Previous April Firsts

April 1 Hike to Hackberry Miocene Volcano, AZ (near Camp Verde-T1S R1E)

I was standing on the rim of the Hackberry caldera, invoking the God Xetrov, when I realized that my right Gortex boot was vibrating with a strange rhythm. I could feel the emanations even up to my spinal cord- there was something eerie issuing from the bowels of the Earth!
I had just found that by making electrical resistivity measurements to a great depth, the earth could make communications with the Muse of my spirit Euterpe. This was by way of pulsating DC current, which I had impressed on the extrusive rocks- which had made their way all the way from the Virgin Mantle some 100's of kilometers below my tenuous location on the caldera rim.
Gingerly I trod the sharp-edged crater lip, realizing that one false move and I would have to call for the God of the Labyrinth- Ztrauq. I hesitated to invoke this particularly Deity, since this would be the ultimate test of my essence- Ztrauq only empathized with earth scientists of True Spirit, those who have been tested with the radioactive emanations and reductive brines of the deeper layers of the stratigraphic columns as far down in the earth's crust as man had made contact. Only those who have been divested of all of the materialistic urges and passion manifestations need make supplications to Ztrauq! Of course at my age, all of these false spiritual machinations had long ago been cleansed and my body was now Whole- stripped of these puny inclinations of the flesh.
I had just been informed by way of the Information Superhighway (see the website link for 0-5 million year vulcanism in the Western US, in links), that my perceptions had been too limited- one must look further than mere centers of labyrinth and female vortices- one must view the earth from a standpoint much larger than a cross-section of fractures and descending crotches; one must LOOK BIGGER. No longer can one think small, the earth is larger than my Colorado Plateau in its outlook. One must think of the crust as a mosaic of GRIDS. The Spirit is manifesting itself along many linears. And when one happens upon the intersection of several emanations, one has the POWER (May the FORCE be with you!) to truly understand.
Consequently, my stance on the rim of the gigantic expression of SPIRIT- the AURA surrounding the Caldera Hackberry- was tugging at my Gortex boot with a not-so-subtle suggestion; I was being directed by the God of the Underworld- that musical mantra-ejecting body far below: ELTNAM!
Being a true Scientist, Ι rapidly shifted my philosophical viewpoint to that of the Spiritualist- I must listen to the MUSINGS of the mantra of the earth. I shook my right foot, to ascertain whether the vibrations of my right foot were more than ephemeral. The Gortex remained unchanged, proving that forevermore I must encourage my foot to remain out of the bowels of thought, and to soar loftily- above the mere Winds of my immediate destiny- up to the Sulfurous Airs of the Eternal Shrouds.. Harold L. Overton April 1, 2004