This episode is dedicated to a talk entitled "Dark with Power: The Astrology and Poetics of Empire's Descent", featuring cultural historian and mythic astrologer Frank Salzano, on the night of November 7th, 2024.

"...Who is this chaos sorcerer Donald Trump and what is his dharma? And what is the karma and destiny of the United States of America?  And how is it connected to Israel? And global racism?  And end-stage capitalism? So many big questions, right?   

"Tonight we shall have a deep dive into the Geopolitical Astrology of the 2020’s. Let’s shed a little light and context on these very large historical cycles that are at play, and get a little hip to what to expect in the next few years.   

"This offering will be for the astrology and history and political and poetry nerds — and for the imaginal heartbeat that may yet pulse through the humanities departments.

"In honor of my astrological brother Mr. Trump (bless that Gemini-North Node conjunction, it's the mark of the coyote's bite), we shall have a ritual of story and stars and politics and poetry.  Our aim is to make the ghost of Kurt Vonnegut pleased, for it was he who said that his simple motivation of making story in the world was simply him fulfilling the duties he learned about in 6th grade civics class. So, here we go...raising a glass to the long haul, that just got much longer..."

Frank Salzano can be reached for astrological readings, talks, astronomical sessions, events, and personal consultations at his website, "Medicine of the Starry Heavens." https://medicineofthestarryheavens.com

Mica Sun can be followed via his website www.appalachianseason.com or on Instagram: @micasunreflections.

In "The Floating Kingdom", Mica Sun and Samara Jade offer a mytho-bardic fusion of story and song in an original, theatrical tale of reflection, journey and return.  Harkening back to the bardic traditions of the Old World, the tale carries a message for our times of great waves of change, ecological catastrophe, cultural grief, and questionable patriarcho-capitalism.

www.patreon.com/samarajade

www.samarajademusic.com

www.appalachianseason.com

BIOS

Hailing from the Southern Appalachian Mountains, with close ties to the Pacific Northwest of Cascadia, North America, Mica Sun and Samara Jade have been developing and touring the current, story-song-and-music version of Mica Sun's original tale “The Floating Kingdom” since early 2024. 

Mica Sun works as an oral storyteller, actor, songwriter and musician, poet, producer, author, and performing artist for children and adults of all ages.⁠⁠ ⁠www.appalachianseason.com⁠⁠⁠ 

Samara Jade works as a song doula, song circle leader, rites-of-passage facilitator, and touring singer-songwriter musician, both solo and with her three-woman band of mugicians Three Wheels Turning.⁠ ⁠www.samarajademusic.com⁠⁠ 

Sun and Jade have so far performed the show in Berea, Bloomington, Madison, Minneapolis, Bellingham, Portland, Eugene, Port Townsend, Salt Lake City, Taos, Santa Fe (twice), Austin, New Orleans, Pensacola, and of course their beloved home town of Asheville, NC.

S2:E3

This episode is a reading of a new poem with a reflection on the state of the world and human culture. 

Mica Sun Reflections

"Drop deep for a moment. Getting art to your ears." 

www.patreon.com/micasun

S2:E5

This episode consists of a poem born from the top of a panoramic hill southeast of Asheville. Read by yours truly. 

1,000 Secret Whispers Through an IT Tower Knoll

Hilltop of open cattle land and cell tower IT needles,

Sun setting over endless grass.

Are we always whispering across such spaces

Mole hills tunneling their crazy paces

Beneath the only tall things left, the thistles

And last seasons’ dung. Bare rocks

Turn face towards Sun when she

Molasses passes far above. On microwaves

Dart messages of love, like fishes

Navigating corals some thousand miles below this knoll

Which holds the concrete toes of spires’ wires

Passing their threads of spiders messages

Above thru viewless space dimensionally inaccessible except

To ears of precious metal mined at feet of war torn wilderness

Thousands of miles away. So we may say

Into tight microphone like a child’s game of telephone

I love you, I hate you, come home, stay gone, I will.

—19 November 2020

Mica Sun Reflections. 

Drop deep for a moment. Getting art to your ears.

@micasunreflections 

https://micasun.bandcamp.com/

Please keep showing up and supporting the cause: Black Lives Matter, "All Lives Matter" (of course we all do!), changing the system so that ALL of us can be in greater freedom from the forces that seem to want us to only serve and be oppressed. 

Please, extend the right to vote to ALL citizens of our country -- felons and prisoners included. Tax-paying immigrants included. People serving long sentences for  crimes; even those who made a violent choice 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago -- those who are still in prison, still denied a Voice to say "enough is enough! let's create a just society" -- who are legally allowed to be Used as slaves (do your research! it's true! a slave culture of voiceless prisoners and more and more laws "to lock them up"--) -- 

We need to push to change in this society. Police and Law Enforcement need to be held accountable -- directly to the people -- that means to me, to you, to our neighbors. And that means the whole institution of policing. Please vote, please know that WE ALL WANT JUSTICE -- FOR ALL! and I mean treating every human being with respect -- and also understanding the anger of people who have been pushed aside and silenced and used and mistreated for SO LONG -- and that includes some of *all* of our People, European, African, Native, everyone else -- over many many generations. We (Europeans) left Europe's oppression and hierarchy -- and need to get rid of that here. WE ALL WANT THE SAME THING AT CORE: Freedom, life, family, opportunity -- and fairness. Sure "Life isn't fair" -- but that's a lazy person's excuse, too. That doesn't let us off the hook -- "Life's not fair" so "now we can be assholes!" No. No. No.

Be Christian, if that's your creed. Follow the teachings of your Religion. Be Loving. Be Awake. Be Compassionate. Be Human and we must rise up to create together the best world we can! -- and if that means some Courage then By God let's have some courage. Courage to care -- courage to listen to your neighbors -- Courage to believe their stories. Courage to make this world a better one and not just for you but for everybody. "The richest country in the world"  don't need more oppression -- we need liberation, and love, and courage. Please, let's stand together today. 

This is a new poem with reflection on the state of the world and human culture. Mica Sun Reflections: Getting art to your ears. 

www.patreon.com/micasun

This poem represents a deep vow I took the other day. Waking with the feeling of the feathered, dark wing of death or mortality in my psyche -- I went out to the woods to grieve -- and ended up in prayer. I've been holding the prayer with me since -- and here, in this podcast, share the vow, the poem, and some free-reflection about what "being a vessel of the witness to love" means. I hope you enjoy. And remember, you can go deeper and show support by messaging me, finding "mica sun" on the social threads, supporting me at anchor.fm/micasun, or at my artists' site on patreon.com/micasun.

This episode of Mica Sun Reflections features an Imbolc 2019 live telling of the original fable "The Floating Kingdom", which I'm in third-draft phase of editing as of this (Sept. 2019) moment. 

It features an aging King, a Mouse, and the Firebird-Phoenix, and is set in a period of forgetfulness, empire, and ecological and social ills much like our own. (~and yet different.~)

The germ of "The Floating Kingdom" was birthed during a 2-part, all-day storytelling workshop facilitated by Eric Wolf, aka Brother Wolf, at Earthaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain, NC. (Brother Wolf himself produced a phenomenal podcast of in-depth interviews with over 100 storytellers: "The Art of Storytelling With Brother Wolf" (still available online).

The brief intro in this live set reminisces about a separate story, "Scheherezade's Patriarch", which I penned a couple years ago as a part of a wider intended performance at an arts and culture festival in C. A. with my creative friend Nat Allister of Fox and Beggar Theater.  (Nat is rumored to be hatching his next offering even as we speak.)  

PLEASE SUPPORT MY WORK as an artist by clicking here and visiting my site at Patreon.com. 

—Mica Sun Reflections— 

Drop deep for a moment. Getting art to your ears.