Soma
Sacred Earth => Shaman [Public] => Topic started by: Michael on May 27, 2007, 11:50:27 PM
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Tom has said his next sacred fire is June 1st. is that still the case Tom?
I feel we should all make an effort to join up at Tom's fire, on this side or the other side. I would appreciate if Tom gave us here, a lead on how to approach this event. i'll add my own little spiel:
Even lighting a match can be a sacred fire - it all depends on the degree of intent, awareness and intensity we bring to the moment. The fire in the top left corner is a sacred fire I prepared in my own living room for this forum.
Fire to me is a precious friend, who demands respect. I live with fires, the stove, the living room fire place, and outside fires in the garden and our big one in the paddock, so I have to be extra careful. i recall once when a fire got away from us in the middle of summer - it was a lesson to me that fire should never be taken lightly.
The idea with this gathering, is that we meet up in spirit. This can be done in dream or vision, or simply in stopping for a moment and sending your thought to the fire. It is best that we each light our own sacred fire, which will be a channel to link us.
Those among us who are good dreamers, can journey to Tom's fire and join in the ceremony. Don't be concerned that you don't see what other's see. Each person has their own unique vision of an astral event - it is the feeling that is the important part. The feeling of sacredness, the feeling of the essence of fire, and the feeling of celebration as a group of fellow travelers on the path, friends for the short time that we meet in this vast cosmos.
Fire is also the place to make offerings and requests. It would be most appropriate if you were to bring to the sacred fire, some item for the fire to convert into energy - offer it to the fire, but best of all is to offer your heart ... the fire may then reach back to you, and bless you with abundance.
I hope everyone can make it for darshan.
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It is pretty quiet at work on Sunday so will write something today and post it in the a.m.
Also, tomorrow (our Memorial Day Holiday) at 10 a.m. here is a ceremony in town for induction of new flags into the countys' Parade of Flags and my Dad's flag will be one of them. He was awarded 6 bronze stars and a silver star for his bravery on D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. Just thought you'd wanna know.
See you at my fire. Bring food. tommy
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Friends of mine, I am working on a larger writing concerning the "what, where, how and why" of just what I do in my ceremonial effort but will, in this writing here, focus only on the particular of what I will do on this Friday at our fire communion/my prayer ceremony.
Approx. 2 - 4 p.m.; I will burn some old receipts and scrap wood while I clean my Ojibwa. This will build a nice bed of coals and help set my Intent. I will then cart over several large ceremonial logs and begin to put them in my pit as the night progresses. I will then walk my circle of power around the pit/Ojibwa area and lay out my offerings and Soma forum representative fire bundles. Next I'll take my power walk and hang out whatever Medicine (shields, weapons, robes, etc.) which speak to me to do so. Next I willl smudge myself and offer each bundle to the Great Spirit with my offering bowl of crystals and foodstuffs prepared.
Approx. 4 - 7 p.m.; I will chant, walk my circle and slowly add bundles to the fire. I lay each one very close to the burning logs but not actually in the fire, so that they will slowly heat, smoke up and then ignite. I will touch the energy I can remember of that person during this process. i.e., I look at your pictures and read some of my favorite posts I have printed and just Channel each of you. Then I will emit prayer for our troops and families and for those on my Mother Earth who suffer. I don't really pray, as in supplicating or asking a diety to do his or her job but, rather, summon the power of those who pray, heal or give their energy to others.
During this entire 5 to 7 hour process I will periodically go into trance, visit my favorite sitting/standing spots in my gardens for the purpose of Channeling and meditation and, of course, stoke our fire.
I always carry a note pad and pen along to capture any unusual sounds, sights, sensings, animal activities, etc. for later reporting. I will also do a lot of candles in and out with incense, quiet music, carry my prayer flags and power crystal, chant, play my pan pipe, etc. to keep me constantly intact with my ceremonial mood and Intent.
Like I said, "Bring food for all."
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To add enhancment to the focus of this stalk I would like to titillate the psychics and seers of our band by them Channeling a technique I use with my students. I have a very particular object of Power which I use in preparation of my ceremonial acts. This act I have referred to several times in my postings of this subject, including the very previous one. The object of Medicine has become an integral part of my assemblage point maneuverings.
Remember to remember that this is what it is all about, right? Moving the A.P.
The power object is now in plain view in the center of my exercise/viewing area and is a quite common but extremely useful tool for its purpose. While you are visiting my home, look for this object and identify it. Those who are able to "see" it will receive a very worthy shield of my construction, which I will send to them. All acts of Power DO need acknowledgement.
May this aid in bringing us closer to our fire.
My fun mode is already in full throttle of my preparation for our upcoming communal event.
Best of Nagual Regards
the wannabe warrior, two feathers
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The coals of my fire pit are still hot, fire has been burning since Friday. Last night at sunset I went out and started gathering some wood to join all of you with fire very soon!
The raven soars and coyote sings..
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what makes a fire sacred?
what makes anything sacred?
wat is sacred?
what is the point of meeting in a magical ceremony?
why do you want to come?
soon your life will be over,
and you will go like the hordes before you...
what was the point of it all?
did you make a difference?
fire is burning passion
fire is consummation
fire is the passage into spirit
fire consumes the physical and turns it into ash and smoke.
fire is life
fire is death
why do we sit around the fire?
there is a field, and in the centre a fire,
that is the fire of our clan
we are nomads in spirit
we are beings of the fire
we declare allegiance to no one
but the fire
what is your life?
is it struggle?
is it comfort?
is it fretting?
for objects just out of touch?
before enlightenment washing bowls - and after?
is that it?
washing bowls?
the fire is end of all our squabbles
the fire is the hope of every seeker
the fire of our clan is the covenant of audacity
the fire is the passageway to our forgotten dreams
the fire is our last chance
the fire is you
i cannot give you eternity
i can't give it to myself
you must come to the fire for that
and i also.
we can meet there
alone,
and together
there is no other way
neither you nor i can cross the bridge of inner fire
to eternal awareness
that is a gift
but we can throw ourselves into the fire
into every moment of our precious disdained life
that is the fire to which we come
the fire of our clan
i say offer everything!
your pride
your guilt
your skill
your love
your memories
your cowardice
your impotence
your last throw
we have nothing else left
make it count!
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i have burned my main wood stash down to build the coals up. they are ready for ignition here soon. tonight i will go to the indian spot were they perform the sundance. gather wood there.
locate a couple smudge sticks. already have some sweet grass. . . . . . . . . . . . my main intent is to clear strands of luminous fiber from other people off my being that have had effects on me. a vulnerability has come up in me lately that has configured my energy to engage with some different types lately. it would be best to disengage yet keep my vulnerability for now.
therefore, my fire will unfortunately be for self reasons. my thoughts will be with everyone of you none the less.
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My fires are always for "self" reasons. Detachment from any so-called
"self" is an arduous process, Elliot, so maybe there's no "unfortunately" about it. Be very glad you know what work you have to do. Many, unfortunately, do not. Our clan fires could not burn without each others' wood, without each other Intended energy. As a warrior said here, we have nothing else left.
t
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it just feels selfish for some reason to me.... I know on a certain level that it is not, yet cannot overcome the feeling.. thanks tommy2. your perspective is much valued in this camp over here. I also have some images that i carry with me that I would like to release myself from as well...
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This fire, any sacred fire, is a tool. Use this one for cleansing, or for release, or for communion, or for sacrifice, or for giving AND for receiving, or for all of these. I put myself in the fire each time I relight it. It is a reflection of what is within me. It is all these things and more to me and for me. It is a gift. Just use it and its significance, meaning and power will be revealed. In order to receive, one must first give deeply and sincerely. It cannot be just a gesture. It has to be as though it were your last act on earth and you had all the time in the world to prepare for it. I have taken 18 years to prepare for the 18 seconds it takes me to rekindle what is now my life, my fire, our fire.
Yet, there is no time left for me to ponder such acts. I go to the fire because I have no other choice. It has changed me in this way. What I am saying is, Elliot, these things are not to be thought of very much. Just act and your feelings will portray themselves as they truly are ...... just feelings.
I sincerely pray during this time for me that this truly makes no sense to you, what I write now. I am trying to describe what I cannot but know that my energy and the energy of our clan and the One clan will help you in these matters. Just focus on the fire, my Friend, and enjoy what has been going on for thousands of years.
We are with all those hearts which relight their fires forever. There IS nothing else to do and, in this way, I am terribly alone yet with everyone who goes to a fire for their life.
t
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The ceremonial drum has spoken and the old ones echo back.
Let the dance begin~
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Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day,
'one who knows the better way to live alone.'
Bhaddekaratta Sutta
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(http://lumilux.org/images/100.jpg)
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(http://www.allearthecotours.com/newbonfire.jpg)
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Lit a candle and did a meditation-dreaming.
I saw a man in the darkness standing behind the fire. There were no stars in that darkness. It just was very black darkness. Man looked up. Above him was a source of light. It was not a moon, it was a source of bright white light. Yet it did not shed light on surroundings. It was only difficult to look into that source of light.
The man was looking up - to that distant source of white light. He was very-very alone there. Looking up. I cannot quite describe the feeling he seemed to be experiencing - there was longing, he was asking for something, there was that sense of man standing alone in the infinite Universe, man and God.
Then I got different perspective on the event. There was fire and man behind it. There were also two sorts of beings around the fire. One type consisted of quite a large number of 'browns ones' (beings themselves had that colour). They were 'light' and 'agile' they settled a bit farther from the fire in large herd. The other type consisted of 'dark-blue/black ones' (the colour was the colour of their clothing, i.e. overalls). They were 'larger' and 'heavier'. There were maybe 10-12 of them and they were quite next to fire. There were clouds and bit of Sun. The landscape looked like prairie.
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I don't say much about dreams because they are just illusions, passing shadows for me, but last night I had one that has moved my sensing and made clearer many, many things for me in my life. For some reason I know that it is our clan gathering, the energy, which drew it into focus for me.
I know my ceremony will bring clearer the details of it, so will keystroke of it this weekend. I feel the many attentions now.
tom
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My first dream was rather ordinary.. :) I was taking food to the fire, tommy's fire. I was carrying chicken and chops in a large measuring bowl (one I have at home) for the meal - to cook on the fire (any vegetarians.. please forgive!) They were in rather a nice marinade!
Also, I had in my hand a small piece of smooth rock crystal - (clear quartz) - not sure where I got it from, it wasn't mine. Was about half the size of my thumb. It felt very warm and nice.
Tonight I hope to actually arrive at the festivities! :)
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I came upon a fire place, with no fire. It is in a field, dusk - I am looking at 'the elders', misty from the past, preparing the ground. I come to one of them, bend down and touch his feet. They get on with their business.
I am walking around the fire place - all of a sudden, fire bursts forth at the centre of the pit. I walk around although I see quite clearly my place to sit, but it is early, and circuiting the fire with the elders loading on more wood... it is very pleasant.
I blow my conch.
I dance around the fire, and sit at my spot, then there is a gap. all of a sudden the night has come on, the fire is older and stronger. there are now a good few people around. We all reach out our hands to the fire. It is a wonderful feeling. I could see more people coming out of the darkness.
I am called away on other missions, and when I return it is really moving smoothly. Music and dance, people off to the sides in discussion, or just lying watching the stars. I join in the dancing and music - great fun! Some of the dancers were covered in perspiration.
I returned again later, and the night was older. We all came together, and sat - this is where we did some special ceremonies. A more serious mood. We were not tired, but of that strength one gets after a days steady activities, approaching the late hours and still full of shakti - ready for the deeper engagement with the older fire, with its intense heat, and vibrant glows of heat and colour. Then is another gap.
I am sitting here carrying the fire and the clan in my aura as I write these words. I am putting pictures to flows of unique energies. This ceremony has stirred the ancient in our soul.
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My Commencement has enfolded. Game hen is simmering as my fire settles down into the first two big logs. More await the twilight. My Ojibwa is well into her spring cleanup and offerings have been set in place. A large smudge bundle awaits my walk of Power around an old ring on our Mother Earth. My ceremonial Opening comes soon as I go into trance then. The elders smile as the children bunch up for games. Meats now begin to sizzle on their skewers as my smoke fills this small city's sky.
And as the murmur of the crone heightens I watch my clan partake of another glimpse of infinity.
OM
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The Opening of the Crack in the World. I have laid the clan bundles to ashes long spent to embers remembering to remember. The wind picks up my awareness and I see my acts, all the ceremonial movements as they were like a watching from a distance of a baseball game, all players intact and focusing. Ha! What a sight.
I pray that we know how to act, as I cry my thankfulness for my clan.
Draw your weapons, warriors, and stomp on the ground and break your drums! Now is not the time to be afraid, for, if there is no tomorrow for us, then we have all the time in the world this moment. Now, don't we?
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
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Before I shoot another arrow into Infinity, I think I will take a walk.
Meet you in a little bit where you are at and we'll do just that.
:)
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Fire's bright good night
It was fun
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As I soon try to close my eyes
a Full Moon
a blue set of flames
will call and call
for me to add more logs
to her hearted pit
as I dream again
of what I may not remember
to remember
'til another fire like this one.
Goodnight, my Friends, for tomorrows fire.
.
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i'm lucky in Aus as i get two shots at this - i'm going to visit again tonight.
just remember time does not exist in astral, at least not like in physical, but the closer we can coincide the more we can draw on our physical power to reach the same place.
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I had a few visions last nite as I went to sleep, which is good for me as dreaming in general is something that I continue to work on.
The first was the face of a large tiger, orange and white and black stripes. It was silent at first - not moving. As I came closer to him he snarled a bit. It was almost like moving past fear. I ended up being able to touch the tiger.
The second was a vision of a young woman knealing infront of a small pond. I could see her reflection in the water. I watched her and her reflection only to see her reflection change into an antelope.
The last vision was one of a circle of fire, as I looked futher at it I realized that it was really all of us making up our own little fires all arranged in a circle.
Then deep into sleep.
More to come later :D
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I'm doing mine this morning. Will go to my special place and invoke(call) some friends...
Since I'm leaving my house and have no matches to light a candle, I most likely go without physical fire. Yet, I'll be lighting one through visualization. I meditate on the candle light now and think of you all and of the deepest center of my being that I can remember and the spark of spirit in there. I envision this spark growing to encompass my being then I chant certain special words... I then enter silence focused only on the candle, no thought. I close my eyes to see the candle in my mind, and when I am ready I blow out the candle in my house and walk out my door to begin the real ceremony.
I perform the ceremony in the darkness but about an hour before sunlight illumines the world. I aim to unite my little fire with the big ball of fire in the sky and bring that power back with me into my home and day to day life.
I have also fasted since yesterday morning and will eat only when the sun is almost completely over the horizon.
maybe I am not too late, hope not.
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Ian, that sounds very focused.
you can't be late, because all we are doing is periodically linking into something that is ongoing.
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I use to help my parents with their house on the countryside, this Saturday (June 2) the major project was to burn all the branches left from previous season. So I really had a great fire going on for some hours. It got very hot I can tell and the sun was shining. These kind of great fires do better in the evening dusk but anyway, I am happy to have contributed with a fire.
I heard the raven on a distance and the sky was high, meaning no trouble with bees or mosquitos that day.
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This post started with my writing about a dream but then it became connected, I think, with our ceremony.
1st part of the "dream";
Picture the earth from a satellite in its orbit. Next picture a circle 4 or 5 times the circumference of the earth and locate it next to the earth, close enough so that one side of the circle will pass through the earths magnetic poles. Now draw many circles side by side each other, all acting like that first circle, equadistant apart and intensely vibrating aglow, pulsating with a seeming universal life energy. All colors united into one brilliance which gave off a magnificent high to low pitch in a ringing hummm as the rings colors changed in hue again and again. Inside of me I felt like exploding yet my mind sensatiions were tranquil and almost all-reaching. It was actually a little dizzying in its energy.
2nd part of the "dream";
My sister and I were galloping on horses, dragging these large and long grey bags which were giving off a glowing dust which immediately turned into lines which rose into the sky. We were riding across a desert and drawing these lines in perfectly straight rows which formed arcs into the air and then vanished as they turned the sky into all these colors. It all was totally breath-taking with colors I have not seen before and sounds like I've never heard but cannot describe now. The horses were very large and grey and puffed their breath which echoed and vibrated in a sound like, "Yow, Yow, Yow.", over and over. The horses' muscles under me made me feel larger then myself and very strong and young. Sis and I never looked at each other but were almost out of breath with glee, laughing and crying. When I tried to look around it made me feel sick so I just rode off into the endless sand with my sister as the sounds of the rising lines and horses continued on.
I woke up feeling very cold and alone. Whenever I tried to think of the dream vision I would get dizzy, so I just quieted my mind. I got up a few minutes later because my back really hurt and I almost fell from that same strange dizzyness. All day long (yesterday) until right now, I have this acute clearness of mind, fully energized, alert and not wanting to eat so, since then, I have just lightly snacked.
Saturday night (the night before last) we went to a street dance and I couldn't get over how all the other folk there were numb and hollow, except for one man who was leaning against this old pickup truck, watching the crowd intensely. When he saw me staring at him, he shook his head quickly and walked away into the semi-darkness where he was joined by this short woman in an old, long grey dress that was too big for her. I suddenly felt totally out of place and asked the WJ if we could leave because the rock music really wasn't something we liked to dance to. She said she was chilly, anyway, so we left.
I can't really describe clearly how I feel now. Just different. I don't know if this "dream" was brought to me by our fire but it is important for us here to remember to remember that a ceremony, in and of itself, is a point of return. It takes us toward a specific place of balance, our place in the community of all things. It is an event to, once again, set us upright. It is never a finished thing. Our real ceremony begins where the formal one ends, when we take up a new way, our minds and hearts filled with the vision of earth and fire that holds us within them, in compassionate relationship to and with our world.
I spoke. I sang. I beat my drum. I swallowed water and breathed smoke for over 48 hours. When I walked away from my circle of power, it was as if my skin contained the wind and rain, the birds and trees which were around me in my small little back yard world for that brief time out of time.
Something alive moved in my body, maybe a lot like the sun and how it moves through the seasons. The solitude and nurturing I received was a silent relationship with myself and clan members, but also a part of something much, much bigger and older than all of us.
My fire is quiet now as the last remnants of ember and smoke curl away into the spring Iowa breezes. I have started packing up my bowls and baskets, my caches and shields and will leave my prayer ties for a good strong wind to scatter them from the trees. I went back to work yesterday afternoon and everyting in my life returns again to the best form of "normal" which I can muster until another of our fires this Fall.
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And a loon sits off in the distance from my lodge right now, as I type this, and longingly calls another nght home.
Two Feathers
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walked away into the semi-darkness where he was joined by this short woman in an old, long grey dress that was too big for her.
..........
it is important for us here to remember to remember that a ceremony, in and of itself, is a point of return.
that was a most thoughtful post tom, with much to ponder. wonderful dreams!
always look close when a woman wears a dress that is too long. Women on this forum, you should try wearing such a dress. I have practiced for years to wear a lungy that is too long - there is a special technique to walking and moving when your dress is too long. I once watched a Kathak dancer doing one dance with a very long dress - she was marvelous! an expert in footwork. but there really is something in too-long dresses.
yes the ceremony is a point of return - well said tom. and it is where the real ceremony begins, the one we walk away into.
the ceremonial fire was equally poignant for me. I would like to do this more often, as i feel we are like rangers in a wide world hostile to knowledge, where we strive to bring some beauty. we come together as a clan of such rangers, and nourish our deepest desires once again - refuel to head out into the world again.
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Another big fire is on October Full Moon of the Chon'yiid Manitou. Completed harvest.
t
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When biking to work this morning I saw two significant fresh feathers lying on the sidewalk where I bicycled. One in the beginning of my tour and the second when I was in the city blocks. When I passed the second one I thought of you Tommy and felt you prescence.
When I returned home, one feather was still there but after all these hours a bit thorn.
The Dream catcher n:o 1 has moved in to our new outdoor room.
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Did you have a hand in creating your new outdoor room? I still carpenter a little but am losing my hand and arm strength over the years. Can you post a flick of your room? t
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what makes a fire sacred?
what makes anything sacred?
wat is sacred?
what is the point of meeting in a magical ceremony?
why do you want to come?
soon your life will be over,
and you will go like the hordes before you...
what was the point of it all?
did you make a difference?
fire is burning passion
fire is consummation
fire is the passage into spirit
fire consumes the physical and turns it into ash and smoke.
fire is life
fire is death
why do we sit around the fire?
there is a field, and in the centre a fire,
that is the fire of our clan
we are nomads in spirit
we are beings of the fire
we declare allegiance to no one
but the fire
what is your life?
is it struggle?
is it comfort?
is it fretting?
for objects just out of touch?
before enlightenment washing bowls - and after?
is that it?
washing bowls?
the fire is end of all our squabbles
the fire is the hope of every seeker
the fire of our clan is the covenant of audacity
the fire is the passageway to our forgotten dreams
the fire is our last chance
the fire is you
i cannot give you eternity
i can't give it to myself
you must come to the fire for that
and i also.
we can meet there
alone,
and together
there is no other way
neither you nor i can cross the bridge of inner fire
to eternal awareness
that is a gift
but we can throw ourselves into the fire
into every moment of our precious disdained life
that is the fire to which we come
the fire of our clan
i say offer everything!
your pride
your guilt
your skill
your love
your memories
your cowardice
your impotence
your last throw
we have nothing else left
make it count!
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hey, that's not bad - I might use that myself.
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hey, that's not bad - I might use that myself.
You so funny - you wrote it! :)