Big Jim

Big Jim has a house off at the end of a quiet steet, just outside of the town of Mundaniet, on the unexplored woods of LeriLand. Deep woods start at the end of the back yard, where the colored fabric of last year's May Day pole flap in the wind. When he was very young, he used to live as a recluse in a cave deep in the woods, but now he has a large house. It looks only fair-sized from the outside, but inside it is deceptively huge, with hidden rooms, and walls and shelves packed with artistic and occult relics from a huge spectrum of people and tradions. Thousands of books and records line the walls in several rooms, as holograms drift lazily by, followed by wisps of incense and sage smudge. There are several legends about the ancestors of Big Jim, but he never verifies any of them directly: Sioux Indian ("FREE Leonard Peltier" is displayed on one wall, with indiginous artifacts); African ("Yes, 50,000 years ago, maybe more recently"); Russian ("No, Ukraine is not part of Russia"); German and Dutch and English ("You said it, not me"). When presented with a form with a blank for "Religion?" he generally puts down "yes" in the blank, and has been accused of being agnostic, christian, wiccan, buddhist, or atheist at various times, but never by that group; he does attend Unitarian and Wiccan events, but only because they are "more fun". The scientific community often calls him a "wild-eyed mystic," while the mystic community calls him a "hard-nosed skeptical scientific type." He is more garrulous than his SO, Caroline, who is lounging by the sundeck door (near the sign, "CAUTION: nude sunbathers may be encountered beyond this point"). He is highly evasive when asked if he practices astral travel, evokation, samhadi, circulation of the light, alchemy, and other similar mysterious practices: once he said, in an unguarded moment, "I don't have to practice anymore;" but then glowing lights appeared over the forest, which conveniently distracted the questioner, and both Big Jim and Caroline disappeared for two hours until the glowing disks reappeared. In several corners of the great room upstairs are curtains, with yellow and black warning tape in front of them. Apparently Portals to other dimensions, pebbles rolled under the curtains disappear ("Makes sweeping up easier," he says). Near one Portal is a well-worn very sharp sword that no one else can touch; apparently for use when crossing into the Portal. Asked about the sword, he smiles and says, "Enemies I have no problem with; our only difficult problem is with Caroline's, I mean our, uh, 'Friends.'" Hot chocolate and tea are always available, unlike shoes. Rumors abound that he is the only one (at least on his street) that understands Crowley,The Book of Revelation, how the brain encodes conscious perception, and where to get really good pizza and meade ("Been making it for over ten years").

Continue onward... Bjorn

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