The Stolen Wind Tribe of Cascadia Pass.
New Myth 27 by Willi Paul
Windmills of yesterday are not the same as the horizontal axis wind turbines of today. Most large utility scale wind turbines such as the ones you’ll find on wind farms use a horizontal axis. Utility scale horizontal axis wind turbines typically use three blades although some are now being developed that use just two. Railed against by some environmentalists as “bird Cuisinarts”, the utility scale horizontal axis wind turbines today are being designed to move at slower speeds and be more visible to our fine feathered friends. But, large utility scale horizontal wind turbines are not the only games in town. Residential wind turbines that use a horizontal axis are also coming of age. These small wind turbines will typically turn at lower wind speeds and may be mounted in the backyard or on the rooftop.
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How SkySaw came to be in procession of a 265’ tall air craft aluminum wind turbine from the broken Cascadia Pass Wind Farm west of San Francisco is still a mystery in 2018, many years after the grid crashed down around the Bay Area like a fallen hornet nest and the turbines were left for missiles of graffiti and decay.
A Tribe formed with local Light Network members erected the machine on land that they were growing food on for barter. The power is for peaceful arts and crafts only. A spiritual lightning rod, a symbol for permaculture and a business coop maker, the turbine makes electricity for 5 local artisans and a never ending security issue from the Dark troops.
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The first peoples of North America considered the wind to be a living force in and of itself. The wind to them is a god – a power that is capable of communicating a larger-than-life language to those who would hear it. Those who were certifiably authorized to interpret these cosmic messages were shamans, medicine men, and the wise and spiritual leaders among tribes.
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Soil R75 uses her electricity to pump water from the vast underground aquifer that runs through the Cascadia Canyon. Her best buddo, 3Jack, maintains a small greenhouse and seed share business with his water and power. Orange Man, who escaped from a Marin County chain gang many years ago, tends an aquaponics operation. Kat-eO is SkySaw’s sister; she tends the café and a small cob oven bakery.
People from all directions come with barter to receive the goods from the Stolen Wind. Firewood for java beans. Greens for a hydro fish. A song and dance to recharge an old car battery or laptop?
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“How sweet it is! I have electricity! Here I have my laptop computer set up and plugged into the power provided by the inverter, which in turn is powered by the wind turbine. Now I have no battery life problems, at least as long as the wind blows. Besides the laptop, I can also now recharge all my other battery powered equipment like my cell phone, my camera, my electric shaver, my air mattress pump, etc. Life used to get real primitive on previous camping trips when the batteries in all my electronic stuff ran down.”
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But electricity to the Tribe is much more than “night light in the residences” or a barter medium. It is eco-alchemy and survival and a bridge with nature. Wind is a source for life. Wind alchemy. The tall pole that holds the blades is a like the old May Pole of older times. The community does a ritual twice a year that embraces the machine – eco spirit that keeps them going. Long ribbons of bartered fabric are looped around the base then dancing singing to the Wind God rotates their bodies until the mushroom tea of old muscles crashes them back down to Earth!
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The Inuit Indians had an Air Spirit among the ranks of their Sila (a term that means Wisdom and Weather). Their Air Spirit controls the seas, skies and wind. Although considered a kind and beneficial spirit, it strikes wrath against liars, beggars and thieves in the form of illnesses. It is also blamed for bad weather and poor hunting.
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Soil R75 sees other things to study and celebrate at the Pass. She ponders the aquaponic fish as a Christ symbol along with the deep “V”-shape of the canyon and long knife-like blades of the turbine. Early symbols of the Post-Transition Era?
Water equals life for all living beings. The hawk over head just then virtue, strength and freedom.
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The Thunderbird is a legendary creature in North American indigenous peoples’ history and culture. It’s considered a “supernatural” bird of power and strength. The Thunderbird’s name comes from that common belief that the beating of its enormous wings causes thunder and stirs the wind.
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