Here is our latest project. Around 1970 Fred Adams designed a series of symbols to be used in the magic circle and for divination. The symbols are correlated with the Tarot, the Celtic Ogham, the I Ching, astrology, and, more than thing else, the Tree Alphabet Calendar. He called his system the Axerian Hieroglyphs. That name takes a lot of explaining, so we have been calling them The Green Pulse Oracle. (Briefly, the term Axerian refers to the gigantic thesis of Dechend and di Santillana in their book "Hamlet's Mill" about myths related to the stars, the precession of the Equinoxes, and how the circling polar stars are "grinding out" existence - the metaphor is a millstone.)

Below are some of the original design and definition sheets Fred wrote up, with our notes on the left.

My friend Macha Nightmare pointed out that the symbols, together with Fred's interpretations and some explanatory material, could be a whole book by itself. I thought that was a great idea and got started right away. Fortunately John was willing to undertake turning the symbols into three-dimensional markers. The idea is that they can be consulted, like the Tarot, the Ogham, or the I Ching, to help people get a sense of the forces and influences at play in their situation.

Below is the first, simple set of cards we made to try using them as an oracle system.

We decided we liked the idea of calling the markers "Leaves," since the system is based on the Tree Alphabet Calendar. On the left below is an early wax version of Ailm, from back when we were thinking of using ceramic markers. Ailm correlates with the Water element, the Moon Tarot card, with the Silver Fir, Palm or Elm tree, with birth and cosmic stimulus, with the number one, the vowel A, Winter Solstice and Yule, and with the ocean deeps.

The Leaf marker next to it is on wood, which is what we decided to go with. The symbols to the right of that are test versions of the Feraferia Phytala design for the back of all the Leaves.

I have a first draft of the book; it is running about 130 pages, and is loaded with Fred's wonderful art. We're really excited about it and will post more updates soon.

Blogger Steven Posch interviewed Jo Carson on Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth. It is called Paradise Now: The Visionary World of Feraferia's Frederick Adams.

A little over a week of time in the rainforest around Juneau, Alaska was enough to reveal a land dense with primeval faery spirits. I am sure the native people have their own names for the spirits of the forests and waterfalls, but even not knowing them we were dazzled by their friendly presence. It rained every day we were there, but with good gear we kept fairly dry. We even managed two nights of camping at Mendenhall Lake, on a spit of land surrounded by that glacier-fed lake. Looking through the evening mist at the huge glacier, we sat alone on the rocks and felt like we had stepped out of time.

Surrounded by ice-fields and water, there are no roads to Juneau; thus the only access is by boat or air. A million tourists a year throng through the town, most brought by monstrously big cruise ships. But these folks pretty much stay in the town and on expensive flight-seeing excursions. This leaves every place that you have to hike to magically quiet but for birds and animals rustling about. We saw marmots, porcupines, squirrels, beaver, salmon and bald eagles hunting them. No bears, though they flourish there - apparently the bears were at higher grounds fattening up for the winter.

We collected a few small stones to place in the northwest of our Henge, and left our prayers as offerings to the place. Our Henge is getting more and more to feel like the center of a web of the sacred places that we go to.

May Juneau's surround remain the beautiful wild wilderness that it is forever.

A small path leads away from the trail to Sheep Creek.

This "chalice and the blade" arrangement of stones was next to where we camped at Mendenhall Lake.

It was raining on this little pond near our camp at Mendenhall Glacier.

Icebergs at the toe of the glacier at Tracy Arm fjord; large families of seals live there too.

Tiny uninhabited islands off the coast above Juneau.

There were plenty of breaching Humpback whales, joyous spirits at play.

Two gals were out canoeing in Britain and chanced to be there with a video camera for one of natures' most strange and compelling dances - a murmuration of starlings, where they form a group mind and dance in a cloud at twilight. They shot a video.