Melbourne, Men and Mateship

This week I have been in Melbourne, where I've been spending most of my time hanging out at The Laird - the southern hemisphere's best established leather bar.

(Email me if you want the full details.)



My travels these last few weeks have taken me all over Australia - Brisbane, Kyogle, Nimbin, Lismore, Sydney, Adelaide, Bordertown, Melbourne and Leangatha - though I am left with a nagging doubt that I have had only the most fleeting experience of this continent.

Both Sydney and Melbourne are rather handsome cities - Sydney buzzes with money and Melbourne seems to drown in good coffee. Both cities are replete with gorgeous asian street restaurants. Clean air and bright skies.

The countrside I have seen is as variable in it's flora as it is endlessly flat - I have spent time in temperate rainforest, rain drenched swamp and a bone dry desert that claims to be a sheep station.

But the most memorable experience of Australia for me is undoubtedly the men. In the countryside, the Australian male is friendly, tough, straight forward, no nonsense and agressive. His skin is worn by the dust and the UV. Wearing boots and ill fitting clothes his wife almost certainly chose, he swaggers and drinks (but does not smoke?!). He welcomes me everywhere with with an up front "G'day" (though a nagging feeling undermines the acceptance as I fear that this is based on my outwardly male habit, and my white skin.) Rugby, cricket and Ozzie rules. Mateship is the overriding moral imperative - a keep-your-distance backslapping bonhomie enforcing equality and distance - "G'Day Mate".

Now take that man from the country and set him up in Melbourne. Add a good dose of sodomy, sweat and leather..........and WOW.

--------------
Image courtesy of Tom of Finland Foundation

A Path with a Heart

This picture was taken by me at a swimming hole at Hanging Rock. It reminds me of a text that Spider Cutie read at the Ozfaerie No Talent Show.

-----------------
A Path with a Heart

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself, or another, in dropping it if that is what you heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.

(I warn you,) look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary, then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was very young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good: if it doesn't, it is of no use.

Both paths lead nowhere.; but one has a heart; the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other makes you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

The trouble is that nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.

A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with a heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

For me there is only the travelling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worth -while challenge is to traverse its full length. Any there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly.

[DON JUAN, A YAQUI WARRIOR: as told to Carlos Castaneda]
-----------------

Snakeman and Pademelon

Snakeman and Pademelon have just bought some land near the edge of the World Heritage Border Ranges National Park. I went today to visit them in their new home - previously owned by some Seventh Day Adventists. The five acres of land is a fruit orchard overflowing with produce.

Self Portrait

Today, at Faerieland, I painted a self portrait.

More pictures of Faerieland

Animalia

The temperate rainforest surrounding Faerieland is full of beasties. I have seen a black snake, and been bitten by many tics. But most exciting of all are the friendly leeches which attach themselves to any exposed skin and suck suck suck.

Runt Boy

The Top of the Garden

Today I arrived at Faerie Land in New South Wales - the home of the Australian Radical Faeries.

Low flying

Today I took a light aircraft from Takaka to Wellington. The plane was a single engine prop with five passenger seats and one very chilled out pilot. Bumpy and noisy, we hovered just under the clouds as the plane stretched from Golden Bay across the Marlborough Sounds. Vivid. Bright. The best flight of my life.

Hare Krishna

About a month ago I went on a spiritual retreat into the mountains above Takaka at the Anahata Yoga Centre. We living a serious yogic regime for a long weekend, rising at 4am to chant, silence for most of the time, and long intense yoga sessions with Swami Muktidharma. All in the name of deepening our asanas.

My favorite experience was the Kirtan.

Here is one of the chants:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

All in all a really interesting experience. Meditating solidly for three days leaves the body and mind elated and empty. It's hard for me to describe the sensation without seeming cheesy, but this picture (taken in Australia) gives a good impression of how I felt at the end of my retreat.