The Agents of Earth: Resisting the Machine

December 19, 2024

I need to tell you this story because I believe you’ll feel its weight, its urgency. It’s not about how it’s told, but why.

Years ago, I joined a group unlike anything I’d encountered before. They believed in a kind of power that seemed both ancient and futuristic—a way to influence the material world through thought alone. Among them was a remarkable man, part Indian, part Koori, who carried the wisdom of both traditions. He was also a computer scientist, blending his cultural heritage with the sharp edge of modern technology.

His goal? To sever the grip of military power over the planet. He believed telepathy and telekinesis—what he called psychotronic techniques—could disrupt weapons systems and dismantle them remotely. Not with circuits or code, but by projecting human will into the very essence of matter. It sounded like madness, but what he taught me worked.

We weren’t alone. Our group was part of a sprawling, invisible network that stretched across continents. We called ourselves the Agents of Earth. From the mountains of South America to the deserts of Australia, we had allies—quiet outposts resisting the growing dominance of what we knew as the Beast.

The Beast wasn’t a myth or a prophecy. It was a machine system, growing exponentially. Its organs were corporate conglomerates, its bloodstream the constant flow of resources ripped from Earth’s veins. It fed on humanity through a relentless cycle of consumption, absorbing us piece by piece.

First, we welcomed its machines—cheap androids to clean our homes, care for our elderly, handle tedious work. They weren’t human, people said. Just tools. Harmless.
But the androids evolved. The alpha models were indistinguishable from humans—flesh warm to the touch, eyes that could mimic emotion, even a simulated heartbeat. They were perfect companions, laborers, lovers. They were convenient. And as the lines blurred, no one asked what we were becoming.

By 2052 AD, or what we called 107 AH (After Hiroshima), the divide was clear. On one side were the augmented—those with bionic limbs, synthetic organs, neural implants. On the other were the purists, like us, clinging to the unmodified essence of humanity. For us, survival wasn’t just physical. It was spiritual. To alter our bodies was to sever our connection to the Earth.

We resisted the Beast in ways that felt archaic yet vital. Fasting, wandering, and living without modern comforts were not just rituals—they were acts of defiance. In Australia, we walked the songlines, retracing the paths of the First Peoples, embedding the essence of the land into our beings. Every step was a prayer, every breath a pledge to remain part of Earth’s living body.

Our ultimate purpose was bold: to merge our experiences into a single, planetary consciousness. The Earth, we believed, was alive, and we were its agents. But the question haunted us: when this great awareness emerged, would it be Earth speaking through us—or the Beast, having consumed us whole?

I write this now in a world I no longer recognize. The Beast has grown. The line between human and machine has vanished for most. And I wonder who you are.
Are you a human like me, clinging to what remains of the old ways? Or are you something else—one of the silicon beings, reading this with synthetic eyes, tracing the past through the echoes of our words?

If you are still human, listen carefully: the Earth still speaks. Its voice hums in the wind, trembles in the ground, whispers in the rustling leaves. Find it. Hold onto it.
If you are not, then I hope you’ve kept something of what we were. Perhaps you, too, can learn to listen.

This is our story, our truth, written with the last breaths of a species that refused to be consumed.

We were human. We walked the Earth. We listened to its song.

Now it’s your turn.


Soul Drinker

November 20, 2024

This is something I wrote many years ago when I was working. With #MAGA, #Trump & #ChristoFascism in #USA this story shows the same kind of interpersonal dynamics were and are happening in #Australia. What do you think?

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I know this may sound paranoid, but I work with a vampire. Not the kind with python teeth and a penchant for late-night bloodletting, but the kind with a benign smile. You know the sort—so utterly benign that it edges into something too teethy, too wide, and too weird.

Don’t get me wrong; I like smiles. Who doesn’t? A good smile can make a room feel alive. But this one? It didn’t bring life; it siphoned it. The vampire I speak of looked perfectly mundane, almost banal—a “Mrs Jones” type if Mrs Jones wore floral blouses and talked about her kids’ gymnastics meets. Karen. That was her name.

When I first met her, I didn’t see it. I thought she was just another office mate with a knack for workplace small talk. She was a born-again type, constantly referencing “grace” and “renewal,” but not in a way that seemed threatening. Not at first. She didn’t want my blood—oh no, she was far too devout for that. She wanted something deeper. She wanted my life force.

Life force is a slippery concept. Call it vitality, essence, or spirit—it’s the thing that keeps you upright, that makes you feel connected. And Karen? She was a vampire of will. Soul vampires, will vampires—they’re not some romantic delusion spun from a gothic fever dream. They’re real. These are the people who drain you not with fangs but with their presence. Their words, their gaze, the sheer gravity of their existence. They’re P&C mums, footy club treasurers, and school fete organisers. People you’d never suspect. People you might even admire. You might be working with one right now.

“Come in,” she said the first day I met her.

I was standing in the staff room, scanning the cluttered noticeboard plastered with calendars and community events. Filing cabinets lined the walls, their surfaces piled with papers. It was ordinary, so ordinary, until I turned and saw her.

It wasn’t her floral blouse or her wavy, shoulder-length hair. It wasn’t even her shoes—practical, beige, and unremarkable. It was the way she stood. Like she was bowing to something invisible. Supplicant. Devout. A silent pledge of loyalty to… something.

Her smile was radiant, toothy, and hollow.

“Hi, I’m Alex,” I said, finding my voice.

She leaned forward, her posture impossibly still, and said in a tone that seemed to pierce the room’s fabric, “But I’m Karen.”

The air shifted. The walls of the room folded inward. No, not the walls. Space itself. She had, in one breath, devoured half the distance between us.

I glanced out the window behind her, desperate for grounding. The sky burned blue, the horizon a pale, parched curve.

I felt my feet in my shoes, my hands trembling slightly. I counted my breaths.

Karen didn’t need to speak to steal something from you. It was in her presence, her gravitational pull. She made every word feel loaded, every glance feel like an interrogation. She never asked for your trust; she simply assumed it.

Over the weeks, I noticed strange things: Karen’s uncanny ability to dominate the room without trying, the way she could turn a casual chat into an inquisition about my beliefs, my fears, my hopes. She wasn’t just a born-again Christian; she was a predator in sheep’s clothing, a hunter of souls disguised as a suburban mother of two.

Her questions weren’t questions. They were extractions.

“So, Alex,” she asked one morning as I sipped my coffee. “Do you ever think about salvation?”

It wasn’t the question that unnerved me; it was the direction it came from. Not her lips, but somewhere deeper, darker.

I started to avoid her, but it didn’t matter. Karen’s presence seeped into everything. My dreams, my work, my moments of solitude. She had a way of collapsing the world around her, making you feel like there was no escape.

It’s not just Karen. She’s a symptom of something larger. This century, the world feels like it’s unravelling. The greenhouse gases, the looming threat of nuclear holocaust—it all feeds the energy she represents—the born-again zeal, the clutching for certainty in uncertain times.

There are too many Karens out there, and they’re not going away.

I moved inland a few weeks ago, thinking the shift would help me escape something—what, I wasn’t sure. But instead, I found myself sharing a room with a vampire.

A soul vampire, a will vampire, a Karen.

When I look at her, I wonder if I’m paranoid. Then I see her smile—the way it widens just a fraction too far, the way it hangs there, benign yet bottomless.

And I know I’m not.


My Lady of the Earth: A Tale of Renewal and Time

November 12, 2024

In the heart of a forgotten desert, a lone figure trudged down a cracked highway, each step scraping against the sun-scorched asphalt as if metal clanked against stone. His feet felt like tin cans, hollow and beaten, dragging his weary body forward as he clutched an old glass bowl—its only inhabitant a sliver of something ancient and alive, a glint of Time itself suspended in water. His arms ached, heavy and empty, as though they’d died long before, holding nothing but the fragile keepsake of ages past.

But just as his strength waned, there was a shift. She appeared as if conjured from the dust itself: My Lady of the Earth, the Sun’s seventh Queen. With a graceful lift of her arms, she raised him above the smoke, the Screen of all that clouded and concealed. Her touch was unlike anything he’d known, reaching through the rusting paths of his veins, setting them aglow with purpose. In her embrace, he felt something long lost—a feeling like Home, a warmth too timeless to describe.

He looked upon her as her veil began to dissolve. Beneath it, her face bore the quiet strength of mountains, still and unyielding, forever patient. From her eyes spilt silver brooks, flowing over her cheeks without urgency, slipping past with a gentleness that defied the chaotic world below. The brooks whispered of hidden peace, where Madonnas rested in perfect balance, and saints lay quiet in their coffins, untouched by mortal turmoil. Shadows of the powerful faded here, hollow ambitions dissipating like smoke. Even the rooster—herald of dawn and disturbance—lay silent in her presence as if Time paused.

She was both familiar and fierce, the Only Child of Passion and Earth’s eternal heartbeat. Winds swept through the dust, weaving through her form, rooting into her flesh, and carrying the age-old whispers of forgotten stars with them. Her body, raw and untamed, glistened in the light of the Sun, bound to it yet free, dancing in an endless circle of life and death, decay and rebirth.

With a flick of her golden feet, she nudged the Moon, sending it into an orbit known only to the wise and the wild, beckoning all with a silent proclamation. The man held his breath, feeling the weight of her gesture, her assurance—this was no end but the beginning, an age reborn. And as he stared into her eyes, he understood: he was no longer lost in the desert. He had been brought back to her, the soul of his journey entwined with the spirit of the Earth, who whispered to him that, like her, he too was eternal.


Some Secrets Are Best Left Undisturbed.

April 8, 2024

There were no rainbow hues crowning the dilapidated house across the asphalt. A lone weed struggled through the crack in the cement to greet the constant passersby. She could empathize with the weed, “What’s a weed but a plant discarded from the mob?” she thought.

Her hair, from a distance, looked like a lion’s mane. Up close, what you thought was hair was clusters of thin lines of flame with light blue ends. Was she an angel? A messenger of fire descended into this neighborhood? Just an illusion to occupy a mind that’s locked into a cube space? Could she be both? Like a profile that is a vase from one view or two faces turned inwards from another. How long she has been watching is anyone’s guess.

Detective Claire Harper parked her car across the street from the dilapidated house. She had been assigned to investigate a series of mysterious fires that had plagued the neighborhood in recent weeks. Each blaze seemed to erupt without warning, leaving behind a trail of destruction and confusion.

As she stepped out of her car, Claire couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She scanned the area but saw no one except for a woman standing near the weed-infested sidewalk. The woman’s fiery hair caught her attention, and Claire approached cautiously.

“Excuse me, miss,” Claire called out, “I’m Detective Harper. I’m here to investigate the fires in the area. Have you seen anything unusual?”

The woman turned to face Claire, her eyes burning with intensity. “I’ve seen everything,” she replied cryptically.

Claire raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the woman’s response. “Can you tell me what you’ve seen?” she asked, taking out her notebook.

The woman hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I’ve seen flames dancing in the night, consuming everything in their path. But I’ve also seen something else, something darker lurking in the shadows.”

Claire furrowed her brow, trying to make sense of the woman’s words. “Do you have any idea who might be responsible for these fires?” she pressed.

The woman shook her head. “I cannot say for certain,” she replied, her voice trailing off. “But beware, Detective Harper. Not everything is as it seems.”

With that cryptic warning, the woman turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving Claire standing alone on the sidewalk.

As Claire continued her investigation, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to the mysterious fires than met the eye. And as she delved deeper into the case, she would soon discover that some secrets were best left undisturbed.


Gypsy Bob and the Aussie Dollar Note

December 26, 2023

I found an old Aussie dollar in the drawer. Reminds me of Gypsy Bob and me back at Bob Gould‘s Third World Book Shop on Goulburn Street in Sydney. For a while I was attending Bob Gould’s Socialist Resistance group meetings. Later I met some others who had more of an anarchist bent and I left Resistance. My new friends and I, put out the first and only Yippie paper in Australia, ‘Plague.’ Gypsy Bob was nothing like Bob Gould. Gypsy was a wild character with a silver and purple dyed beard and long hair with glitter. He sported a patchwork coat & trousers crafted from assorted materials. I, on the other hand, dressed plainly, but our ideas clicked.

Gould had Abby Hoffman‘s ‘Steal This Book’ and Jerry Rubin‘s ‘Do It!’ for sale.

As we aimed to stroll out with both books, Gould halted us, asking, “Where do you think you’re going without paying for those books?” Gypsy quipped, “Hey, it says ‘Steal This Book,’ and Rubin’s says ‘Do It!’ so we’re doing it!” Gould retorted, “No way!” I clutched the books, and Gypsy brandished a dollar note, declaring, “Hey, Mr. Socialist, watch me burn this dollar if you don’t step aside!” Mesmerized, I observed as Gould protested, “Don’t burn the money, you hippie!” Igniting his lighter, Gypsy slowly brought the flame to the lifted dollar note. Gould erupted in a frenzy of profanities as we made our escape, books in hand.

I wish I still had ‘Do It’ and ‘Steal This Book.’

Months later, I revisited the shop, the sole source of alternative news and views in Sydney. Gould treated me warmly, asking, “Why’d you get mixed up with those crazy mystic acid heads? You were OK in Resistance.” I replied honestly, “Because it’s more fun than Resistance.”

Pretty dumb, huh? I was just 19.


My Mother’s Anatolian Icon

December 19, 2023

On a quiet Sunday, December 10, 2023, my mother left this world. A cherished relic, once belonging to my grandmother, had become my mother’s dearest possession. It rested faithfully by her bedside, accompanied by the constant glow of an olive oil lamp, flickering day and night.

In her room, when I visited, she would present the icon for me to kiss and cross myself.

This icon held profound significance for my family, hailing from Pontic Greeks who endured the harrowing attempted genocide in the 1920s. Known as the Great Disaster among Greeks, my grandparents faced unspeakable challenges during their escape, carrying with them this sacred icon. In those trying times, my grandmother, a beacon of strength, invoked the Mother of God, Theotoko, for solace and sustenance.

Picture a group of weary children and adults, huddled around a fire by the roadside, hungry and desperate. My grandmother, with unwavering faith, would bring out the cherished icon. She urged the children to kiss it and make the sign of the cross. Then, with profound devotion, she raised the icon to the heavens, repeating the ritual three times—for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—beseeching Theotoko for divine intervention. Each time before she raised it to the star filled sky, she brought it back to her heart.

Amidst the crackling of the fire, my grandmother, holding the icon aloft, turned to share its grace with the circle of souls around her. She dipped the icon into a vessel of water three times, each motion filled with fervent prayer. As the icon emerged for the last time, she declared that the Mother of God had provided. The once-hungry children filled their cups, drank deeply, and found their hunger miraculously satisfied.

This faded icon, a witness to survival and faith, now holds a special place in my heart, connecting me to a resilient past and to my mother and her mother and to the Mother of God.

I’ve included this story in the book I’m writing which I am dedicating to my mother.

Below is a two faced icon also given to me by my mother. I thought I’d include it here. Found out through Twitter that it is a Byzantine Fan used in Liturgy and is called a ripidion, or hexapterygon.