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Dec. 19, 2019 - Radio Free Nortwest - H.A. Covington
57:12
20191219_rfn-3
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Oh, then tell me, Sean O 'Farrell, tell me why you hurry so.
Hush, a woogle, hush and listen, and his cheeks were all aglow.
I bear orders from the captain, get you ready quick and soon, for the pikes must be together by the rising of the moon.
By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moon, for the pikes must be together by the rising of the moon.
Oh, then tell me, Sean O 'Farrell, where the gathering is to be.
In the old spot by the river, right well known to you and me.
One word more for signal, token whistle of them arching tune.
Out from many a mud wall cabin eyes were watching through the night.
Many a manly chest was throbbing for the blessed warming light.
Corners passed along the valleys like the man she's lonely croon.
And a thousand blades were flashing at the rising of the moon.
At the rising of the moon.
At the rising of the moon.
And a thousand blades were flashing at the rising of the moon.
Stretch out your hand.
Don't you have a greeting for me.
Today of all days.
Ending and beginning day.
The day of death and new life.
Try to be a new day.
Solstice greetings!
You have forgotten me, haven't you?
Your children tell Swaptail, and you laugh behind their backs.
But I tell you, your children are wiser than you.
You still don't remember me, do you?
Think back.
Think back to the very beginnings.
The time when the long darkness brought hunger to your fireside.
A black stranger to live with you.
The dull pain of famine.
Think back.
Think back to the times of the pounding heart, the ache of the chase, the madness of the kill, the smell of blood, hot and the snow, the red and the white.
Red and white.
When a dulling eye in the ebb of breath meant an easing of hunger.
Thank you.
For a while.
Do you remember me now?
Your children draw pictures of me.
An old man in a red suit with a white beard, squeezing down the chimney with all they want most in the world.
Lord of the reindeer, keeper of the game, as old as mankind.
I am the shaman, the magician.
The priest.
When your heart beats fast in the dead of night, I am there.
When you whistle or sing in the face of danger, I call the tune.
I am your ancestor and your child.
I am your guest tonight.
And you will be mine.
Here is my invitation to your house, a green tree from the northern forests.
See?
Some things you still remember.
An evergreen tree hung with lights and mirrors, sparkling gold like the glimmer of solstice fire through the forest branches, red and white, blood on the snow.
And today, the day of endings and beginnings, of death and rebirth.
The birth of the sun.
The solstice.
Come with me.
Back to the very beginnings.
Stretch out your hand to me.
Stretch out over a thousand generations.
Come and understand once more.
The running of the deer, the rising of the sun, a song of the day.
In praise of the woods and the forests, the beasts and the seasons.
And then one day the Christ people came, turning their backs on what is and demanding what should be, as if they were lords of it all.
They took that song and made it theirs, just as they took my solstice festival for their own.
The sun.
The birth of a sun.
As it always was, for as long as mankind has gaited at the sky and questioned the light and the darkness.
Birth of a son.
Birth of a boy child.
Their festival is a trick of words, a fashion of the last few seconds of the history of man.
The festival is a great day, and the festival is a great day.
But while they tried to drive me back into the shadows before their new-born godling, the Christ people still feared me.
For the shaman was their ancestor, too.
The blood on the snow.
So, they tried to tame me, contain me, cage me, turn me into a tale for little children.
A bringer of gifts, a driver of reindeer, an old man from the north with a white beard and a little magic.
But their children were wiser than they.
In their turn, they remember the solstice fire.
O day spring, brightness of light everlasting and sun of righteousness, come and enlighten Sitteth in darkness and the shadow of death.
Lighten the world and cast out the darkness of the spirit.
The evil and the love are the old memories dying.
Us as the shamed horses as a home to the dream.
Us with me to the edge of the pitching forest.
The edge of the wind's cold flame.
Back to the very beginning.
When the hungry mice flew back, the bear earth swelled.
And the hunter strayed over it to the moon.
Snackered the birds.
Smell the chill on the wind.
Black winter is here too.
The red and white bridge is ahead.
Agaric, the shaman's mushroom, the crossing to the spirit world.
Eat.
Soon you will see the magician's reindeer fly again, skimming the snow, speckled deer, riding the northern winds, pulling a sleigh with an old man in a red coat.
to bring your gifts.
I tell you, you're a good friend.
Your children are wiser than you.
The dark forest presses on each side.
The ice casts an iron band round your chest, snatching breath.
But there, ahead, is fire.
Solstice fire.
Red cat upon the hearth, striped with gold, spitting and twisting.
Could eat the whole house if you let, sir.
Now do you see how you are favoured?
Midwinter blesses you with a festival of overeating.
But look beyond the fire there, to the shadows.
You see the old people, near ghosts, sitting, waiting for the cold to take them.
This is the real midwinter, a time of hunger.
And the old set themselves to die, to lighten the load on the rest.
In the summer fattening time, the reindeer moved in herds on the plain, and we hunters followed, killing for our people, food in our bellies.
That was a fine time.
Sun-hot grasslands, and the grouse, so plump and slow, they could hardly rise away from our arrows.
But winter's never far away.
It soon blew down from the mountaintops, bringing the night spirits to live with us.
If you listen, you'll hear the long dead howling in the forest.
One-legged seamstress has needles but can't sew.
Wears the same green gown each day and a white overcoat in winter.
Kindle the fire, heat to heat, light to light.
Give back fire to the sun at midwinter.
Bring new fire to each home, a burning log from the forest.
Fire to ease the birth pangs of the sun.
The stones of the earth remember a time when the sun did not return to them from the darkness.
Then ravenous ice engulfed the land, bringing nothing but stark, white silence.
The very mountains were split and nil to sand.
What chance had the hunters in their people?
For this reason, they make a gift of flame to the sun in mid-winter, so that it will return to the sun.
Red flame and white ash.
Red and white solstice.
Wither, wither, black, flowering night.
May your dark juices bleed.
Burn up like a pool on the summer plain.
Shrivel like a stain upon sand.
Dwindle to a basalt pebble.
Tiny as a slow worm's eye is.
Vanish to nothing.
A red deer comes over the hill.
Shoot your arrows as you will.
The deer will stand there still.
The sun rises as a deer on the hill.
Let the shaman draw on a rock with white chalk and red ochre, and let the lightness live.
The raven, the reindeer, the bear, and the leaping salmon.
Let all those we have killed bring their gifts.
Brother Reindeer, I'm in your debt.
You give me your brown autumn hide to wrap me.
My buckskin shoes, my summer tent and sleeping bag, my skin boat which slips across the lake.
Your sinews are my thread, your bones are my needles.
My family eat your tongue, your bone marrow, your unborn fawns.
From the birth of this new sun to its death next winter, give me all these again.
Follow the paths I know from fawn birth to rut.
Cross the river where an arrow with my mark on it can bring you down in the red water.
My gift to you in return is never to kill you without need, and then only to take flesh, bone and hide to leave your spirit free on the plain.
Come to the fire.
And the shaman's magic will make it so.
That is his task.
To climb down through the smoke hole of the hut, with a wooden reindeer painted in red ochre, and so make toys of its wild brothers.
And you, black soul of ravens, you who share our killing, you are our kin.
You eat our meat and watch over our camps.
Bran the trickster, your feathers hang from our flagsticks, driving the deer into our traps.
Deceiving them, making them afraid of feathers when arrows lie ahead.
But, Brother Raven, do not deceive us like that.
You know the sun must be born again tonight.
Without its light you will not find food.
Without its light your feathers will not dry and your young will die of cold.
Brother Bear, welcome.
Shadow of death in the forest.
Your claws split open the hunter from head to belly.
And yet, your flesh dries on a string in the summer heat outside the hut of the fortunate hunter.
All this the shaman will promise, as priest, keeper of the game, magician, and midwife to the sun.
Don't forget me.
We are one.
You and I, hunter and hunted.
My gifts to you are the leap swifter than thought and the strength to run all day without slackening till the heart is run out of your prey.
I wish you the comfort of the pack about you and the wisdom which knows caution but not fear.
Come to the fire, night brother.
But not too near.
Brothers of the natural world, and you others, silent watchers from the shadow world, long dead and unborn.
It is the night of longest darkness, the time of greatest danger.
The solstice fire burns as a sign to the sun that it must return, or we shall be left in the ice of eternal blackness.
None here, oh sun, have forgotten our debt to your warmth and light.
Someone here has failed the trust.
There is a lawbreaker here who has forgotten the custom.
Season's greetings from everyone here.
Merry Christmas.
White Christmas.
Noel.
Noel.
Welcome to our store today, our special Christmas If your body has no dairies, then why not give Mother Nature a helping hand with plastic worms?
Eat on a piece of flour.
Full Christmas dinner served daily from November 20th.
A cracker and a novelty hat at each place.
What spray with this will keep the needles on the tree and give the whole house a lovely, fine smell.
Or a manicure set for your dog.
Or rubber booties for that walk-through.
Plastic reindeer.
Their nose is painted fluorescent red.
Look how they glow in the dark.
medium and large with a price of one and a train set and a bicycle no help season's greeting merry merry merry merry m how This is a trick.
These things cannot be.
This is the world upside down like the image in the lake on a still day.
Who speaks?
It is I, Ran the Raven.
How can you possibly know?
Hunter, your feet are on the ground, and your nose is pressed to the blood trail.
I fly high above your head, high enough to see what's to come.
And I tell you, the world will be turned on its head.
Raven, you are a liar, just as always.
How could anyone who lives under the sun forget the sources and the old laws?
Are you going to tell them how to live off the earth and not in it?
How to become its master?
I tell you, where they have passed, the grass is scorched away, and the trees die as if withered by a brush.
There is fire, except that no green shoots follow.
They destroy faster than they can grow.
The cycles of seed and harvest are no longer something to live by, but something to be altered.
These animals are no longer brothers, but slaves.
How could they have forgotten?
Knowledge has made them stupid.
Seeing too much has made them blind.
One thing they are sure of: that anything simple is a tale for little children.
And so the children are the keepers of the truth.
And your children are wiser than you.
Perhaps they can tell you why every year you set up an evergreen tree from the forest, like those about you now.
Do you think it is simply to please them that you hang shining sun images upon it?
Or is it because in the beginnings of time...
Your forefathers hung dead sacrifices on the living timber as gifts to the reborn son.
And still you utter the words "Yule Log" without remembering the burning branch from the forest which brought the solstice fire to the heart.
If you forget the very roots of belief, if you forget the earth and its laws, you are lost.
This night is cold and the wind blows through our country.
Now it's your name, I'm on the road To the best way to the best way to every day Open me, let me go in Your love is still in the moon This night is so
cold, so open me Because tomorrow will it be so late Mein Vater wacht über Haus und
Hof, meine Tür versperrt ein Eisernschloss Und ich habe keinen Schlüssel dafür, es führt heut Nacht kein Weg zu mir So, öffne mir, lass mich hinein Dein Licht versteht im Mondenschein Diese Nacht ist so
kalt, so öffne mir Denn morgen wird es zu spät sein Doch die Nacht ist so kalt, denn die Nacht ist so kalt Endlich öffnet sie ihm und sie küsst ihres Liebsten Kalte Stirn
Diese Nacht ist so kalt, doch sie öffnet die Tür und er küsst sie
Seven times before Oh, open me, lass mich hinein Dein Liebes steht im Mondenschein Diese Nacht ist so kalt Oh, open me, denn morgen wird es zu spät sein Der Morgen graut und
der Wind, der geht durch unser Land Doch das Mädchen liegt in ihres Liebsten arm Und danket sehr der kalten Nacht und dem Wind dafür Und danket
sehr der kalten Nacht und dem Wind dafür Now that Samhain is over And the shee
have returned to their homes And the dead have followed the raven song No longer among us they roam The wisdom of our ancient past shows us how to ride the storm For the tombs they swallowed the rising sun And the mavern is always reborn So come all you people come and sing with me Join our voices
and sing the long nights away All over the land a chorus of voices would sing for the rising sun on midwinter's day On midwinter's day The land may be barren and lifeless The land may be barren
and lifeless The ground may be barren and the rain and the rain that fell has now turned to ice The wind and the wind and the rain that fell on midwinter is showing its calm but now the sun king has rested and his eyes have returned to the earth for three days the sun has been still in the sky but the time has now come for his birth his birth
call So come all you people come and sing with me Join our voices and sing the long nights away All over the land a chorus of voices would sing for the rising sun on midwinter's day On midwinter's day
Some say Jesus was born today Some say he is the man born Some say he is the son of God While others the son of the sun Some may
listen in woodland For the call of her While others they hear the clash of swords For the old king will return Return home So come all you people come and sing with me Join our voices and sing the long nights away All over the land a chorus of voices would sing for the rising sun on midwinter's day For the
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holy king Now in deep midwinter All scenes in a trance Comes the golden oak king In his age-old lands Comes he to slay Yet honor he does bring To his
fallen brother The dark sun holy king In the bright midwinter's summer The year's wheels turn around Then shall be the old king's Blood upon the ground Ever it comes Once more the
year's waning Then shall be victorious The dark sun holy king Sing we of the mystery Now as long ago Not red holly berries But upon the snow The old king
shall rise The waxing year to bring Therefore bid we farewell To the holy king Hey ho,
fires flow, west and south and north do know In the east he rises, hey ho, fires flow The night is endless long, now the snow lay all around The pregnant moon's just bright
We are deeply above the bitter ground, and on the ground we circle our fire blazing high.
Tonight we meet to raise the sunshine to the sky.
So, so, so, so, this, please you serve us, so, this.
Deep the night and farther dawn, join our circle.
We'll call him on, one for summer's dreaming throng, one for winter dance we all.
Hey ho, fires blow, west and south and north and north, West and south and north and north, East and south and north and north, East and south and north and north, East and north and north, East and north and north, East and north and north, East and north and north, East and north and north, Come soft now, maiden mother, our dance is for your son, And for the turning season, and life are new begun.
In summer, well, you loved him and served him death and fall, Your lover is the sun now, dance we, dance we all.
Soul, soul, solstice, please it's her as solstice, Gone the night, the day is nigh, join our circle, raise him high, One for summer's dreaming throng, one for winter dance we all.
Hey ho, fires blow, west and south and north and north, Hey ho firestorm, West and South and North to North,
Hey ho firestorm.
We'll bring back my gentle sons, let's ask you to stay, The bright sun of our lady, you can turn in with the day, To free us from the winter's rest, and bind us all the day, Oh tidings of clouds go.
It came as a scene.
inside an evergreen stands in the corner and a bright blazing fire to keep out the gloom.
There's holly and ivy and white mistleberry.
The sun isn't hiding, his face he can't show.
So fill up your glasses so we can be merry.
While rosy red cheeks by the firelight glow Under the street lights they'll gather together The shivering voices will ring out the song To sing in the yule, regardless of weather And brighten the darkness all the night long And the mamas perform their plays from the ages In comes King George,
a man of courage So fill up your glasses so we can be married While rosy red cheeks by the firelight glow We're
As the sun is reborn There's holly and ivy And white mistleberry The sun is in hiding These things you can't show So fill up your glasses So we can be merry While rosy red cheeks By the firelight glow
So fill up your glasses
It came as a scene From an old picture postcard Of Victorian ladies With skates on their feet Of punks frozen over And bowels hung with ice tips And through frosty paints Watch the snow and the sleet And the smoke flattered out And the soot black in the chimneys And shimmered beneath An icy cold moon But inside an evergreen Stairs in the corner And a bright blazing fire To keep out the gloom
There's holly and ivy And white mistleberry The sun is in hiding These things you can't show So fill up your glasses So we can be merry While rosy red cheeks By the firelight glow There's holly and ivy And white mistleberry The sun is in hiding These things you can't show So fill up your glasses So we can be merry While rosy red cheeks By the firelight glow I
heard your voice upon the wind As northerly it came Now I see your face again As you call out your
name When I feel your frosty breath Who may melt your heart and lies?
Who may all be known?
The musky scent of Earth's decay hangs heavy on the breeze Breezes turn to winds one day and rock the very trees When you rage through rusty woods, leaves will fall like rain Who can calm your heart
A heart so cruel, who can only play?
La, la, la, la, la...
La, la, la, la...
La, la, la, la...
La, la, la, la...
La, la, la, la...
La, la, la, la...
Where are you?
Where are you?
Where have you gone, Jack in the green?
I'll find you.
I'll find you.
I'll seek you out where the winter's been.
Look for you.
Look for you.
Hiding out in the summer land Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you, Jack?
My green man Beneath the willows I watch the clouds in the summer sky Beneath the willows I'll dream to where a green man lies There I will find Where
are you?
Where have you gone, Jack in the green?
I'll find you.
I'll find you.
I'll seek you out where the winter's been.
Hiding out in the summer land Where are you?
Where are you?
Where are you Jack?
My green man Your love is mine Your love is mine Your love is mine Your love is mine Your love is mine
guitar solo
guitar solo
for me.
Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Oh Where are you?
Where are you?
Where have you gone?
Jack in the green Oh I'll find you, I'll find you, I'll seek you out where the winter's been.
Look for you, look for you, hiding out in the summer land Where are you, where are you, where are you, Jack, my green man?
Oh, my God.
And
We'll say that spring will come again But no one knows exactly when Still the sun's a long-lost friend On the longest night of the year We stare into the firelight While December beats outside Where the darkest hearts reside On the longest night of the year So keep me safe and
hold me tight Let the candle burn all night Tomorrow welcome back the light It was the longest night of the year I used to think the world was small Bright and
shiny like a ball Seems I don't know much at all On the longest night of the year We press our faces to the glass And see our little lives go past Wave to shadows that we cast On the longest night of the year So keep me safe and hold me tight Let the candle burn on Tomorrow,
welcome back the light.
It was the longest night of the year.
guitar solo
To find the light in everyone Keep the faith and bang the drum On the longest night of the year So keep me safe and hold me tight Let the candle burn all night Tomorrow,
welcome back, the light Was the longest night of the year So keep me safe, hold me tight Let the candle burn around.
Tomorrow, welcome back the light After the longest night of the year The
End Now comes the solstice night you
I wish you safe and sound Whether snow be light Or heavy on the ground Our hearts bring back the light We must do May stars
fill up our sight With wishes coming true My wish this solstice night Is grace and peace to you Now comes the time of year When shadow yields the throne Boards
of oak and holly Dance that must be done Keep faith and keep your candle The sun is sure to rise I
wish you safe and sound Where the snow I
wish this solstice night is grace and peace to you.
And I wish this solstice night Is grace and peace to you Grace and peace to you Grace and peace to you Grace and peace to you Grace and peace to you
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