Sheep and stones at Avebury, July 2023. #StandingStoneSunday

No amount of New Age projection nor the Christian cross carving of old, can jam the stone signal of the Long Neolithic. Stories ancient and modern find shelter in the stones, but the lithic mysteries persist as do the site specific facts. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday

By vast pains we mine into the pyramid; by horrible gropings we come to the central room; with joy we espy the sarcophagus; but we lift the lid— and no body is there! — - Herman Melville, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities

This mask of Pan was discovered in 2018 at Hippos-in the Golan Heights. Archaeologists believe that the site may have been a sanctuary dedicated to the god. Who knows what secret rites this mask has witnessed? #MythologyMonday

"The Satyr" 11x14 inches oils on wooden panel⁠ Prints are up on Gallery Gerard 🌿⁠

Travelers might be startled to catch a glimpse of the god Pan frolicking among the woodlands. The sound of his piping may be heard throughout the swaying trees and rustling leaves of the forest. #MythologyMonday 📷Marczu, Jim Champion

Inside the Table des Marchands, a Neolithic tomb built c. 3,900 - 3,800 BCE. The carvings on the stele are thought to represent shepherds’ crooks, reflecting the pastoral culture of the builders. It was excavated and restored in 1993. #TombTueday 📷Personal photo, June 2023.

‘He is not the God of creation But he is the Lord Of the morning light And with his song That floats on up Through the daybreak It is he that Will stay daylong’ — Paul Weller, ‘Pan’ (2005)

LET PAN RETURN ‘Gradually, men moved into cities. And they loved the display of people better than the display of a tree. They liked the glory they got of overpowering one another in war. And above all, they loved the vainglory of their own words, the pomp of argument and the

‘Through wooded glades he wanders with dancing nymphs who foot it on some sheer cliff’s edge, calling upon Pan, the shepherd-god, long-haired, unkempt.’ — Homeric Hymn XIX 🎨Joseph Tomanek

Paul Robichaud

Danielle Barlow

‘I call upon Pan, the pastoral god, I call upon the universe, upon the sky, the sea, and the land, queen of all, I also call upon immortal fire; all of these are Pan’s realm.’ — ‘Orphic Hymn 10 (To Pan)’ (trans. Athanassakis & Wolkow) 🎨Athanasius Kircher, 1652

My current literary reading. ‘Pnin’ explores the life of a Russian emigré teaching at small American college. Nabokov brilliantly conveys the absurdities of mid-century American life (academic life especially), but with pathos as well as irony.

Illustration of Pan by Joseph Mugnani (1912-1992) from Thomas Bulfinch's 'Age of Fable or gods & heroes' 1958.

A "Literary Map of Canada" in 1936 listing works of literature from each location.

This card by Artaud-Nozais in Nantes gives a slightly different view of the many smaller menhirs in a “pretty corner” of the alignments at Menec in Carnac (Morbihan).

In the fogou, in the barrow, in all those underground stone structures of the Long Neothlic, a ghosted darkness. For these are places where time becomes permeable. Even if we don't meet their once builders and long sleepers, in that dark we must meet ourselves. – Dr. K. Brophy

After her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, Demeter refused to bring fertility to the land. The Olympians sought her in vain. Pan, however, discovered Demeter hiding in a cavern on Mount Elaeus. He told Zeus, who sent the Fates to persuade her to relent. 🎨Frans Snyder

Enjoying a pint of Haven brewery’s ‘Nectarnomicon’ this evening.