Mostly I’ve written about mind control from a very personal vantage – the struggle to get free of the worst sort of it – while recognizing that the most general sort of it may be so intrinsic to the nature of who we are that it will always be a part of society, the only question being to what degree.

In any case, I assert we must do aikido with mind control programming, dancing out of its way – rather than ignore it as we’re so encouraged to do.

Most people think about mind control as hypnotic programming or voice-to-skull technology – both of which I’m certain I’ve experienced, along with a great variety of other technological, pharmacological, and other experimentation – but it is so much more.

Mind control begins with birth trauma (all sorts are induced by modern medicine), and continues with day care, education, news, history, economic manipulation, law, law enforcement, entertainment, war, etc.

But mind control predates even these basic elements of society; when humans were separated from their Earth-based calendars and forced to accept an arbitrary industrial work week, our minds were fractured.  We were weakened, given inducements and threats, and we agreed to calibrate our minds to the needs of industry.

In 2002 I’d been feeling a gut horror at this idea growing in me for twenty years.  I was still pulling myself together after a nervous breakdown, or spiritual crisis, in 1993, and was obsessed with the idea that we needed to learn to pay attention to the sky, stars, moon, wildlife, and planting and foraging cycles.  The idea of a calendar to help me do that had been growing in me since the 1980s, and I finally did something about it.

One October day, I told a friend I’d delayed the project too long again, and it would be impossible to throw it together now, and he (a printer) encouraged me to reconsider.  Because my life was fairly simple, living out in the country, I decided I could do it, and began.

I solicited writing and art, designed the weeks, and wrote pages on the Equinoxes and Solstices and others entitled, “Pre-Industrial Time,” “About Moon Names,” “Thanksgiving” (on Native American customs), “Kwanzaa,” “TV Turn-Off Week,” and more.

Each “moon week” began on a Full Moon, New Moon, or Half Moon (any day of the week), rather than a Gregorian Sunday or Monday, and each week was either 7 or 8 days.  Gregorian months and days were incorporated into the calendar, of course, but the moon weeks shoved them around instead of the reverse.

People responded well to the Almanac.  Three-hundred copies of the 2003 Almanac/Datebook/Journal for Southern Arizona were ready for sale in early December (not much time for a single person to sell them all),  and all were sold by February.  Next near I  sold out my printing of 500.

Because I’d been a hermit ignoring the news, I was surprised to learn almost a decade later that Jose Arguelles had published (also in 2002)  a substantial book – Time and the Technosphere – on this subject of the Gregorian calendar being the most fundamental aspect of human mind control.  (A web search for the title will bring up many videos and articles by others resonating with this idea that the calendar is basic to our control.)

Some of the metaphysics of Arguelle’s book was beyond me, but I’d certainly felt the subtle impact of the mind control the Gregorian calendar is.

From the time we sit in kindergarten, learning to read the calendar and reciting, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…, we understand we are part of a system which cycles 5-2-5-2-5-2-5-2…work long, play short, work long, play short, work long, play short.  And everything from that moment on which has anything to do with a calendar reminds us that we are part of a world of 5-2-5-2-5-2, work long, play short.

The natural world teaches us something nicer:  slower cycles of 14-14-14-14…, balance.  As I wrote in all the Almanacs,

Ancient people invented – or discerned – patterns that seemed to facilitate harmonious living, that encouraged an energetic cycling of activity and rest, like inhaling and exhaling, waking and sleeping, summer energy and winter hibernation….

Today’s lifestyle requires many people to work intently for five consecutive days, resting for only two, relying on caffeine and/or other drugs to keep themselves going.  Perhaps the equal cycles of waning and waxing moons might inspire us to create more balance in our lives.

My partner then, Leo, claimed that if we all lived with this sort of balance, allowed ourselves to be less productive, slept more, took more time off, travelled less, and shopped less, we could solve a lot of our environmental and health problems.

Inspired, I would later write a poem entitled, “Pssst!  Quit Your Job!” in which I suggested a couple/few dozen other things a person might do that would be of service – real service – to their communities, that would be artful and satisfying to do – whatever days we chose to work.  (To read more easily, click to enlarge.)

*

Not everyone all at once, now!  (Or maybe….)

But it’s good to know that we can create a different world if we want to.  We could ignore the stupid ideas of industry – genetically-modified foods, fracking, and a million unnecessary consumer gadgets that will soon be in the landfill – and do something meaningful instead.

And we could work on our own schedule.  “Take it easy when someone’s ill, or the weather is especially nice.”

A few years ago, many years after the first two Almanacs had been published and I thought forgotten, in a single week three different individuals asked me when I’d publish another.  I waited for a couple of years and finally produced a third one, The 2013 or Year One Almanac, Datebook, and Journal – taking advice of many people to make it less local, so I could sell to a wider audience.  I didn’t like it, but it rekindled my love for the thing – though I didn’t have the energy to create one for 2014.

This is what I think should happen next:  Every bioregion should have it’s own Almanac.

To that end, I offer the pages in the back of last year’s version, the section entitled, “Make  your own Perpetual Moon Calendar!”  It contains instructions, templates for  four “moon weeks” (first quarter/waxing crescent, and so on), and “phases of the Moon” through 2017.

Collectives in each bioregion can put out a call for information, art, and ideas, and do like I did: sit at the kitchen table to draw, cut, paste, edit, peruse, and chat with friends (for me in the desert, they were few) while putting the book together.

I chose to eschew the computer for as much of the work as possible:

to remind us all, myself included, that sometimes we can break the rules, relax, and enjoy the imperfections.

Even though this is a day planner, I hope it won’t drive your days, but lead you through them with a little more kindness and ease than our efficiency-minded society usually wants us to grant ourselves.

As Ghandi said, “The purpose of life is not to do everything faster.”

Here’s a link to my last Almanac.

In my next post (since this is after midnight), I’ll upload those “Make Your Own Perpetual Moon Calendar” pages, and pray we unleash a thousand or more bioregional Almanacs around the “civilized”/controlled world, birthed by women and men gathering the wisdom of their elders, reclaiming our relationship with Nature, breaking our mind control, and helping ourselves and our children find harmony again.

Let’s do it ~

And please share your work here if you’d like.  I’d love to see it.

Peace,

Jean

* “Pssst! Quit Your Job” mini-poster art by Jean Eisenhower. Different versions of this I began to create around 2004-ish.  Even though I said “copyright” on this one, I’ve changed my mind; it and the Almanac are both now Creative Commons. Copy, swipe, redesign, evolve. Distribute freely.

** “Declare the Jubilee” in that poem is a Biblical reference.  If you don’t know about it, look it up.  It’s good.