Bright Jewels
Beautiful moments in a strange life. .. An illustrated memoir
{-my 1st book after the HARD novel, the years of that,
was all done, “Dark Of Light”-}
~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~
.. How This Book Came To Be ..
blah blah blah blah .. .. .. ?What??, “blah blah”?? How did it come to be?
Well, seriously, i was REALLY TIRED OF TALKING, by then, in a sense,
Tired of talking in some state of mind that i don’t even recall now,
Weary in some unique land in the world of Human creativity.
having FINALLY got finished, and got FINALLY shut of, ..
**the FARKING-HARD, BIG, TRUE, GROUND-BREAKING NOVEL**
The Greek Eleusis Mystery Novel “Dark Of Light”,
Answering prayers of many years, of my heart,
{-no more of this spoken here-}
That all finished & done, by the Gd Gds, .. and self-publishing done,
Then even then BROOD ON IT ALL, .. Same-same characters still
hurling their conflicts at each other, .. Sating Night Obsessions,
ALL THAT, IT ALL, That was finally the Entire Achievement,
at last, .. That my muses drove me toward since youth.
“!OH FRICK THAT!”, a silent voice said reassuringly, ..
“IT’S TIME FOR YOU, .. Let’s write some memoirs.”
And, .. Just like the Creative Committee are
up to their same old tricks, .. Like that, ..
The very first story i conceived of for this book, .. Of most tender
Love, .. It is still now Episode 1, .. The story was a thought, a memory,
i fell into a doze & woke,
And the story freakishly dropped whole, from my fingertips onto a page.
And this was a whole new start for the work
For all i know, that is how this book came to be.
-sr
~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~
=>> !!. Reading The Book’s Episodes In NUMERICAL Order .!! <<=
Shown below is the order you see in the paperback book,
and like this i’ve always hoped they are a coherent narrative.
Such are Human hopes.
!!. The Front Pictures .!!
In the paperback, every drawing has its own page,
28 frontispieces, 1 for each 28 Episodes ??!!!!??
?!..In a 194-page book..!?
So of course, in this table, click a thumbnail pic to enlarge it.
!!. For More Options :: Keep Going Down .!!
| E# | Click To Open | Front Pic | The Episodes in “Bright Jewels” .. Beautiful Moments In A Strange Life .. An Illustrated Memoir |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Click |  | Blessings .. A few days before my father’s passing, there was a final bit of conversation. .. At last, we found Love. |
| 2 | Click |  | Troubles .. .. Reality hurries to make itself known. That is why it is so often possible to foretell the future. |
| 3 | Click |  | Do The Hard Work .. .. It’s February in the outlying reaches of the Alps in southern Germany. .. I am a soldier. |
| 4 | Click |  | Picture Story .. I was a young ex-soldier, poor, doing some political action work, not yet doing art. .. It was a subway ride across the river. |
| 5 | Click |  | Treasure .. In New England the ancient people moved the rocks around a lot, building structures which are still here. |
| 6 | Click |  | Druid Chat .. In my Druid guise, visited with about a dozen college students in a series sponsored by their campus Pagan group. |
| 7 | Click |  | The Fig Tree .. Where The Paintings Came From .. Beauty is our surest source of Wisdom; Nature is our clearest source of Beauty; Loving each other is our strongest voice of Nature. |
| 8 | Click |  | Reawakening .. It was moonless night, early Spring, a sheltered valley pass in the highest uplands of the Windy Hills. .. A footloose wanderer .. |
| 9 | Click |  | Awaking In A Dream .. There are many tales, of course, of Lao Tzu who, according to the legends, wrote The Watercourse Way, a little book of Nature poetry. |
| 10 | Click |  | The Substance Of Reality .. I hit a child with my car, a big heavy car and a little boy running out into the street to chase a ball. .. How i became a Shaman. |
| 11 | Click |  | Journey To The West .. A poem of clear consciousness :: Love is not the thing, nor hate. .. Hope is not the mouse’s scurrying feet and owl’s sharp beak, .. no more than these are fear. |
| 12 | Click |  | An Eagle’s Mighty Flight .. I was on religious retreat one time, .. a rough campground, New England mountain woods, .. and really it all came down to a question of Courage and the question .. WHICH WAY TO GO? |
| 13 | Click |  | Nature Walk .. There were three quarters of an hour in a sunny summer day .. i and a little boy i’d just then met, .. GOT LOST up on a wooded mountainside. .. I had to teach him how to choose a stick and walk. |
| 14 | Click |  | Invitation To A Student Of Tarot .. Come with me, .. Stand upon my shoulders as I walk the sea, .. Repeat the journey trod when you were young, .. Hearken to the tale from your own tongue, … |
| 15 | Click |  | Preface .. I moved out to a peculiar place a friend found for me to rent up in the forest foothills, .. modern day shack to tell it candidly, .. plenty roomy for a bachelor life, .. a steep round hay meadow hilltop. |
| 16 | Click |  | Attributions Of The Minor Arcana In Spirit Hill Tarot .. Up on Spirit Hill, .. How the miraculous paintings miraculously got onto the suddenly-materializing magic cards. .. YES! .. the astonishment continued. |
| 17 | Click |  | The Distant Sunset .. Happy family outing summer day, .. to a festive Renaissance Fair, .. Us walking in my thoughtful and intelligent Father’s new remission from terrible disease. |
| 18 | Click |  | Rebirth Of Courage .. We are struck by tragedy but here we stand. .. The mighty forces of this world have left us struggling for breath, .. for a place to put our feet. .. & Meanwhile time rolls on around us. |
| 19 | Click |  | Scribble Scrabble .. My earliest known Visual Art experience, .. Three of us at coloring books, .. Me 2, 1948 or ’49, .. Suddenly the world was deeper. .. I’ve recently written on this again :: “A Natural Empath” |
| 20 | Click |  | Persephone’s Gate .. There was a place, .. a medical clinic .. where, at age of 4 or 5, .. I nearly died by an injection, .. done to save my leg from a disastrous infection sustained in play. .. I began to die at once. |
| 21 | Click |  | A Sorcerer’s Apprentice .. Step-daughter asked me take a hand raising her little boy, .. See if I could lead the child toward possession of Self, .. For this little boy definitely needs to have control of his Wildness, .. A child of great promise. |
| 22 | Click |  | Being Many Voices .. In a museum one time i was studying a painting, .. Rothko, .. Lunch time, .. Perched on one of the little stools provided, .. VERY STILL QUITE A WHILE fixedly, stalking like a cat, .. a Rothko. .. A little mob of students arrives. |
| 23 | Click |  | New Modern Art .. The Theory In A Nutshell .. POLYPHONIC PAINTING:: Make pictures LOOK the way a Jazz ensemble, .. Or a chamber orchestra, or a-capella choir, .. SOUND:: Give your art work interacting voices. |
| 24 | Click |  | A Sailor’s True Tale .. Early Summer :: A leap into maturity for Nature and for Human hearts. .. The Sun and Moon, we dance in Heaven’s light. .. Time to glory in the rising forces, .. Plow and sow. .. Why not rejoice? |
| 25 | Click |  | Catsong .. Long years ago, .. I’d first begun to Practice Magic, .. Struggling young man, wife, our little child, .. A dirty city, .. Run-down big apartment complex, .. But NEIGHBORS, .. AND THERE WERE CATS. |
| 26 | Click |  | Absent Friend .. Fabio Saavedra Where Are You? .. I have two of your paintings on my walls, the other gone lamentably to California. .. Your apartment just across from ours, .. Your kindness, .. Still a friend. |
| 27 | Click |  | The Soul’s True Yearning .. The soul’s true yearning is to MAKE ITSELF KNOWN. .. A common thought among our most poetic thinkers. .. For it makes such lovely sense of our intimate experience in contemplation. |
| 28 | Click |  | Shamanic Vision Dance .. The day i became a Tarot Reader. .. Last glow of 1960’s, its soul dead in War, .. Fading to the dusty latter 70’s, .. So, counting me, maybe 4,000 of us built American Paganism. .. The day it began for me, i remember clearly. |
.. Some Links ..
=> “BRIGHT JEWELS” .. The Book Itself <=
{-Here-} .. Buy The Paperback Book
Its self-publishing retail page. .. A standard type of paperback for the lowest possible price. .. 194 pages, 6×9 inches. .. Includes 28 writings and 28 black and white illustrations.
{-Here-} .. Free Pdf .. The Paperback
.. The same file that’s used to print the paperback, including the covers. .. 196 pages, 6×9 inches, .. all black ink except the covers.
{-Here-} .. Website Book .. All the contents arranged kind of like a guided tour.
=> RELATED THINGS in my “Druid Classroom” Blog <=
>> {-Here-} .. “Riley’s Tarots” Category .. Posts about my lifelong art &etc efforts.
>> {-Here-} .. “Psychic Chaplaincy Corps, UnDisambiguation Page” ..
.. .. WORLD EMERGENCY Good Work, .. Humanitarian creative project, ..
.. .. An Honor Society of Public Diviners, ..
.. .. .. Consciously Hero Comic Book Style.
.. .. Want to Bulk Up Your Fore-Brain & Generosity-Lobes or something? ..
.. .. Pledge to use your natural powers for Good, .. and no Bizltit, ..
.. .. We’ve got some Peace-Soldier-Serious Divination-Exercises.
.. .. (i do tend to Lecture A Bit about the Generosity aspects.)
>> {-Here-} .. (part of the above) Class Video .. AUTHENTIC RAW VIDEO, ..
.. .. (on utube) .. Don’t miss this! .. ! with a DADA Art Studio video set ! ..
.. !! .. Professional Shamanic Art Storytelling Performance Theater !!..
.. !! .. Leftist training film !! .. A home how-to film.
>> {-Here-} .. “Psychic Fair 2020” .. Toward new times, .. 3 deep readings, ..
.. .. Full report both, .. The 3 Portentous Readings, .. & Many inner doings, ..
.. .. of the Psychic Island Camp we made & kept around our day’s work.
>> {-Here-} .. “Class Session #5, Sacred Garden, Holy Statues, Part 2, Private” ..
.. .. Interested? .. A BIG LANDSCAPE at my crossroads of religion & politics, ..
.. .. For 1st landmark, starts with a story .. “The Practical Use Of Good Gods”. ..
.. .. For typical example of Pagan Art Movement, see the “Bull Dance” story.
>> {-Here-} .. “Malcolm X – More Reflections” .. A civil war in my youth, ..
.. .. And there was a TRUE SOLDIER’S Chaplain, .. A chaplain to the nation,..
.. .. It is as if i truly am a Pagan Acolyte of a Moslem Saint.
>> {-Here-} .. “The Case Of One Cadet” .. I’m a Peace Revolution Corporal, ..
.. .. But here i’ll tell you the poison root of my soldiering.
>> {-Here-} .. Text search “memoir” .. All of this blog’s posts containing the word.
{-End of blog post-}
Stone Riley Druid Classroom 