Sunday, April 6, 2014

Sadly, Neph is unable to post

This post is being written by Kathy Roosa (Katje Broek in Second Life.) I am so sorry to report that Circe (also known on Second Life as Nepherses Amat) is terminally ill. She has been too exhausted to keep up this blog. She says she feels as if she is in a sort of limbo, where she lacks the energy to keep up with writing or even to visit people in person for long. This she finds very frustrating.

Circe deeply wishes to spend her last few weeks comfortably at home with her cat rather than in a medicaid-supported "facility." Circe has no money to pay for professional care, which is required if she is to stay at home. Over the last two and a half months wonderful friends and family from around the country have come to spend a week or more with her as she cannot live alone and needs assistance.

If you have been an admirer of her blogs or her Second Life sim, Dark Moon, you can now help Circe through a gofundme page that I have set up. Any donation will help! Money will be used to pay a professional carer who can be there when I cannot; I'll be spending nights and weekends with her. You'll receive an accounting of how your donation was used and updates about Circe, as well as much gratitude from both of us. Please go look at the page:

www.gofundme.com\circe

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Dark Moon INDIA!

Yes, it's true . . . I did not blog Dark Moon India while it was there so you are just going to have to look at these photos if you missed it. Sorry, I have been blogging professionally now and, well, just too much to write.




Lot's of jungle, tigers, sacred cows, elephants and actual bird sounds of India. Did you know that largest mangrove forest in the world is at the mouth of a river in Bengal India? So I planted a mangrove forest. At first there was a tantric temple made of red sandstone from Agra. And I built that too! But I fell in love with a certain house and had to have it! So I replaced the that red temple with my home and a beach. Of course this enabled me to build a reef and some merfolk did show up too. So that was nice. 

As you can see the temple was surrounded by palms at the mouth of a river. I actually build the temple myself! That's a first for me being a designer and terraformer! I usually just create the environment and buy the objects. But that's my temple!

One thing I have discovered is that these builds of mine seem to go with my moods, phases of my life. Dark Moon India was a time of healing, coming out of a dark night of the soul, which of course manifested itself in the Dark Moon Underworld Journey build. I find Second Life an interesting creative outlet to record all of this.

So let me just put some more pics here and if you were one of the people who visited, please tell me what you think! Well, even if you weren't!
 


So let me know . . . were you at Dark Moon India? If not, sorry you missed it! But you can now visit Dark Moon Avalon Isle here http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dark%20Moon/208/193/22

Feel free to stop by for a visit!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Dark Moon Underworld Journey on Video!

The long awaited documentation that yes, Dark Moon did look different before. Every time you teleport to Dark Moon you wonder if you are in the right place. I know, I know . . . Fortunately, Zube Udimo has again made a video to prove you were here! She did a great job too! So please enjoy! :)


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Dark Moon Underworld Journy

Again Dark Moon had evolved into another kind of habitat, an environment Neph is very familiar with: mythology! Greek mythology. And this time Dark Moon is a journey from The Underworld, up through the caverns and winding ways to, well a mystical carnival, which could feel like the Elysian Fields. Follow along with Neph, her Felhound and Guardian as we tour!

  
 The moment the land, they find themselves in water and spy a gazebo. But heading to it, they realize they should have gone into the cave entrance. So after a quick dance . . . they headed back.


 
 The entrance was a bit intimidating and they found they could not fly up to the top, but upon taking a note from the welcome sign, and briefly looking through it, they found there was a reason for that! Apparently the idea was to explore cthonic reality of the Underworld with its meandering passage ways, hidden nooks and crannies, and cryptic messages. The passageways were indeed confusing, many dead ending at a place to dance or a waterfall.
 But they finally came to a couple of sets of stairways several meters apart. One looked more inviting than the other. Later they were to find out that one was more dangerous too! Making note of the ways up, Neph, her Guardian and the Felhound continued on through this water level of the Greeted by glowing growths that changed colors, the passageways began to seem more inviting.

Another opening appeared! Wading through the glowing cave dwellers was a delight while heading toward the small opening to another passageway they spied. Where would it lead?


 Apparently to a lovely plum sunrise over a veridian sea! Perhaps later, the top was the goal, as the note said, "Now Dark Moon is now an Underworld Journey to? Well travel upwards and see! Do not avoid the journey! Traverse the Underworld. Create your soul." Who would want to miss that?

 So after enjoying the sunrise they retraced their steps and acended the set of stairs they found most inviting. There were two ways to go. Turning to the right they discovered a cozy library! Embedded in the books a poem that fit the mood soothed the trepidation that filled the soul. 

"In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately Pleasure-Dome decree,
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."
Neph read aloud to her Guardian while the Felhound stood faithfully at their feet. It was a meaningful moment, wine, company . . . good lighting. What more could one ask? This part of the cave was so cozy.

 
 
 But onward they journeyed through a long passageway. It was getting hot and the Felhound in particular was glad of the water in a barrel along the way. Neph gathered a dipper of it for him to lap up. And they they were off again toward a warm glow, that got warmer as they approached!
 
 This must be volcanic! The raging fire from the stone was sure to be the Forge of Hephaestus. Neph decided to try her hand at forging some weapons . . . who knows what lie ahead? The fire raged, the bellows blew, her Guardian took a stance of protection as was his way. The Felhound growled.
 
 But this is hot work! And soon Neph was wet with perspiration, her arms sore from weilding the tools of iron. Creation is a hard work, just as any mother in labor! And LO! The hot fire charred her skin! Neph had taken on not the pallor one would expect in a world without sun, but instead a sooty shade of ebony.
Her Guardian, as they are wont to do, suggested they move on.

 
 The Temple of Hephaestus appeared just further on. "Speak the word 'lumen' was inscribed in the ancient runes carved into stone pillars to invoke the magic of the ruins; it is a worship of solitary dance.
 
 Continuing north (but who could tell in this maze?) one approached the Dark Goddess Hecate herself! The Council Table with wine and food bespoke the solemn nature of this gathering space. Goddess speaks when touched, she tells her tale, and that of Persephone . . . but the historical tale.

 
 Where now? The secret, and only way up, is around the bend behind the Dark Goddess! And you must climb a rope to get up there, but turns out, it's worth it! Upon climbing a fantasy land invites bliss.
 Elven pathways lead to flowered fields and yes, the mystical carnival! Elephants, and chirping herds of small animals live in the big top tent. A carousel waits to be ridden, white weasels run playfully in the underbrush, and a wishing well grants your desires. Wine, cake, and dances let you relax around the playful animals and colorful views.
Confirming the travelers decide an overveiw is needed and spying a stairway hidden in the brush, well actually they spied the ferris wheel and figured there must be a way up, they decided to continue to climb

 The view was worth it.
 

 Much later, another day

 You can often find Neph with her friends Zube and Maurizio hanging out with the owls in the stone circle ruin that has been taken over by the owls. Yep, this is out the back way from the water level of the caverns. There is a small bog with bridges that lead to a shack. This is deceptive, for actually the little shack is the Museum of Dark Moon History where you can pictures of previous versions of Dark Moon. There have been nine previous versions! Each picture, or set of books about, have a link to this blog on that version, or a blog by someone else  about Dark Moon, or a machinima.n So enjoy!



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Spirit, Life, Death, Birth, Claudia222 Jewell


 Yes, that is me! I was reading profiles and came upon a link to Spirit by claudia222 Jewell. Clicking on the link led me to a fantastical art installation that offered a free avatar! Here she is! This avatar allowed me to blend into the scenery. Interestingly, I suddenly felt that I understood the beauty of this strange place, when in this avatar. What was at first a chaos of surrealistic organic forms took on a new meaning. Recently you may have heard me say things like, "I am sick of 'dark' art," and this did appear dark to me at first. But in this alien avatar I was allowed to slip into a fantasy that made sense of my surroundings . . . or seemed to. I don't really know what the artist had in mind, but here is my take. You see, I once had the idea to do a painting of a jungle in the wrong colors, the colors of the insides of our bodies. I wanted to show that organic shapes, in growth, in decay, in life and death, shared a certain form and beauty, the rhythm or fractaline  mirrors of seeming opposites. That is what I found here! Claudia has organic forms looming threateningly about, yet possessing a strange beauty that makes me think of life and death, and the relationship of the two. Of course this build is called Spirit!
 What I saw here was a spirit leaving a dying body, community rushing to help, little spirits and Goddesses standing by in witness and blessings, perhaps midwifing the death. With the music at the sim on, this brought me to tears.
I was touched by the expressions of the faces of the 'helpers.' The serious concern of a technical expert, and a loving compassion shown through these creatures while they worked.
But it all became too much for me as I stood witness with two others of what seemed to be the birth of a baby, threatened by predators, guarded by its mother, in one of the many floating islands of the build. I had to leave . . . and I went on to check out another build by Claudia at JASS.
 
  One must fly up about 500 meters to get to the build. I did not catch a name. But here is the link!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jass/126/56/559  From the distance the build looks like a glob of cellular matter. How perfect is that? If Spirit is Death in Life (is it?) then this is BIRTH! Here abundance and erotic sensuality run rampant! But there were threats too! I came across some scary brain eating octopus and had to fly of to another orb of the build!
 When I did I found a lovely, lovely sort of insect Goddess, spirit, guardian? Well she was a bee I think. She was so serenely protective of me I felt completely safe embraced in her arms, as she flew me around the rest of JASS. YES! You can sit on these lovely creature's and they will fly you around! But be warned, they are bees after all!
 
 Pollinating flowers seemed a fitting activity for us! How erotic is that? Flying into plant genitalia to help them reproduce? Tee hee. The shapes and textures of the flower, the orbs, each object we flew through seemed wet and pulsating. This was conception, gestation in a hybrid that transitioned botany and biology.
 
 Here we are in a particularly juicy flower reminiscent of a vulva. Above us a lovely moth Goddess emerges from a chrysalis.
  Then we were off looking for more flowers, my lovely Bee Goddess holding me securely.



 I noticed faces all seemed familiar, and wondered if these snake Goddess, and the rest, were the artist's face?
 And lo~ what seemed to be a nursery, or at least a symbolic one. One of the womb-like orbs holds the head of an infant, supported by eagles. How delicate is an infant's scull? As delicate as an egg? How does it hold the potential of a future life, or of many past lives? Do we dream of that utero? Finally, I gave up my lovely Bee Goddess, she flew off smiling beneficently, to dance the cosmic organic dance of life.


 THANK YOU CLAUDIA222 JEWELL!
WHAT JOY THIS HAS BEEN!

The first stop to get your ave is Spirit: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Art%20Screamer/55/191/83
Then after exploring that, go to JASS: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jass/126/56/559
(Don't forget you have to fly up! I have set the Slurl right to the Bees! So follow the red arrow! OH! And use "sounds" not the stream at JASS!)