful. The storm is your greatest teacher. And I do feel like I've weathered enough storms now. And, made them mean something, like have learnt from them enough that now when storms happen, I don't see them as the be all and end all. they are a bit of storm happening in an otherwise sunny day. there is a lot of sunshine happening You know, rain storm or hail or snow or whatever. It's still a sunny day for me. That's how things feel nowadays. I did have full blown depression for seven years where it just was rain. It was just dark and gray and horrible and rainy and cold, and nothing was pleasant about that whatsoever. but I haven't had an experience like that for a long time. There's always been some sunshine and that's been great. my sunshine. That's what I've created. I've been able to create that, but that's a whole journey. So that's what Raydo means to me. It's the beginning of this journey, this pilgrimage that I walked on that has brought a lot of sunshine into my life and a lot of connection to nature and connection to community and taught me what I believe is the things that will make us the most resilient going forwards into this next Aquarius age that we're entering into and this world that we live in, for us to have a thriving, beautiful future where we all live alongside each other in a loving, happy, celebratory, grateful space. for us to be moving into that, that we need to work together and be connected to the land. And that's what that journey taught me. I'm grateful to the wheels of that. I followed and got on and went on that journey with. last of all, I want to talk about the chaos crusade. Last week I set the crusade of going and exploring some deep dive into something. I would really like to know what you guys are exploring. please do share with me. Most of you, I'm pretty sure know me. So if you can send things in via messenger or Instagram. that would be brilliant. Just send me a message and let me know what you're doing because I've got one friend who keeps going, Ooh la la, she's done it again, which I'm loving every time I see her, she says it. I love hearing that because it means I know that you're listening and, that you're getting something out of this. please do share if you're doing a chaos crusade and it's having some impact on your life. Please share it with me. I went off and researched Transition Town. I've read a book from what is to what if, and this was the book that inspired Boomtown. I've probably already talked about it on one of the podcasts, but I honestly highly recommend that you go and read it. It's fascinating. I've got. A few of the people who are working with me and Chief Police in Sark to read it, because I would like to try and encourage us to move towards being a transition island, it's pretty much a grassroots movement of looking at ways that we can be carbon neutral. community led inspired and thriving. so people have been doing this as towns where they've created little community happenings and it isn't necessarily something happening overnight and it could be something that's just a little pop up thing. a taster, but it gets people realizing that change is possible What if we turn this bus depot into a park for the day and we have it as a community space What if we hire car park spaces and turn them into art galleries for the time that we've paid for them? What if each bus shelter has, food growing from it so that you can pick raspberries or there's apples and things like that growing from it. What if schools were inspiring places where children enjoyed learning and it was all about creativity and exploration and it nurtured inquisitive minds and, supported curiosity, all of these things, And that's what I was working with the young people at Boomtown on, I was asking them to come in and meditate and, feel into what they thought the future already held in terms of what we're being sold. And that would, normally bring up, dystopian imagery, the air being dirty, the seas being dead. then I said, please create now any future. If you could have anything, what would it be? they found that harder because this is a neural pathway or muscle that we're not using We're being groomed to think that business as usual is the only option. but when we started talking about it, they did start to. Flex that. And they were talking, all of it was nature being beautiful and people being connected. Some people talked about being successful and rich, but most people talked about. The air being clean and there being enough water for everybody and enough food for everyone and there being a quality and unity and love and trust. So that's what people want, but we need to imagine it and really fill it in with purpose. It's lovely having a vision, but there needs to be an emotional connection for us to be really engaged and that's been proven time and time again. If you just have a vision of a workplace where we all get on with each other and everything's really lovely. it doesn't feel real or connected unless there's a real emotional connection in there. giving something a focused purpose on why you're doing it and what you want to get out of it, definitely helps. So that's the thing that I'm working on at the moment. And that's what I did the deep dive into. I read from what is to what if, and then was looking into places where there have been transition towns and where these things have happened, so that I can further. My knowledge on how these things work, but also, visualize a future where our island on Sark is an inspiration to the rest of the world. So that's the bit that's the purpose. It's like, Oh, it'd be really nice for us to be a lovely island where we're carbon neutral and, we've got this lovely community where everyone gets on. That's nice, but I mean, obviously we all want that, but that feels like something that will just be on a bit of paper in a drawer and then we'll carry on firefighting and just reacting to emergencies. But what I would like is for us to be an inspiration to the rest of the world and to be a guiding light in how community can exist alongside each other and how people who are really different. Are able to coexist, that we get researched by universities and studied as case studies by people studying anthropology or transition towns or, possible future models for a world that thrives. they look at how we do our infrastructure and our governance, as models for how it can work, then that's tangible and has purpose and feels way more. like it's physically going to happen, then just the nice idea of us all getting on and being carbon neutral. So yeah, that's what I've been deep diving into this week. And it was really exciting and that's what I want to push forwards. my role in the government on the island, but my chaos crusade that I'd like to suggest for next week is something just a bit of fun to loosen up our imagination and creativity. juices and muscles, which people sometimes say they're not an artist and I don't agree with anybody who says that. We are literally living in the most complex improvisation known to man. Life is an improvisation. No one has a script. No one knows what they're doing. You are born not knowing what it means to be human, not knowing what it means to do any of the jobs that you've then gone off to do, and nor has anyone else. We are born into a made up play and story and game that we are not given the rule book to and we have to figure it out and figure out how we can play the game, cheat the game, manipulate the game, advance or change the game, the script, whatever you want to call it. Like this thing is made up and we've been plopped into the middle of it and have to figure it out figure out how it works and then figure out how we can play within it or make it work better for us. It's really exciting. but that takes creativity. we are all creative, but we are being groomed to be less imaginative that's part of what the what is to what if book is about and it's one of the things that I want us to really actively fight against this is a revolutionary physical thing that you can do that is an act of defiance against the Dumbing down that has been happening since the 90s, I'm pretty sure everyone who's my age can see this. That TV and culture and music and everything has dumbed the, dumbed the fuck down. Excuse my language, but it has dumbed down so much in that time. And I'm not kidding. We have to fight against it and there are different things that I want to fight against. One of them is being busy and doing too much. I never want people to feel put upon or feel like, Oh God, it's another thing I need to do. I'm really for living slowly and being idle. I think that's really important. I actually know a guy who set up the Idler Academy and Idler Magazine and I'm going to reach out to him to see if I can interview him. Because his, thoughts are amazing and I fully endorse his work. I think he's brilliant. His name's Tom Hodgkinson. pilgrimage is a way of being idle being in nature and slowing down. from doing that, I've got a taste of how we can connect to nature and have a two way communication with it. If you are slow enough to do it just seven weeks is not even scratching the surface it needs way more time than that, but that's something we can do, that is important. But we do also need to train and develop our curiosity and imaginations. They're the things that I think are key for Moving forwards in the world. So curiosity, I think helps us to be curious about other people and their points of view, and not just be fixed in trying to prove ours, because we don't know who we are and we're making it up as we go along. It's really scary to, be judged or questioned or poked at in any way. But it's to just trust. It doesn't matter. you're playing your part and you've got what you've got to bring to the table. So don't worry about that. It also isn't going to fit with anyone else's, so that's fine. be completely comfortable and solid in what you are and what you've got because that's you and that's the role that you're playing in this symphony. That's your note in the symphony and it's vital as is everybody else's. listen to the symphony tune into specific notes, tune into all the different notes of that symphony and consider how vital they are as well and relish in them and enjoy them. get to know different people. Find out about their way of seeing things and their opinions and just absorb it. Don't react to it. don't judge them and don't take their judgments on. It doesn't matter if they judge you, be solid enough in yourself that that's not a problem. curiosity is also finding out about things, learning about things. This world is fascinating. You will never know everything and there is so much to know. So don't spend your life scrolling. and I'm guilty of it myself, but don't spend your life scrolling. Go into deep dives and discover things. use your imagination, draw and write my invitation for the chaos crusade this week is to do an illustration where each day you add to the illustration. So at the end of the week, you've got a drawing of your week My suggestion is rather than doing it in a linear way where you start on the left hand side and then add something each day until you get over to the right. That's a way you could do it. What I'm imagining and it's just an invitation, is to draw over the whole picture each day. And this is like a palimpsest, and I love the word palimpsest, and this will come up in things again, I'm sure. Um, so in the old days, Paper was really expensive and I think it was like Vermilion. it was made from deer hide, or something like that. Really, really expensive. people would write on it. years later that writing was obsolete and not interesting anymore. the ink was. a bit faded and rather than throwing these documents away because the paper was so expensive, people would write over the top of them again and you'd still be able to see the writing underneath, but there was fresh writing over the top. So you probably couldn't read what was written underneath anymore, but you could see that it existed and that is called a palimpsest and palimpsests exist in our living memories. for, Example, I remember what Braintree, where I grew up, I remember what Braintree town centre looked like before the shopping centre got built in the middle of it. I remember what shops used to be there. so in my memory, there is a palimpsest if I was to go back now, I haven't been back for five or six years. I haven't been back since before the pandemic. It will be different. Again, there will be shops and pubs that have closed. And when I, I mean, Flax, oh, Flax was the best pub in the world. If anyone knows Flax, shout out to you. loved that pub. That's gone. That's now flats. So when I look at those flats, I have the palimpsest of remembering us hanging out there and that being our pub and all the nonsense we got up to there. So when you do the week of illustrating, do a day and then draw over it again with the next day, and then the next day, and just add to it and then have this layered illustration of your week. And I'm inviting you to do that. It was just something I thought of and I'm not a good drawer. I'm not an illustrator. it's something that I could have carried on doing and would've possibly ended up being okay at. at GCSE level, but I had to choose between drama and art I chose drama and went down that route. And that was 30 years ago. I'm not a skilled artist, so let's just do it for the fun of it and no one has to see it. Although if you are up for sharing it, I would absolutely love to see your week as an illustration. So please send any thoughts or ideas or images that come up from the Chaos Crusades, but also anything that you have to share or add about the podcast. Please do send them to me. You can do it on queerarts. org. on Instagram or on Facebook, there's the Nonsense in the Chaos page, which you can join, if you know me, you can just get in touch with me. Anyway, you know how to do that. I will set up a discord account at some point, but I needed to be here long enough for that to happen and to actually see my darling husband who will be able to help me do that. So that's something that's, Definitely in the pipeline. thank you so much for listening. I really hope that you're enjoying the podcast. I'm loving how they're flowing and a lore and storyline and mythology is being created by it and they're flowing into each other. Like I say, we'll be back next week with this interview with Dennis, who's a beautiful soul, and I can't wait for you to hear him and relish in his wisdom and gentleness. What an absolute darling he is. so, yeah, just a huge thank you. Please share your illustrations with me. Have a lovely week and I shall see thee anon. Yeah. Cheers! Have a great day! Cheers! I don't know.