╋╋╋╋╋
Welcome to the online studio of Francisco Mattos, built w/ printed pieces, experiments, souvenirs, personal projects.
-| September 2020 |-
HOUSES OF THE HOLY
❝ Suppose the past and present are time cycles coexisting, coiling about us concurrently. Cause a slight tilt ... the present would slide into past ... past will tumble into present. ❞
– David McCallum in Forms of Things Unknown (1963)
In the aftermath of the trojan war, olympians carried on the fight w/ each other. This theomachia roused mother Earth, finally, into open revolt; Egypt disappeared in a ‘screaming wind ’. Ge then vomited out the contents of her vaults – some there had been inprisoned by by none other than Zeus; now the freed monsters (fourth class) attacked Olympos and set in motion the second gigantomachia.
•❚-❚-❚•
Up north meanwhile, a second aesir-vanir war was brewing when Ragnarok 2.0 was triggered by these contiguous havocs, sending nine worlds and twelve hells toppling into a stellar maw.
•❚-❚-❚•
Ge then picked up Mount Olympos and threw it at Uranos, giving father sky a black-eye. Sun god Hyperion left of his own volition, and in 1948 the firstgen titan ceded the gravity throne to that ‘container of multitudes’, the complex god Apollo. By then Ge was pretty much curled up and catatonic – ensuing atomic bomb testing did her no good.
•❚-❚-❚•
What didn’t climb out mother Earth was shook off, clearing out her caverns and emptying all the hells she knew about. The last to depart Tartaros was Haides, hand in hand w/ Hekate, staying behind long to ensure gates were left open and unguarded.
•❚-❚-❚•
Nereus had felt nothing when Ge performed her cosmic cough, and so the ‘Mediterranean’ sea remained placid. His aboriginal root matter being H-two-oh, ‘the old one’ soon started splashing some over the exposed parts of Ge, initiating a tidal rite to soothe his grandmother, his beloved, his only home.
•❚-❚-❚•
Marooned when primeval Pangea broke apart, indigenes clung onto Australia as their chunk drifted south, ending on another shore and another sun. Looking at summer skies w/ wintry eyes, they saw the physical, spiritual and mortal planes clearer and earlier than most; now they are Ge’s best friends and help prepare her bedding every day.
•❚-❚-❚•
Before going separate ways, Hyperion held a meeting w/ dog-headed death goddess Hekate. The senior Sun knew that she was the real ruler of Tartaros, and sought advice from the goddess of necromancy on planning for the next aeon. Together they drew up a hypothetical heaven, where ex-pats still spherical and functioning were ‘wanderers’, and the rest ‘drifters’. Then the ‘dweller on high’ and the ‘crone of the underworld’ took their leave.
❝ To ensure no favored location in space, the cosmologist postulates spatial isotropy and spatial homogeneity, which is Edwin Hubble’s way of saying the universe must be pretty much alike everywhere and in all directions. ❞
– Ronald W Clark (1971)
❡ As the latest geomachia began to subside, tumbling thrones had to be steadied; some just needed a hand, others required mending, and the wrecks tossed. Soon enough, a multi-mythological map of the universe began to make clearer sense. Whereas the ancient order had adhered to the ‘invariable plane’ while paying homage to the gravity throne on the Sun, newcomers need no longer do so. Primeval houses were delighted, or not, to find lost kin, get introduced to oddballs, and greet faded deities.
| top |
•❚-❚-❚• IN THE BEGINNING WAS LOVE, so this house tour begins w/ Aphrodite. Stung by the treatment mother Earth meted out to her brood, the love goddess had no recourse but to leave, becoming the last olympian to do so. •❚-❚-❚• The ‘one who postpones old age’ moved her foam throne closer to Apollon and, in 2002, gathered mothers to graces Eurydome and Euanthe to her court; now they share advice and guidance w/ the sex goddess while sitting on the ancient and mirror thrones. •❚-❚-❚• Pasithee had awoken to a planetery party in full swing. The grace to relaxation called her aunts asking for peace and quiet. Knowing their neice was married to Hypnos and always has sachets of daydreams, Euanthe and Eurydome said yes. •❚-❚-❚• Kale became unhinged by the expulsion from Ge, so the tender throne was offered to the grace to beauty until she can find closure. •❚-❚-❚• By 1999, the ‘the killer of men’ had reconciled w/ finnish love god Lempo; he returned, murmured in her direction and sat back down on the nektar throne. •❚-❚-❚• Taking baby steps is Eros-898, the first being to step out of oblivion and greet Khaos the first form. The love god’s name is spelled differently by different scribes, and this latest iteration is an amalgam from four asteroids. Shattered like he’s shattered hearts, the ‘first born’ mutters sweet-nothing rites in hopes to achieve a home once more in mortal breasts. Otherwise the god of creation rests his golden wings on the soul throne. •❚-❚-❚• In 1936, the ‘handsome one’ established a love embassy. Adonis had insisted, even though scientists say he’s a potentially hazardous asteroid and his exes claim that he is an extinct comet and a source of meteor showers, but that was before Helene came in 1980, a dione trojan gone awol.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• BY 1932, Apollon had attracted sufficient material to accrete and return as an apollo asteroid, the first of his kind. The ‘pure god of truth’ continued to evolve and has now ascended to the gravity throne as the ‘eldest flame’. •❚-❚-❚• Apollon’s mother Leto occupies the sun throne, paying fealty to ‘the supreme light’; and since 1861 the secondgen titaness has enacted a solar rite every fifteen hours. •❚-❚-❚• Galaxy god Varuna will spend 282 years performing an orbit rite on the blind throne, facing outwards and soaking in the subtle focii of vedic cosmic jive. •❚-❚-❚• When this mythic bird flew down to perch on the arrow throne in 1999, Bennu was still an apollo asteroid; now he’s the nexus btw. egyptian rebirth, creation and the sun throne. •❚-❚-❚• Complex easter island deity Makemake made a dramatic entrance in 2005 to occupy the singular gold throne, and was seen carrying a charcoal-dark satellite in his space-faring craft. •❚-❚-❚• In 1998, aten asteroid Akhenaten opened the sun embassy; competency in dusty dynasties shows – he continually posts welcomes to unexpected deities showing up to greet the gravity throne. •❚-❚-❚• The pharaoh can pronounce the Sun’s name in gallic and celtic, inuit, sanskrit, finnish, mandarin and egyptian-arabic, his native tongue. He’s onto rumors of a pan-oceanic family coalescing around the 2016 discovery of Kamo‘oalewa ‘oscillating fragment’; still figuring Venezuela out. Soon a course in japanese and spanish, a brush up on latin. •❚-❚-❚• Akhenaten is lucky to have found origins muse Arche in 2004. She knows where the skeletons lie – and where they lived. •❚-❚-❚• While norse wolf Hati-004 makes sure all skeletons behave. •❚-❚-❚• Helios left on assignment in 1918, then the secondgen titan and son to Hyperion vanished.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• AS GE SHOOK AND COUGHED, Aἴtnē survived, as befits one of nine aboriginal mountain nymphs. She’s been host to Hephaistos for a long long time; the aboriginal fire god suffered some diminishment otherwise unharmed. •❚-❚-❚• In 2006, Surtur of the fire sword, showed up. Following notebooks and using legacy tools, he helped to get the forge going again, earning the jötunn his spot on the foundry throne. •❚-❚-❚• Daughter to Sun and Sea Pasiphäe manages to keep busy from the cauldron throne as the mistress of herbal magick.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• THE KYKLOPES WERE NOT FLUNG INTO SPACE, having instinct enough to cling on, and flourished by evolving the craft of lens-polishing, then downloaded their DNA into A.I. Now this race of one-eyed sons to Ge and Uranos exist mainly as rows of lensii arrayed in patterns and spending a lot of time inside tubes. These space telescopes each sit on an equatorial mount where a clock-drive moves the tube the same rate as planetary rotation. •❚-❚-❚• The house of Polyphemus has been run by its blinded-host since 2013 (long story, above c.200-BC bronze eye was his). •❚-❚-❚• The egyptian sun disk came in 1976 seeking repair work. NowAten is fully rehabilitated from a stony sub-kilometer space rock to a source of intelligent light. •❚-❚-❚• Muse of astronomy Eukalade arrived in 2003 to furnish quality control and to develop the web presence. •❚-❚-❚• As the 20th century began, kyklope-lensii mounted on better tubes led to vaster views of the “mysterious universe”. In 1924, astronomers Edwin Powell Hubble and George Ellery Hale managed, using a 100-inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, to observe individual stars some 800,000 light-years away; then billions of light-years away.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• THE HOUSE OF SATURN serves as the judiciary, and Kronos its chief justice. Consort Rhea, a binary-being, sits on the mountain throne, where in 1966 she welcomed two-faced roman Janus to the duty throne. •❚-❚-❚• Galaxy god Mithra holds degrees in truth and zoroastrian light, and in 1987 came to the seasons throne; while firstgen titaness and law goddess Themis has been on the harvest throne since 1853. •❚-❚-❚• Young aten asteroid Ra-Shalom, spiffy in a smooth carbonaceous outfit, interns as law-clerk. •❚-❚-❚• Kronos hosts 62 satellites and it makes him a grump on the flint throne, where the king of the titans wears a ginormous stole of frozen helium and iced hydrogens, hiding lashings by wet methane winds and seasonal ethane mists. •❚-❚-❚• The time embassy issues legal counsel; staff will constantly juggle worn volumes looking up titles and attributes to multicultural deities, one-off entites and ‘misc’. •❚-❚-❚• Elder memory muse Mneme came out of retirement to run the law library, assisted by Hermione, daughter to Helen of Troy and Menelaus.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• IN 1884, NYMPH TO A BABY GOD Ida was admitted to the infirmary, injured and living a half-life. When Zeus found out his nurse was alive he went to fetch her and placed the restored mountain maid on the oak throne. •❚-❚-❚• While traveling, Zeus recognized Athene’s roman carbon and told her where her greek half was. •❚-❚-❚• Before returning to the eagle throne, Zeus came across his second wife Hera and persuaded the goddess of marriage to come home, sit on the marriage throne, and become again ‘queen of the gods’. •❚-❚-❚• His lightning eye also caught sight of Europa, sailing aimlessly in the void; promising not to change in front of her again was what it took to persuade the princess of Tyre to come and sit on the azure throne. •❚-❚-❚• Mother to Dionysus Thyone was recovered in 2002, and brought to the rain throne. •❚-❚-❚• The sky court was established in 1672 by Rhea, mother to Zeus; now that her roman-half has been found they have fused and returned to the house of Saturn. •❚-❚-❚• Metis was heartbroken to see Rhea depart, the okeanide was Zeus’ first wife. Now the goddess of wisdom sits on the blessed throne and has fallen into a trance. •❚-❚-❚• Ancestress to Arkadia Callisto came in 1610 to establish the sky embassy. Elder muses Aoede ‘song’ and Thelxinoë ‘charm’ showed up, four hundred years later, to help w/ backlogs and inboxes. •❚-❚-❚• Seasons spirit Sponde joined in 2003 and imposed lunch breaks.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• POSEIDON CHOSE THE DATE of his resurfacing into history by sending a dream, in 1846, to a sleeping mathematician. The woke mortal entered a new set of coordinates into the New Berlin Observatory and found the liquid liege sitting on his trident throne. •❚-❚-❚• Tethys, wife to Okeanos, had re-materialized much earlier, in 1684. The ‘sovereign of the sea’ was responsible for establishing the sea court, now the firstgen titaness sits on the sea throne, is now semi-retired, running a cell of neptune trojans beholden only to her. •❚-❚-❚• Nereid first glimmered, in 1949, under the surface of Night, a drop measuring only 210 miles, in a swimsuit made of neutral-ices and silicates. Troublingly, this fusion of fifty sea daughters to Nereus and Doris is a potentially hazardous object for the sea embassy. •❚-❚-❚• Aegir swam by to take a “only a peek” but was persuaded to stay by Tethys, by Siarnaq, and the entire embassy staff; the germanic sea god is holds a set of hurricane keys and sits on the storm throne. •❚-❚-❚• Primeval sea goddess Siarnaq, mother to all inuit marine life, is comfortable on the whale throne. •❚-❚-❚• Triton runs the sea embassy. The mer-god first surfaced in 1846, encrusted in barnacles, showcasing cryovolcanism and cantaloupe-colored boils, spewing nitrogen five miles into space from frigid fingertips of methane. •❚-❚-❚• The ‘messenger of the sea’ is under the weather, and knows not what’s ailing him, but Salacia does. Since 2004, the roman carbon to the greek ‘queen of the sea’ has been testing and correcting local salinity levels, bringing much needed knowhow to assist demi seagoddess Lysithea, who’s been doing so since 1938. •❚-❚-❚• The embassy’s day-to-day is ably handled by demi seagoddess Hermippe, river spirits Io and Callirrhoe; firstgen okeanide Telesto.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• LIKE URANOS, Haides lies on his back; unlike his great-grandfather, the king of the underworld is in command of his senses, as he reigns once again in Tartaros 2.0. •❚-❚-❚• Showing off a young mantle, as befits his status as the first minor planet, ‘the great renewer’ goes about in a liquid-cape of frozen nitrogen, stained w/ landscapes of ruddy pinks and subtle yellows. •❚-❚-❚• Primitive vengeance goddess Tisiphone, she of the scorpion whip, visits w/ BFF Hekate when she’s not dispensing from the dead throne. •❚-❚-❚• Complex deity Osiris, silent and still on the shadow throne, turning invisible. •❚-❚-❚• Haides had once rescued two brothers from the bleakness of the latest giants’ revolt. Now these firstgen gigantes, Enceladus encased in complex organic molecules, Mimas fitted out in dreams, have repaid the king of the dead by running the death embassy, which is made from the substructure of space having capacity for many-sided folds. •❚-❚-❚• Handling dark matter since 2000 is inuit shapeshifter Ijiraq, elusive in a sulphurous smoke jacket, bounding from comet to comet while flinging out mirages left and right. •❚-❚-❚• Fenrir crouches at the foot of the black throne, munching on thanatos leaves. •❚-❚-❚• An aeon in Tartaros caused siblings, as they shot into space, to meld and, in 1655, become a composite colossal. Home again, Titan has grown star-fat and nova-lazy. This slovenness vanishes when his secret name is uttered. Then the fused thing sits upright on the tartaros throne; resumes as monster third-class.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚•
THE GEOMACHIA HAD CASUALTIES, but Hestia was not one of them. The primal fire goddess had gingerly cupped ‘first flame’ onto her palm, slipped into sensible shoes, and stepped off the face of the Earth.
•❚-❚-❚•
In the Asteroid belt she came across Hygiea, and her sister Demeter, seeding the second Garden of Apollon.
•❚-❚-❚•
Hestia found a spot to set down her charge; soon enough a new fire was kindled, and together the three goddesses set up a clinic.
•❚-❚-❚•
By 1807 this clinic had become an infirmary. In 1992 Hestia saw footage of the first wanderer discovered in the Kuiper belt. Taking a closer look, she recognized Albion. Straightways the hearth goddess fetched back ‘mythological britain’ to become the foundation to the house of Vesta. She became its ADMINISTRATOR, Demeter the gardener and Hygiea the nurse.
•❚-❚-❚•
Newly dislodged norse fire god Loge was admitted in 2006 for hypothermia. He was exposed to first flame, his root matter, recovered, and stayed on.
•❚-❚-❚•
In 1989, Hygeia’s father Asklepios was admitted as a wounded apollo asteroid, now the medicine god is HEAD PHYSICIAN, allowing his daughter to fuse w/ her roman-half Valetudo and resume research into accretion vaccines.
•❚-❚-❚•
Celtic childbirth goddess Bebhionn showed up in 2000 and established a maternity ward.
•❚-❚-❚•
Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, came back to her calling in 2017 and established the NURSES STATION. Eager to learn modern methods are ancient nurses to baby gods Cyllene, Kallichore, Helike, and Kalyke.
•❚-❚-❚•
Eight of Poseidon’s fourteen satellites are in the INTENSIVE CARE UNIT. Faded sea goddess Thalassa maniacally wobbles and paces her room every eight hours, in the realization her aboriginal form will end up as a rubble ring.
•❚-❚-❚•
Priestess Despina is missing parts, and has set aside mysteries of arkadian cults for now.
•❚-❚-❚•
Hawai‘ian birth goddess Haumea and her daughter-moons were admitted in 2004. This ‘collisional family’ reached the danger point of offing each other.
•❚-❚-❚•
Galatea and her water-nymph siblings are all of unreliable form; they”ve re-accreted too often, now Sao, Neso, Laomedeia, Helimede, Psamathe might end up as rubble rings.
•❚-❚-❚•
The first patient was admitted in 1983 when Phäethon fell off his father’s sun chariot.
•❚-❚-❚•
The garden has pasture enough for goat nurse to baby Zeus Amalthea to retire in tranquility since arriving in 1892. Her minder is mountain nymph Daphnis.
•❚-❚-❚•
Come autumn they will help seasonal goddess Carpo and native-american corn goddess Atira assess the bounty from Nature 2.2.
•❚-❚-❚•
And when the granaries are full seasons grace Hegemone will lead a procession and moan the closing rites.
•❚-❚-❚•
All this was possible because Flora had first tended to every petal and abundance goddess Euporie to every stalk.
•❚-❚-❚•
Creator god Quaoar was helping out in the 2005 harvest when he caught a flu; now the father to the native-american sky shivers and tosses every seventeen hours, wrapped in red rocks studded w/ stalagtites of iced ethane buttoned w/ nitrogen, and ribbings of carbon monoxide sewn w/ methane threads.
•❚-❚-❚•
When corn goddess Demeter became HEAD GARDENER, she recruited aitolian princess Leda to be the groundskeeper. Together they have been running tests, since 1801, to gauge exactly how many seasons now exist. Otherwise the ‘good goddesss’ looks forward to annual visits from daughter Kore, who resides elsewhere.
•❚-❚-❚•
Naiad, a fused nation of freshwater nymphs, maintains the water features in the Garden to Apollon 2.0, together w/ demi sea goddesses, the danaids Isonoe and Sinope.
•❚-❚-❚•
Resident CHAPLAIN duties falls on the shifting shoulders of fiction-into-fact inuit shaman Paaliaq-000.
•❚-❚-❚•
An unrecognizable queen of Egypt came to ICU in 1880, and after Kleopatra was put back together she remained and, w/ her children Cleoselene and Alexhelios, set up a PHARMACY.
•❚-❚-❚•
Pharaoh Khufu came in 1984 and claims he’s watched enough priests grind gold and think up tinctures for immortality to consider himself a pharmacist too.
•❚-❚-❚•
Poetry muse Erato used to wander the corridors strumming; now she has an office and better hours.
•❚-❚-❚•
Frost giant Suttungr will wait until he”s brewed enough mead of poetry to fill a thousand space ships before coming by to replenish the well.
•❚-❚-❚•
When not chasing skirt on the Moon, Pan will drop by and sing duets w/ Aretha Franklin, who showed up in 2018 w/ her piano. Otherwise the queen of soul accompanies spirit of lamentation Linus in finding, each time, the needed closure notes.
•❚-❚-❚•
Prometheus came in 1980 to set up the MORGUE. Delving into mystikal egypti-graeco proto-chem, and practising alchemy, he is tinkering w/ three corpses.
•❚-❚-❚•
Firstgen titaness Theia ‘sight’ has been dead a long time; but the goddess of Aither is now a pile of bits, missing whole parts, bits of Ge still imbedded.
•❚-❚-❚•
Dead jötunn Greip came in 2006 and is only good for parts.
•❚-❚-❚•
Pallas was accidentally killed in 1802 by her playmate Athene in mock battle; now the daughter to Triton is drifting in and out of her mortal coil.
•❚-❚-❚•
Helping out is young frost giant Bergelmir, descended from earliest norse divinities. The grandson of Ymir knows a thing or two about creating new life.
•❚-❚-❚•
The morgue has been home to Proteus since 1989. The ancient sea god and herder of Poseidon”s sea-seals allows his root matter to be harvested for parts, even though his parchment skin contains transparencies and is pockmarked w/ polyhedron-shaped ices and pinkish-red boils.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• UNDER AN INJURED SKY mortals had clung on to Mother earth and prayed for mercy – the race survived, too insignificant to be shaken off. •❚-❚-❚• Resolutely reimagining temples and restoring altars, elder goddess Dione was the first deity to come back, in 1684. The okeanide and secondgen titaness established the house of Terra, and for her fortitude sits on the oracle throne. •❚-❚-❚• Ancient jötunn Bestla was reasoned w/ to return also and take over the mountain throne, where the anxious one can await further news on her son Odin. •❚-❚-❚• Nereus invented hydro therapy, plain tuckered tending to Ge and seen splayed on the aborigine throne. •❚-❚-❚• Pantheon pharaoh chief Amun twitters and gleams on the dust throne. •❚-❚-❚• Sedna had hesitated to sit on the winter throne only ’cause the inuit sea goddess had to quit the cool Oort and come closer to heat. Already her skin of tightly-grouped nitrogen icicles and reflective methane scales, fixed w/ dark tholin thread, has turned beet red. •❚-❚-❚• Dionysus knows there’s hope for Ge, and descended as an asteroid in 1977 to sit on the serpent throne, the “price of a bend sinister many generations back”. •❚-❚-❚• Prosperity goddess Orthosie is oftentimes busy, seldom not, shedding auras from the autumn throne. •❚-❚-❚• Kore would rather be w/ her mom than here at the four seasons court. But the vegetation goddess would rather be here on the spring throne than w/ her husband in hell and be known by the name Persephone. •❚-❚-❚• Ge spends her days mostly outdoors and not on the chthon throne, occupying her time w/ a genealogy for Aither and a bio on atmosphere. •❚-❚-❚• Weywot stepped out of the Kuiper belt in 2007. Now this native-american sky god gets an exponential view of things from the summer throne. •❚-❚-❚• In 1980, the ‘first woman’ came back and set up the terrestrial embassy. Twelve years later, the ‘first man’ of the north joined her. Theirs is a mobile office, and Pandora and Ymir will take ‘mothership’ on quests to verify a site map given them by Hekate and Hyperion.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• FINDING HER ROMAN-HALF in 1867, Athene performed the accretion rite and fused w/ Minerva to become fully the goddess of wisdom. She hosts the Olympia Academy in the Erechitheion, aka the house of Athene, graduating space cadets in disciplines of mind, body and soul, w/ courses on techthonics, why obscure dimensions lurk, and the emergent metaverse. •❚-❚-❚• Craft is taught by Dactyl ‘fingers’, a fused presence capable of separating into ten siblings, five sons and five daughters born to Rhea alone; the goddess of motherhood had no help. Dactyl is most adept in metallurgy and magick. •❚-❚-❚• Lutetia-852 was insubstantial when found, sent to the morgue for parts. Then an initial proble revealed ‘primordial paris’ just under the mantle. Now this asteroid houses the library, founded in 1904 by golden age historian Himalia. •❚-❚-❚• ‘Father of history’ Herodotos is somewhere in the stacks; sometimes he“s a crater, sometimes a lunar mountain. •❚-❚-❚• Faded sun god Hyperion still has his throne at Apollon’s, yet the firstgen titan prefers spending time here, shedding light into obscure passages and conjugal conjecturals. •❚-❚-❚• Whereas dream god Morpheus, himself a student of buried blisters, prefers no illumination; w/ eyes closed he knows his way through the stacks. •❚-❚-❚• Scholar Zhongguo ‘china’, arrived in 1928 toting mountains of manuscripts and assigned a wing. •❚-❚-❚• Patroclus stopped by in 1906 to build a gymnasium; in 2001, Menoetius was outed as his satellite. •❚-❚-❚• And maybe it’s true that jötunn Jarnsaxa rose in rank by sleeping w/ Thor, yet her prowess as a warrior is second to none; the norse giantess now teaches weights and warcracft. •❚-❚-❚• Jarnsaxa brought in Hylonome in 1995 to give a course in archery and horseback riding. •❚-❚-❚• When Hideo Itokawa showed up in 1998, no one paid him much heed. Now the rocket scientist has a launchpad and a lab on the roof. •❚-❚-❚• An amorphous cradle court has found harbor in a forgotten nook full of old globes. Granted seclusion while they adjust to their new situation are river gods Euphrates and Tigris, last seen gleaming in the glowing embers of the 20th century.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• PAYING HEED TO the zodiac gyre and the reel of Time, the moon crown currently rests on the brow of Artemis, as ‘she of the wild’ sits on the crescent throne, granting mortals a glimpse and gargling “how the air unlit before glows”. •❚-❚-❚• The rustic goddess’ first duty is to fill three rotating thrones: new, full, and old. Artemis shuffles the deck and for ‘full’ picks the faded moon goddess Phoebe. •❚-❚-❚• Selene was the pick for ‘new’; there was a small problem. The goddess of the visible moon was locked in Time and cannot be detected, frozen as the barest of new moons. •❚-❚-❚• Into the breach her sister Eos has come to occupy the maiden throne, holding back undue disturbance to the latest balacing act that is life in triple-mooon goddesses’ homes. •❚-❚-❚• The ‘old’ position went to cretan harvest goddess Carme. •❚-❚-❚• All this while virgin goddess of innocence Astraea has graced the purity throne since 1845. •❚-❚-❚• The ideal choice for the triple throne arrived in 2002 when a divine bull ascended the steps; Tarvos is the (sole) male carbon of the triple-mooon goddess, among other eyebrow raisers. •❚-❚-❚• The werewolf throne went to moon god Tarqeq; he’s good to animals, sweet-natured, and knows a lot about inuit fertility. •❚-❚-❚• Pan spent the waning days of the 20th century checking out the house of the Moon and now the rustic god is very much at home. Delirious w/ desire, surrounded by dwarf moons, moonlets, moonmoons; sported w/ by packs of ring shepherds holding hands w/ shepherd moons. “Where the bee sips there sip I. In a cow slip’s lips I die.”. •❚-❚-❚• Ganymede came out in 1610 as the largest satellite in Neopolis, and therefore a shoo-in to run the moon embassy. In his down time, the deified son of Tros will take a walk w/ Skoll-006, to re-acquaint the norse wolf to night. •❚-❚-❚• Sitting on the bow throne is Mundilfari, father to the norse moon god. •❚-❚-❚• Each evening Aretmis dons a monotone-&-mottled bodysuit shimmering w/ crater rays. Over this is a sheer cape w/ an upside-down waterfall perpetually shedding dust, before stepping on her moon chariot. •❚-❚-❚• In solidarity to the vexed Selene, embassy invites always go to her niece Pasiphäe, cousin Hekate, and BFF Hera.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• STAYING UNPLUGGED so as to hoard remaining sanity, wounded by a minimachia btw. Zeus and Kronos, Uranos had sense remaining to guide goddess Hathor to her destined place on the sky thone. •❚-❚-❚• This complex egyptian deity has smart dial, and secured mother to Atlas Klymene for the dome throne, and risked venezuelan rain god Huya for the cloud throne. •❚-❚-❚• Uranos has been under physician care since 1781, who petitioned magician Prospero to devise a therapeutic play for his primordial patient. •❚-❚-❚• Via a circuitous journey father to Loki Farbauti came in and became impressario of the new theater. He hired Ixion to be lighting director, even though the ex-king was caked in tholins and ice. •❚-❚-❚• Puck and Ariel signed on for special effects, while Sycorax and Caliban would handle subterranean spells. For a play that will take 84 years to perform. •❚-❚-❚• An ending conjuration required a dual-voice so director Didymos ‘twin’ will perform the role, guiding polyphonics gently back to roots in tragic theater. •❚-❚-❚• Before fully succumbing to his malaise, Uranos was lucky to locate, in 2014, and persuade the powhatan personification of the sky to relocate to the empyrean throne; knowing Arrokoth can summon clouds and other things in his absence. •❚-❚-❚• The house of Uranus has no embassy.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• WHILE KYKLOPE-LENSII scan the skies w/ rainbow eyes and saw machines of every shape and size, the nearby house of Mercury hosts a missing-deity bureau staffed w/ renegades from the IAU’s minor planet center, sprouting advanced degrees in linguistics, dark matter 3.0, artificial atoms, time leakages, and the roots of rap. Their prowess allows the ‘messenger of the gods’ to go out and see everyone, meet everything, so the ‘patron of the home’ is seldom home. •❚-❚-❚• Jennyblue has been bureau chief since 1982, keeping the gazetteer of planetary nomenclature for the International Astronomical Union, and publishing Who’s Who. •❚-❚-❚• Icarus surfs the asteroids for any ‘drifter’ not yet catalogued, seeing if he can locate star shepherd Hesperus, who vanished while on assignment. •❚-❚-❚• Secondgen titan Atlas is capable of lifting worlds to look underneath. His bro Epimetheus ‘afterthought’ likes to rehash stuff to sift for clues, while Sisphyus likes to retrace steps to iron out more insight. •❚-❚-❚• Since 1999, they have been unable to assign his proper myth to an amnesiac alien; til then, Setebos is the sole ‘wayfinder of wanderers’. •❚-❚-❚• Known to ancient sky-watchers, during a time when this hard-to-spot ‘guide’ was easier to locate than now, Hermes’ elusive nature suits well the nearest house to the gravity throne. The ‘trickster’ is awash in sulfer w/ a temperature hot enough to melt lead, finishes an orbit every 88 days while pirouetting every sixteen, long enough to cause seasons.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• AFTER MEETING w/ HYPERION, Hekate took her leave, dragging ‘darkness’ behind her. The supreme magick goddess only stopped only when the gravity throne was barely discernible. She flung Erebus beneath her, unfolded the crone throne, set it down on the primitive god of darkness. •❚-❚-❚• As goddess to the dark-side of the Moon, Hekate is invisible at night and can see in pitch black. She is darker than Tartaros, her previous abode. Now the queen of earth-air-water has invited aborigines to her new one. •❚-❚-❚• Ananke came first, in 1951, drapped in scarves of ‘constraint’, ‘force’ and ‘necessity’. The ‘one before time’ uncoils her luxuriant serpent tail and gets to wind down on the potency throne. •❚-❚-❚• Tottering on the spindle throne while warbling is night goddess Nyx, whose star-spangled mantle cannot hide a bandage-wrapped form w/ obvious ancient red stains. Something went wrong inside her, now unfamiliar gravity has caused the daughter to Khaos to twirl backwards every 45 minutes. •❚-❚-❚• Narvi perches on the ghost throne and reaches out a hand to steady Nyx; He is son to Loki, reanimated from the dead by Prometheus as dark matter of indeterminate size, and father to norse night Nótt, who’s gone missing; now he’s adopted her greek carbon. •❚-❚-❚• In 2004, infernal Orcus, the etruscan ‘anti-Pluto’, came to claim the victory throne, oblique in faint tholins, sewn w/ crystal iced water and featuring a high collar shooting dew drops of amonia upwards. •❚-❚-❚• When the three-headed hell hound saw Erebus, his dearest doghouse, being dragged off, Kereberos trotted behind; now he patrols his new home every 32 days, flips every five, in vain efforts to shake off filament fleas.
| back | | top |
ERRAND
•❚-❚-❚•
IRIS was hosting a small party when Hera sent word to deliver a message to Hypnos. Harpalyke innocently proposed that the rainbow goddess bring everyone with; this proved fateful for the birthday girl, who came back as a night bird. Daughter to Harmonia Autonoë, pleiade Taÿgete and maze-whiz Ariadne all said “what a great idea”. Dark-winged Umbriel thrummed and gave Iris, his companion since 1851, one of his gnomic looks.
•❚-❚-❚•
The house of Hypnos is a permanent structure made of shadow-matter, in a pocket of Erebus which cannot be discerned. Round the corner from an implied valley is a wide-open entranceway, leading to a vast room. The god of sleep reclines in the center, on a pedestal of black ebony brimming w/ black-plumes on the rim, the whole festooned in sheer black-velvet veils descending from the mile-high ceiling. Strewn everywhere are slumbering shapes.
•❚-❚-❚•
Her rainbow robe shimmers as the daughter to Ge and Pontos nimbles over sleeping dreams, stirring them to obligingly roll to make a path for her party. The sister to the harpies leans in and whispers into Hypnos’ ear: “Tranquilizer of minds, soother of care-worn hearts, gentlest of gods,” etc.
•❚-❚-❚•
Mission accomplished, the group departs hastily, but not before the episode where Harpalyke paid the fare.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• THE POND OF PONTOS is a multi-axis space inertia facility for serpent spawns of watery worlds to find safe harbor – and malevolents penned. •❚-❚-❚• Its longest inhabitant is Medusa, marooned on a spit since 1875. Her minder is demi-serpent Herse-003, who milks the gorgon’s blood for the infirmary, where it’s used for end-of-life serums. •❚-❚-❚• The egyptian-carbon to Khaos escaped during early dawn to the 21st century, when the ‘uncreator’ assumed in form an aten asteroid. Now Apophis is threatening to invade Ge in 2029 before attacking the sun throne once more. To bring him back, the house of Egypt dispatched fire goddess Sekmet (who’s pregnant), and magick goddess Selquet, the ‘supreme serpent’s principal pain from back in the day. •❚-❚-❚• To ensure safety, the pond is dotted w/ skeletal time turfs, courtesy of infernal Styx, who has trailed a ribbon of her river of oaths around the perimeter, and to become goddess to the pond of Pontos. •❚-❚-❚• The newest inmate is ducktaped w/ reverse-relativity adhesive, preventing Gonggong from rousing his malignant core. The sino god was caught trying to knock mother Earth’s axis off center – again; now the marine monster is being probed by astrophysics. •❚-❚-❚• The wannabe planet killer has been guarded since 2007 by husband-&-wife team Phorcys and Ceto. He grey-haired and fish-tailed, wearing a crustacean-cape w/ crab-claws; she daughter to Pontos and crone-goddess to all marine monsters. •❚-❚-❚• Draped in seaweed, crowned w/ turrets and towers, a rudder his staff, Pontos is seawater’s root matter. He now stirs Sea 2.0, concocted w/ a thimble of his blood, the entire Aegean sea, a steady drip from the river of hate, a healthy pour of unadulterated reptilian consciousness; and contribution from Styx. •❚-❚-❚• Since Hippocamp discovered the pond in 2019 it’s been the driver to the sea chariot’s favorite haunt. Visits w/ Hydra seem to do the many-headed creature serpent some good. This amalgam has gone mad; harms only itself, hops on claws, slithers, undergoing a chaotic rotation w/ a flip every ten hours. •❚-❚-❚• In 2018, an undersea ex-palace of a japanese dragon was requisitioned as the unofficial house. Diamond-shaped w/ good bones, Ryugu is capacious enough to have offices, guard quarters, private apartments. •❚-❚-❚• Aegaeon has been pond shepherd since 2008, this monster fourth-class (although some claim he’s really first), has now poured all his wealth into Sea 2.0. The primitive marine god oversees “4Force-4Four”, staffed w/ fledlings from stellar kindergartens and polygon-flight schools.
| back | | top |
•❚-❚-❚• SITED ON THE BOUNDARY, the house of Mars aka Fortress Apollon, is a co-command overseen by roots, greek and gallic gods of war w/ a twined mission. •❚-❚-❚• Albiorix faces the Sun during a 783-day patrol, clad in ghost-reds. Ares turns his back to Apollon and watches interstellar space. The fortress is divided into four quadrants. •❚-❚-❚• Each is headed by a tree. Primal frost giant Fornjot, father to norse immortals, scans the unknown diligently, every seven to nine hours; he’s missing kinfolk. •❚-❚-❚• Humongous jötunn Thrymr, king of the giants, has a great sense of humor and likes a good joke, even though he was recently slain by Thor, then resurrected in the morgue. •❚-❚-❚• Cruithne, though in size a sub-kilometer asteroid, nonetheless has a stature in pict legend as humongous as his BFF Thrymr. •❚-❚-❚• The sister to Ares has a patrol lasting 558 years. Eris ‘strife’ is large enough to fit all on the Asteroid belt in her mantle; easy to spot in her white-white frigid methane armor caped w/ trailing gasses. •❚-❚-❚• Her neice Harmonia runs the house of Mars, happy to be near bros Deimos and (wretched) Phobos. •❚-❚-❚• Day-to-day coordination is done by four “roots”. Hyrrokkin is capable of launching a thousand probes before breakfast, if the norse giantess so wishes. •❚-❚-❚• Love goddess Freya, BFF w/ the valkyries, rides into battle in a chariot drawn by cats to claim half the fallen; she’s a favorite among the troops. •❚-❚-❚• Primeval gaul Erriapus patrols a quiet quadrant in a pale-red battlesuit; while ancient god of the norse north wind Kari howls into his portion of void. •❚-❚-❚• Handling logistics are four barks, incl. two sons to Ares. They began service in 1877, but chafing at peacetime ennui repeatedly demoted. These bad-boy bros wear their combat wounds proudly. •❚-❚-❚• Deimos looks spiffy clad in smooth rock but it’s to protect his porous frame; he knows one day he’ll go awol. Pbobos is slowly dying; wearing nothing but rubble held together by the thinnest of mantles. •❚-❚-❚• Goddess Dysnomia ‘lawlessness’, cousins w/ Harmonia, Deimos, and Phobos, wears a dark-red battlesuit blending well w/ her background, while winter goddess Skathi gets to patrol the most frigid watch. •❚-❚-❚• The four branches are young guns handling digitals and meta-genealogy. Kiviuq has been confronting creatures since before 2000, and is knowledgeable in identifying unknowns. Twins Romulus and Remus have brought along notes in order to finish a user’s guide to roman ways. •❚-❚-❚• The founders of Rome are a tad weary of Polydeuces, greek-carbon to Remus, whose voice echo in space sends chills down spines. •❚-❚-❚• Leaves carry flags and lead corpus earthling 2.0 into the fray – two ‘centaur comets’ and two ‘trojan asteroids’. •❚-❚-❚• Cantering into view in 1977, married centaurs Cheiron and Chariklo led a comet corps of some 44,000; each on a scattershot orbit, all trying to achieve escape velocity using nearby gravity as slingshots. Sporting irradiated armor under high-collared ices crinkling and shedding dew; each centaur comet has a lifespan lasting only a few million years. •❚-❚-❚• Clad in wine-red uinforms along two elongated curves, trojan asteroids marched in in 1906 behind Achilles and Hektor.
| back | | top |
NEOPOLIS
•❚-❚-❚•
LEAVING MOTHER EARTH proved traumatic for Ares, so he unleashed his rage and demolished the nearest planet. The military god buried the remains behind his house, in a cemetery known as the Asteroid belt (1801).
•❚-❚-❚•
By 1845, four of these remains had been spotted by telescopes. Each was dubbed a planet at the time. Then their tiny size, less than 500 miles wide – smaller than the Moon, lead to a new classification of such irregular space rocks as an asteroid.
•❚-❚-❚•
Another kind of irregular space rock whips through space on a a unique orbit around the Sun, iced rocks enveloped in dust and trailing gas, the nimble comet.
•❚-❚-❚•
An asteroid or a comet caught in Ge’s gravity field becomes a meteor ‘high in the air’. It remains a meteor if it doesn’t land, and becomes a meteorite if it does.
•❚-❚-❚•
In 1950, Poseidon and Haides showed up at the house of the Sun and told everyone what they saw in their backyards. Kyklope-lensii would not capture what they described as a trans-neptune object, the first of billions, until 1992 – but the immortal brothers were there to announce the demise of the old order. The age of Olympos was over, and a new aeon is descending.
•❚-❚-❚•
Quite by accident Zeus had a spat w/ Kronos over throne placements. This mini-machia flipped Uranos on his back and caused the trident throne to rock and roll. Casualties from this tussle all have missing chunks and bloody cuts. They are the ‘frozen forgots’, marinating in blue-grey bruises and strewn about behind the house of Neptune in a region called the Kuiper belt (1992).
•❚-❚-❚•
As Uranos toppled over Poseidon threw out a life line, but it was too late. The ‘earth shaker’ instead whipped wavelengths into a froth and the resultant fury crashed against the trident throne, carrying what flaked off into a sparse province inhabited by unstable iced comets, the Scattered disc (1966).
•❚-❚-❚•
Haides had been exploring his backyard as early as 2004. In his golden chariot drawn by four black horses, the infernal god crossed to the other side of the Kuiper belt and there encountered termination shock before settling into a brief standstill during heliopause. The king of shadows then unsheathed his sword to cleave the hydrogen wall to get to the other side, then was stunned by a bow shock which sent the god of wealth plunging through the Interstellar medium (1904) until the Oort cloud cushioned his landing.
•❚-❚-❚•
As the trident throne was tossed about it had smacked into something substantial and shattered it into rubble. Now parts of it populate the Kuiper belt, fragments share space in the Scattered disc, and the bits, frozen filaments of water and methane, flew even further out and created the Oort cloud (1950).
•❚-❚-❚•
A space rock that is spherical and containing gravity and an electro-magnetic field is a planet wanderer. Most planets will host a satellite or two, and in Neopolis there are currently eight planets.
•❚-❚-❚•
Made of ambient matter and having no definite boundary, the Sun is a star w/ the capacity to shed root matter as energy, released rapidly enough as to seem solid, and to assume diverse forms. The Sun undergoes ongoing combustion, and has gravitational sway over a small swaddle of space, it’s Heliosphere. Apollon named his Neopolis.
•❚-❚-❚•
2012-VP113 nicknamed ‘Biden’ is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt located by a dark energy camera mounted on a telescope in Chile, enlarging the boundaries of Neopolis overnight.
| back | | top |
EXO-THREAT
•❚-❚-❚•
MONITORING THE UNIFORMITY OF RADIO WAVES, Fortress Apollon is arrayed w/ early-warning systems listening to the music of the spheres and watching stellar space for ufos and exos. This was how, 4.5 million years ago, they stared in disbelief as a wacky drifter zagged in and was about to zig out when Zeus was able to spear it and make 2015-BZ509 his vassal.
•❚-❚-❚•
In 2015, a grinning skullasteroid flayed the horizon, calling itself Halloween, and rumors swirled that god of evil Metni might have returned and was looking for the house of Egypt. Meanwhile, Goblin approaches at a glacial pace – taking 32,000 years btw. visits.
•❚-❚-❚•
Crashing into Neopolis in 2017 was an alien matchstick hunting Hestia’s first flame, w/ the intention of setting in motion ragnarok 3.0 as well as the second titanomachia. Sheathed in dense metal-rock, dark-red from radiation, swaying and tumbling and fiercely rotating, behaving as a comet-powered asteroid to dispel attacks. Just as quickly ’Oumuamua left and hopefully return.
| back | | top |
GOD VS. GOD
[ 1 ]
Foretold as a repeatable occurrence, the twilight of the gods arrives when several in a row of severe blizzard storms are loosened on the world. The norse sun goddess Sól’s brief re-emergence will signal the beginning of the end, Ragnarok. Then the midgard serpent will crawl from hell followed by her brother Fenrir the wolf. Soon, Surtur’s flame sword will have set the universe ablaze, “the sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea, hot stars fall from the sky, and fire leaps high about heaven itself ”. In time another sun, a new earth, different stars, same pantheon.
[ 2 ]
The first war ever waged involved norse gods battling norse gods. The root cause being lax magick capitalizing on auguries to develop directions for destiny. Truce ended the Aesir-Vanir War and resulted in a pooled pantheon.
[ 3 ]
By the time Ge and Uranos birthed the race of titans, she was nursing revenge on father Sky for rejecting her two previous litters. Taking the youngest one into her tutelage meant that Kronos would be destined to perform the dirty deed w/ a sickle and take over the adamantine throne. Kronos married his sister Rhea, had three daughters and three sons. These six grew up to overthrow their father, in the ten-year long Titanomachia, which was fought w/ earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and became the bloody prelude to the age of Olympos.
[ 4 ]
When Kronos cut Uranos blood splashed on Ge, trickled into Tartaros, and birthed one hundred giants. When Olympos locked the defeated titans in Tartaros also, these human-serpent hybrids staged a revolt. Climbing out of their mother, they were not huge but formidable, capable of hurling entire mountains into the air and by doing so formed a ladder to heaven. Breaking off oak trees and lighting them as torches, they climbed up and flung them at Zeus and the others, igniting the Gigantomachia. One by one, the olympians put down the giants’ revolt, offing or impaling them w/ mountains.
[ 5 ]
Upset the giants lost the war, Ge rubbed Tartaros and soon birthed Typhöeus, tall enough to graze the stars, sporting wings which blotted out light, having a hundred dragon heads spewing flames w/ mouths yelling as mortals or shrieking as animals. Loose snakes slithered and covered his frame, from the thighs down this serpent supreme was nothing by coiled snakes. The largest monster ever born had two hundred hands all ending in snake-fingers. Alone he launched Typhomachia and attacked Zeus, who defeated him in single combat and locked the volcano demon in home confinement in Tartaros.
[ 6 ]
As the trojan war unspooled Olympos took sides and soon a battle btw. the family of deities had erupted. This brief Theomachia ended when the war on Earth did too, and every deity survived the ordeal.
[ 7 ]
Fracking was driving mother Earth bonker. She could bare it no more. Swallowing rocks and imprisoning monsters she had performed in the primitive past. Now Ge had a fever and required a deep cleanse. She coughed, ejecting her bowels and flushing her blood, in her latest bout of Geomachia.
| back | | top |
ROVERS
❧ DENMARK 1787. Astronomer William Herschel spots fairy royalty through his telescope and tries catching Queen Mab, Titania and Oberon w/ his butterfly net.
❧ FOREST daylight. Although it is 1948, Miranda isn’t aware because she’s lost in time, and she absent-mindedly perturbs a rotation rite being intiated by Ariel, Puck. A cosmic cave materializes in the lower air; inside witch Sycorax and spawn Caliban mumble and hum.
❧ FOREST twilight. Fashion-plate Belinda strolls on in 1986 arm-in-arm w/ binary-being Orphelia to introduce a calvacade of stars. Venetian heriess Portia is sharing a joke w/ Rosalind, daughter to a banished duke; Cordelia and Juliet are linking fingers, touching foreheads, laughing softly; Bianca is being practical watching her step while giving life tips to Cressida; Desdemona and Juliet whisper and act distraught. Slowpokes Margaret and Perdita bring up the rear.
❧ FOREST evening. Male voices from 1990 approach. Shy inquiries are proffered by prince of Naples Ferdinand and his lord Francisco on the who, what, when, where, and why. Meanwhile jester Trinculo is lending support to drunk-asleep Stephano, who now wants to mingle. Chit-chat strums the air and blends w/ sonic spells from the cosmic cave to crumble a bully cloud as the Sun starts to sink.
❧ FOREST midnight. Both parties are now asleep. Sprites and fairies flit across the air. A glint “no bigger than an agate-stone” arrives w/ news for the pained planet Uranos. The sound of her voice is the signal for Puck to begin matching Ariel’s trajectory and speed before taking charge and bringing the rotation rite to its conclusion. Setebos begins a slow descent onto stage, Ixion turns down the stage lights, and the double-voice of Didymos intones the concluding conjuration.
| back | | top |
| back | | top |
MINUS 17
In 2017, to protest bias towards a foreign ally, Washington withdrew seventeen American sites from the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere program.
♦ | Coram Experimental Forest
Montana -| ||-
Established in 1933 to conduct research into the management of a single species of trees, it became an outdoor laboratory for the regeneration of young forests. The parcel consists of second-growth western larch-mixed conifer forests, generated after clearcutting in the 1960s. Designated a biosphere reserve in 1976, Coram is a part of the 'crown of the continent', a single ecosystem whose rivers feed Hudson bay, gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific.
-||
♣ | Niwot Ridge Mt Research Station
Colorado -| ||-
A high-altitude school was established in 1979 offering disciplines in alpine and arctic environmental sciences. With a focus on the university-level; the adaptive programming was also high-school and general-public friendly.
-||
♣ | Central Plains Experimental Range
Colorado -| ||-
In the aftermath of the Dust Bowl, the government looked into improving management practices on fragile grasslands. Then a parcel of shortgrass-prairie in north-central Colorado was set up in 1976 to monitor four watersheds, allowing data for water budgets to be deduced.
-||
♣ | Fraser Experimental Forest
Colorado -| ||-
This parcel in the central Rockies was destroyed by fire in 1685, meaning its regeneration has a marker providing researchers w/ a starting point. An example of a high-elevation watershed. Above the timberline alpine tundra; below firs and spruces.
-||
♥ | Desert Experimental Range
Utah -| ||-
In 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed into existence a woodland parcel of pasture land in the Pine valley 'as an agricultural range experiment station'. Husbanding both livestock and earth in a cold climate meant enhancing plant adaptations and various grazing programs to winterize sheep successfully. The oldest biosphere reserve to be shut down, the station is listed on the national register of historic places. Limited access.
-||
♠ | Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed
Arizona -| ||-
A want of better water flow to foraging livestock was becoming apparent in the mid-1950s, generating theories in academe into watershed behavior. By 1960, foresters teamed w/ academics to tame the proliferation of high-water using plants such as trees and shrubs in north-central Arizona, below Flagstaff, and replace them w/ desirable vegetation.
-||
♠ | Noatak National Preserve
Alaska -| ||-
Established in 1978 to protect the Noatak river basin above the arctic circle.
-||
♣ | Virgin Islands
Caribbean -| ||-
An island group sharing three different political jurisdictions. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. British overseas territory. Unincorporated territory of the U.S. -||
♠ | Land Between the Lakes
Kentucky-Tennessee -| ||-
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy designated a parcel btw. lakes Barkley and Kentucky, containing historic structures, as a national recreation area.
-||
♠ | Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska -| ||-
From the Chukchi sea to the tip of the Aleutians. Mountains; cliffs; rainforests; tundra. Glaciers. Bays; fiords; beaches; streams; lakes. Reefs; rocks; spires; islets; headlands. 2,400 islands. 4.9 million acres.
-||
♦ | Konza Prairie Research Natural Area
Kansas -| ||-
Since 1971, an educational laboratory offering courses in tallgrass-prairie ecosystems, w/ an emphasis on grassland restoration. Elementary to post-graduate level. Kaw 'konza' Indians once inhabited this now-gone biosphere reserve.
-||
♣ | Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
New Hampshire -| ||-
A 7,800-acre hardwood-forest inside the White Mountain national forest was set aside in 1955 as a comprehensive and ideal ecosystem: plant; soil; animal; water; air.
-||
♦ | Carolinian South-Atlantic
South Carolina -| ||-
A mostly-aquatic parcel shepherded by a nongame-and-heritage trust. Comprises maritime forests and open waters, salt and fresh. Creeks; marshes; dunes; islands. Canis rufus 'red wolf'; loggerhead sea turtles; brown pelicans. A living laboratory to study sea-level changes.
-||
♦ | Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest
California -| ||-
Forestry surveys of the Sierra Nevada began in the 1920s, and twenty years later two tracks of conifer stands were earmarked to become a conifer-forest laboratory. Along the south fork of the Stanislaus river. Just south of the north fork of the Tuolumne river.
-||
♣ | Three Sisters Wilderness
Oregon -| ||-
After the Wilderness Act was signed in 1964, these three standalone mountains in the Cascades have witnessed a steady stream of hikers, campers, fishermen, and climbers come courting. Located in the Willamette and Deschutes national forests; the third-, fourth- and fifth-highest peaks in Oregon.
-||
♦ | U of Calif. Natural Reserve System
California -| ||-
Thirty-six scattered sites, monitoring distinct, diverse and mingled ecosystems – lost. Established in 1983 by the university to better understand the coastal home to twenty-six million Californians. Three salt-marsh reserves. Three marine reserves, two are islands. Four marine reserves when you count the part of Monterey Bay that laps Santa Cruz. Sixteen other reserves. Three more that had abutted UC campuses: Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Diego. Four research facilities, one studying the desert. Two field stations, one in Yosemite valley. Three historic sites: Diablo Range Ranch; Ford Ord; Hastings natural history reservation in upper Carmel valley.
-||
♣ | H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest
Oregon -| ||-
Meant as a long-term ecological research site inside the Willamette national forest when it was established in 1948. Oldgrowth-douglasfir forests yield data in carbon cycles. Mountain topography offer insight into climate variability. Clearcutting, prescribed fire and the management of natural disturbance processes.
-||
| back |
