Sunday 29 November 2009

Autumn Days (Poem)

These are my autumn days,
Growing colder by the hour,
Sitting in my lonely bower,
As the sun sinks in the West.

Memories of my springtime days
(Our verdant cabin, treasured home,
The forest thick with scent of loam)
Sit heavy in my aged breast.

I mourn the loss of summer days,
An Indian summer, warm and still,
Before I felt autumnal chill,
When life, and I, were at our best.

Now creeping close, my winter days.
This land so barren, trees so bare.
The weight of years does not seem fair
And life becomes a constant test.

Yet memories of all my days
Bring so much joy, too much, I feel
For just one turning of the Wheel.
A life well lived before I rest.

Saturday 28 November 2009

Zebadiah Groat (Roleplaying)


Zebadiah was another character from a Burning Wheel game - he was Lillin's host.
A sweet-natured wizard with a terrible stutter, he was an odd match for the demon... but was smitten with her.

Earhart and Quimby



Amelia Earhart - everyone knows her name. Well maybe not everyone, but she seems pretty popular at the moment. First Night in the Museum 2 (oh Amelia, how the mighty have fallen) and now a new film about her life simply entitled Amelia have once more set her firmly in the public eye.

And it's easy to see why Amelia has such enduring international fame. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was setting records in a male-dominated field, one of the rare women pilots in the pioneering age of aviation. But perhaps she is best remembered for her mysterious disappearance in 1937, the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. It is a shame that the circumstances surrounding her death should overshadow the achievements of her life.

But Amelia wasn't the only American aviatrix of her time. she wasn't even the first. That honour goes to a woman by the name of Harriet Quimby.



Harriet was something of a trendsetter; she drove a motor car, smoked (scandalous for a woman at the start of the 20th Century), was a reporter, a playwright. In 1911she added pilot to the list, being the first American woman to gain her license. ON 16th April 1912 she became the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel, piloting a monoplane she had borrowed from Louis Bleriot for the occasion.

Sadly the Titanic had sunk just the day before. That tragedy dominated the headlines and Harriet's achievement went almost unremarked.

Still, Harriet went on to become a star turn in the flying circuses that were so popular at the time. She wore a plum coloured satin flight suit with a hood and cat-like goggles - quite a fashion statement! Three months after her Channel crossing she attended the Third Annual Boston Aviation Show, taking the organiser William Willard for a spin over the bay.

No-one knows for sure what went wrong. Harriet's 'plane crashed, killing both herself and Willard.

Now Harriet was one of Amelia Earhart's inspirations, and yet few people today have ever heard of her today. Perhaps it was just the unfortunate timing of her greatest achievement. Regardless, I doubt we'll be seeing a Harriet movie coming out of Hollywood anytime soon, mores the pity.

Friday 20 November 2009

True Crime

In 1951 the Witchcraft Act (of 1735) was finally repealed.

Sixty years on I am able to practice my craft without fear of prosecution. Oh, there's persecution from time to time, a little religious bigotry here, a touch of condescension there. A lot of willful misunderstanding. But at the end of the day, I'm legal! I'm here, I'm queer... Sorry, wearing the wrong minority hat for a minute there :)

The comparison is somewhat apt though. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in England in 1967. Both groups have been condemned by the church, demonised and ridiculed in turn by the tabloids. Both are said to indulge in 'unnatural practices'. Two small sectors of society, compartmentalised by the misconceptions of the public at large.

(The big difference between being gay and being a witch; I chose to take up the craft. Sexual preference is a fallacy (phallus-ey?) - I did not choose to be gay. Better instead to call it sexual determination. Something in our genetic make-up determines who we get the hots for and we have no more choice in the matter than we do over our height, our eye colour. But I digress.)

It is so easy in these enlightened, tolerant times (heh!) to forget where we came from, how much easier we have things than those who came before us. And yet...

When civil partnerships became legal between same-sex couples in 2005 there was an outcry! The moral crusaders felt that by allowing gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals that it would somehow erode the moral fibre of society. I'm not sure just how us evil homos were going to achieve this.
I remember one protester who insisted that marriage was for the sole purpose of begetting children. I always thought it was a declaration of love, but then I'm just an old romantic. Besides, how many kids are born out of wedlock? How many heterosexual couples choose not to have kids? How many all-girl couples do? All-guy couples too for that matter, but they need a lot more than a turkey baster...

And the tabloids seem unable to seperate witchcraft from satanism, gleefully mislabeling them as one and the same. Satanists worship Satan, an wholly Christian creation. Nothing to do with us pagans.

Even Pope Benedict XVI got a few sly digs in. Back in 2003 when he was just Cardinal Ratzinger, he wrote a letter of concern about the Harry Potter novels. He felt that the tales of magic and witchcraft were 'subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul.' He was a little late jumping on that bandwagon.
In 2002 pastor Jack D. Brock of Almagordo in southern New Mexico announced to his congregation that Harry Potter was, in fact, the devil. Well, I suppose they are both fictional characters.
It wasn't the first time that the people of Almagordo had spoken out against Mr. Potter though. The year before, they had burned copies of Harry Potter books alongside novels by Stephen King, ouija boards and, oddly, AC/DC records.

Now book burning... There should be a law against that.

Thursday 19 November 2009

Cats, cats, cats, everyone's talking about cats...


Anyone who knows me knows how much I love cats.
I am blessed (or maybe cursed) with two cats, one a flame-point siamese, the other a shaded oriental; Jay and Liza respectively. Jay looks like a miniature lion, long and lean with a noble head. Liza has the most amazing blue eyes. They both have strong personalities and very penetrating voices.

I have never kept siamese cats before and though I'd heard they were vocal, nothing could have prepared me for the assault on my eardrums. Sometimes its impossible to tell what they want. Sometimes I think they just want to complain.

They are very intelligent cats. Jay has worked out how to open cupboards, forever searching for treats. He climbs everywhere, knocking down pictures and ornaments with reckless abandon. Liza prefers to pace the floor, lap after lap of the flat, circling like a slightly chunky shark.

They follow us around when the mood strikes them, even to the toilet. Liza doesn't have any respect for privacy. She follows our flatmate's girlfriend into the loo, sitting on the cistern and purring. Maybe its just girls going to the bathroom together...
Either that or I have cottaging cats.

Nico Serafini (Roleplaying)


This is Nico Serafini, a character from a roleplaying game that I ran. It was a dark future setting; the polar ice-caps had melted, putting most of the world under water. Nico was a treasure hunter living in the floating shanty-town above London, routinely diving down to the museums and galleries beneath the waves in search of the next big score :)

Lillin (Roleplaying)



Well, I threatened to start putting my pics on here...

Lillin is a character from my friend John's roleplaying game. She's a demon with something of a lust for blood :)

Monday 2 November 2009

First Post

First post on my first blog :)
I guess the only news I have that's blog-worthy is that I'm a published artist now! My sketches feature in a book written by a friend of mine.

The book is The Earth's Library - A Multidimentional Healing System by Maryelle Grace. Currently available from her website in paperback and pdf form (along with a range of shamanic and complementary health services) it should soon be on Amazon.co.uk. as well!
For Maryelle's website go to Rainbow Medicine Lodge

I'll be posting some of my doodles on here very soon.

Matt