My Own Magical Roundabout

You make my head spin,
You're my own carousel!

"Mon manège à moi", Édith Piaf (1958)

All righty-Roo... The less young of us might remember the magic words from Zebedee, the red moustached Jack-in-the-box magician, keeper of the Magic Roundabout, who would teleport us to Beautywood to meet all its unusual characters: Dougal the drop-eared Terrier, Ermintrude the diva cow, Brian the unsophisticated snail, Dylan the dopey rabbit, and Mr McHenry the gardener on his tricycle. I am, of course, referring to the stop motion animation TV show for children created by the French ORTF in the 1960's, rebroadcast time and time again over the following decades until the release of a 3D modernised version (à la Wallace & Gromit) in 2006.

The Magic Roundabout's short shaggy-dog stories with a touch of British humour  certainly appealed to many children and adults alike as it turned out a great success all over Europe, but especially in the United Kingdom where it attained cult status. However, the BBC found the French-language scripts charming but too difficult to dub in English and chose instead to use the French footage with new English-language scripts that bore little relation to the original storylines. Beautywood was a poetic, whimsical world, fully based on imagination and set against a surrealistic backdrop of vivid colours. Each story began at Mr Rusty's roundabout where Florence and his friends took a ride before the famous Zebedee would make us count to three to shift (as if using a portkey) to this marvellous kind of psychedelic Wonderland.

Horses chasing
'Cause they're racing
So near yet so far
On a carousel...
On a carousel...

"On A Carousel", The Hollies (1967)

This memory from my early childhood came back suddenly upon discovering that beautiful vintage roundabout at the entrance of Parc Monceau in Paris. Since a picture wouldn't fully capture its magic, I decided to film it instead. On this moment, I would have given anything to be a toddler again with no metal pin in my leg so as to be able to ride one of those horses, airplane, coach or maybe the Nautilus — try them all, why not!

Instead, I allow my imagination to carry me away and let the happy memories resurface. All without revelling in nostalgia nor regrets. For I've finally understood that this is what prevents us to be in the now and lowers our vibration. And right now, in the midst of this spiritual war to regain our balance and unicity, expressing our anger or hatred won't help us win against the Grim Masters. Rather, taking our own responsibility for our vibration to change the morphic field is how we'll succeed. Stop feeding egregores. Disconnect from sources of anxiety that, under the guise of wanting to preserve you, get you bogged down into ill-being.

Stop screwing your mind with a world spinning wrong. Use some common sense, for god's sake! Ride against the nonsense and watch it shift from upside down to downside up.

No above no below. If this makes any sense to you.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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