Rubezahl - The Mountain Spirit

Josef Madlener; Der Berggeist (The Mountain Spirit)

 Rubezahl is a figure in German folklore, the tutelary spirit or genius of the mountains that derive their name from him. He is responsible for the weather of his peaks, and the thunder and lightning, rain, snow, and fog there reflect his capricious moods. He is Prince of the Gnomes in the Riesengebirge, and all lesser spirits are under his sway. The respectful way to address him is as "Lord of the Mountains" or "Lord John." "Rubezahl" is a name of derision and means "Turnip Counter," and it still angers him. According to the old tale he once captured a princess and swore he would do anything to win her love. She set him to counting the turnip seedlings in a vast field, and while he was busy doing so she made her escape.

 Rubezahl is a shape changer, and appears in many forms, and can be anything from a gnome to a giant, and can be astonishingly ugly or "as fair as Apollo." He appears most often as an old man with a staff that appears to be an uprooted tree. He is something of a trickster, and his nature changeable. It was written of him in 1783 "...Rubezahl, you should know, has the nature of a powerful genius: capricious, impetuous, peculiar, rascally, crude, immodest, haughty, vain, fickle, today your warmest friend, tomorrow alien and cold;...roguish and respectable, stubborn and flexible..."

 Between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia lie theRiesengebirge (Giant Mountains). There is a very old map of the area, and striding among the mountains may be seen a strange gigantic figure, horned and with a tail, walking upright with a tall staff. This is the earliest known picture of Rubezahl*, the Lord of the Mountains.

 Rubezahl stories have been collected in many German books over the years, and many artists have painted him. Josef Madlener painted a picture of him as Der Berggeist (The Mountain Spirit); J. R. R. Tolkien had a postcard reproduction of this picture and labelled it "The Origin of Gandalf."  - [Source] diaphanee.tumblr.com

[Seen below.]

Conscious Outsiders

  I have been thinking recently about artists who have been an inspiration to my own work or i feel their work shares something with mine.
In one way or another i think these artists all create their own worlds within their work.
 Plus my mildly autistic brain loves this list ish!
.. so in no particular order then;

Taskforce

 Legendary UK Hiphop crew from Highbury N9; brothers Farma G and Chester P Hackenbush.
 Their MFTC [music from the corner] mini albums were only released on cd and made, financed and distributed by themselves. The underground, street, localness of their music, mixed with old folk samples and reflective poetic lyrics, make these tunes contemporary folk recordings of there own.
 Taskforce would defiantly been in both of my above categories and high up there to!
Chester's bars [the second Mc on the above tune] are particular favorites of mine.

Harry Partch


Alan Moor


Kit Williams

Ooo a visual artist.

Hayao Miyazaki





JRR Tolkien

i dont care if Peter Jackson made it Pop again. My dad used to read me these books when i was a boy before sleep.
I loved them then and love them now.
Warning; there are a some real dicks in this BBC archive footage.

Patrick Keiller's Great Landscape

I cant  believe I have never seen this classic before.

Old Charactors of Lewisham [article]

Old Characters of Lewisham [article] I used to watch these with open mouthed wonder when i was young. They used to turn round on the hour, one by one.

Tracing the Water Cycle [a Live Ritual] - excerpt phone footage

Tracing the Water Cycle (A Live Ritual), is a live experiment in which the audience is invited to private room that will act as a periscope for exploring the outworld.
Jack Thurgar and his sophisticated map recycles a rich imaginary from different sources: re-contextualization of found footage, recordings and new fictions.
The installation will put together an impossible sequence in a form of live collage; from the open scene (sequence from the very first home-video from the artist) this intricate flow of water will travel in time and space, and while Jack Thurgar will be guiding us in the dark room, his alter-ego the explorer Solomon Wild will show us his personal recordings throughout his global wanderings.

- Lucia Rivero, 'Smashing Time Show' 2011

The ritual works as a loop. As the conductor, I channel the water through the analogue equipment, which is placed in a circle on the floor. Using a timer for precision, I turn on or 'open' each piece of equipment, connecting them to create a path for the water to form a magic circuit. As the water threads its way through the machines I orchestrate its twists and turns until it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

- Jack Thurgar, 2011

This to my knowledge, is the only existing footage of the live ritual. The whole piece lasts around 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the footage starts a few minutes in [as the plug in the bath is pulled] and misses the last five magical mins.
If anyone has other footage of this magical event, please do get in contact.
Thanks.

INTERNAL NETWORKZ - Vol:1 The Quaggy

Internal Networkz is the first in a series of video documentaries exploring Lewisham boroughs connecting wild corridors, such as its rivers and train lines. It was made for my MFA final show at UAL and is the conclusion of two years worth of work and research.

 In this first volume, the viewer comes with me on a journey as I explore the path of the river Quaggy. I pick up the route at its end, where it flows into the River Ravensbourne at Lewisham Train Station. I follow it where it passes underground at the police station and on, through suburban parks and the backs of houses through south east London. 

Unknown to us at the time, as I traveled up river, riots came to the streets of Lewisham. I keep to the river and slip through the world above us unnoticed. 

 I explore and study the secret markings left under bridges and look for links and clues of London's underground legends and mythologies. In particular, for traces of 'The Lewisham Natureman', a mysterious character from South East London 'Graff' folklore. He has never been seen and only appears through the tiny symbol [often carved] which can be found in the wild corners and corridors of the capitol, mainly in Lewisham and her surrounding boroughs. The symbol is that of a crown, formed from a circle of figures holding hands [like the crown used in the logo of Lewisham borough] , with a single dandelion growing through it. 

 Some say he is not a man at all but some kind of spirit of nature. A contemporary, urban Green Man or Herne, who walks in these wild places where the weeds grow. 

 Another version of the legend sees the LNM as a wandering homeless man, a herbalist and shaman, who uses these places to rest and grown his herbs and food. The hidden tag is said to belong to him and is meant as a simple and discreet 'I was here' message to his friends and those who know where to look.  

There are many legends of the underground.

'The Fire Mix' [six sacred weeds]

This is phone footage, supplied by a member of the public. It is of one of my six small shadow rituals, performed live using each one of the six sacred weeds that make up the 'Fire Mix'.
This was inspired by the footage i filmed of Solomon Wild, believed to be performing an ancient version of this ritual at dawn on the Summer Solstice earlier this year [though this ritual was usually performed at dusk on midsummers eve.]
It was believed that the weeds were 'familiars' / spirits of the crops and by burning them, the smoke would cauterise pestilence and 'noisome influences' from the fertile land.
Also there was the belief of 'Sympathetic magic' which at its core, is the idea of analogy, all things in the universe connected by influences, suggested by their superficial appearance. The heat and the light created by theses bonfires was to aid the sun at the exact moment in the year it begins to wane.
The six weeds were believed to be chosen for their resemblance in some way to the sun and stars. For this series of shadow rituals, they were all tracked down and gathered from various wild cornerz of the capitol.
They are as follows:
Ragwort, Corn Marigold, Corn Poppy, Plantain, Vervain and finally the most magic of all in the mix; St. Johns Wort.
The leaves and flowers are cut off each weed and arranged to form a magic circle.

Summer Solstice Ritual 2011 / Solomon Wild / Secret Filming

I recorded this footage at Sun rise on the Summer Solstice in a piece of commercial wasteland in SE12. It captures, what I believe to be a secret ritual, performed by the mysterious underground character; 'Solomon Wild.' Solomon Wild Folklore

Very little is know about who Solomon is,.. or even if that is really his name or was given to him. All I really know of him is through folklore and myth. He seems to be some kind of herbalist and cryptographer, an explorer and mapper of London's wild corners and cracks. His purpose for and exact line of research is not altogether clear.
I am pretty sure I have received his Short Wave radio transitions a number of times over the years. It has only ever been a one way monologue and he only uses code to communicate by [mainly Morse but sometimes lesser know, older aquatic codes.] The content is usually reels of strange fractured sentences, single words, locations and times.
Despite his anonymity, he has become a kind of distant collaborator to my work. The Summer Solstice Ritual

It is said that every Solstice and Equinox, Solomon performs various rituals, contacting spirits and making magic to both use and aid the seasons. These are said to be held at secret locations around the city. Anticipating this event as ever, I posted messages on various types of forums and contacted others, in order to glean any information I could about the where abouts and/or the nature of this Summer ritual. All my digging proved unsuccessful.
Then, the day before the Solstice, I routinely checked my various threads and to my excitement, found I had one response. This was on the forum pages of the London graffiti website; rockingthecity.com. It simply said '24 Gb 459'. At first I was hugely disappointed, thinking this was just scrambled net coding. But after pondering over it for a while I realised the last three numbers; 459 was in fact a time; 4:59 am. This was the exact time of sun rise, on the day of the solstice. After cracking this, I then worked out that 24 Gb were in fact coordinates for a map. They correlated with my London wall map inside The Lighthouse and pin pointed an area of roughly 2 square miles. It is in the district of Lee in the borough of Lewisham. This is an area familiar to me and knowing Solomon seems to have some kind of relationship to the cracks of the city including its wild wasteland space, I knew it could only be one of two places.
I visited both patches that evening at dusk, as reconnaissance. After circling the walls of each and peering through the gates, I decided on the second place; a piece of commercial wasteland at the corner of Baring Road, SE12 as the spot I was going to return to for the Solstice.
The land used to accommodate a local diary but has been desolate for fifteen years. It is now owned by the Yellow Box storage company but due to on going lobbying by local residence, the companies applications to develop the land have been repeatedly rejected. Over the last fifteen years the land has been cut back roughly 6-8 times. There is a striking variety of weeds in this large patch and is completely closed of to the surrounding main roads by a high grey wooden fence. On it, hangs a large sign which threatened 24 hours guard and dog security by a company called 'StrongGuard'.
The following morning on the Solstice, I set off before dawn. Equipped with my old video camcorder and camouflaged overalls. I used a street bin to climb on top of the bus stop and then lowered myself down the other side. I plotted down in a corner behind the thick bushes of Buddleia on an old mattress and waited for the first signs of day light, hoping it might bring me a glimpse of Solomon. The perfume of the local wild flowers scented the air and it felt like there was magic afoot.
With dilated pupils and a beating heart, I waited in the twilight.
Here is what I saw. ...

The Fire Mix [six sacred weeds]

artfridge: LONDON: JACK THURGAR'S WILD SUMMER SOLSTICE RITUAL...: "These are two hypnotizing videos that I took last Friday from Jack Thurgar's performance 'The Fire Mix [Six Sacred Weeds]' at the Glory ..."

Jem Cohan's Lost Book Found

The nameless narrator encounters a character in New York, simular to our own Solomon Wild.

Solomon Wild footage; performing a radio ritual on the Winter Solstice

For information see text underneath the video on the Youtube page.

The Lincolnshire Poacher - Caught on Video

This is footage of a transition by the illusive Number Stations 'Lincolnshire Poacher'.

Transmission code Format:
First 15 notes of an old English folk song "Lincolnshire Poacher" rpt 12 times, then
5FG ID rpt 6 times
Two notes on a glockenspiel

Msg 200 5FG, same length always
"Lincolnshire Poacher" rpt 6 times

The Lincolnshire Poacher" is a traditional English folk song associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and dealing with the joys of poaching.



Notes:

Currently uses these frequencies between 1200-2300:

Reports of mysterious Amature/Pirate Radio Broadcasts. Dated 26th July 2006.