The Lost Verses : Week 6 Storytelling

And lo, Jesus was filled with the Spirit. He thus traveled to Galilee and shared the joy the Spirit.

Upon reaching the gates of Galilee, Jesus came upon the creature.

For it had two wings, the body of a lion and the head of man. It was the Sphinx of lore. The creature sat perched over the fountain of water. Thus the creature spake: “I am called “Purushamriga” and I welcome thee to Galilee.”

The Sphinx of Ancient India

Courtesy of YouTube

Jesus bowed his head in greeting, “Greetings great Purushamriga, for 40 days and 40 nights I have traveled the great desert. Please allow me to drink from your waters.”

The great beast licked at his paws and bowed his head to be lower than that of Jesus, “Great son of God, thou are most exalted. The water in this fountain will on sate the thirst of the truly divine. Those that are not will perish at the slightest sip.

“Great Purushamriga, I beseech thee, in the name of Lord God Almighty, to let this poor servant of the Lord slate his thirst.”

“Most Divine one, I would gladly let thou relieve thy stress once thou hast proven thou hast not been corrupted by the fiend most foul.”

Relief depicting a Purushamriga

Courtesy of Wikipedia

“Great Beast, I do enquire of thee, what fresh hell is this?”

The beast arose from his perch and walked around the front of the fountain standing in front of Jesus. “Thy God has requested that thy faith be proven and thy soul be found free of sin. The proof of this will be in the response to the riddles The Lord on High hath requested be asked.”

“Oh great purushamriga, if it please you, may we get on with it? My trial begins to feel like I am Sita forever striving to please Rama. Time doth tick by and my throat remains parched.”

The Purushamriga nods in affirmation. “As you wish, great shepherd of the people of Zion. As with Odysseus I shall begin: Who is the friend of the exile? Who is the friend of the householder? Who is the friend of him that ails? Who is the friend of one about to die?”

And thus Jesus smiled and stated “The friend of the exile in a distant land is his companion. The friend of the householder is the wife. The friend of him that ails is the physician: The friend of him about to die is charity.”

The great beast was pleased. “Though thy travels, thou hath built much knowledge. Thy question that is the number of two: What is the best of all laudable things? What is the most valuable of all his possessions? What is the best of all gains? What is the best of all kinds of happiness?

And thus Jesus was perplexed. He proclaimed to the beast that smelled of old cat litter: “Great being of the ancient world, thou art mistaken. Thy first riddle hath contained 4 questions, this thou hath just asked 4 additional questions making the total of thy questions 8.”

And thus the great sphinx ruffled his feathers in agitation. “Thou should not be an ass. Thou shouldth answer the questions God has commanded me to ask of thou.”

Jesus being exasperated by Sphinx

Courtesy of Pixabay

And lo Jesus retorted, “Of course, oh great one. I would just remind thou humbly that thy math is a little amiss. The answer thou doth search for is thus: The best of all laudable things is skill. The best of all possessions is knowledge. The best of all gains is health. Contentment is the best of all kinds of happiness.”

To which the great being clapped his paws together in delight. “Thy hath answered the riddles correctly.”

And lo Jesus approached the fountain of sparkling water. He licked his dry, cracked lips, eyes alight in the possibility of quenching a month long thirst. And thus our Lord Jesus reached his hand out to scoop the precious liquid to his mouth.

And Lo the beast did block his attempt. Jesus looked at the creature in disappointment. The great Sphinx shook his mammoth head slowly. “Thou still must answer one additional question.”

Jesus, perturbed by the hindrance did speak. “Thou try my patience, great beast. Perhaps you wish to be like the fishes and loaves, and be multiplied for the masses to feed on.”

The Sphinx doth look at his nails haughtily. “Violence breeds violence, oh preacher to his flocks.”

“Ask your question.”

“So we are doing away with the niceties are we?”

“I’m thirsty and done with your games. I want to drink so ask. “

“I do so like the old tongue though.”

And thus Jesus sighed heavily. “Please, oh great one, I beggeth thee to ask thy last question to which I can prove me purity like Sita jumping in the fire. “ And Jesus said underneath his breath, “Before I build a fire to put you on a spit roast.”

Sita proving purity through self immolation

Courtesy of Wikimedia

And thus the Sphinx rose up to his full height, his great tail swishing wildly. “Son of God, thou last question is thus: What is that which, if renounced, maketh one agreeable? What is that which, if renounced, leadeth to no regret? What is that which, if renounced, maketh one wealthy? And what is that which, if renounced, maketh one happy?

And Jesus wept with boredom and thirst. “Why doth thou torture me with stupid riddles? Thy answer is thus: Pride, if renounced, maketh one agreeable. Wrath, if renounced, leadeth to no regret. Desire, if renounced, maketh one wealthy. Avarice, if renounced, maketh one happy.”

And lo the purushamriga gestured deeply to Jesus. “One on high, thou may drink from this fountain!” The great beast moved to the side to allow Jesus by.

And lo, Jesus saw, a donkey drinking from the fountain. Jesus looked at the Sphinx incredulously. “And you let beast of burden drink but not the Son of God?

Horse at the drinking fountain

Courtesy of Wikimedia

And thus a smile formed on the purushamriga’s face. “Gotcha.” And the great beast flew off. Jesus attacked the fountain drinking next to the bewildered donkey.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Okay so you probably all think I'm a heretic for this story but I really enjoyed writing it and think it is hilarious.  

First off this was inspired "Hundred Questions" in The Mahabharata written by R.K.Narayan.  This story is about the god of justice, Yama, testing his sonYudhistira's character to ensure he had reached a satisfactory level of divinty.  The way he did this was to appear as a Crane in the middle of a sapphire colored water pond that immediately made anyone unbearably thirsty.  The Crane told each of the brothers that they would die if they drank before answering some riddles.  All of them drank and died except for Yudhistira who answered all the riddles and due to his quality of character won his brothers back from death.

On first reading this I was struck how similar this story was to the Sphinx in the Odyssey. Right down to the riddle there were similarities in the stories.  Then I began to reach the Sphinx and found that they were also in Southern India and were one of the forms that Shiva chose and an incarnation in the world.  In fact they were found all over multiple ancient worlds.

This got me to thinking about the situation, the testing of faith.  Which of course led me to the temptation of Christ.  I looked through the King James version of the bible and decided to draw the parallells that are so prevalent in all mythology.  Thus with this story (as irreverent as it is) incorporates aspects of Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, Christianity and Indian mythology.  

The riddles that were shown here are from the actual story The Mahabharata. They were found on the sacred text website. 

Narayan, R. K. "Hundred Questions" The Mahabharata. 2013
"Luke Chapter 4" The King James Bible.  1973
Sphinxes of India
Temptation of Christ

A Light Snack: Week 5 Storytelling

Once upon a time, a lithe little boy in the standard summer garb named Jamie walked along the shore of a marsh lazily watching the majestic birds flying in formation overhead. He contemplated the beauty of nature that lay in the expanse before him. A picnic basket swung absently at his side.

A great tabby cat followed close to Jamie, entangling herself in Jamie’s legs every so often. Jamie simply did a dance around her fat torso without dropping a thought on it. Young kittens frolicked all around as the group moved down the shoreline of the murky waters.

“Are you sure we should be down here?” Asked the tabby cat without moving her mouth.

“How could we picnic anywhere else?” asked Jamie with his mind.

The great tabby fussed at a couple of kittens that were lagging behind. “Keep up, keep up, kids!”

Jamie found a suitable area and laid out a blanket. The kittens all trampled on and rolled around attacking each other.

“You have your hands full, Mama.”

“You have no idea.” The great tabby sprawled herself out on the blanket and the hungry kittens jumped over to find their afternoon milk. “Isn’t this near where the great beast has been hunting?”

“So what if it is, if he comes we will beat him off!”

“One should not take risk so trivially, young man.”

Jamie picks up a stick and starts thrusting it and pivoting with it. “He won’t stand a chance against us, Mama.”

“You are so young. Not much more than one of my kittens.”

This caused Jamie to stop, insulted at the comparison. “I am much bigger than your kittens, Mama!” Mama gave him a sideways glance and started licking her paws clean.

“Are you going to get the food out?”

“Sure,” Jamie said making a final thrust with his make believe sword.

“Yay. Your enemies are vanquished," Mama thought sarcastically.  "Hooray. The crowd goes wild.”

Jamie looks down at Mama with a look of derision. Mama simply makes her eyes small and her grin wide and a small purr to come through her closed lips. Jamie sighed. He could never stay mad at her when she looked so cute. He sat down on the blanket and pulled out some tuna and set it in a dish next to mama. She rubbed her head against his hand and then began to dig in. Jamie pulled out a sandwich from the case and took a great bite.

Suddenly a huge crocodile leaped out of the water toward the group. Jamie jumped up from the blanket and backed away. Mama leaped out of the way herself. The kittens looked confused and were slow from their bellies being full.

Cat takes on an alligator

Courtesy of YouTube

“Kids, get back!” growled Mama in fright. The crocodile lumbered up to the kittens, his gaping maw brandished with dagger teeth.

“What a nice morsel!” Mr. Crocodile thought as he came up upon the abandoned sandwich and tuna. His jaws clamped down on them and swallowed them whole. His mouth was open again in a minute. The kittens mewed in fright. Mama jumped up and batted Mr. Crocodile on the nose.

“Go back to where you came from foul being!”

“How am I fowl? I am hungry and just saw a nice snack on the side of the bank!” Mr. Crocodile’s indignant thoughts flowed over the group. “How can I be denied a meal when you all are so full?”

“You have taken all you will. Now be gone with you.”

“But there are such delicious delicacies that lie just over there.” Mr. Crocodiles thin grin spread across his whole mouth as he gestured to the kittens who were paralyzed in fright.

“You may not eat those!” Mama swatted at Mr. Crocodile again her claws scratching at the armor of scales which covered him. Mr. Crocodile laughed at her feeble attempts.

“Mama, get away from him!” Jamie cried desperately. “Kittens, come to me!”

“Yes, let me eat. I am so hungry.” The giant beast opened his mouth, the razors of his teeth inching closer to the kittens.

“Mr. Crocodile, you forget yourself!” Mama dashed to his side and swiped at his soft underbelly. His armor did not protect him there! “You have come up to our world. You do not have your power and speed here!”

Mr. Crocodile shrank from the attack and brandished his teeth at Mama who hissed back at him. “How bout I just eat you then?” Mr. Crocodile's teeth swiped at Mama, who dodged the attack. Her claws met their mark again on his soft underside of his jaw. Another thin line of blood appeared where her claw had met its mark.

“Mr. Crocodile, here on land you are slow and cumbersome. Here I will pick you apart piece by piece.” She swiped at his underside again and once again found her mark. Mr. Crocodile was in pain from the multiple attacks. “Go back to your home where you may rule. Find your food there!” Mr. Crocodile eyed the scrumptious kittens once again. Mama ferociously slashed at his nose undeterred by the rows of death in front of her. “Go.”

Mr. Crocodile, sensing the truth in her words slipped back into the murky waters and disappeared under it’s surface. “As you wish Mama, but if you come to swim, I will be waiting.”

“We will never swim again!” Mama cried.

Jamie rushed up and grabbed Mama and hugged her closely. “You silly cat! You could have been eaten.”

Mama purred as her kittens jumped around them happily. “Never underestimate the power of confidence, courage and cunning. With those even the smallest person can defeat the biggest foe.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story was inspired by the story of Bhima destroying the Rakshasa in The Mahabrarata. The version that I read was the one written by R.K. Narayan. The story talks about how Bhima and his brothers came to a town dressed as beggars. They were taken into a house who told them that the town had been terrorized by a demon Rakshasa who demanded to be fed every day.  He would also eat the person who brought the food. Bhima took food to the Rakshasa, ate it in front of him and then killed him. I started thinking about how even the smallest person could overcome an obstacle when given the right motivation. I actually loved this as a moral so decided to change the story to make it more the reason for the story.

The Rakshasa

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Then I remembered the video of the cat fighting off a crocodile that went viral on YouTube. In it the crocodile was simply trying to eat chicken the tour guide had left out. A cat came up and beat the crocodile back into the water away from his food.

I paired the two stories in my mind almost immediately when I read the book. I thought about how nature was funny and wanted to highlight why a cat would win against such a formidable foe. Thinking about a crocodile, on land they become quite slow. They can not do their barrel roll attack either or drown their victim. Thus they are not as dangerous as when they are in the water. Thinking on that I could see Mama being able to outmaneuver and thus use her cunning to inflict damage on the crocodile. I did not want the story to end in death, so I simply changed that to the moral is it is.

I wrote it in the style of a children’s story so that it could be added to the book Na Paisti Na Cumhachta, a children’s book I’m writing about children with extraordinary powers. It will be a companion piece to the TV show #PookasPassages. This will be a production of #GoldenCloudStories.

Also now you know why cats hate water!

The Mahabharata.  R. K. Narayan. 1978

The Song - For Sale

We are now for sale!  Check it out on YouTube.  It's .99 cents and helps some independent filmmakers!

THE SONG

This show stars

1. Regina Chen Ting
2. Aisha Love

Regina plays Cala Blade, a hit woman who recently offed one of the Joint Chiefs of the military.

Aisha plays a siren of Greek Mythology.  She had positioned that Joint Chief where she had wanted him and is pissed that Regina came and destroyed all of her work.

Aisha meets with Regina to have her take a job.  A hit on herself.

This film was produced as an entry into the Greenlight Project.  It was limited to 3 minutes in length.

It was directed and produced by Sean P Wise

Find it on IMDB 

To Purchase to watch and support local film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heGPfF8QeF8

The Battle Of Knob Hill - Storytelling Week 3

The sun blazed overhead warming the summer afternoon. The grass was lush and green on the hillside where a cozy cottage was nestled quietly. A brown split rail fence encircled the small hermitage with a small barn off to the side. Arnie, a young boy of stout nature, felt the natural textures of the soft grass graze between his toes as he walked up to and leaned against the split rail fence, gazing over the sparse landscape of houses tucked away on a gentle giant of a mountain. His mind raced back in time.

A Split Rail Fence much like the one that might be on Arnie's Farm

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Small Mountain Town like the one in the story

Courtesy of Pixabay

You see, he once had a friend, long ago that he thought would last forever. They had made bonds that were unbreakable! They had claimed Knob Hill as their kingdom. But one day that friend was sent off to live with other relatives. That friend, Petra, was gone for many, many weeks. Arnie had thought that Petra was never coming back. Their farm just didn’t produce as much as it once did. Arnie had tried to goad the clouds to form and rain more on their land. But the wind didn’t want to cooperate. The water was stubborn. So Petra was sent away.

Arnie kept their kingdom alive. All of the kids would come to Knob Hill to play, but all would have to hear the tale of how Petra and Arnie had been there first. How they had claimed it. How they were friends for always.

A hill like Knob Hill

Courtesy of Wikipedia Western Ghats

One day, a couple weeks ago, Petra showed up out of the blue. Arnie had not been there, but the other kids were. They lied about Arnie telling Petra that he had said bad things about her. That he had called her a liar and a cheat. Petra came to believe the other children, how could so many be wrong? When Arnie heard that she was back, he had rushed down the small cobblestone road to the mound they had so often played on. He scurried up Knob Hill to hug her and welcome her back. But Petra, believing the other kids, had pushed him down the hill. He tumbled all the way down the long slope till he reached the bottom. Petra had come up to him and said, “Go away, Arnie. Nobody wants you here. Don’t even leave your house or I’ll pummel you again.”

Scared and hurt Arnie had rushed back to his house and hadn’t left since.

Arnie looked to the sky and saw his friend, the great Bird, circling overhead. “Mr. Bird, how are you this fine day?”

A Osprey in flight like Mr. Bird

Courtesy of Flickr

Mr. Bird circled down and landed lightly on one of the posts. He picked and fluffed his feathers in a most self centered way. “I am good. But why is a young man like you staying inside the fence. Young men like you need to be running and playing.”

Arnie leaned away from the fence letting the sun drench is face. “I don’t want to get in a fight with Petra. She said I can’t leave the house.”

“Petra, the girl you were such good friends with?”

“Yes. The children lied about me and now she won’t let me play in on the hill.”

“It is not right for her to have banished you from the hill. You had cared for it so.”

“Without help, I’m afraid I will never get to go back to the hill.”

Mr. Bird spread his wings wide and large studying his grandeur. You see, Mr. Bird, loved the way he looked! “Tell you what, I help you take back your hill.”

“I can’t fight a girl. Especially Petra. I like her.”

“Just engage her. If she does not accept your story, then I will help you.”

Arnie smiled wide. He needed no more assurances. Arnie rushed down the cobbled road, past the old merchant's store. He rounded the bend of the road and rushed up the hill. He looked up over his shoulder to see that the great bird was flying high.

Not paying attention to where he was running he ran directly into none other than Petra herself. The force of the impact sent Petra falling face first in front of her. A slap of mud was heard as she landed. Arnie shrank back, appalled at what he did.

“Petra, please, listen, it wasn’t me. I didn’t--”

But Petra was hearing none of it. Her face that was visible under the caked mud had turned a crimson color of rage. Her fists were balled up into furious revenge. “I told you to stay off this hill!” Petra loosened a punch at Arnie. Arnie attempted to dodge it, but it landed squarely on his cheek. He flew backward in a flash of pain landing on his back. He whirled around seeing Petra towering over him.

“Please, Petra, you're my friend! My friend forever. I would never say a bad thing about you, you must know that!”

“Now I’m going to beat you to an inch of your life Arnie Brooke!”

Petra raised her fists again in anger.

“Mr. Bird, please help!” Arnie balled himself up as tight as he could to keep from getting too badly damaged by the onslaught.

Mr. Bird let a kaw echo over the vale. And a doo doo escape from his bowls. Petra looked up just at that moment to see the source of the great cry and the bird poo splashed right in her eyes. Petra was mortified. She stumbled backward and fell to her rear. Arnie couldn’t control it. A laugh rang from his mouth at the absurdity of it all. Soon all the kids on the hill were releasing a raucous course of mirth. Petra wiped the bird poo from her eyes with her dress, her face melting from shock to horror and back again. She turned and ran down the hill to escape the humiliation. Petra never came back to the hill and Arnie began a rule of benevolence for all in his kingdom.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is loosely based on the story of Vali and Sugreeva. In the story, Vali through an entrance to another world to fight a great beast. He is gone for many years and eventually assumed dead. Sugreeva rules in his stead as regent. On suggestions of his advisers, he boards up the only portal between worlds for fearing that the beast would come back through instead of Vali. Vali eventually returns and sees the barrier and believes that Sugreeva, his brother, has tried to overtake his throne. Vali becomes enraged and bursts through the barriers. He violently banishes Sugreeva from the land. Rama comes to find Sugreeva and decides to help him. Sugreeva goes to fight Vali and before Vali kills him, Rama shoots his arrow at him ending his life.

I thought it would be interesting to take this and make it more into a children’s story. In this incarnation of the story the part of Vali was turned into a little girl, Petra, and the part of Sugreeva was Arnie. To keep with the magical aspect of Rama, I made his character Mr. Bird, as Arnie is using his mind speak (telepathy) to speak with him. I made the parallel of the brotherly love to of love between a girl and a guy. 

This will probably be one that will show up in Na Paisti Na Cumhacha, the children's book I am writing as a companion to the TV show Pooka's Passages that we have in development. The book is used by the key character Charity Patch to read to children of the group home. This book is based on more of celtic centered story lines. I will use this and other stories that I build with the story book to highlight the Indigo children that is the central theme of the Pooka’s Passages. These children are not magical. They just use more of their brain than other humans do and thus have extrasensory powers.

The meanings of the names:
Arnie (English: Eagle Power)
Petra (Greek: Rock)

Narayan, R. K. "Sugeeva's Story". The Ramayana. Penguin Books, New York, NY. 1972.  Overview of Narayan Ramayana