8th of March, International Women day and Graffiti!

8 of March, Women Day and graffiti in Lisbon

Out of Nothing Something was created.

Covering the past using white paint. 

The 8^th of March, the international women’s day was a beautiful day, the sun was shining. On this day a group of people came together at ‘Calçade da Gloria’ in Lisbon, to celebrate this day with Graffiti art. It is one of the many official places in Lisbon where artist are allowed to show their paintings. They called it ‘Dia da Mulher’ Paint session and the event was created by Yes You can spray. 

They started to paint white over the old graffiti on the wooden panels to make a new beginning. You can see the past a little bit as well through. Like it happens with most art and creations.

The start of one of the paintings

Why became the 8^th of March the international women’s day? Why is a funny word, but if you look at the internet you will find that at the beginning of 1900 there were several demonstrations for equal rights for men and women, for the right on voting, work etc., things that were not accepted 100 years ago. This may sound a little bit strange for people born in the so called ‘modern western’ world, but if you look to other countries with other religions you can maybe imagine how it was back in those times. But that western male dominate society was in turmoil, almost waiting for a war and change.

Women's demonstration for bread and peace - March the 8th,
1917, Petrograd, Russia

The 8^th of March became the Woman day, because the women of St. Petersburg started a demonstration for food and peace during World War 1. They were not thinking about a revolution, but it happened anyway. Here we can see as well how long history stays in the mind of people. Because in that time Russia had another time table, they had the Julian calendar which was from 46Bc and created by Julius Caesar and in the Catholic western world they use the Gregorian calendar system from Pope Gregorian XIII from 1582. There is a difference from 0.002% every year. The protestant and Eastern Orthodox countries first didn’t want to follow the Gregorian one, because they said it was a Catholic example later the protestant started to use it also, for example the British Empire started to use it in 1752,  but in 1917 the Russians still followed the Julian one. That means a difference of 13 days and so officially the woman day was at the end of February. After the revolution the women became the right to vote and the Russians started also to use the Gregorian one. That’s why the date is now 8. It became a Russian holiday and woman day and in 1975 it was officially recognized by the United Nations.

OK, so much about history. This is only short time. What we also see is the fights between the different churches and the implications of it. Humans are strange people and mostly very conservative. Before they recognize and admit mistakes or different opinions, it can take many wars and time. 2000 of years is nothing in the human history. And then we come back to the woman issue and the street art painting day.

It started with nothing and then something was created. These pictures and video show the development of the paintings and the choices and changes which are made. They painted first the boards white to make a new start with the white panels. Although you can still see the old graffiti a little bit underneath. It is funny how different creations are following the same principles. This blog page started with a white background as well. Even the Christian bible started with nothing and a creator. But was it original or was there already a story, a picture behind, like with these paintings? And that’s how we come back to the 8^th of March and why it became the women’s day and why was it 'necessary'.

The fall of man (Rubens)

Almost every religion claims to be the only true one. In our eyes, the Abrahamic tradition, it starts with Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Torah and Tanakh or Jewish Bible is almost the same as the Christian Old Testament. The Christians only accepted the Jew Jesus as Messiah and that became a big conflict between these religions and it resulted in many pogroms against the Jews. The Quran is from 600 AC and the youngest and Mohamed saw Jesus as an enlightened person, what many people don’t know or want to know. All these writing claim to come from GOD itself, but they came actually out of the middle East where the storytelling created already myths about these themes. The first written examples are Sumerian and they are from 3000 BC! Here we find in the area of Mesopotamia, Sumer, Assyria,  Babylon  etc., the first writings about many of the later myths. The names were different due to other languages but the stories were already there and written before the Hebrew ones. The difference was another look at the world, the place of women and man and GOD life. Who were Adam and Eve?

Sumerian depiction of Adam, Eve, the Serpent (Enki)
and the Tree of Life

When the Judaic people were still Sheppard’s in the desert, in the Mesopotamian area the first cities appeared with walls and gardens.   They knew already Mathematics, astronomy and knew that the world was round. We are talking about ± 4000 BC. They knew already the art of agriculture and developed the first societies. There we find the first writing where The garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Ark of Noah are mentioned.  I am not going to too deep in all there differences, than I need maybe more ten years, but the interesting thing is that here we can find the beginning of the difference between man and woman optic. (for who are interested, there are the links.)
I am not going to say that these societies were better for their workers, slaves or whatever you call them. I did read that they had other creatures before the humans did the work for 
the superior creatures which were called the Annunaki. But that these rebelled because they had to work seven days a week, so you can imagine that even than life for the workers was not easy. The difference is that the Abrahamic religions, made the so called humans to sinners because they did not listen to God and were punished for eating the forbidden fruit which was offered by a snake to Eve and she shared the fruit with Adam. That made her the worst sinner and the snake was in Christian religion also female. They were sent out of Edin what was called paradise and he had to work his whole life, his immortality was taken and she had to obey.

Inanna; Goddess of war and fertility

Mesopotamia had more than 2000s Gods, Goddesses, deities, daemons and local gods and goddesses. Every city had his own and during the time and many wars they changed a little bit. But the base was the same, it was polytheistic. The first written records show us already a Garden of Eden and the flood around 3000 BC. The storytelling must be much older. There were already cities and gardens around 4000 BC and the stories are look alikes of the Christian Bible and the older Hebrew Tanakh and the much younger Muslim Quran, but the background was totally different. If You compare these three Abrahamic books of religions you will be surprised how much they have in common!  


The mesopotamian religions had a Polytheisticsystem of Gods and Deities. There were male and female ones, even travesties, Transgender and much and many more. There were good ones, bad ones and they were fighting with each other, or helping or playing, they were like post modern humans, only more natural with more light and life spirit. They needed food and could die too.

After the first creatures which had to work in the garden rebelled and became after it half Gods they needed other slaves.They were tired of working in their own gardens and saw creatures like them in the desert eating, living and drinking with the animals. They were wearing no clothes and were covered with Mud. That’s where the story comes from, humans created out of mud. But how to make out of these ‘wild’ creatures, good workers to work on the fields and bring them food and drinking?

The animals were disturbing because they were eating their crops. They put traps to stop them and catch them. But the creatures that were looking like them were smart and knew how to get around them. They got an idea. They are looking like us, but don’t have our knowledge, let’s seduce them! And so they did. They sent one of the high priestesses from the temple of Innana to the Eden what was the word for the uncultivated land with trees around the city walls. Innana was the Goddess of war and fertility her priestesses were artist in making sex and love. They were later called whores, harlots and prostitutes, but in those times they were admired because of their knowledge how to make humans, gods stronger. She seduced the strongest of the male creatures and had seven days’ sex and love with him. Then she cleaned him from the mud and put clothes on him to bring him to the city. He could not return to the animals because his smell changed him and she whispered words in his ear to make him human. Enough words to obey and not enough words to not obey. They were no sinners, they were. Many other creatures like him followed and they had their humans to work on the fields so they could rest and eat and drink and enjoy life.

Later the Adam in this case called named Adapa of that time was allowed to eat as well from the tree of knowledge and eternity what they called bread in that time, but one of the Gods and whose animal name was serpent or dragon, who didn’t want to lose his workers, told the Adam of that time that he would surely die if he would eat it. And Adam obeyed.

This was the first story in a polytheistic society. 

Later the story was changed. Abraham came, saw and changed the world, not forever, but for a long time, what we still can see and feel now. He was a shepherd and came from the desert with totally different ideas of society. His world was Monotheistic and Paternalistic. You can imagine a Mormon coming to the city. What he saw he didn’t like. In that time myths were the way of seeing the world and life. So he made his own interpretation of one male God who takes care of his children. The Lord is my shepherd. He also didn’t like the strength of the woman in the old myths so he changed it in a woman Eve who was seduced to eat the forbidden fruit and became the sinner. Yeah what stories can do! The Jewish Thanak/Torah, the Christian Bible and the Muslim Quran all have this man woman view. They were shepherds and nomads and didn’t like the polytheistic view of life. That is also the reason, humble I think, that we have so much problems with nature and our planet........

In the beginning when you are born, you are only energy with possibilities. After that they put words in your mind. We are no computers, every creature has it own energy due to the moment that it is born, so it will react different on these words, but the programming is made!  The ‘funny’ thing is that it all takes place in Mesopotamia in the Middle East. Thanks to the Romans who accepted Christianity as their religion (seeing the possibilities for good workers themselves) it also changed the religion and myths in Europe. And later with the discoveries they brought it even over the whole world, changing this planet and universe until now. What words can do!
These religions created a different vision of life and society. First they created humans as sinners and workers. Than it made Women less than men. Later with the Romans as Christians, Christianity where a man (pope) was/is the medium to God, forbid all pagan religions and whole Europe became monotheistic and later with the 'discoveries' it happened to a big part of the whole world.Everywhere they came they felt superior and we see what that did to other races and religions. The fall of men became a fall of reality, nature and planet as well. Yes there is a lot of material for Monty Python movies! It is so sad that you better laugh about it. Because laughing is healthy. Bad jokes enough!!!

And I still don’t think that all women are good and men are bad. I not even think they exist without words. But maybe it is time to take a look at the possibilities of an empty page and see what life art we can create on this planet and in this universe if we understand that they don’t really exist or only in our minds. What a beautiful eclectic possibility with all the lessons we maybe have learned! Let's make a new creation again. Art can be the answer.
OK, back to the woman day of Graffiti. We saw some pictures, how paintings started. Here is another one with a story and then a video, where I followed some of the paintings and at the end we can see how the artists finished their 'Artwork.'

No more prostitution wrote the artist. I told him I would have called it different. I would have written 'This is not the holy Grail.' 
Because sexuality became so degraded by the Abrahamic religions it became to something bad. But it used to be holy. An opening of chakras. The prostitutes as high priestesses. Sex as art Erotica. A different view at life and her organisation!
Taking heroïn, what is forbidden, for several reasons, can give another page for this blog. Maybe one day!

Happy Birthday and the full snow moon....Dreamwalking!

Happy Birthday and the full snow moon

A birthday is like a full moon knocking on your door, but with a different knocking. In Dutch we call it “verjaardag”, far away year day and that is it technical now, it’s already a week ago but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like yesterday, a week of birthday trance and now the full moon is coming again, life. I was talking with an English friend who calls himself Angel (there are a lot of different Angels, with this one you can have fun!) and I told him, that it feels indeed like full moon, you don’t plan it, it just happens. He told me that the gipsies always celebrate their birthdays for many days. A nice story, but when I checked it out, I didn’t find any proof for it. I told him that is has probably to do with the position of the stars. All though the universe is always changing and the stars are not the same as when you were born, maybe you changed natural in and with the universe and that’s why you get suddenly so much energy. Well I also cannot proof that, so maybe it’s only in the mind or whatever.

The fact is that it was an interesting day which I started with what I call flying or dream walking, which means walking with feeling without having a goal. This is how I started discovering and exploring the city in the beginning when I was arriving and that is the fundament for my walking tours.  A destination I had, but that could change within the walk as well. It’s like walking in meditation, with the mind here, nowhere, in the past and in the future, whatever comes spontaneous without thinking. At the end of the walk you will see where the walk was about. Or not! I am walking from one of the highest spots of Lisbon, called Graça in the direction of Martim Moniz, when the first door with knowledge opens.

We are talking about the second of February, Groundhog Day in The U.S. and Canada. It started around 1847 and it’s for them a long tradition. Around that day the groundhog comes out of his burrow to check the weather outside. In early times it was seen as a sort of weather broadcast. If the sun was shining and the groundhog saw his or her shadow, it went back in the burrow, knowing that the winter would be going on for a while. When it was cloudy and rainy weather it meant that spring would come early. Old folklore can give nice stories and thoughts. The weather of that day was cloudy; sometimes a sparkle of sun and rain was possible to fall. This would mean, Spring will start fast. Good! 😎

Meanwhile I was walking and arrived at Martim Moniz, where the famous Tram 28 starts his tour through the city. I met a nice Italian couple with their bikes. They told me that they made this year already 6000 km, wauw! And they asked me if I knew a place to sleep. I told them that although there are many empty and abandoned houses in Lisbon, it is difficult to find a place. Sign of the times! I advised them to go to some places to meet people who could maybe help and I continued my way. 

Without thinking I was following the tracks of Tram 28 to the endpoint Prazeres, a cemetery in Campo De Ourique with beautiful white houses and cats. A little bit similar to Pere Lachaise in Paris. That is one of the points where I go with my newest tour  'Night Train to Lisbon' and I suddenly felt like going there, maybe to connect the life and the death like in the old myths was done to say goodbye to the winter and welcome the spring. By thinking that I was back with the relatively young Groundhog folklore again, this has many much older ancestor stories.

I read already about Ishtar and that was more than 4000 BC.  Who went to the underground or underworld, and when she was gone, fertility was gone as well. And when she came back, it was there again! And what to think about Isis and Osiris from Egypt, Greece Persephone and Hades, Rome’s Proserpina and the Gaelic Imbolc and Brigid, the wolves and the Bears, very old and almost forgotten and polytheistic religions celebrating nature! because than the Torah was written and the Christian Bible of the church and even later the even more 'young' Koran, all monotheistic religions, and in the western church an image of Jesus arrived and with him Maria and theblessing Candles, Candelmas, who took the power and degraded the old myths to Barbaric not civilised customs which had to be forbidden. The monolheïstic religions threw shadows on polytheïstic and natural thinking. Yes dreamwalking can bring your thoughts very far away, meanwhile somewhere going here and there, where to you don't know yet. 

When Maria gave birth to Jesus without having sexuality involved, she still had to follow the old Laws of Moses and that is why she had to purify outside the temples for forty days before she could come back and that was on February 2. (Februare means in Latin purification). We see here a world of the myths suddenly turn upside down. The day of purification, nature fertility and sexuality became suddenly to a holy interception without body, but only spirit. Nature and body became suddenly something bad. Maybe that is why we have so many problems with the nature on this planet, who knows. A fact is that the Church started to try to baptise the whole world and we see where we are now.

But when I was walking and these thoughts came to me, I passed already the parliament and the beautiful Basilica Estrella before I woke up in Campo de Ourique. Walking in dreams knows no distance and time and I was suddenly on the other side of the city. I was in a ghost town. “Different rhythm and empty eyes”. Humans protected, almost sterile and morals of fear with no contact with life. You ask yourself do they still have dreams, hope and future or are they only living in the now and trying to keep it like it is. Different inspiration.  It is interesting though, how all this different neighbourhoods are indeed very different like small villages in the countryside. Was it the Cemetery which made this with these people? (The grey weather did not really help the people smile as well. Portuguese people are very sensible for that fact!) When I arrived at Prazeres, I saw that they just closed the fences. It seemed that the death didn’t want to talk with me. It started raining slowly and I felt that I was not at the end of my birthday tour yet.

 To go back to the centre I took another direction. I walked in the direction of Santos and MadreGoa. Walking walking with cloudy grey weather and it was raining a bit. I didn’t follow the normal road and found myself suddenly in a street which I don’t remember that I was ever there. This doesn’t mean that I was never there, but I just don’t remember it J Rua Garcia de Orta. That’s the fascinating site of Lisbon, you can always find new things, old and new and always changing. I found a mysterious dark looking castle house. I asked an old woman who lived there. She said she didn't know. I searched later for it on the internet (I love internet!) and found out that it was owned by Real estate agents, home health care. I had to laugh, but not really, because this is what I found on the other side of the street.

The decay of empty houses. That's Lisbon as well. Behind and not only behind the facade there are a lot of houses empty for a long time and that brings decay. Nice for pictures but not a good sign. It's not only the European Union what brought this, although they didn't make it better neither, in contrary I would say, but the most of the managers are very bad managers and greedy as well. If you compare it to the Netherlands, we have Heineken, I don't like the beer so much but that is something else, and they sell it everywhere, Portugal has one of the best wines of the world and they sell it not a lot abroad and I can give many more examples.

 And there is here an other mentality as well. I heard a story about a fisherman in the South of Portugal. He was relaxing on the beach and a German Fisherman arrived and asked him why his was not working. The fisherman answered I was working one hour and caught my 3 fishes. So now I can relax. The German business man said but if you catch 3 fishes in 3 hours you will have in 8 hours 24 fishes and than you can sell them and after a while you can buy a boat and then even a factory and so on. And than what? asked the Fisherman. Well replied the businessman well than other fisherman can work for you! The fisherman looked at him and said and then I can relax on the beach? He looked at the German businessman and he smiled. Moral? Different weather, different time, different mentality! 😊




A little bit more far in the direction of the city centre near the Belgian Embassy, I found 3 small new brooms still packed in plastic. I chose one and I took it with me to help me flying to somewhere I had to go but I didn’t know where it was yet.

Even though it was a small broom it worked very well. After a short while when I was arrived at Praça Luís de Camões, I met a Belgian Friend who I call a Sound juggler because he makes music with a guitar, microphone a simple sampler, and many natural sounds, a whole DJ trance show on the street. He is a positive sunny guy and we had some fun when he told me that there was a exposition opening near Casa dosBicos. , because some friends of him showed there new paintings, he was planning to go there. And there would be good music, wines and food too. If I knew where it was? I told him that it was near the Alfama left behind the palace on Terreiro do Paço. The name is now Praça do Comércio, but the Portuguese call it mostly by the old name. Things change slowly here.

I decided to go with him. And found out it was in Arco da Conceiçao, one of the oldest ports to the city in the old city wall. It seems that it was already in the 6^th century there and that they called it in the 16^th century the Port of Laziness. When we walked up the stairs in the narrow arch we came in the gallery, it was above a restaurant which is official situated at Rua dos Bacelhouros 4c. I met some friends and some nice interesting sometimes surrealistic paintings and drawings. We drunk good red wine had some tapas and went outside to smoke something.  When I was sitting at the stairs of the arch, my mouth fell open, with what I saw in front of me, just above the opening to the street...........

It was a stony shield with tiles with two Angels protecting something what is not there anymore. I have to admit that I was first stupid and not understanding what this meant. That this dreamwalking actually came here to the end. (More of them will follow of course). I was even thinking what could have been there in the middle. Mostly in Lisbon that is Jesus, São Antonio, São Vincente or..... MARIA da Conceiçao!!!!!! Our lade from the immaculate conception. The name of the arch! But the shield is empty. The angels are waiting for something else to protect. This is a blog for Dickology and I explained alraidy that everybody can put his or her name in for this Philosophy. You can even put an picture of yourself in the shield. Or an heart or Ishtar, Isis Persophone or whatever you think what is good for this planet!

Ok after this round dreaming walk my life was not over and I had a nice birthday party with some friends in Crew Hassan in Intendente and after that life went on again till I wrote this blog on Full moon what they call the snow or hungry moon because it is the moon in between winter and spring etc. etc. Life! Enjoy it!!!!