Daughter of the Copper Mountain

Wooden cross in izba,Novoladozhskiy district of Saint Petersburg province (1912)

Photography by Vasiliy Mashechkin (1884-after 1922)

Contes de L’Isba (Tales of Izba) - a collection of Russian fairy tales published in France in 1931 and illustrated by Ivan Bilibin (who left Russia in 1920).

My Green Crocodile, Vadim Kurchevskiy, 1966

Snake dance

Czarny Potok foto z 1 sierpnia 2018

Drzewo przy kościele jest najstarszą (co najmniej 510 do 650 lat) i najgrubszą (ok. osiem i  pół metra obwodu), choć nie najwyższą (ok. 20 m) lipą szerokolistną (Tillia platyphyllos) w Polsce. Powszechnie wierzono, że jego kora jest cudownym środkiem przeciw chorobom zębów, więc ciągnący licznie do kościelnego sanktuarium pielgrzymi odłamywali ją, a niekiedy obgryzali bezpośrednio z pnia. Figura Marii z Dzieciątkiem w kapliczce jest kopią rzeźby z XVII w, umieszczoną na pniu w 2014 r., po przeniesieniu oryginalnej do wnętrza kościoła. Korony dodano postaciom w 1899 r. Ówczesny proboszcz, Zygmunt Miętus, zanotował wtedy w kronice parafii: …po Mszy świętej poszliśmy z procesją ku figurze Matki Boskiej w lipie obok kościoła i tam założyłem na głowy Pana Jezusa i Matki Boskiej nowe wyzłacane korony sprowadzone od Jana Heindla z Wiednia za 21 złr., do czego przyczyniłem się datkiem 5 złr.

Akwarela Józefa Pieniążka z 1933 r.

Pochodzący z Czarnego Potoka historyk literatury Bolesław Faron wspomina: Fascynowała nas ona od dzieciństwa. Jej wnętrze w naszych najmłodszych latach stanowiło znakomitą kryjówkę, zwłaszcza podczas, nielicznych zresztą, ucieczek z lekcji. Bywało, że mieściło się w nim 12-15 uczniów. Do szczególnych atrakcji należało wspinanie się w środku lipy, gawędzenie w ukryciu, a czasem nawet gra w karty czy inne młodzieżowe gry hazardowe. Specyficzną rolę pełniło to drzewo podczas Świąt Wielkanocnych, a zwłaszcza w drugim dniu, w śmigus dyngus. Otóż, przed wejściem do kościoła dziewczęta z całej okolicy miały zwyczaj klękać przed figurką Matki Boskiej i mówić pacierz. Z pokolenia na pokolenie przekazywano sobie bowiem przekonanie, że taka modlitwa może wpłynąć na sfinalizowanie małżeństwa, w ogóle, że młodym kobietom przynosi szczęście. Jeden z naszych szkolnych kolegów wpadł zatem na znakomity - jak mu się wydawało - pomysł. Schowamy się we wnętrzu lipy i kiedy modląca się panna wzniesie do Madonny oczy, ze specjalnej „sikawki”, zrobionej z drewna, puścimy jej prosto w twarz strumień wody. Eksperyment się udał. Kolejne nieszczęśnice zrywały się z klęczek, ocierając twarz chusteczką i chroniły się we wnętrzu świątyni…

Lipa wraz z kościołem zagrały w serialu Polskie drogi (1976-1977). Karol Strasburger i Kazimierz Kaczor w rolach partyzantów ukrywają broń w pustym wnętrzu pnia.

Kolejne części: druga, trzecia, czwarta.

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Czarny Potok, Poland taken on 1 August 2018

The tree by the local church is the oldest (at least 510 to 650 years) and thickest (circa eight and half meters in circumference) though not the tallest (circa 20 m) largeleaf linden (Tillia platyphyllos) in Poland. There was a common folk belief that this particular specimen’s bark is a miraculous remedy curing toothache, hence a constant stream of pilgrims who used to break off splinters or even bite them directly off the trunk. The figure of Mary with the Child in the shrine is a copy of a 17th c. sculpture; it replaced the original in 2014, after moving the latter to the church. The crowns were added in 1899. The parish priest at that time, Zygmunt Miętus, noted down then: …after the Holy Mass we went in a procession to the figure of Mother of God in the linden tree next to the church and there I put on heads of Jesus and Mary new gilded crowns from Johann Heindl’s workshop in Vienna for 21 guldens, of which I donated 5 guldens.

[watercolor painting by Józef Pieniążek in 1933]

Bolesław Faron, a literature historian born in Czarny Potok, wrote: [The linden] fascinated us since we were children. In our youngest years, its interior made an excellent hide, especially when we ditched school, which was not very often anyway. It could fit up to 12 or 15 pupils. Some of particularly attractive pastimes were climbing inside the linden, chatting in hiding and sometimes even playing cards or other youth hazard games. The tree had a specific role in the time of Easter, particularly on its second day, that is Śmigus Dyngus. Namely, local girls had a custom of kneeling in front of the Holy Mary figure and praying, before entering the church. There was a belief, passed over generations, that such prayer could help in marrying and brought luck to young women in general. One of our school colleagues came up with a great - as he thought - idea. We would hide inside the linden and when the praying girl would raise her eyes to Madonna, we’d spray her right in the face with a special wooden toy. The experiment was successful. One after another, poor girls jumped up, wiping their faces with a handkerchief and took cover in the church…

The linden together with the church made locations in a Polish TV series Polskie drogi (1976-1977), a historical drama set in the World War II. [partisans played by Karol Strasburger and Kazimierz Kaczor hide weapon inside the hollow trunk]

The next parts: 2nd, 3rd, 4th.

Continuing on the topic of connection being not a feeling, but a rather a set of circumstances in which you are engaging and participating, I think a lot of people out there just don't realize how dangerous the way many of us have been taught to think of feelings in relation to spirituality really is.

Like Zan pointed out, Evangelical Christians are taught that positive emotions are actually the Lord moving through them, rather than their own personal reactions to their experiences. Meanwhile, Evangelical church services are deliberately engineered to elicit these kinds of of feelings in people. It's pure emotional manipulation.

Similar ideas are found in New Age spirituality, where "spiritual discernment" is frequently boiled down to "does it make me feel good or not?" People are taught to evaluate politically charged information based on whether it, for lack of a better term, sparks joy. Now, determining whether or not something sparks joy is a wonderful way to decide whether you want to keep your old tea kettle, but here we're talking about information that people will base crucial personal and political choices on.

Meanwhile, New Age influencers do everything they can to make sure they're sparking joy for you. Let's take Paul White Gold Eagle, for example. His videos are constantly talking about things that sound exciting, like messages from archangels, dragons of light, and emerald transmissions. This type of baiting - joybaiting, I'll call it - is meant to hook you emotionally and make you think that this has to be true because it elicits that oooough, shiny reaction. Next thing you know, you've been joybaited into falling down the conspirituality pipeline and you believe some version of QAnon's conspiracy theories.

This kind of thinking is even dangerous in pagan circles. You find yourself thinking about a thing and noticing a lot? You feel an intense pull to study it? You'll find people out there telling you that you have a spiritual connection to it, like, maybe you were part of it in a past life. And maybe you go and get a past life reading, or even undergo hypnosis. And now you, the whitest gal in the surburb with zero familial connections to any Native people, feel entitled to appropriate some form of Native spirituality because you felt fascination with it, or what you thought it was, and now you're contributing to white sage decimation and spreading around some sort of Native-flavored form of neopaganism as if it's actual Native spirituality.

Or maybe you fall in with a neopagan cult leader who uses your fascination to convince you that you knew each other in a past life, and you were led to them in this life so you could continue some important work in this life, and they pull you completely into their bullshit.

Finally, it's dangerous because it encourages stalkers. A lot of stalkers are people with incredibly powerful fixations on others. These types of beliefs get them convinced that their victims are actually their soulmates or twin flames or whathaveyou, and make them feel justified in engaging in stalking behavior.

All of this is why it's important to recognize that connection is a circumstance, not a feeling. Your feelings are utterly irrelevant to whether you are actually connected. What most people take for "feeling connected" is literally just fascination or fixation, maybe reinforced by the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Real connection is something you cultivate and build, and it does not exist outside of your actual, physical engagement and participation.

Sosnovka, Perm Krai

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the craft soundtrack, released april 30 1996

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“I don’t like this place. Nothing grows in the right direction.”

True Detective (2014) dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga

home by the sea.. .

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]