Author: lostmungo2@gmail.com

On your way to Finisterra along the camino, this view unfolds before you as you emerge from the woods and approach the coast. It it very dramatic and one of my favorite memories of the Camino de Santiago. Finisterra lies ahead shrouded in mist.

Wrathful Empathies, The 14th Colony will feature more time travel of your favorite characters from The 2nd Raid on Harpers Ferry. I am also incorporating insights from my hikes in Spain, specifically Galicia, to flesh out the history for one of my favorite characters: Magda, the magical food wagon gypsy, is really a time traveling witch from medieval Spain. While hiking through Galacian towns and villages, I kept seeing small witch dolls affixed inside taverns, stores, or to the occasional farm fence. Intrigued, I researched available literature and discovered the area’s fixation with witches. Also, I may have seen one myself. That’s when I got the idea to create a personal history for my fictional Magda character based on the historical Galacian woman accused of witchcraft (probably eye curses). While she survived physical interrogation during the inquisition, her fame grew as she literally and figuratively disappeared from history. She is something of a heroine in Galician folktales. As a writer, I imagine that she didn’t just disappear but transited onto the Golden path. Now, she travels across my story lines as the mysterious Magda who magically appears whenever fellow time traveling characters need nourishment and rescue.

Big Brother China

If they try this here, it might be the kind of thing that causes a figurative, if not literal 2nd raid on harpers ferry. In my book, I dream up a fictional surveillance system used by the evil Authority. It tracks people’s spiritual travels after death. Too far fetched? Give it another decade or two.

What he is saying is on the spot.   Wave the American flag in some liberal hotspots of our country and you are called a fascist and probably physically assaulted.   While at the same time, people protesting a brutal authoritarian regime are waving our flag as a symbol of the freedom they aspire to.

How crazy is that?

For me, this demonstrates the success of cultural marxism.  Indeed, we surrendered without a fight.   A silent insurgency took place over the last few decades.  A fifth column subverted our own will to fight by convincing us the battle is not worth fighting.  Look around you and ask how all it came to this.  What massive program is poisoning our minds, day in and day out, about the very foundational benefits of our Republic?   Are the police cracking heads of protestors waving American flags in our country?   No, they are not.  It is our fellow citizens so thoroughly brainwashed that they are blind to the freedoms and benefits they enjoy everyday.   That reality, however, is overcome by the rage of insignificant or distorted narratives fed to them.  Ask yourself who, if any, stand against it.  It would take a brave soul to row their boat against this current.

Well, in my book, I created the Kindred to describe what these citizen soldiers might look like.

 

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”—Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: an Experiment in Literary Investigation (1974)

 

Over the forty days I hiked the Camino, I met some students from Hong Kong who agreed to circulate my book back home.   I think the raid on Harpers Ferry fails by comparison to the insurgency taking place in Hong Kong.  Certainly, they are up against the mother of all Authorities.

Je souhaite beaucoup de courage au Kindred pour publier des rapports à ce sujet.

I think this video helped me decide which Camino route to hike in 2020.   The Northern coastline is spectacular.

After completing my Camino from St. Jean de Pied a Port to Santiago de Compostela, I celebrated like most pilgrims with close friends I made along the way. Eventually, everyone left to return home to their jobs. Being retired, I struck out for Finistera and Muxia as a continuation of my Camino experience. Its all documented on my YouTube channel called Bardo Patrol.

I returned to Santiago alone and a bit beaten down from hiking a week along the rainy Galicia coastal area. I finally decided to purchase my return ticket home to the States. As it turned out, the first decent flight that was not sold out was 4 days away. So, I had some time to kill. I revisited all the places I had been before, explored a view new ones and eventually decided to go to confession and get my Catholicism back on track. This was easier said than done. Finding an English speaking priest led to to a series of churches and designated times which proved fruitless.

In one particular small chapel, once I realized there was no confession taking place, I just sat down in a pew feeling a bit defeated and despairing. That is when I noticed a small screen playing a slideshow over and over again. Intrigued, I moved closer and started watching. I will start posting the images I snapped of each slide. This simple little presentation which I totally missed when visiting this building to get my Camino credential was incredibly moving and something I want to share with you. Above is the first slide. Meditate on the message for each. It will be worthwhile.