10 for today

A German Danse Macabre from the 18th century. Everyone is taking part in the 'Danse Macabre' (dance of death) from the lowliest peasant to the royal family. No one escapes the dance of death.

A clock from the German town of Augsburg, 1640. The figure is wearing a funerary wreath, and is holding an arrow, the tip of which displays the time.

News from Nowhere. William Morris is pretty kickass

Mihoko Ogaki site here brilliant sculptures releasing starlight from corporeal forms, so beautiful

Michal Trpak sculptures. Truly brilliant! More here at his wonderful website

BRILLIANT!!! See here! Edible delicious Momento Mori's! What more could you want in cake?

In Finnish, Northern lights are called “Lights of the Fox”. It comes from the old beliefs, that says the lights come from the fox tail hitting the snow.

Artist: Linda Piekäinen, Link on artist's page: https://www.facebook.com/artbypiekainen

Read more about the brilliant Beltane here we need more festivals and feast days, they should be brought back! Tom Hodgkinson, editor of the Idler and writer of some of my favourite books, champions the treasuring of old world customs and festivals. If I lived in the UK, I would never stop obscure festival-ing.

The strange tale of the green children of Woolpit, folklore? real? Decide for yourself here

And the dancing plague of 1518! What a brilliant piece of history this is! More here. History that seems to border on the edge of myth and myth that seems to have genuinely been a part of history, is one of my favourite spheres to exist in mentally!

What about you? :)

All pics from Tumblr unless linked to site

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Late Bloomer (for the sky watchers)

I don't even really know if its self-righteous to claim the title of 'late bloomer' as I am still very young

(Single-handedly the most reassuring Wiki entry here)

There are days this collective emphasis on 'having it' and 'knowing what to do with your life' is maddening. Some of us just wake up each day and have no clue. Rather than a complacency thing, I see it as almost the opposite, almost paralysed with too much choice. Potential! The one word always thrown back at you when you're struggling

There are days where I feel myself breaking beneath all my 'potential' selves. The weight of this unrealised future gain is holding me back in the present, and a few other Idlers I have met in my travels. It becomes a trap rather than a release of pent up creativity. Comparison is the thief of joy, and the idealised future you could have is one that makes you feel like a loser in the now....

I don't want to be a sheep maaaaaaann!

But it is getting to that point in life where I have to pick something(s) and stick to them, otherwise they will pick me.

 As the saying goes "Let go or be dragged" some words to live by, I need to let go of this juvenile idea that I will be 'everything' I have planned.

BUT!

This post is for the "late bloomers" or as older generations always like to look down and say, the wasted youth.Why do older people always forget what its like to be young?

The future is equally thrilling and terrifying

We are simultaneously faceless yet working towards that golden mask of unrealised 'time' and 'gains' from 'merit' and 'hard work'. The championing of Liberalism frightens me. In order to believe that people worked hard to be at the top, that they 'deserve' to be there, means by default, the people at the bottom deserve to be there too, it is a dangerously simplistic dichotomy to say the least

In the end, this whole idea of ourselves enduring constantly and forever is a myth, we will most likely, just like the billions before us, be forgotten. And rather than that being a pessimist view, I find it comforting. Even if you're working or not has been turned into a moral currency, you're a good person if you work and contribute, and simply bad if you simply don't. 

I am currently going through a bigger than realised at first stage of Funemployment, no one has what I have to offer, but I must believe that one day someone out there will look at my life summed up on paper, and be interested, mustn't I? 

What a curious way to run the world

So it goes.

All pics from Tumblr, Pinterest, general searches.

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