Human Origins

The issue of human evolution going back at least 9,000,000 (nine million) years and possibly even being upright by that time is another of the facts which when in my youth seemed totally ridiculous. Actually many mystics said it goes back twelve million years to when what could be called the missing link occurred. The matter of whether we descended from apes is still up in the air and more importantly it would appear the mystics were right about cross-breeding and shamanistic attunements to affect such things in many life forms. These qualitative or spiritual changes are reflected in an individual’s life as they now prove the brain itself can evolve and change structure with the studies of Buddhist Monks and concert pianists or the likes of Hank Wesselmann who was helped by his shaman wife. Hank’s brainwavelength is more controllably able to reach the same frequency as psychic surgeons and top Yogis as shown in a University of Illinois study.I was touting the importance of Flores Island and the sea travel technology for years before the recent discovery of the Hobbit-like creature there. Some researchers say it is a cross between a chimp and a hominid. That would dovetail with the also currently-being-researched Bonobos who are a cross between a chimp and a gorilla. The Portuguese baby that is half Neanderthal is proof of cross-breeding despite the fact that these attunements are not traceable through DNA analysis as I see it. The following excerpt from an article in 2004 does not mention that researchers of human lice are now going on to check pubic lice in order to prove cross mating occurred. There will be debate no matter what they find but I think it speaks to much of the sex magic in Tantra and Dragon or serpent lore including what Sir Laurence Gardner and the Rosicrucians have written about.“But it turns out that DNA analysis shows there are two distinct sub-species of head lice in humans. All over the world, except in western North America, they are the same. But there is a population of lice along the Pacific coast of North America which have been evolving separately from the rest of the world for about 1.8m years. The only way to make sense of this is to assume that their separate development took place on Homo erectus, who also split off from our hominid ancestors about that time ago. So how could these lice have reached their present, wholly human hosts? It seems to me that this could only have happened through some act of primal genocide when Homo erectus met Homo sapiens somewhere in eastern Siberia. Lice can only travel between living bodies, or very freshly dead ones. If the transmission had been from living bodies, we would expect the same pattern in bodily lice. It isn't there. Nor is there any trace of Homo erectus in our DNA. So the lice must have come from very fresh corpses and it is hard to suppose that they had died peacefully just before the intruders turned up. The story of "Ebu Gogo" sounds more improving. According to local villagers, these creatures were around until about a century ago: three feet tall, hairy, and speechless, though they could imitate human speech, like parrots. The villagers tolerated them and even fed them, though they would only eat raw food, until they stole and ate a baby. They drove them from their cave with blazing bales of grass. Shortly thereafter, the villagers themselves moved off and western settlers arrived. The cave where the Ebu Gogo lived has not been found. But if it is - and scientists are looking - it might yield some extraordinary remains. These wouldn't be technological. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the whole story is the slow loss of technology it implies. Ebu Gogo seems to have been a descendent of Homo erectus, also known as Java man, who reached the island about 840,000 years ago. This was almost certainly something that required boats, which seem a pretty human-level technology. But because Flores is so far from anywhere that only boat-users or very strong swimmers - like elephants - can reach it, the mammals there seem to have shrunk to cope with the lack of food. The tiny hominids hunted a race of dwarf elephants, and ate for preference their babies, whose charred bones have been found in the cave. So they had fire once. They had tools, too; and presumably language. But their brains had shrunk to a quarter of the size of ours. The Ebu Gogo recorded by the villagers had forgotten what language was for; they used no tools, and ate their food raw. At some stage, perhaps, their brains had shrunk so much that they were no longer truly human. The moral seems hard to escape. What makes us human is not our moral qualities. Ultimately, it's a question of getting enough to eat to grow the brains that are big enough for morality - and, indeed, genocide. * Andrew Brown is the author of The Darwin Wars: The Scientific War for the Soul of Man and In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite. He also maintains a weblog, the Helmintholog (http://www.thewormbook.com/helmintholog/).” (1)The day after I posted the above I found that science now proves mamals were not only living far longer ago than we thought but they were evolved enough to be eating small dinosaurs. This makes it possible to speculate about an even older cultured mammal on earth as well as the probability that earlier hominids were more evolved than we thought.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/13/MNGGUAPI5M1.DTL


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World-Mysteries.com guest expertEnchanted Spirit Press columnistAuthor of Diverse Druids

The Masked Fool

The Masked FoolThe Fool My first direct experience of the fool in masking was watching Morris Dancing here at home in Yorkshire, England. The Morris dancers were dressed up in their usual dancing shoes with bells and baggy pants. To be absolutely honest I have always found Morris men a bit funny! Perhaps I should explain about Cecil Sharp, no I'll leave that to a footnote. The Boars Head Morris Men were dancing in a pub car park. ( Pub short for Public House a place for drinking beer etc. in the UK.) They were doing the usual dances that are related to fertility, good crops and harvests etc. But of course they really don't quite have the pagan beliefs off pat. Mind you when you see them drink ale in the quantities that they did then you would realise that they had perhaps fully understood the pagan ways of having a good time. ( Not to say all people who follow the pagan ways drink lots of ale, just a convenient concept ) What you are probably asking by this juncture is this to do with fools? Well the Boars Head Morris Men had a masked fool. He was complete with boars mask pantaloons and boars headed stick. He also carried a bucket for collecting cash donations for charity, or maybe beer money. He followed the dancers mimicked them and cajoled the watchers for change to fill his bucket. Interestingly I knew the fool quite well and in real life, with out the mask, he would never do what he did with the mask. Being English he was just far too polite! The Boars Head stick became a threatened cudgel, never used, just pointed and waved. The mask was a place to hide behind, for a normal everyday person. As you will find by looking further on this site the mask allows people to change personalities. He bullied and pranced and enjoyed his dual mission to collect money and to protect the dancers from the crowd. Sometimes the children get too close. That is not allowed. Sometimes the dancers space is threatened by cars entering the parking space. Wow! That is not a good idea! But suddenly the fool sets off in pursuit of three attractive women. He rattles his bucket and rounds them up as a sheep dog would. They are pressed into donating generously. He just leaves his dancers unprotected to fend for themselves. The next ten minutes is exchanged in good natured banter. ( The wife of the fool is present! ) The above is from memory, probably about 20 years ago. In terms of mask traditions that is very recent. For mask traditions can be traced back at least 25,000 years. I am certain they go back to the time of the first questioning peoples; 50,000.................or more years? What then is this reference to fools and masking traditions. Well as you dig through this site you will find that the fool crops up in several other traditions. In Masquerade the fool is an essential figure. On the surface he, occasionally she, is the one who keeps order. He controls the children, he stops their prying eyes invading the dressing room. His stick maintains the performance area. He cracks jokes, entertains, juggles pulls faces and GETS VIOLENT. He chases the children with a whip and hits them mercilessly if he gets the chance. He tries to seduce women, and does if he can! Suddenly he becomes bored and goes away to sit and talk philosophically with a group of friends from his unmasked time. As the conversation progresses he introduces new ideas. He begins to ridicule the accepted norm. He questions the accepted reality. He attempts to turns arguments on their heads The Ubiquitous Fool The fool is a ubiquitous. The fool occurs in the masking traditions of North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, China, ........................ if you know some more please fill in my blank. Universally the fool treads the line between normality and the incongruities that the world. The fool is both sensible and totally none-sensible. Not that he does not use his senses he just uses then in a different way. He questions and cajoles. He jokes and makes fun of others. Yet when someone over steps the arbitrary boundary, (who decided ) he changes. Suddenly he becomes the quiet hearth cat, the sleeping feline, domesticated, sleek and silky. And as you stroke and pleasure the cat she begins to become claws and teeth and worse growls. He becomes the raging tiger, claws and teeth. What is the role of the fool? The fool traditionally questions. S/He challenges the norm. S/He goes beyond the routine and everyday. S/He crosses the boundary between the physical and the spiritual. The fool knows both sides but sadly does not understand either. The fool is beyond judgement but is incapable of judging. The fool is a go-between, a hinderer, a creator and destroyer. He sets things up only to break them down. To be honest I love the fool, because I feel I am one, at times. The fool embodies the contradictions of the world. He accepts our human frailties and simultaneously challenges them. For those of you who know the symbols on the tarot cards consider the fool, for those of you who do not make some time to find out. Some Examples of Fools in Masquerade Italy In Masks the Art of expression Cesare Poppi describes the Carnival at Moena in the Italian Dolomites. Two Arlechign, a local version of Harlequin, lead the masked group. They are dressed in chequered costumes, with a tall pointed cap below which is a loose veil giving them a featureless appearance. They carry horse whips. Around them the crowd of cheering young boys follows their moves. Suddenly the dash into the youths slashing fiercely with the horse whips, striking vicious blows to the confused youngsters. Panic ensues. A pleasing village scene has suddenly been turned upon its head. China In China, or your local China Town, when the New Year is celebrated the Lion Dance is performed. This often acrobatic masked dance is performed by, usually two dancers accompanied by two Happy Face dancers wearing their papier mache masks complete with large grins painted on them. As the dance progresses through the streets the dragon collects lettuces and money to help bring luck in to the New Year. Around the dragon the two fools pester the crowd for money and simultaneously keep the crowd, especially the children, at a safe distance. Pacific West Coast Noohlmahl During Kwakwaka'wakw Potlatch ceremonies in the West Coast Areas of Canada another fool prowled around. He is Noohlmahl. A filthy creature with a long nose from which snot streams he is up for a laugh but should the watchers mention his state, especially his nose, a violent reaction can be expected. Iriquois False Face Society The Iriquois False Face Society also have a fool mask to support the processes of healing that they undertake. These corn husk mask are relatively simple and disposable. As with other traditions the fool plays his amusing and organising role. Playfulness has a major place in many masquerades. In our lives we all play the fool, despise the fool in others and love the fool who entertains. Sadly the fool who entertains can also be torn apart by internal mental divisions. The masked fool is the one who maintains order and at the same time questions it and sometimes on a whim destroys it. Traditionally the fool treads a fine line between the known and the unknown, the acceptable and the unacceptable. Even without the mask I am sure you recognise the fool in your life. The fool is a universal being. Today (15/12/04) I lost my fool, she was our cat. If you wish to know she died of old age. She had the soft luxury of a purring fur to stroke and in a moment she transformed into a fanged biter. She had the gourmet taste of a French chef yet licked her own arse. She refused to go outside when the wind blew, because it was cold, yet sat happily on the wet grass when it was raining and blowing a gale. Tango, the cat, was my fool, just as I was hers when playing hide and seek. I loved her affection and was saddened by her rejection of the food I gave her. All in all Tango, our family cat, was all contradiction and beautifully herself. She is a very missed little being. Footnote Cecil Sharp collected folk sings in the British Isles. Amongst folk enthusiasts he is something of a hero as he preserved may folk songs and traditions. He was instumental in helping preserve the hundreds of different Morris dances. Yet as with the song lyrics he collected they were purged for naughty bits. Anything that went against his strict Victorian morality was censored. The whole of British folk tradition was made "nice". Inspired by Masks the Art of Expression ed. John Mack ISBN 0-7141-2530-X and other sources that I have read and internalised long ago. © Ian Bracegirdle 2004 http://mask-and-more-masks.com You may use this article freely on condition that you include this copyright line and URL and that people who subsequently use this article follow the same conditions. Thank you for accepting these conditions.


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Teacher, Course Leader, Mask enthusiast and collector