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Since the dawn of time, when language and symbolic pictograms formed to express ideas, storytelling brought about cohesion among those who assembled together to listen. There was a thirst to belong and to learn. According to Lani Peterson at the Harvard Business Publishing, there is a science behind storytelling: “It was central to meaning-making and sense-making” by which “our minds form and examine our own truths [beliefs].”

Both DAUGHTERS OF THE DANCE and CHOIR OF CLOISTERED CANARIES do just that. More importantly, They both tell a multi-layered story of mixed relationships, scars, wounds, fears, change, loss, renewal, and happenstance. The romance is felt in each story, but it also deals with historical truths that cannot be ignored.

Beneath all of all of the events and feelings, some of the inquisitive characters of the novels were in search of something greater than themselves, beyond such questions as ‘why are we here? and ‘who are we?”. Others may have already understood and reached an awareness that could not be shaken to the core. To put it differently, the theme of each novel is to explore its deeper meaning while in the throes of impermanence.

The tightness one feels (referred to as suffering and dissatisfaction in Buddhism due to impermanence) is a constant companion today as it was yesteryears. For many, it was always to meet the need of food and shelter, water, air and the like (biological and physiological needs); for many, it was personal needs and the like (safety needs) and other needs that can be summed up as deficiency need. Then there are the growth needs, which are much a part of the theme of each novel. Nonetheless, both deficiency needs and growth needs can coexist and often do.

In Daughters of the Dance, the theme is embraced by intimacy (including dysfunctional intimacy) and trust, esteem needs, as well as aesthetic needs (the enchantment of the danse du ventre) in a world of trade in oil conflict. In Choir of Cloistered Canaries, in addition to esteem needs, it was cognitive needs—curiosity, exploration, knowledge, and understanding of the known/unknown past and present/potential technologies—by Leitis and Drew amid global connections.

As a clue, the above-illustrated symbols speak to the transcendental … to transcend beyond the illusory Self.

The finding: Wisdom of spontaneous awareness in the expansive space of all things—empty cognizance of one taste, suffused with knowing, is your unmistaken nature, the uncontrived original state. When not altering what is, allow it to be as it is, and the awakened state is right now spontaneously present. From The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava.

Ahem, ahem. It should not be surprising that this blog is #13 regarding the novel, Choir of Cloistered Canaries.

As they say among themselves in the business of writing and printing, “We print our errors.” As such, below is an accounting of the “printing errors” that were not caught by the author and the proofreader(s).

I feel there should be an accounting since I really abhor what has happened to most authors in the current modern editing process. Having started my private-sector experience with the Webster Edition of McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., in the late 1960’s, proofreading was taken seriously; and it required two persons—the one who read and the one who looked at the text. Those days are not afforded today.

Also, punctuation styles are all over the page in printed material. For example, there are eight primary uses for a comma; and its basic purpose is to let the reader know and experience a pause. Often, they are missing in the text or in the wrong places. As for semicolons, they are not interchangeable with a comma or a period; their most common use is to joining two independent clauses without using a coordinating conjunction like and. Another gripe—autocorrect is not always correct. Consequently, it tends to slow down the enjoyment of reading in my humble opinion. All said, now to the errata that has been recently detected when my partner read the book out loud for me.

Printing Errors – Errata

Editing really matters, but it has become another victim of the internet age where everyone is a writer; and it has taken third place. There are several reasons for this–people have forgotten grammar and punctuation and have forgotten how to write beautifully, impactfully, and meaningfully. In fact, editing is an art. Publishers and writers need to pay for this invaluable commodity. (Sadly, the third-party editor assigned to this novel was not following the Chicago style manual; and I had to cite from such manual, explaining why his or her changes were incorrect. I was hoping not to say this, but it was very distracting and frustrating.)

Throughout civilizations there have been symbols that dominated archeological findings. For example, the eagle, the serpent, and the variant crosses as the dominant ones throughout the rise and fall of civilizations. As modern Homo sapiens sapiens, we are familiar with these with a slight understanding of their meaning or symbolism.

The historical novel, the subtitle of CHOIR OF CLOISTERED CANARIES is “Symbols for Everything under the Sun and Moon.” Each chapter has a designated symbol as a sub-theme for the chapter; and there is an appendix at the end of the story, explaining the use of the symbol.

Nonetheless, as impossible as it is to portray all the symbols that exist under the sun and moon, there are some very ancient symbols, which may not have been dealt with in the novel, are briefly explained below—the eagle, the serpent, the cross, the pine cone, the “handbag,” and others.

It is still debated as to which civilization is the oldest—the Indus Valley or Sumer or Egypt. However, as time passed, symbols were used as an abbreviation of what was involved in explaining the consciousness of the acts or intentions. By way of example, the Eagle head represents kingship, war, and conquer.

_{Note that slides six and seven seem similar. Slide six is early Byzantian; slide seven is a rendition of the Russian eagle.}

An ancient example of the mighty bird symbol is found in the encyclopedic, Puranic literature that predates many traditions of Proto-Indus-Europe and Avesta literature. That legendary two-headed eagle of unimaginable strength is known as Gandaberunda. According to Wikepedia, the wrath of Narasimha (incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man) needed to be quelled, otherwise, he might furiously destroy the cosmos. The devas (gods) approached Shiva for help. To protect the cosmos, Shiva manifested as the fiercely being Virabhadra. When Narasimha refused to simmer down, Shiva took the form of Sharabha, a part-lion and part-bird beast who then fought Narasimha. It was then that, in his resistance, he took the form of the two-headed Gandabrunda who was even stronger than Narsimha. The two forces fought fiercely for 18 days. Defeating Sharabha to restore Narasimha’s sense of calm, he discovered how ruthless and wasteful his wrathful behavior, destroying everything in their wake. Their battle caused a great devastation and recognized it was better to be peaceful instead of destructive. Sharabha removed the skin of his body and presented it to Gandaberunda. Upon its self-awareness, the Gandabrunda split in two, giving rise to Shiva.

 In our current mythology, the eagle represents rule, governance, and nations to control the subjects/citizens. The legend was supposed to teach that war is not necessary and that it is better to maintain peace by achieving balance. In some quarters, the balance between shiva and shakti (male and female) has to be achieved; otherwise, the cycle of rise and fall of civilizations will remain in perpetuity.

As symbols, the eagle, serpent, handbag, and pine cone represented the keepers of knowledge to jumpstart change to create civilizations. Until recently, their meanings were hidden. Sometimes, generally speaking, many symbols stood the test of time or where inverted or even perverted as evil.

The pine cone (pigna in Italian) is prominent at the Vatican that leads to the main entrance of its library and to the entrance to the Secret Archives of the Vatican. Known as the Fontana della Pigna, this large, bronze pine cone is dated around the first century of the Common Era and believed to have been relocated from Hadrian’s tomb. It was once located between the Pantheon and the Temple of Isis in Rome. Even the Pope’s staff has a pine cone carved at the base of the wooden portion of the staff.

Other notable places to find the pine cone . . . The staff of Osiris intertwined with two serpents. Hindu gods have pine cones in their hands. Shiva’s hair is woven with snakes in the shape of a pine cone. Using the pine cones with serpents represents spiritual consciousness…the third eye, enlightenment, immortality. It should not be surprising to understand why the Roman pine cone was moved in front of the entrances to knowledge and hidden wisdoms. There are Assyrian carvings of god-like figures as men/eagle heads holding pine cones aloft in their right hand. The Assyrians also show a pine cone being used to fertilize the Tree of Life. A statue of a Mexican deity, Chicomecoatl holds a pine cone and evergreen tree branches. Dionysus also carried a staff topped with a pine cone.

The current understanding of the pine cone represents knowledge and the passing of wisdom, the cosmic consciousness of existence itself. That understanding, moreover, is applied to other symbols.

Pine cones contain the fibonacci sequence and have been a symbol of enlightenment throughout history. In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence is a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, implying balance. 

The pine cone and the “handbag,” which I opine is best described as a “tool bag,” is often represented together and is often depicted being held in the left hand.

The symbol of the “handbag” is probably the most debated. Perhaps the best current understanding is that it represents the tools necessary to build, materially, a civilization. It existed prominently in early Assyrian and Mexican civilizations with its pyramid and other megalithic structures.

The “handbag” is even found at Gobekli Tepe, Pillar 43! Gobekli Tepe is an active archeological site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, which is almost 12,000 years old, predating Sumer. Likely commenced by hunter-gatherers who were organized and already stylized in their expressions at the end of the Ice Age, it is a marvel and mystery.

As a transitional piece, I introduce a later rendition of the pine cone and the “handbag” being held by an earlier deity, Oannes, as a fish body with head and feet of a man.

In Mesopotamian mythology, Oannes taught mankind civilization. In various depictions, he was clothed with a fish costume, representing an amphibious being. A Babylonian tablet was unearthed in the ancient Sumer capital of Uruk (current Warka, Iraq). Known also as Adapa and Uanna, Oannes was a 4th-century-BCE deity who taught the inhabitants of the Persian Gulf the written language, the arts, arithmetic, medicine, astronomy, politics, ethics, and law. The knowledge he imparted in astronomy, for example, was so precise for that time that the rotation of the moon was off by 0.4 from contemporary computer calculations. Note, too, that his eyes are closed as if transcendental.

Keep in mind that Sumer as a civilization emerged during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age (sixth-fifth millennium BCE).

There are other depictions of the “handbag” carriers as noted above.

As for the serpent and the cross, these symbols have been around both of which have had their meanings inverted and/or perverted over time.

In more recent times, originating as a design element, the Star of Life is used internationally to identify emergency medical services and found on ambulances, medical personnel uniforms, medical bracelets, and the like, using the Rod of Asclepius, the ancient symbol of medicine. In some countries, its use is restricted to authorized personnel.

Carl Jung, a Swiss who founded analytical psychology, influenced the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, religious studies, and the like, once said that “the serpent shows the way to hidden things.” As such, variant symbols of the serpent have been used to represent spirit, the divine, enlightenment, and the power of transformation. In essence, to understand the hidden nature of things, an understanding of wisdom is required.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, Purusha Sukta, Narayana Sukta, and the Narayana Upanishad from the Vedas, the Seven-headed Narayana represents the ultimate soul or supreme consciousness. According to Madhvacharya, Indian philosopher of the school of Vendanta, Narayana is one of the five manifestations of Vishnu, albeit masculine in energy, which are cosmic emanations in contrast to his incarnate avatars.

As for those versed in the Hebrew scripture, the serpent tempted Eve to eat from the fruit of the Tree of of Knowing Good and Evil. Pardon me, but it seems that the message to the inhabitants who were told this version, were told to not listen to reason but to their leaders be they rulers or priests. Just saying. When Eve ate of the fruit of that tree, what is the impression of the fruit did she have? “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.”

From the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the serpent regains its legs.

Then there is the crucified alchemical serpent. The serpent is crucified to “fix the volatile” or that which is changeable.

There are many other great serpent imagery such as the Kundalini. In Sanskrit, kundalini means “coiled snake” and represents the divine feminine energy force that resides at the base of the spine. Sometimes it is represented as two intertwined serpents. The process of it rising towards the top of the skull signifies awakening of the mind that includes both female and male energies that, apparently, stimulates the pineal gland (aka third eye) to experience unseen truths. Is this what Carl Jung meant?

As for the cross, we know it is a prominent symbol in Christianity; but it predates the Christ crucefics by millennia.

One of the famous carved megalithic pillars at Kobekli Tepe (Pillar 43), illustrates under three “handbags” a vulture holding an orb and a scorpion below. Upon astrological analysis, the vulture and scorpion represent the constellations Cygnus and Scorpius, aligned with each other. Furthermore, the orb, representing Deneb (one of the brightest stars in our galaxy) is connected to Cygnus and together, they form a cross. This ancient rendition of the cross symbolizes the crossing of energies–mind, body, and consciousness–to attain awakened awareness or ascension.

This is certainly food for thought, and the questions are endless when how great past civilizations ended.

Last but not not least, modern science call the pineal gland an atrophied third eye that needs to be exercised–Kundalini yoga is a good start. In Buddhism, it is referred to as the third eye: the vajra thunderbolt where the dimension of other realms is charged with immense lights of kundalini rising. When the preacher of Ecclesiastes 1:9 said there is nothing new under the sun,” what was the height, depth and breadth of his or her knowing?

Choir of Cloistered Canarlies explores some of these themes, especially the symbols for immortaility.

The novel, CHOIR OF CLOISTERED CANARIES (CoCC), covers a lot of territory–continental United States, Iran, Italy, and Panama. Of these, the most dangerous by far, is the Darién Gap of El Darién that borders Colombia and Panama. One of the principal characters in the novel dies tragically in El Darién. Moreover, the novel has an epidemiological focus.

Growing up in the Canal Zone until 1969, I knew El Darién was off limits because it was very dangerous and unpoliced, inhospitable to be exact. Unsavory people such as paramilitary organizations and drug cartels hid there, and life=threatening diseases lurked there. One well known paramilitary organization is the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). These cartel and paramilitary groups are involved in human, arms, and drug trafficking as well as other lawless activities such as kidnapping. Armed conflict can break out at any time.

It was and will remain jungle. However, through economic and political strife. desperate adults and children have migrated through El Darién, especially from Venezuela and Colombia; other migrants from elsewhere dare make the treacherous trek.

El Darién is also known as The Darién Gap. Dense and humid, it consists of multiple ecosystems that house many types of insects, plants, and venomous snakes. The venom of a coral snake and toad-like creatures and frogs can kill a person within a few hours. Also, there are many deadly species of centipedes, scorpions, spiders and insects, as well as poisonous plants, that can kill a person in a matter of a few days.

Here is a list of a few dangerous animals one can encounter: Anaconda, Bushmaster, Fer-de-lance, Green Iguana, Harpy Eagle, Jaguar, Ocelot, Puma, Tegu lizard, Timber Rattlesnake, and Yaguarundi. You get the picture.

As a World Heritage site, it consists of 1,475,000 acres of beaches, mangroves, swamps, and unhealthy humidity. Humidity peaks in April. Though there are commercial sight-seeing trips available to the adventurous, it is not a place for a non-expert to explore. At one time, hostile tribes inhabited the area.

Tragically, migrants are traversing this territory without having a hint of its dangers. They seek a better life free from economic/political pain and suffering. CNN reporters have visited the location of this phenomenon, traveling for five days, that has been mounting for decades. One cannot think that it could get worse then now. Visit their article here: Darién Gap migration: On one of the world’s most dangerous migrant routes, a cartel makes millions off the American dream | CNN.

It is unconscionable what these migrants suffer. They are from Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean, including China. Many fly into Ecuador by taking advantage of Ecuador’s liberal visa policy. Even migrants from Ecuador are now part of the mix.

In 2021, about 19,000 children crossed on foot. Half of them were under five years of age according to UNICEF. The record total was around 130,000 migrants. About 250,000 people crossed in 2022, double what it was the previous year. Early data for 2023 shows an increase six times as many made the trek from January to March, another record high. The UN reports that, by the end of this year (2023), the migration will be about 400,000 migrants.

The Darién Gap is the rainiest region in the world. As these exhausted trekkers traverse the area, they encounter deep clay-like, sticky mud most of the way. Heartbreakingly, these migrants, whether arriving by air, boat, or land, face hunger, murder, sickness, thirst, rape, and/or robbery.

There was once upon a time a lofty idea to engineer The Pan-American Highway. It was to connect all of North, Central, and South America. But it could not make it through the Darién Gap. It is known as “the gap of the longest road” The jungle marshland and mountains between Panama and Colombia ended the highway’s reach—at Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia.

One cannot overlook the diseases that lurk in the region. Plasmodium infection in anophelines mosquitoes (malaria) is prevalent in the region of El Darién. Eighty-five percent of the cases in Panama come from anophelines mosquitoes with cases doubling in 2021. There has been outbreaks of the equine encephalitis virus complex–namely, Madariaga (MADV) and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Viral Infections (VEEV)–that are transmitted by the rodent/mosquito-borne virus. There is no medical presence to determine and evaluate how these infections may spread through this migration. All said and done, the prospect could very well be huge deaths among these huddled and desperate migrants.

According to publication Clinical Infectious Diseases, it states in summary the following:

“The increasing foreign-born component in the populations of immigration-receiving regions, including the United States, Australia, Canada, and western Europe, coupled with the sustained prevalence of infectious diseases in immigration-source nations, will have a growing effect on the nature and practice of clinical infectious diseases. Global factors beyond the influence of national infectious disease control strategies will affect national disease-control programs. Migrants will become increasingly important risk groups and index cases for infections of low incidence in the immigration-receiving nations. As the demography of immigration source nations evolves, classical infectious disease concerns in migrants may become less relevant [45], and new challenges can be expected as immigrants and refugees arrive from new regions of the world with different background infectious disease epidemiology.” (Vol 38, Issue 12, 15 June 2004)

Is it possible to have an orderly, managed system of mass migration? Sadly, I think not. In our time, there is an ideological and socio-political collapse on a grand scale that is globally man-made. We must not give up trying to solve such problems.

For those of us who find Gautama Buddha (aka Siddhartha Gautama; Shakyamuni) a compelling historical figure, he was an extraordinary figure before he became ordinary (i.e., knowing reality from illusion, for those who are extraordinary are living under the spell of illusion/delusion). To this day, the Gautama Buddha (“one who is awakened to reality”) still evokes gripping interests, because, in his awakening, he had developed a web of systems of consciousnesses (the Abhidharma) that points to how the mind can transcend suffering. The Abhidharma has stood the test of time to be a psycho-philosophically exact language for modern psychology. And yet, why did Gautama Buddha sit under the Ashvattha (Sanskrit), otherwise known as the Pipal, Peepal, or Ficus Religiosa for seven weeks? Let us reconstruct.

The Pipal tree is referred to as the mythological Tree of Life or Sacred Fig or Bodhi (Tree of Enlightenment). Biologically, it is a big semi-evergreen with a thick, broad trunk that can reach a height of 98 feet with smooth, light grey bark that peels in patches. The leaves are long, heart-shaped, and taper at the tips. The fruits resemble small, purple balls.. From a scientific standpoint, the tree releases a lot of oxygen, considering its magnificent size. It is not to be confused with the Banyan tree (Ficus Benghalensis), which later subsumed the Pipal tree as the most sacred tree to this day in Hinduism.

In a psycho-philosophical context, the symbols were instruments of phenomenal understanding; and the Pipal tree was clearly associated with meditation. More specifically, it also became the symbol of Vishnu who was born under it.  

In the Upanishads, the fruit of the tree was used to explain the “difference between the body (external phenomena) and the soul/spirit (internal phenomena).” As an example, the body of the six senses and the soul, represented by the seed, the consciousness that witnesses things. As Shiva, this deity was portrayed in the several ancient Pashupati seals of the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300-1300 BCE) the horned, three-faced male deity seated in a yogic posture, surrounded by a rhino and a buffalo on the right, and an elephant and a tiger on the left. Some seals are primitive and others stylized over time. He became Lord Shiva was originally the protector of the Beasts (Pashupati) and the male principle of creation, perhaps as the phallic lingam.

The top two seals (from Mohenjo-daro (atomic dates of 2500-1700 BCE) are the early renditions of the Pepal tree sprouting over the head of Vishnu; the third seal is a later stylized version of the Pepal leaves depicted as energy flow at the thousand-petaled crown chakra (Sahasrara in Sanskrit).

What is currently interpreted as bangles on the arms are actually serpents as attested in an earlier mythology regarding Pashupati. It reads, as follows, in part—

When the earth awoke, so did all the plants and beasts…In the hoary and horned lord of three faces arose from the heart of Ma…Skin of fur and barks, sinews of vines and mighty branches…He opened his eyes..and howled,..giving forth the voice of every wild animal for so he was. And all the beasts..began to come to him…Birds and furry creatures soon hopped amidst the vines and tangled hair that covered his head and body. Serpents wrapped about his limbs; deers and elephants touched his shoulderes…for he was of them and they of him and they were one.

The Pipal, moreover, represents the Trimurti in Hinduism—the roots as Brahma, the trunk as Vishnu, and the leaves as Shiva—where council was held and thus associated with spiritual understanding.. Perhaps this is why Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree in seeking enlightenment.

An educated and princely member of the (Saka) Shakya Gautama clan, he knew his early history and sought to put certain beliefs to the test.

Centuries make a difference when it comes to the rise and fall of cultural influences in and on a civilization. The dates of Siddhartha Gautama’s birth and death are debated. Within the older Eastern Buddhist tradition of China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, the traditional date for the death of the Buddha was 949 BCE. According to the Ka-tan system of time calculation in the Kalachakra tradition, Buddha is believed to have died about 833 BCE. If he died in 949 BCE, his date of birth was 1029 BCE. If he died in 833 BCE, he was born in 949 BCE. Though it is held he was born in Lumbini, Shakya Republic, Kosala kingdom located in the Terai plains of modern southern Nepal, it is customary to claim that he was born in 623 BCE in accordance with an inscription on the pillar erected by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 249 BCE. Most of his early life was in Kapilavastu.

The take away is that Siddhartha Gautama was a cultural product of the Vedic period (1500-500 BCE), which was the period of the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The Vedic period was a product of the ancient religion of the “Indic Aryan peoples” (Proto-Indo-Iranians (likely adherents of precursor of Zoroastianism, which adopted the Sanskrit word for “purity” (Arya) into their cultural and religious way of life at the exclusion of others)) who entered northwestern India from Persia c. 2000–1200 BCE. It was the precursor of Hinduism, and its beliefs and practices are contained in the Vedas. The split between the Indo-Iranians and Indic people (Indo-Aryans) happened around 1800 BCE.

For example, he knew the Vedas literatures (c. 1300-900 BCE), which were composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, a vicinity of the Shakyas. The Shakyas were an ancient eastern sub-Himalayan ethnicity and clan of north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. Their existence was during the Iron Age. They were organized into an  aristocratic oligarchic republic known as the Shakya Republic and were on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Gangetic plain in the Greater Magadha cultural region.

The Vedic Period began to dwindle after 1000 BCE, which instilled for centuries, a Varna (caste) system. Siddhartha Gautama was born into the Kskatriya varna comprised of warriors, kings, rulers of territories, administrators, and the like. He chose not to remain loyal to his varna duty and may have adopted varna duties of a Brahmin (priests, gurus, and the like) in protest. There was a lot of backlash to Vedic ways during his lifespan.

There was another kind of migration: The Pipal tree appeared in other archeological finds outside of the Indus Valley Civilization. Here are a few:

Images above, respectively, (1) IVC Shiva, (2) Sumerian Enlil; (3) Sumerian Enki, (4) Sumerian Enki, (5) Sumerian/Akkadian Shamash-Uti, (6) IVC Proto-Trimurti’s Pipal tree

There is much to be said about personalities and their temperament. In fact, management banks on it with regards to their managerial staff, especially. Management has used Kepner-Tregore for critical-thinking processes for some time as well as Myers Briggs on personality types. The latter has been a reliable measurement of “know thyself” as an employee or on an individual basis.

The image below was the first working cover for the novel, CHOIR OF CLOISTERED CANARIES. They faced the Isthmus of Panama, their final destination. Their “contingencies” in the title had much to do with any contingency intended for use in circumstances not completely foreseen. There was no telling how their relationship would end after taking a bold step toward renewing their relationship.

The protagonist Leila, a scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), she had been estranged from her mother Izobel for many decades and had finally wanted to reach out to her. Sort of as a catch-up measure, she had Izobel take the Meyers-Briggs personality type indicators. And she retook hers to see where she found her active temperament at the time only to discover that they were a match–the golden pair of INTP (Izobel) and her INFJ. They would finally understand each other, becoming compatible. Both of the golden pair are among the minority of minorities with INFJ being the rarest. Nonetheless, they suffered a gain albeit it was bittersweet at the start. These extremely rare personality types comprise up to 1-4% of the world population, according to the MBPI. Consequently, they tend to hold back from revealing their true selves for fear of being misjudged or misunderstood.

The IN indicators they have in common–“I” for introvert and “N” for intuitive. A few things that finally they discovered about themselves and their commonalities: They like their space and relating to their feeling of not quite fitting in with the world around them; their exploring non-traditional ideas, their discovering each other’s private quirkiness; and finally, they could respect each other. As for their opposite FJ and TP personality indicators, these helped them balance out their sensibilities and practicality. As for Drew, the male protagonist, he is an INTP. Lucky Leitis.

The chart below is a simple breakdown of the different indicator symbols, but take the key with a grain of salt, for the personalities of each run very deep and varied.

If you want to take a MBI test to see your personality type indicators, you can start out with this Personality Test. There are several online that are free.

Psychology is considered a pseudoscience. As a result, one needs to consider that one of the reasons for this designation is that there are too many variables that cannot be controlled to validate evidence. This type of test, however, is a good indicator of “who you are where you were when” that can help one to understand where one stands in a given point of time; in this case, the present situation and circumstances. One’s response mechanisms come to the fore. Sometimes it is difficult to find the demarcation of science and pseudoscience. In some instances, pseudoscience becomes science due to an improvement on methodology of evidence collected.

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President Biden on Thursday, December 15, 2022, officially unsealed over 13,000 records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but they are primarily from the U.S. National Archive. It appears that some of the records from the CIA and the FBI have been released while there are many others still under review before a decision is made to release them to the public as required under a 1992 law. The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (aka the JFK Records Act) directs the National Archives and Records Administration to establish a collection of records to be known as the President JFK Assassination Records Collection. It stated that the collection shall consist of copies of all U.S. government records relating to the 1963 assassination of JFK, including any materials created or made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came into the possession of any state or local law enforcement office that provided support or assistance or performed work in connection with a federal inquiry into the assassination. We will have to wait until May or June of 2023 to learn anything more.

Although one of the protagonists in Choir of Cloistered Canaries speaks of that infamous day as she walked the sidewalk with her parents on November 22, 1963, she remembers a person in a car driving by shouting repeatedly, “Kennedy has been assassinated!” Most folks who were alive then tend to remember where they were when this tragedy became part of U.S. history. This event moved the author, somewhat autobiographically in this instance in 1969; she got a private tour of the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building on the corner of Elm Street and North Houston Street in Dallas.

A memory of a memory can often be faulty as she held that Lee Harvey Oswald did not assassinate JFK, for the angle from the window was impossible. She was half right. The shot from the Texas School Book Depository braised President Kennedy’s neck and hit Texas Governor John Connally’s right shoulder.  Oswald’s rifle bullet was not the fatal shot that killed President Kennedy and injured Governor Connally. One of two or three shots came from the Grassy Knoll that proved to be the fatal shot that blasted Kennedy’s brain tissue while also seriously injuring Connally. Connally recalled there was blood and brain tissue in the vehicle. “One bullet caused Kenney’s first wound and then an entirely separate shot struck me,” he insisted. He had suffered a punctured lung, a bullet lodged in his leg among other injuries. He was adamantly against the single-bullet theory. You would think he would know.

 See video below.

The angle of the third shot blew off the back of Kennedy’s skull, and a photo of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, reaching out to collect parts of his brain and of his skull as shown in the adjacent photo. The vehicle had just reached the Grassy Knoll when Kennedy’s body pushed backward before he slumped to where the First Lady sat. Contrary to much speculation, the assassin remains at large if he still lives.

One thing the author recalls is that, when the custodian of the Texas School Book Depository building gave her the tour, he stated that the U.S. Government had all the school books for the Texas school system stored there removed. It had been cleaned spic-and-spandy. It was a stark, white space that covered the entire sixth  floor. She said, “I don’t think a germ could have been found there. It was antiseptic. There was only the far left window that still stood.” She had worked for one of the publishing companies leasing there. Later it became known as The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

There are some interesting points—some old and one new—about who could have been behind the assassination. One could venture that there was a collective interest in stopping some of Kennedy’s costly policies for the Establishment of a dominant elite that controls a polity of continued support of military spending by a government. It can be traced back to a certain clandestine agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Who was he? Why? We can only speculate, but a photograph is worth a thousand words. (See gallery of photographs below.)

NBC News reported on December 15, 2022, that there are thousands of documents that remain largely hidden. Of interest to this blog are “44 that relate to a shadowy CIA agent named George Joannides and a covert Cuban-related program he ran that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald less than four months before Kennedy was shot.” But so did the operative George H. W. Bush who used his former petroleum production business, Zapata, as a cover. He, too, was associated with anti-Castro Cubans affiliated with the CIA. In fact, declassified CIA records reveal that Joannides obstructed two official JFK investigations by not disclosing what he knew about contacts between his Cuban agents and Kennedy’s accused killer. That was it. He may have been set up as the patsy to take the fall for a very clandestine operative, who later became CIA Director, shown in the adjacent photograph. His mannerism supports who the person is in the photograph below (posted twice), A mannerism is hard to hide over the years. In fact, the statue in front of his library shows him with his right hand in his trousers’ pocket. Bush was a lefty and often kept it free while his right hand was pocketed.

Three years ago there was information on George H. W. Bush on Wikipedia, which has been deleted. But one passage from that information was captured in this historical novel, Choir of Cultured Canaries “..when the FBI asked Bush if he was a CIA operative in 1963. He answered as if he denied being one while at the same time not denying that he was. One has to say he knew not to lie to the FBI.” According to JFKFacts.org, “there is no evidence that Joannides was involved in a plot to kill the President. As recipient of the agency’s Career Intelligence Medal in 1981, Joannides was not a “rogue officer”.

When President Kennedy took office, it was the height of the Cold War, and there was an increase in spending on both nuclear and conventional forces, including the increase of advisors in Vietnam from 400 to 16,000! Very early in his Administration, Kennedy wanted to turn away from warfare to more domestic programs and the space program. His new visionary mission was his New Frontier, a progressivism that seeks to advance the human condition through social re form based on purported advancements in science, technology, economic development, and social organization. Sounds familiar? It was contrary, however, to the paradigm of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex vested to influence public policy to improve relationships between the military and defense industry (e.g., the fossil fuel and chemical industries) that supplies the military.

In summary, because these are complex issues, somethings are certain. It reminds me of the film, The Gentlemen, in which the protagonists and their enablers ensure that the cover-up is completely carried out. It also reminds me of John le Carre’s famous line in The Russia House (film based on Carré’s novel of the same name): “The gray suits are keeping the arms race going.”

_{Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963}

Someone once said, “Habitual mannerisms almost become ‘rules’ that we unconsciously live by.” This is true of former President George H. W. Bush. You can be the judge of whether or not he was present in Dallas, Texas, on the day President Kennedy was assassinated near the Texas School Book Depository Building. See the gallery below of Bush’s habitual mannerism reflected in the photograph above.

_{The six photos below are a carousel (use Page Down tab or click on adjacent arrows)}

REST IN PEACE, GENTLEMEN & LADY

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

President George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018)

Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963)

George Efthron Joannides (July 5, 1922 – March 9, 1990)

Governor John Bowden Connally, Jr. (February 27, 1917 – June 15, 1993)

including

First Lady Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 0 May 19, 1994)

George H. W. Bush (November 30, 2018)

There is a stellar character, albeit fictional, portrayed in Choir of Cloistered Canaries. His name is Pope Hormisdas II, whose name is hardly Roman in origin.  From whence comes a big-name like Hormisdas II? There is a tale to be told that is historical and subject to some conjecture.

There was a St. Hormisdas (Hormisdas I) who served as pontiff for nine years and 17 days (July 20, 514 to August 6, 523 of the Common Era) as the 52nd pontificate. It is not clear how or why he was appointed a saint by the Roman Catholic Church as was his son, St. Silverius, who briefly served as a Roman pope but who was later exiled to a deserted island where he died of starvation. The son did not even get recognized as holding the 56th pontificate! It was his misfortune to be deposed by the famous Byzantine general Belisarius. Nonetheless, due to their title as saints, they were listed in the Roman Martynology as receiving eulogies recognized by the Sacred Congregation of Rites as an essential part of the Roman liturgy.

Pope-Saint Hormisdas I was no ordinary pontiff. He and fictional Pope Hormisdas II were visionaries of a fragile Roman Catholic Church in need of revival to survive.

So what do these two Hormisdas have in common? The need to accommodate a unified belief system that requires changes with time. Moreover, what is sub-rosa in the novel? Since ancient times, the rose was associated with secrecy, either from hiding indiscretions or confessions. The secret lies in the meaning behind the name, which is Hormizd in Persian.. Hormisdas is the Latinized and Greek versions of Hormizd. To clarify the significance of the names, it will be necessary to revisit the Sassanid Empire.

Firstly, Pope-Saint Hormisdas I was born in the region of Lazio into an noble family of the Volsci people or tribe. They spoke an extinct Osco-Umbrian language related to the Indo-European languages. As a people, they even formed a sovereign state near Rome. By 304 C.E., they submitted to Rome and became Romanized so quickly and completely that it had been difficult to ascertain their original culture until inscriptions were later found.

In fact, the first emperor of Rome was Augustus who was a Volscian descendant. Another famous Volsci, albeit found in the annals of mythology, is Camilla (aka Minerva, later ascribed), made known in Virgil’s Aeneid whose fate was to become a warrior-virgin servant of Goddess Diana.

Symbolism and allusions have her tied to her fleeing King-father Metabus and flinging her across the River Amasenus by tying her to his spear. The allusion is that Camilla is associated with the Amazons whose homeland was in ancient Scythia. About 30-80% of ancient Italic tribes were of Y-Haplogroup R1 (R1a-R1b, predominantly, from one or several tribes of ancient Scythians). Their ancient origins go back to Central Asia.

It should be noted that the name of Hormizd was first recorded as originating during the Persian Sassanid Empire. (More on the name later.) Under the Sassanids, Persia influenced the Roman civilization considerably by recognizing the Sassanid Persians as equals. In fact, their cultural influence extened far beyond the territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Northern Africa, China, and India. It was a dynastic and aristocratic culture to the extent that, when the Persian noble son of King Hormizd II fled to Constantinople which was under Roman rule, his name was Hormizd. Roman Emperor Constantine helped him and gave him a palace near the Mamara Sea. In Byzantine times, the neighborhood gained recognition as “near the houses of Hormisdas”; and the palace became the private residence of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I before becoming emperor.

Hormizd’s father, King Hormizd II, ruled when the Kingdom of Armenia (formerly, Parthia) adopted Christianity its official religion, thus renouncing the Zoroastrian heritage it shared with Persia. Historically, King Hormizd I can be likened to King Ashoka the Great of India who was a cruel ruler until he learned about Buddha Shakyamuni’s spiritual precepts. He permitted freedom of worship to the Jews and other religious cultures, the usurper of the throne did not tolerate religious freedom. Eventually, Hormizd II was murdered by the nobility and the Zoroastrian clergy for his leniency toward other religious faiths; and they sought to murder his sons—Hormizd, the third son who fled from imprisonment; the first son, Adur Narshe who was murdered early on during his very brief reign, and the second son who was blinded.

During his lifetime, Hormizd did not favor battling the Roman Empire, Instead, he served as a soldier against Persia in Emperor Julian’s army when he lived in Constantinople.

Hormizd’s son Shapur II was named King after Adur Narseh was murdered to gain control of the empire. He became king when he reached his majority at the age of 16. Shapur II was born forty days after his father’s death. He not only expanded the territory of the empire, he also pursued a harsh religious policy. It was during his 70-year reign that the Zoroastrian text, Avesta, was completed. This text was about the revelation of the Ahura Mazda. the heavenly supreme being of a triad.

Despite the fact that under Shapur II, the Avesta was finally written down, King Shapur I formed a would-be heretical version of Zoroastrianism. Known as Zurvanism, the heavenly supreme being was no longer Ahura (“Lord”) Mazda (“Wisdom”) but Zurvan. Ahura Mazda with some other deities where relegated to being “eidola.” Nonetheless, while th Greek transliterated Ahura Mazda as Hormisdas, it became Hormizd as the Middle Persian version of the name. During the reign of Sassanid King Bahram II, the name became one of his names—Ohrmazd-mowbad.

We have established that the name has a Persian origin during the Sassanid Empire (officially knowns as the Empire of Iranians (Erasahr) or as the Neo-Persian Empire. It can best be remembered as the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests, ending in 651 C.E. That was the end of the Sassanid family.

One can presume a simple theory that Saint-Pope Hormisdas I was given by his parents in honor of either their Persian relative who migrated from the Central East to the region Lazio or in remembering their family origins from Persia or from Constantinople.

Nevertheless, names, family origins and culture do influence choices made by the living. Hormisdas I and Hormisdas II were no exceptions.

Pope-Saint Hormisdas II chose to unite what the Western and Eastern orthodoxies under one Catholic Church. After all,” Catholic” means universality—a universal Christian church with an eastern flavor. Hormisdas I did just that in appeasing the riffs that existed between Rome and Constantinople. He removed the last vestiges of the schism in Rome and the Acacian schism that would eventually restore communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople.

Our fictitious Pope Hormisdas II can only succeed if the reader wishes him to succeed. In the end, realization is in the eyes of the beholder.

It is said that all good things come in threes. This is true of Indigo—as a plant, as a dye (color), and as having medicinal properties.

The reason for blogging about Indigo is that in the United States there is a revival of Indigo in recent times and that in the novel Choir of Cloistered Canaries, one of the characters, Miss Ellie, is from the Carolinas. More  specifically, she was a descendant from West Africa who were enslaved and brought to the lower Atlantic states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia to work on the plantations of coastal rice, Sea Island cotton, and indigo. Indigo was the primary staple for a short duration, and the slaves that worked on the indigo plantations were known as indigo slaves. In modern parlance, they are commonly called Gullah Geechee from the Lowcountry.

It is no surprise that Miss Ellie drew from certain prevailing influences of the Geechee culture. The Geechee culture absorbed from many influences of other cultures, for example, Christianity, Islam and traditional West African spiritual practices. For Miss Ellie, it was not difficult to understand why she leaned towards an eclectic version of Quaker beliefs such as community, simplicity, integrity, and equality. She was an equal under the Carr household under Drew and Drew’s mother who was a Quaker. Miss Ellie managed the place for Drew, And it should be of no surprise that much of her influence in how the house paints were versions of blue. Though one can imagine that patriarch Carr imported many blue-and-white porcelain from Ming Dynasty of China, the blue was from cobalt oxide imported from Persia and had no real bearing on why Miss Ellie chose the hallway blue, the porch ceiling haint blue, and newly-appointed bedroom with Carolina Blue, Haint Blue, though a light blue, is sourced from the Indigo plant.

Two species of indigo plants thrived in the United States—Indigofera caroliana and Indigofera lespotsepala. Under British rule of the colonies, the production of indigo dye was considered “blue gold”. Via trade, the plant’s cultivation came from the Indus Valley Civilization (3300-1300 BCE) and later from other parts of India. Portuguese sailors transported the plant (c. 1342) to the West Coast of Africa, where the British then took hold of it and commercialized it during the slave expansion across the Atlantic Ocean. Then a British colony, South Carolina became the center of indigo plantation and production (c. 1670) of the dye. When the U.S. Revolutionary War started, causing a  disruption in production, the British East India Company moved production to Bengal and parts of the current Bihar states of India where it continued until the second decade of the 20th century. Overall, production declined sharply in the 1790s. For slaves, it was life-saving. Many fell into the large vats and were boiled to death. Nonetheless, the garment industry still is not good for the environment and people as long as synthetic dyes are used and the garments are coated with formaldehyde. As for wages, there is evidence that employees are modern slaves due to labor trafficking in the fashion industry.

As reported in the Indian Journal of Scientific History, “Indigo–IThe Crop that Created HIstory and then Itself Became HIstory, (2018)” by Rajendra Prasad comments, “Indigo got its name because of its origin in the Indus Valley…where it was called nīlā, meaning dark blue and by the 7th Century BCE, people started using the plant for producing the blue dye.”

Indigo is grown in almost all south Asian countries, including Japan. However, as precious as the blue colors are, Adolf von Baeyer, a German professor of chemistry, formulated the first synthetic indigo dye (indigotin) in 1882. Presently, with a few exceptions, all indigo dye is produced synthetically. An alternative production, credited to Karl Heunamm, was formulated at BASF (Badische-Aniline-und Soda Fabric) in 1897; but it also involves a toxic process of converting naphthaliine to phthalic anhydride by using mercury (II) sulphate as a catalyst to then produce indigo.

Currently, there is a demand for the natural dye because it  has antibacterial, antifungal, and insect repelling properties among other benefits. For example, the roots and stem may help clear congestion when experiencing a cold, bronchitis, or asthma. It helps reduce inflammation, too, as well as to treat some skin disorders such as eczema.

If you know of a friend or a friend of a friend who has indigo seeds, try to grow the plant if it can grow in your zone. After all, that is how it is spreading in the United States.

Postscript

For artisans, dying is labor intensive. It requires repeated dipping and wringing to get the desired color, for dark blue jeans over 20 times! The best jeans on the market are from Japan and called natural indigo “Aizome”.

Last but not least, Professor Baeyer’s synthetic indigo was formulated as o-nitrobenzaldehyde with acetone, a compound that is petro-based and not as safe as once thought for humans.

The biggest threat to the scientific community when it comes to innovative and safe applications of mycelia/fungi is Big Pharma. Though Big Pharma is not the topic of this blog, it must be dealt with because of its business practices, for example, requiring years of Prosac instead of two-three capsules of a specific fungus to cure a chronic illness. It’s just not profitable for Big Pharma to keep one medicated. As you may already know, Big Pharma consists of major multinational pharmaceutical companies that, collectively, remain the most profitable industry in the United States. For an interesting exploration of its history, visit The Side Unseen.

And so we begin with three of the many topics and themes encountered in CHOIR OF CLOISTERED CANARIES: in search for longevity, immortality, and higher consciousness. Though briefly alluded to throughout the novel, epidemiologist Leitis poses a theory of how Homo sapiens sapiens became a highly cognitively-aware being. She speculated that, when our species or earlier ones were curious about a fungus outcropping from cattle dung, the species experienced something extraordinary–what felt like out-of-body visions of colors, forms, and patterns. In another instance in the novel, there was a brief encounter by her mother Izobel seeking to understand The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese Book of Life. C. G. Jung, an early Westerner who attempted to understand the secrets of the East, studied this wisdom literature of the powers of growth latent in the human psyche. Based on a cursory understanding of one of the yoga practices described in the text, it sounds much like Mahamudra Tantra without the drug. This is not to say that Eastern wisdom literature scrubs any historical use of mind-altering fungi/plants. Eastern yogis have and do with great skill.

The widening of our consciousness ought not to proceed at the expense of other kinds of consciousness but ought to take place through the development of those elements of our psyche….

C. G. Jung

Nonetheless, in the prolific mushroom world, there is much diversification. Hypothetically, the golden flower could very well be a mycelium (as in hidden). On a more serious note, the mycelia world is very ancient.

One can say it evolved into the network that digests the debris of matter on the face and under face of the earth. Moreover, one can honestly say that life as we know it is due in large part to mycelia and its fungi–by creating soil, regulating hydrological cycles, and establishing highly beneficial relationships with flora and fauna. In essence, it is the fabric of life that makes our lives sustainable. In fact, the human neural network of our human brain, Vagus nerve, and placenta mimic the mycelia.

Did you know that 90% of terrestrial plants has a mycorrhizal (symbiotic) relationship with one or more species of fungi?

Fungal hyphae or mycelia seem to have such a sophisticated level of higher consciousness that it seems to know how to also help all living/organic matter on earth. Albeit, as creator, also as destroyer.

So, why would it not also be of benefit to one of its byproducts–us–in medicine? The following illustrates certain fungi cure certain diseases.

a. Agarikon (Fomilopsis officinalis) has anti-viral properties that are of major interest in a time of endemic/pandemic viruses. According to medicinalherbals.net which tracks research studies worldwide states that, in the early 2000’s,”a team of scientists tested 11 species of North American Agarikon mushrooms. Those 11 species contained compounds that were shown to possess highly anti-viral properties, and those compounds are the subject of several scientific studies. Some of those compounds are known to be useful in treating viruses like cowpox, swine flu, bird flu, oral and genital herpes (as mentioned below), and several other viruses. While there are still animal studies and human clinical trials that need to be performed, researchers are already suggesting that ingesting Agarikon may help the body develop a bio-shield against unwanted viruses and bacteria.” The web site also lists studies that Agarikon is medically promising in treating inflammation, cancer, flu, herpes, upset stomach, tuberculosis.

b. Lion’s Mane (Hericium erinaceus) is also called the “smart mushroom,” for trials have shown that they help support cognitive function, memory, and attention span. There is some limited evidence (more testing is required) that it helps with Alzheimer’s Disease. The polysaccharides in Lion’s Mane seem to protect neurons or make them function better. There are other known benefits as attested by a long tradition of usage of Lion’s Mane in Chinese Medicine.

c. Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor; Coriolus versicolor) – The Turkey Tail mushroom has widely been researched to know that it is antioxidant-rich and known for supporting the immune system, gut, and liver. Recent research has shown that it also aid is healing breast and prostate cancers. For this claim, view the documentary film, Fantastic Fungi.

There is much to learn about our magical friends, and we must respect the expertise of those scientists and doctors who are learning and guiding us in their usages. Toxicity cannot be understated when using them oneself.

But the golden flower may very well not be a fungus. There are plants that have psychological-altering properties such as non-golden-flowering Cannabis (Cannabaceae whose root system resembles mycelium), Datura, and Brugmansia (“Trumpet flower”), which are used for spiritual or religious experiences. The last two psychedelic flowers can be of a golden hue.

Then there is soma, which is still a mysterious recipe that was used by one of the ancient Scythian tribes known as the Saka Haumavarga, which was a ceremonious drink that gave the warriors strength and also immortality and that can be traced all the way back to the Indus Valley Civilization. (Hauma and soma are synonymous.) In each instance, these entheogenic plants are known to cause the psyche to navigate into territories above the five-sense consciousnesses to understand the “mind of God” – the ultimate realm of mega consciousness. What seems to be the case in all these experiences in wisdom literature is to recogne the abstruse and involute “LIGHT”.

Trivia: T/F – Many fungi are shape-shifters.

True: They seem to be designed to defy human efforts at categorization. “The same species, sometimes the same individual, can reproduce two ways: sexually, by mixing genes with a partner of the same species, or asexually, by cloning to produce genetically identical offspring.” For more information, visit “The Name of the Fungus“.