Winter 2011 photo journal; Day 3 - Conto's Point, Merchant Rock, Round Rock, Cape Freycinet, etc.

[moonvoice]

Come join me, won't you? - I love our rocky, coastal beaches and their white sands.






Duckstein Brewery at Saracen Estates - while we went here after all the beachy places, I thought I'd put the photos here. It's a merger of a winery, and a brewery, and it also includes a restaurant.





And has very nice statues around the place. - And koi in the ponds/lakes framing the estate.





The rearview, with grape vines coming right down to the building itself.





My altbier, and the taster tray of five beers that were currently on offer; the pilsner, maidock, altbier, hefeweiss, and dunkel. I may have gotten a little bit tipsy, and then let the world know on Twitter and Facebook about how very good-natured that made me. Alas, I don't have a photo of the amazing kangaroo pie I ordered, but nevertheless, it was amazing.





The view from where we sat.





Conto's Road - It starts off like a regular road, and then quite quickly starts to become this epic.





Better not die while you're here!





A snaily-snail - I had gotten out of the car to remove some branches from the middle of the road, and saw this snail valiantly and slowly making its way to a tastier looking branch.





The grassed area at Conto's Point - we went here once on art and biology camp, and I remember going around everywhere with some textas and oil pastels, drawing things. Because you know, it's fucking amazing to draw.





Just in case you didn't get it the first time; don't die!





I could live here. - I joked to Glen at one point that maybe I could become a hunched over old woman living in the undergrowth with a little tarp, foraging for snails and shellfish. And Glen, after a beat, said 'you know, we could make that happen. I could just drop you off right now if you like.' And then we laughed. But I considered it, because I am very very strange.





A lone sooty oystercatcher.





See how high that swell is? Yeah. It was very high. And getting higher. Glen and I actually ended up having to run away, because the swells were getting so high they were going to inundate us.





Here we are, pre-creepy-swell. Isn't that amazing? It was freezing, but that made it even better, because it meant we could hike all over the place and not get hot under the Western Australian sun.





Then we went to Merchant Rock and Round Rock, and decided to be silly. Because we can't help it.













No one knows what Glen is doing here, not even Glen himself. I think he's rock surfing. Or... something.





There were amazing textures everywhere. Australia has the oldest geography in the world, and Western Australia the oldest out of Australia.





This massive granite rock looked like it just got tired of holding together. Or maybe a giant came along and broke a giant oyster on it or something.





Amazing textures everywhere.





No, really. Just everywhere.





Everywhere you looked, the scenery was just perfect. - And do you want to hear something sad? I had better internet and phone signals here, in the middle of no where, off-road, than I do in the suburb of Ellenbrook where I live.





This is Settler's Cove - by now, Glen and I were having fun going to every off-road section of Conto's Road, though we were very unimpressed by the Slopeys, which are more designed for rock fishing, I'm pretty sure, than spectacularness.





I could live here.





These would be the steps up to my little shack





These would be my crossroads, and up ahead, a little granite rock to sit on.





And, you know, this would be where I'd... just stare in awe because come ON.









Grey fantail. - Not remotely perturbed by us.





Don't forget to look up.





Don't forget to look out to sea





The paths are also very moody. And thankfully very compacted due to a lot of heavy rain. Sandy paths are very annoying.













Sea spray and salt - I was constantly having to clean my glasses and my camera lens because of the sea spray that was heavy in the air (for anyone who wears glasses, they know they kind of residue it leaves by going to the ocean on a really windy day!)





But it's okay, when you've got views like this.




Join me on the fourth and final day for the raptor rehabilitation centre, some kites in flight, and a very awesome white-bellied sea eagle. Oh, and some Prevelly on a rainy day.

Comments

[moonvoice]

My personal thoughts are rocks can be treated as totems, much as animals, and as totems can be ascribed properties based on cultural lore (i.e. that found in Indigenous lore, such as the Finno-Ugric associations with malachite), UPG/personal experience and verified personal gnosis, and contemporary lore and story. The cat, of itself, doesn't actually teach people about meditation. It doesn't teach people about anything. It's a cat. We can teach ourselves things about the cat through observation, but the cat itself is just being a cat. As a totem, however, it becomes more than only its physical manifestation. It becomes the sum total of all of its physical manifestations and its cultural ancestry; present and future. For some this becomes archetypal, and for some it becomes literal, and for some it's a strange combination of both.

I have issues with people ascribing very fixed qualities to stones if they don't understand the culture history behind the properties (for instance, I believe amethyst is ascribed the property of 'being good for hangovers' because of a specific cultural connection in Greek mythology), or if they're just reading from a rock dictionary and have no ability to verify what they're reading. I can understand hematite being associated with blood flow and circulation if only because on a purely symbolic level, when cracked or broken, it has a dark redness about it within.

Does that mean it can literally help? I don't know, but I think placebo effects are one of the most effective healing tools in today's healing lexicons (especially for many mental and spiritual, as well as undiagnosed issues), and I also think that symbols and rituals are important stimuli for the human brain, and it doesn't hurt. But I also think the symbol loses power if people don't really understand where these meanings came from.

If someone had a piece of hematite and was told it was good for blood circulation and never understood why; then where is the story and the culture and patina of understanding that helps to give something mental power? I have problems with the lack of education, when it comes to gemstones; where they came from, how the tumbling process works, where the stones are found, was slave labour used to find these stones or mine them?, are they being taken from a geographically sustainable site?,are they irradiated or treated or dyed to resemble something more 'spiritual,' can a tumbled stone ever offer as much as the stone in its natural setting, not chipped away from its original source? These are things I wish people who worked with stones in a spiritual manner asked themselves and I don't think...often, that they do.

I don't like people blindly using anything without thinking about it; stones, animal totem dictionaries, and so on. I'm in a business of ascribing esoteric 'meanings' to animals, though many are extremely logical - the dingo represents extinction of something important in someone's life because it is going extinct, and that's a pretty straightforward symbolic interpretation which - imho - carries more power as a symbolic interpretation precisely because it can be traced back to the nature of the animal and the way it exists in our current world.

I don't actually work with tumbled stones, because I prefer to work with most stones in their natural environment (i.e. granite outcrops at Bell's rapids, instead of the rainbow rock informing my front pathway). But over the years I've been gifted with stones from people; labradorite, which I enjoy on a purely visual level (I love chatoyance), among others. The stone I actually do ascribe a very spiritually significant meaning to is eudialyte, as it's sacred in the shamanism I practice. It is connected to specific stories in folklore, and it's colour gradations are said to have come about due to specific reasons (kind of like how, in Aboriginal Dreaming, the raven turned black for specific reasons that are also sacred reasons or teach sacred lore).

I'd be the first person to call my practices crazy, y'know? They are. It's hard to explain journeying to the otherworlds, and totemism, and believing that animal spirits talk to me, without taking it all with a grain of salt myself - especially as someone who enjoys studying science and psychology (and anthropology and other things completely unrelated), and understands that where I see a real animal totem that manifests as a spirit, others see an archetype, and others see a burst of chemical creativity that is given meaning because humans like to create meaning from chaos.

And I also think that for now, it works for me. It's made me healthier as a person. I wouldn't ever push it on anyone else, because it might not always work for me, and it might never work for anyone else... but, yeah. Definitely not offended. It might make me a hippy that pisses you off, and I'm okay with that. Lots of things I do and believe piss other people off. It doesn't bother me. I'm not hurting them. I think I behave in a responsible manner to my environment and I'm trying to improve it. And that's the best I can do, and that's good enough for me. :)

/ramble.

PS: No, I don't think tumbled stones and so on cleanse auras by default. For a start, as an animist, I think stones are sentient creatures - why would they want to? Why would a certain colour or shape make them want to cleanse human auras? (Rhetorical, and something that a lot of people can't answer, unless they assume the world serves us, which is when I switch off) And then secondly, do they really know this? Or is it something a book told them? And was it a book that was well-researched, with references? Or was it a book published to appeal to laypeople for maximum profits? So... yeah, I think there are hippy elements to using stones that I disagree with as well. Mostly, about how people apply thinking to using anything relating to nature; and whether they do or not.

/ramble for real this time.

[stephbg]

Many thanks. I'd like to tell you about my animal tattoos one day. I think you'd like this piece of rock: http://stephbg.livejournal.com/620153.html

...and for purposes of continuity, may I copy your comment into the post it references? I know you're not keen on LJ so I can make it anonymous if you wish.

[moonvoice]

If possible, could you copy the link instead of the entire comment? I don't mind it being credited to me, but I'm not a fan of posting too much actual *content* to LJ. I hope that's not too inconvenient and I apologise if it is.

Also, that crazy lace agate is amazing. It's very striking.