Fencing Bear at Prayer

  And he shewed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  And there shall be no curse any more; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him.  And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads.  And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever.  —Revelation 22:1-5 * Image credits Left: magic crystals: Wise Witches & Witchcraft Center: The Lindau Gospels: The Morgan Library & Museum Right: motherboard:  HelloTech The Plug

The poets of the Dragon Common Room have spent the past five months researching their next adventure—a modern fantasy/horror epic written in the spirit of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. We have been practicing our stanza form and drafted our outline. The poem is going to be in five Acts...and include a dragon. Here we offer sample of our practice stanzas, to whet your appetite for the adventure to come!  Visit our website at DragonCommonRoom.com  for more information on our previous adventures, now on sale in both print and e-book at booksellers worldwide. A cloud of pigeons soared above the plain, propelled by tailwinds only they could sense. Below them stretched a land oppressed with rain, where souls were bought and sold for silver pence. A single tower rose, like steel incense, a rod for lightning sparks sent down by God. Within the rain the pigeon cloud condensed, and from the cloud a man appeared, unshod. The path that stretched before him in the rain was broa...

An exclusive interview with Professor Rachel Fulton Brown as you have never seen her—in conversation with one of her students from the University of Chicago. THIS is our brand. Phoenix rising! In [this] interview , I met with Rachel Fulton Brown, associate professor of History at the University of Chicago, regarding her 2017 book  Mary and the Art of Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin in Medieval Christian Life and Thought .  Over the course of the interview, we talked about the ancient Temple Tradition and its connection with the Virgin Mary and Christ. We also discussed J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, the psychology of devotion, the problem of portraying sin, the reality of the spiritual, and the re-enchantment of the world (made most obvious in the rhetoric surrounding January 6th).  It is discussions like this that make UChicago so unique. My peers and I are able to interact with the leading minds in the world on almost every subject imaginable. COVID, though, has severely imped...

Originally sent directly by email Wednesday, January 12, 2022, from Professor Rachel Fulton Brown, Department of History, The University of Chicago Dear Paul and Ka Yee, The mainstream narrative is starting to shift. We are going to lose our brand if it shifts and we are not in front of it. WE are the University of Chicago. WE ask the Big Questions and risk being out on the edge of scientific research. WE are the scholars who do not simply follow the trends, but set them.  We have embarrassed ourselves for too long—ever since we fell in step with everyone else over the fear. WE should have been the ones with faculty publishing op-eds calling for transparency in testing, not the ones locking our students in their dorm rooms. WE should have been the ones signing the Great Barrington Declaration and siding with SCIENTISTS and DOCTORS who have been willing to risk their careers rather than let their patients die because they wouldn't treat them except at the government’s direction. NOW...

By Rachel Fulton Brown and Kilts Khalfan We live in dark times for Christian storytelling. Movies, television, comics, and games have all gone over to the dark side, serving the Lord of this World through dreams of power and subversion. We wanted to write a Christian story to combat the grooming and blasphemous worship of the seducers and baby-killers, while at the same time introducing children and their parents to the Light which the Enlightenment denied. Our problem was two-fold. Modern Christians for the most part have lost touch with the foundations of our faith in the symbolism of the Scriptures and the apostolic liturgy, so suspicious have they become since the invention of the printing press with anything that smacks of idolatry (while, ironically, making idols of their texts). And yet, we live, as Marshall McLuhan famously put it , in the multisensory world of the electric light, under whose influence we long to participate in the collective consciousness of the familial tri...

  Admit it. You never want to take it off. Sure, sure, you have thought about it logically. You’ve read all the studies about how ineffective masks are  at preventing the spread of COVID (and anything else). You have even read some studies about how masks are positively harmful  (yes, it’s the same link—go, look; I’ll wait). You have had headaches for over a year; you notice that you can’t remember things as well as you (think you) used to—it’s hard to tell, memory being what it is. You’ve noticed yourself falling asleep from lack of oxygen, and you have a cough that you just can’t shake. Your friends call it “long COVID,” but you never got COVID, as far as you know. You have, however, had a bacterial infection that left festering sores around your mouth, but that wasn’t COVID; just think how bad things might have been if you had gotten COVID, too! You notice that you have a hard time interacting with people in public—everyone seems so distant and confused—but, again, it’...

  “We sing a tale of bears who sought a gem, a pirates’ treasure lost for centuries. Three brown and one translucent bear left home to sail to where the ice wall meets the sea. An albatross bore messages of hope. A panda bear needs rescue from the seals! The penguins guard the treasure in the ice, a gemstone of the heavens, without price.” Poetry lovers and bears of all ages, don’t miss the boat!  Join Ulfie and his gang  on their quest for the Light ! Check out Storytime for a glimpse behind the scenes of HandDrawnBear’s sketches! Visit our Shop for  links to booksellers.

What do four bears in a boat have to do with the four senses of Scripture? You won’t want to miss this conversation with Marc Tuttle about medieval aesthetics and the magic of polar bears! Listen on Catholic Radio Indy Podcasts. And now that you’re intrigued, join me for a reading of “Act I: The Net”! Watch on my YouTube channel or on our Dragon Common Room website . Ready to set sail and seek the polar lights down South? Buy Aurora Bearialis now at these fine booksellers ! For the continuing adventures of the Dragons of my Telegram chat , join us weekdays at 6pmCST for TeaTime. Backstory at the Dragon Common Room . Reading recommendations in Dragons’ Keep .

The Dragon Common Room is pleased to announce the publication of Aurora Bearialis , with illustrations by HandDrawnBear. Join the bears this Christmas as they journey south in quest of the Light. SNEAK PEAK ON OUR WEBSITE, WITH LINKS IN THE SHOP WHERE TO BUY: https://www.dragoncommonroom.com Available in both hardcover and ebook. As promised in The Great Bear Tale .

A meditation on the timing of the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception (1854), with glosses on the media by Marshall McLuhan “Effects are perceived, whereas causes are conceived.”  At length, on the distant horizon, rises, with a soft and radiant light, the aurora of the Sun which has been so long desired. The happy Mother of the Messias was to be born before the Messias himself; and this is the day of the Conception of Mary. The earth already possesses a first pledge of the divine mercy; the Son of Man is near at hand. Two true Israelites, Joachim and Anne, noble branches of the family of David, find their union, after a long barrenness, made fruitful by the divine omnipotence. Glory be to God, who has been mindful of his promises, and who deigns to announce, from the high heavens, the end of the deluge of iniquity, by sending upon the earth the sweet white Dove that bears the tidings of peace! — Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year , vol. 1: Advent, Decemb...

“For the oral man the literal text contains all possible levels of meaning.” —Marshall McLuhan Follow the further adventures of the dragons on Telegram — join my channel and surf the Light! For Milo’s reading of the Psalms , visit the Church Militant shop . If you haven’t guessed, I’ve been reading a lot of Marshall McLuhan to prepare for our journey into the City of the Dragon. Highly recommended for those who feel like their nerves have been stripped raw by the electric web.