The Clan Destined Blog. - Bard To Verse

It’s time, let’s rhyme!

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:56:09 +0100

It’s time, let’s rhyme!

It’s time, let’s rhyme – United Pagan Massive!

Greetings to you my sisters and brothers! I hope that this blog update finds you all in fine health and having fun? Things have been rather hectic to say the least over the last few months, but I shall earnestly endeavour from now on to keep you far more regularly updated on what has been happening in The Clan Destined camp. A very special thanks to all of you kind people who have already purchased a copy of the “In The Big Ending…” limited-edition demo package from the TCD merchandise page. Thanks also to those among you who have sent highly positive comments or messages of support to the website. Whilst we sadly don’t have the time to reply to most of you at present, rest assured that we read and fully appreciate absolutely everything you have to say. There appear to be many of you out there who are still in shock about my recent announcement that “In The Big Ending…” will be my final ever musical release. I can assure you all that this is certainly not a decision I have taken lightly. There are just a small handful of people who have any idea whatsoever of exactly how much I have endured in order to get this latest TCD c.d. completed and out on sale. Finishing these recordings has cost me dearly in both time and money, not to mention the rather substantial amount of emotional trauma I’ve also had to face along the way. I have been writing my lyrics and singing them to you for the best part of two decades now, so hopefully you’ll appreciate that I’m not the kind of person who gives-up easily and without a fight. I always knew that setting-up something as new and truly unique as The Clan Destined would be a serious struggle, but could never have imagined that the musical aspect of this project would cause me so much stress. I have therefore decided to concentrate my talents in the future on a full-time writing career, as this currently seems to be a far more rewarding and productive use of all my time and efforts. As with all the greatest tales ever told, (especially those that involve a struggle of some kind), the full story of The Clan Destined is one which is brimming with heroes who were stout and true. This yarn also has its fair share of villains and cowards with only their own selfish interests at heart. When the going got tough the heroes stood their ground and fought courageously until the bitter end, whilst all the villains and cowards simply changed sides or turned-tail and disappeared off up into the hills without a trace!

Come together or forever remain impassive.

It appears to be a common misconception that The Clan Destined has in some way split-up or ceased to exist, so I would dearly like to take this opportunity to put you all straight about this matter immediately. The Clan Destined as an international Pagan collective is actually far stronger now, and has many more loyal members than at any time during its three-year history. As with any other dedicated organisation, there will always be an initial period whilst things first get started when you have to sort-out the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’ as the saying goes. In the army they call it basic-training, and it soon becomes clearly apparent who will show long-term commitment to the cause, and who has merely come along just because they think they’ll maybe look good in a uniform. When The Clan Destined project initially began, I found myself surrounded by numerous people who really liked the general idea and loved wearing their TCD shirts and badges at our group gatherings. Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly), once all the intense hard work began in earnest these shallow, shortsighted individuals were nowhere to be found. I have learned an awful lot of things over the last few years, and now choose the people I wish to collaborate with most carefully indeed. During the last 18 months I have painstakingly assembled a solid core of talented individuals from around the world who have proven themselves more than capable of the serious challenge which lies ahead of us. With the TCD “In The Big Ending…” recordings now released and on-sale, the time has finally come to move-on to the next stage of The Clan Destined’s evolutionary development. Hopefully with this dedicated team of people I have working around me at present I will never again have to endure the kind of pathetic, childish behaviour which has plagued me all too often in recent years. This unfortunate episode is the sole reason I have now given-up making music, and if you could only know the true extent of the needless bullshit I have endured then I’m certain you’d all fully appreciate exactly why I’ve made the drastic decision to bring my twenty year musical career to an abrupt end.

An evolving revolution of heathen free-thinkers.

“So what exactly is The Clan Destined?” I hear you all now ask yourselves. “Why should the world actually listen to what Martin Walkyier and Co. have to say?” I shall now attempt to answer these questions and explain our aims as clearly and concisely as possible for you. Whilst there are numerous great New Age Pagan organisations, websites and publications available out there, none of the ones I’ve discovered as yet seem that keen to discuss the political reasons behind why our planet is in such a sorry state at present. With drastic global climate change now an eventual inevitability, and the likes of George ‘Dubya’ Bush apparently not content until we’ve all been either converted to Christianity or killed in the process, it seems to me that we each have a duty to raise our voices as loudly as possible and finally see to it that our opinions get heard. Whilst a session of crystal-healing or an alignment of your unbalanced chakras may help cure the individual on a personal level, unfortunately in our humble opinion it has little chance of reducing the carbon emissions and pollution which are presently devastating our planet’s atmosphere, or of making religious fundamentalists turn from a path which ultimately leads to an irreversible loss of civil-liberties, World War III and ends with the final downfall of all humankind. It is the single-minded mission of myself and the rest of The Clan Destined to expose and oppose this suicidal stupidity in every way possible, and to openly speak our minds via each and every medium and method available to us at any given time. We are a highly dedicated collective of like-minded individuals, united against all possible types of prejudice, racism and bigotry in all its varied and insidious incarnations. The Clan Destined judges others purely on what lies deep within their hearts and souls, rather than by their beliefs, sexuality or colour of skin – “By your deeds ye shall be known!” is a poignant lyric from the new c.d. which sums-up this simple TCD philosophy in its most basic terms. We have chosen to collectively call ourselves ‘Pagans’, as this seemed to be both the best and most ancient word available to describe an organisation of people who are literally ‘Not of Rome’. It was after all during Europe’s fortress-wall and empire-building past that most of our modern society’s ills initially began, when the very first seeds were sown of a capitalist cancer of greed and intolerance which now seemingly threaten to decimate us all. Whilst as Pagans we must certainly respect the beliefs of all other faiths around the world, we truly have no desire to die for some pointless conflict, (nuclear or otherwise), over a religious argument which we neither understand or wish to have any involvement with. If George W. Bush and his Neo-Conservative cronies get their way, then the likes of you and I will be among the very first to be lined-up against the wall I can assure you! I don’t for one minute imagine that President Bush is a much of a fan of outspoken Heavy Metal music, and along with all other aspects of freedom of speech and democracy we will eventually realise that we have no useful part to play in the ‘Manifest Destiny’ of his New World Order.

A moral obligation to abandon mental blinkers.

When I was just eleven years old I was asked by my teachers to write a play which would commemorate the centenary of my school. The ideas I came up with were eventually performed in the schoolyard by myself and my fellow pupils, and even managed to be deemed worthy of a small mention in our local newspaper. Looking back I often wonder what my teachers actually thought of this play, which predicted a world one hundred years in the future where the ‘blank’ kids were programmed with information in the same way as soulless computer chips on some vast, automated production line. I realise now that this was actually the turning-point in my early life, and in fact I was preaching practically the same ideals and dire warnings way back then as I have continued to do for the subsequent twenty-seven years. Those among you who have followed my creative career will be fully aware that at no stage have I done this for the money, as during many periods of my life I have existed on ‘wages’ so low that they make Social Security seem almost like a king’s ransom. I have done this ‘job’ solely because when I look around me at this wondrous world we have been gifted, (and the most shameful, corrupt manner in which it’s currently being governed and exploited), I cannot help but feel within my heart that there just simply has to be a far better way. Do you honestly believe that in twenty-five years or so down the line you’ll all be able to gaze deep into your children’s eyes, and calmly explain to them without the slightest feelings of guilt and self-loathing exactly why they live upon a defiled and dying planet that now bears absolutely no resemblance to the once vibrant paradise with which our present generation was so foolishly entrusted? I for one have no desire to someday perform the grave duty of making my feeble excuses for why I did nothing to preserve at least a faint glimmer of hope for our future generations to inherit, and neither do any of my loyal comrades in The Clan Destined. Though the great work which yet lies ahead of us may at times seem insurmountable, and now both social and planetary meltdown appear more of a probability than a possibility, we are each steadfastly resolved to ensure that The Clan Destined reaches its full potential and eventually becomes a roaring voice of truth and reason in a world beset by greed and hatred. I am because we are! Martin Walkyier on behalf of The Clan Destined. www.theclandestined.com

STOP WARS

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:00:00 +0100

I feel the need to write these words to express my sincerest support and admiration for the conduct of Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith; A doctor and officer in the Royal Air Force, who on the 13th of April 06 was sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to go back to serve in Iraq, because he believes the recent invasion and military presence there are “illegal”. This man is most certainly not a coward. He has already served two tours of duty out there, and has previously been decorated for his actions; (He was also on £40,000 GBP a year, and has now forsaken not only this high yearly salary but also his retirement pension). He is in my honest opinion a most courageous man who has realised what we all instinctively know deep within our hearts, the plain and simple truth that the current ‘Coalition’ military presence over there has far more to do with oil money than the freedoms and liberties of the Iraqi people. Unlike the vast majority of us, he was fully prepared to speak out and even go to jail rather than act against his heartfelt convictions.

It was obvious from the very beginning of the trial that he would be found guilty of “disobeying orders”. Had the verdict gone any other way, then I’m certain that at least half of our brave lads and lasses stationed out in Iraq would have simply have downed-tools and come back home to their families and friends ASAP. Joining the armed forces to defend your home country or fight for a just cause is one thing. Being posted off to far distant places for dubious motives, (and when most of the indigenous population frankly don’t want you there), is quite another matter entirely. Naturally the current Iraqi government have requested our continued military presence in their country; it is after all the only actual reason that they’re in power in the first place. I’m most certain that these puppet politicians are now far richer ($$$) than they ever could have dreamed of being under the harsh regime of Saddam Hussein. Military history has demonstrated repeatedly that very often even the most professional of armies can be out-manoeuvred by ill-equipped guerrilla forces familiar with the local terrain and quickly able to vanish into the background. The once Great Britain has been taught this vital lesson numerous times in Her empire-building past, and the U.S.A. it appears has already forgotten recent historical events of what went so very badly wrong in Vietnam. Did nobody even think to mention any of these facts around the table when Tony B(liar) & ‘Dubya’ Bush were ever-so-eagerly planning their dubious “Operation Iraqi Freedom”? If I were compiling my own personal top-100 of Evil Bastards Alive in The World Today, then I reckon that Saddam Hussein would have rated quite highly somewhere in there. But to my knowledge at least 50,000 of our fellow human beings die needlessly each and every day in Africa due to either a lack of clean water, disease, starvation or ongoing civil conflict. And I don’t see a single coalition of military force keen to “liberate” any of those poor, desperate souls at this present moment, do you? Perhaps if they had 25% of the world’s oil reserves sitting right underneath their feet then things would be ever so slightly different methinks?

So as you lay yourself down to sleep in your comfortable bed tonight, please spare just a single thought and a prayer for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith. An innocent man who’s serving yet another solitary evening behind bars merely for standing up for his honest beliefs, as we all should have done under similar circumstances. The excuse so frequently given by many of the really hideous Nazis placed on trial in Nuernberg was that they were merely following the orders passed down to them from their ‘leaders’ high-above. Is this honestly the kind of outdated & unquestioning obedience to authority that which we should demand of our armed forces, or would we prefer it that the army should actually be the conscience of the common people? With many U.S. Neo-Conservative politicians presently plotting military action against Iran, I would like to warn you all that the decisions we make in the coming months and years will have a profound effect on the future of both our species and our planet. Fundamentalists of all faiths have already been hacking away at each other with swords and axes for a thousand years now, without ever a single soul being ‘saved’ or any ‘victory’ being won. As a Pagan I can fully respect and tolerate the beliefs of all world religions, but I truly have no desire to be vaporised in a nuclear war over an argument that I simply cannot comprehend and which has nothing whatsoever to do with me. The only ‘positive’ thing about war is that it generates large sums of money. It’s no wonder then that the politicians generally keen start conflicts are often secret shareholders in international weapons manufacturing companies. I firmly believe that the time has finally come to see through the shallow lies we are being fed every day. To stop all this bickering and posturing about whether it’s better to worship God or Allah, and concentrate on the far more pressing problems of world poverty, pollution and the drastic climate change – Which will undoubtedly prove over the coming years to be the greatest TERROR the human race has yet encountered. The unjust sentence passed upon Flight Lieutenant Kendall-Smith is yet another small step on humanity’s seemingly inevitable road to ruin, and Thursday April 13th 2006 is I fear a most deeply tragic day both for freedom of speech and democracy. I am because we are! Martin Walkyier www.theclandestined.com