He is my favorite astronaut for any number of reasons, but he’s also one of my favorite visual artists.

Like, look at this stuff????

It’s all so expressive and textured and colorful! He literally painted his own experience on the moon! And that's just really fucking cool to me!

Just look at this! This is one of my absolute favorite emotions of all time. Is Anyone Out There? is like the ultimate reaction image. Any time I have an existential crisis, this is how I picture myself.

And then there's this one:

The Fantasy

For all of the six Apollo missions to land on the moon, there was no spare time. Every second of their time on the surface was budgeted to perfection: sleeping, eating, putting on the suits, entering and exiting the LEM, rock collection, setting up longterm experiments to transmit data back to Earth, everything. These timetables usually got screwed over by something, but for the most part the astronauts stuck to them.

The crew of Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon) had other plans. Conrad and Bean had snuck a small camera with a timer into the LEM to take a couple pictures together on the moon throughout the mission. They had hidden the key for the timer in one of the rock collection bags, with the idea being to grab the key soon after landing, take some fun photos here and there, and then sneak the camera back to Earth to develop them. They had practiced where they would hide the key and how to get it out from under the collected rocks back on Earth dozens of times.

But when they got to the moon, the key was nowhere to be found. Al Bean spent precious time digging through the collection bags before he called it off. The camera had been pushing their luck anyways, he couldn't afford to spend anymore time not on the mission objectives. Conrad and Bean continued the mission as per the NASA plan while Dick Gordon orbited overhead.

Fast forward to the very end of the mission. Bean and Conrad are doing last checks of the LEM before they enter for the last time and depart from the moon. As Bean is stowing one of the collection bags, the camera key falls out. The unofficially planned photo time has come and gone, and he tosses the key over his shoulder to rest forever on the surface of the moon.

This painting, The Fantasy, is that moment. There have never been three people on the moon at the same time, there was never an unofficial photo shoot on the moon, this picture could never have happened.

"The most experienced astronaut was designated commander, in charge of all aspects of the mission, including flying the lunar module. Prudent thinking suggested that the next-most-experienced crew member be assigned to take care of the command module, since it was our only way back home. Pete had flown two Gemini flights, the second with Dick as his crewmate. This left the least experienced - me - to accompany the commander on the lunar surface.

"I was the rookie. I had not flown at all; yet I got the prize assignment. But not once during the three years of training which preceded our mission did Dick say that it wasn't fair and that he wished he could walk on the moon, too. I do not have his unwavering discipline or strength of character.

This is his art.

You can't forget this, the first art made in space.

A keyhole garden is a round garden bed with a compost pile in the center. The garden has a notch in the front, so gardeners can easily add to or turn over the pile. Featuring a drainage layer, a soil layer, and a planting area, keyhole gardens combine all the necessities that plants need to thrive.

Fjorn’s Old Norse-Icelandic Calendar: 2019-‘20

Want a cool graphic to help you navigate this year like a Viking? Want one that’s historically informed to the best of this author‘s abilities? Well, for starters then, that was a poor use of the term ‘Viking,’ as most of my guests and readers will know by now. And if that sentence stumps you, I recommend skimming through this post to get on board with the rest of us. 

Likewise, you may want to read this post about how the Old Norse-Icelandic calendar works. It includes more information than my single graphic could possibly hold, such as how medieval Icelanders conceptualized time at every level (hours, days, weeks, months, etc.). Reading that post will make the above web-loot more understandable.

If you want to keep this handy calendar in your pocket while you roam and wander Midgard (and not the crappy version you could get from saving it from Tumblr), feel free to download it right here (at fjorns-hall.com).

Once again, if nothing above makes sense to you, make sure to read my post about the Old Norse-Icelandic calendar! It’s got plenty of wisdom to offer. But on a similar note, I admit that the information provided both in this post and that one may have flaws. I’m only human, after all, so if there’s something you notice that’s either wrong or confusing, please feel free to reply/reblog or email me at [email protected] so we can discuss and correct our knowledge! (My asks are still closed here because I suck at actually answering everything.)

Drink Me – An Exploration of Glamour Magic [wordpress]

Roughskin - A Protective Glamour Spell [breelandwalker]

Three Glamour Spells [witchydays]

Jewelry Glamour Magick Spell Template [thefaeriegarden]

Glamour Solid Perfume [recreationalwitchcraft]

Glamouring Objects [thepunkgreenwitch]

Glamor Spell—Facial Scrub [pomegranateandivy]

Confidence Mirror Spell (Minor Glamour Type) [taurotrickster]

Spell: Celebrity Aura [windvexer]

Spell: Friendly Glamour [windvexer]

A Simple Invisibility Glamour Enchantment [mystic-scarab]

Goddess Glamour Bath [recreationalwitchcraft]

Swampseer’s “It Puts the Lotion on its Skin” Spell [swampseer]

Cosmetics and Glamour [stormsorceress]

Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Glamour Spell [gardenofthequeen]

Hair Colour Change [witchcraftings]

Witch of the Waste’s Glamour Enchanted Jewelry Spell [applesaucebro]

A Glamour Spell, Howl Jenkins Style [applesaucebro]

Pigeon’s Eye-Opening Glamour [blog deleted]

Snow’s “Spinning Straw to Gold” Glamour [blog deleted]

Disney Magic Series: Stand Out Glamour Spell [saltwater-phoenix]

Bree’s Already Gorgeous Glamour [breelandwalker]

The Shadow Spell [witchcraftings]

Lizzie’s Keep-Away Body Scrub [pomegranateandivy]

Crow’s Pocketful of Sunshine Charm [crowsandcoffee]

Invisibility Spell for Trans-Friends [queerpolicymagic]

Spidey’s Spell to Conceal Identity [chaosundone] 

1. The most important clues may be in the background! 

In the Rider Waite Smith deck, many cards show a figure with a number of significant items behind his or her back. What happens behind one’s back is, for oneself, something unseen, shadowy, something to which one has no conscious access. This could point to the idea that the figure in the foreground is unaware of the nature or scope of their issues. You can’t grasp what you cannot see, and that can reveal a lot about the nature of the card’s meaning.

2. The color of the sky reveals a lot!

Again referencing the Rider Waite Smith deck, the color of the sky on a given card often leads to a simple but important clue for its interpretation.

3. Pay close attention to proportions!

In the image of the Four of Wands, the figures are depicted much smaller than is the case in other images; they fall short. Or perhaps they are of normal height and are painted so small in order to emphasize the comparatively huge size of the wands. This sort of thing can be found in many other cards. 

4. Court cards represent developed personalities or facets of oneself!

The Queen: impulsive, an initiator, an investigator (water type)

The King: thorough, intensive, consolidating (fire type)

The Knight: magnifying, expanding, a drawer of consequences (air type)

The Page: makes something tangible out of or with the element in question (earth type)

4. Pay attention to numbers!

Numerology can play a big role in your interpretations of the cards, especially in the Minor Arcana:

Ones (Aces): Something new with vast potential is indicated when you have many aces in your readings. They are pure energy without form - and it depends on you to shape it and bring the opportunities that they represent into fruition. Because they are raw, they are also unstable, and can very quickly overwhelm if not taking care.

Twos: Coming together in pairs is the theme of the twos, and all the complexities that this union represents. We leave the individuality of the ones, and the twos are a taste of union. 

Threes: Group dynamics rule the threes in the tarot, and they depict different outcomes that can occur when a group comes together - whether they are groups of individuals, or groups of ideas. Because it is also symbolically thought of as completion (the first polygon, the holy trinity, etc) it also indicates an initial completion of a first phase of some sort.

Fours: The fours usually indicate that some foundation has been created and is ready to grow and evolve. To grow and evolve is the key here, because though the foundation is created, there is some disappointment indicated sometimes because things may not have progressed entirely as hoped for - thus, the fours are also the universe’s way of pushing us to grow and move forward.

Fives: Change, fluctuations and conflict are represented by the fives. After the fours, the fives are amplifications of that same energy. When that energy explodes, the fives ask us to look within ourselves for a deeper reason of why to progress. To move forward and beyond these instabilities, we have to push forward.

Sixes: While the fives represent conflict, the sixes represent the movement away from that conflict into a solution, whether they are internal or external, whether that means reconciliation or letting go. They are the cards of overcoming suffering, light after the dark.

Sevens: When seeing many sevens in a reading it usually indicates that it is a time to step back and introspect. The sevens ask us to assess, and reevaluate whether the path that you are taking is what is best for you. Sometimes this is a lonely pursuit, but this period is needed to go forward with your authentic desires.

Eights: A completion of a second phase is indicated with the eights, and usually corresponds to some sort of achievement, whether in the worldly sense, or in an emotional sense. Growth either way is indicated here, and sometimes it can take place in a form where we least expected it.

Nines: Nearing completion is indicated by the nines, and this can take the form of entering a plateau of some sort. What looks like the finish line, may actually be just a transitory stage. While the feeling of completion is here, it is usually just a pause before the final part of the cycle comes.

Absolute madwoman that I am I went and gone and done did it

[state-communist solarpunk banner by Surnem]

The Watermelon Manifesto (solarpunk and a future worth fighting for)

The culture around us, most especially the worlds of speculative fiction and independent music, is replete with trends ending in -punk, representing alternative visions of the world, and one of the newest, having entered the public discourse only about five years ago, is solarpunk. But aren’t there enough of these punks floating around already? What is it that makes solarpunk so special?

Put simply, solarpunk is a rupture with these other subcultural trends because it presents an alternative vision of the world which is both desirable and achievable, unlike its predecessors. For example, steampunk presents a Romantic vision of an alternative present based on a retrofuturist reimagining of the development of industry, while cyberpunk presents people moving through and surviving within a grim and dystopic vision of the future. The former is pure fantasy, whereas the latter, though imminently possible and becoming ever more relevant in these the waning days capitalism in decay, is deeply undesirable.

The world envisioned by solarpunk is imminently achievable, reliant on technological and social developments that are not only well within our reach but that, in many places, are already in use today. And from these building blocks, it presents to us a vision of the world that’s based in the most radical, most revolutionary of all human emotions: Hope.

Solarpunk is a rejection of the crawling chaos of Silicon Valley’s third-positionist technocracy as well as the liberal and settler-colonialist nature of mainstream environmentalism and the toxic and hopeless nihilism and creeping ecofascism and natioanl-anarchism of primitivism or so-called “post-civ” anarchism. Fictioneers dream of a world where technology is neither abused for profit and excess nor abandoned, but serves human need; where goods and services are produced not in service of profit, but rationally, in service of the needs of our communities; a world where we are no longer alienated, no longer have to live our lives alone, but can exist genuinely as a part of our community, free and equal, a world decolonized and repatriated where we no longer oppress one another on bases of race or gender or ability. And it’s a green new world, a world of social ecology, where we recognize that human beings with all of our constructs and our technology are not stewards of the natural world nor need be its expropriators, but are a part of it, blood and bone, as much as we’re a part of any human community.

And this can be more than idle speculative fiction. As I said above, solarpunk’s alternative vision of the world is based on futurist speculation of technology that has been developed, of sociopolitical structures that are already extant in miniature. For the movement to become a reality, to become a real force in the world, requires rational implementation. But, sadly, implementation will require a radical change in the economic base.

Our present mode of production will never allow this future to come into being so long as it stands, ever lumbering ahead under the oppressive weight of its own failure. All of the carbon taxes and Green New Deals the bourgeois state can dream up will not save us, for the rough beast of capitalism, ever-hungry to generate more capital and concentrate that capital into fewer and fewer hands, will ever lurch knowingly towards its own destruction so long as more profit can be squeezed out of our dying planet, so long as the bourgeoisie remain convinced they can weather the storm they are dragging us all into the heart of. It is incumbent upon us, the people, to save ourselves. As the coming crisis deepens, extreme weather ravages the land, populations are displaced, moribund empires shake at their foundations, it is incumbent upon us to learn how to weather the storm. 

And misanthropic nihilism gives us no liberatory solution. The retreat of the bourgeois state as crisis deepens will highten capitalism’s contradictions, will reveal more cracks in the armor, presenting ever more opportunities for us to assert ourselves. The rank defeatism of the post-left will pass these opportunities by, leaving capitalism unchallenged to adapt to the new conditions as it has done so many times in the past; is it not the great failure of Marx, that he failed to anticipate how well and quickly capitalism might adapt? Moreover, the crises of capitalism in decay will cause, are already causing, mass displacements of human life, and the deep misanthropy of primitivism as well as primitivism’s wholly wrong and unscientific Malthusian ideological base provides a ready breeding ground for reaction; primitivism is merely the boneless cousin of national-anarchism and ecofascism.

Our revolutionary watchword is hope, hope based in the knowledge that we have to tools to save ourselves at our fingertips. We must dare to invent the future. Our job is first to dare to imagine a future that’s worth fighting for, and to then fight for it. The path forward, the road out of the darkness and into this new world, is simple enough to say: Organize.

This isn’t going to be an easy journey, not by any means. We are in for the fight of our lives. The place where decaying capitalism is leading us is not a good place. We will have to walk through wire and fire to make it through this, and we’re gonna bury friends along the way. But we will make it.

We can make it through together. All we have to do is organize, and we can fight, and when we fight, we win.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousandfold We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old For the union makes us strong

The best time for neighbors and co-workers to become friends, for friends to become better friends, for communities to come together, was yesterday. The second-best time is today. Soon, nothing else will matter.

But that’s not a message of despair. It’s a message of hope. Because when we fight, we win.

And we will win.  And someday the fight will be over.  And someday a new generation of babies will be born, and they’ll grow up knowing nothing but freedom.

Somewhere outside right now is a sapling growing up through a crack in the pavement. Someday it will be a tree, towering over the street, its branches kissing the balconies of the buildings nearby, with the pavement that once tried to restrain it shattered and thrown up in slabs to either side, crumbling in its shade.

But for now, it’s just a little sapling, just an acorn that happened to roll into a little crack, just a little bit of green barely visible in the smoke and smog. But every day, our little sapling gets just a bit taller, and the crack just a bit wider.

It knows hope, and it’s not afraid to dream.

“We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a while. For you must not forget that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place, and better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and ruin their own world before they leave the stage of history. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.” –Durruti

LINKS:

Get organized, get involved!

Socialist Alternative Committee For A Workers’ International Industrial Workers of the World IWW General Defense Committee Food Not Bombs Food Not Lawns

More about solarpunk

Solarpunk: A reference guide What Is Solarpunk? Sunbeam City wiki Appropedia: Solarpunk On The Political Dimensions of Solarpunk

The ideological base

Karl Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital (text) (audio) Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (text) (audio) Lenin, What Is To Be Done? Trotsky, The ABCs of Materialist Dialectics Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread (text) (audio) Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor In Evolution (text) (audio) Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

How to invent the future

Guides to DIY hydroponic gardening Guides to DIY homesteading and backyard gardening basics Indoor herb gardening (x) (x) (x) Lifehacker Instructables Rebel Steps podcast How to organize a tenants’ union (x) (x) How to form an affinity group How do we fight gentrification?

I am a permaculturalist and a writer and since I discovered solarpunk I fell in love with it.

I read everything I could about solarpunk and I decided to reorganize in a Solarpunk Manifesto some of the material that was collected in the Solarpunk Reference Guide by @solarpunks.

I would like to publish it as “The Solarpunk Collective” without any specific autor, since I just reorganized it, but it was actually written by many different people. What do you think? I would love some feedback and comments and I would love if it was published in many different places. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oSeD18lop83qVoMJSzcQVo_8wtTInaFLOo0qXrX41dM/edit?usp=sharing

We need to have the solarpunk wikipedia page back up and a solarpunk manifesto could lead to that.

@solarpunks @watsons-solarpunk @solarpunk-aesthetic @solarpunkwitchcraft @solarpunkfashionreview @tidalpunk @missolivialouise @solarpunknetwork @solarpunksideblog​ @solarpunkstoryexchange​ @solarpunksapphic​ @solarpunkpress​ @solarpunkprincess​ @solarpunkpunks​ @solarpunkpixieboy​ @solarpunkactionweek​​ @solarpunkandstainedglass​ @solarpunkarchivist​ @solarpunkandtea​ @solarpunkartist​ @solarpunk-afrofuturism​ @solarpunk-stuff​ @solarpunk-gnome​ @solarpunkbaby​ @solarpunkcast​ @solarpunkcitizen​ @solarpunkdreams​ @solarpunkexploration​ @solarpunkery​ @solarpunked​ @solarpunkfuturenow​ @solarpunkfashion​ @solarpunkgrrrl​ @solarpunkgay​ @solarpunkjunk​ @solarpunkmemes​ @solarpunknomadicecovillage-blog​ @solarpunkowly​ @solarpunkowl​ @solarpunkoasis​ @solarpunkreads​ @solarpunkrocks​ @solarpunkrebel​ @solarpunkregeneration​ @solarpunkturtle​ @solarpunkwitch​ @solarpunkworld​ @solarpunkworldbuild​