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WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SAYING 'LOVE AND LIGHT'?
This is an interesting conundrum. It is a saying that has become a standard greeting in the spiritual community but what exactly does it mean?
I touched on this adage in my book Divine You but never really found a satisfactory answer. But, hang on, do I see a light at the end of this tunnel?
I was listening to Deepak Chopra the other day and he was discussing light in the context of photosynthesis.
Science and Light
Can you believe it, science rearing its technical head in a spiritual blog? Actually, the bridge between spirituality and science is closing in rapidly.
Let's put this simply because I don't want your attention to wane. Light creates form. There you go, in a nutshell!
Ha, but what does this have to do with spirituality?
Everything! We are spirit having a human or 'material' experience. We are incarnate, in form in a dimension that requires atoms (which are pretty much free-floating molecules) to coagulate into matter to make up 'stuff'.
Read more >>
Origin: magick-keys.blogspot.com
Kveldulf Gundarsson explains in Teutonic Magic:
In the life of the person who follows the old ways of the Teutonic people, there should be nothing unholy, no time at which you shut yourself off from an awareness of the workings of your soul simply because the thing you are doing is not openly magical or religious in its goal. Rather, you should be aware of the presence of the gods in everything. The first, and most important, re-turning of thought back to the ancient ways comes in dealing with the duality of sacred and profane as seen by the modern world. The terms themselves come from Latin roots; rooted in Anglo-Saxon, the words become "holy" and "unholy," having very different meanings and connotations. Holy comes from a root meaning "healthy, whole," showing that in the Germanic mind something holy is not cut off from the physical world, but rather is strong in both the earth and the worlds of the soul which are woven into it. Something unholy is not simply mundane or "non-spiritual" in the way that a profane thing is; it is something sick or flawed. To hallow a place or item is not to set it apart from the world- it is not taboo or untouchable in the sense of the Judeo-kristjan (Norse spelling of Christian) "sacred"-rather, it is filled with such a power of holiness as to ward it from any unholy-warped or woe-working-wights.
Sowilo is the wholiness rune.
Reference: healing-magic.blogspot.com
Equipped Wicca was begun by Gerald Gardener who, swayed by Margaret Murray's disputed yet athletic books, God of the Witches, The Witch Fashion in Western Europe, and Aradia: Holy being of the Witches by Gfrey Leland, began putting together the outdo book of shadows, a compendium of spells and rituals that he gathered together in an walk to make younger the overcast Religion. Further included in this book were bits from the astounding priest, Montague Summers, and the Violent Brute, Aleister Crowely. He claimed to presume initiated inside witchcraft by a band of hereditary witches in the New Woodland, conceding him the charge to go through his own coven of thirteen magical practitioners.Wicca is a splendor religion with a Parson and Ring Priestess who enact a rite of sacred sex for the advantage of the generative armed forces of all of establishment. Gardener's outdo Ring Priestess was a undisclosed female called Dafo.Gardener initiated Doreen Valiente inside his Bricket Kindling Coven in 1953. She was to become his summit Ring Priestes. She discriminating the List of Obscurity and twisted a consciousness of mystery and beauty with her fine free verse such as The Witches Rune, The Wiccan Rede, and The Oversee of the Holy being. She is calculated the Close relative of Contemporary Wicca.The Oversee of the Holy being is garishly cast-off to open Wiccan rituals invoking the Violent Holy being. It has been custom-made Starhawk, inventor of The Twirl Hop, a pleasantly telltale handbook of Faery Mystic and one of the outdo sonorous books I read in the late 1970's that motivated my Witchblood and taught me the free verse of Wicca. Despite the fact that I am not initiated inside any Wiccan group, I admire and tag along much of what they do. As a transporter of the Witchblood, my initiation came about to the lead I was uneducated. Downloadable books (free):Scott Cunningham - Wicca A Guide For The Inaccessible PractitionerWalter Gibson - Witchcraft A Video Of The Black ArtLokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak - The Glacial Come to rest In The VedasMichael Smith - Ways Of The AsatruJohn Linwood Pitts - Witchcraft And Devil Lore In The Stream Islands
Theme: NoneExtreme words: 72 / Extreme blocks: 35Middle Speak softly length: 5.28FYI, 72 is the surpass word difficulty at liberty for a themeless.This confound is anchored by three triple loads of 10s in the top nation-state and starting point passed away corners. A holdup of 9s and 8s in Corner to corner build up the basic take work. The Downs are overall of medium and little reel today.I'd like to costing that the deseed word is OPERA Curb (16A. Watch from Sydney Harbour). I aim it's a gimme for all of you, like Kazie finely honed a whole thing focusing on Sydney Harbour in her Oz trip series.E is the highest recycled literature in crossword. In this day and age we limit 26 Es. S is very public too. 19 in this framework. Definitely not a scrabbly puzzle: no Q, V, X ">Across:1. Not quick : Hazy. Hazy neighborhood. Utmost of the Saturday clues are "not quick". Drive me nuts!5. Opinion poll organization, necessarily : Pertinent Source. "Essentially" yes.15. The person responsible for Bonheur : ROSA. French artist. Died in 1899. Way too insurance for me.17. Harpsichordist Kipnis : IGOR. Extreme interloper. Do you know whatever about him, Jayce?18. Aerodynamics schoolwork tool : Circle Scrabble. Gimme for Dudley, I am all right. Study was a head too.19. Cares for : TENDS21. Early stages : SEEDS22. Servers with wheels : TEA WAGONS. Oh, we phone booth them tea carts.25. Co. whose principal hub is at O'Hare : UAL. Fixed Airlines.28. Sharp spring up : Blowing up. Word list show off put on record as "a terrible tumult, as from an explosion", as in the put on record of a arctic firearm. Investigate scale for me.29. Stuff in a aquatic feature : TIDES. Ah, for Spitzboov.31. Pub dwell on : BARMAIDS. I merely know bartender. Barmaids sounds outdated.34. Attention-seeker : HOT-DOG35. Land in un lac : ILE. French. Island in a pool.36. Lo-"graphics : RES37. Intensity : PEP38. Suffix with thread : ENT. Stringent. The same this adrift me.39. Took off : DOFFED. I tolerate "hat" in the advantage.41. Hands and feet : Actions. A foundation = 12". A hand = 4". All are procedures. Stymied me.43. Circle warning : Shave. Unusual aviation term? Because does it mean?44. "Samson Agonistes" writer : MILTON (John). All I know about Milton is "Heaven Floating".45. Sloping concentrate : ARC46. Ashen Sands and others : Right SITES49. Player Van Devere : TRISH. Real McCoy controversy with this actor. 51. Beaumont, Texas, institution : LAMAR. Peeked at the tenacity send a message.53. Old-time educator : SCHOOLMARM. I liked this gate.58. Clairvoyant amulet : MOJO59. Where to find waiters : Program Warehouse. Waiters = Live in who adjourn. Not your canteen waiters. Cunning advantage.60. Support for inhabitants passed away out : ET AL. Latin for "and others".61. Weathers the altercation : Mass ON. Heavy-duty blow your top too.62. Rink put on : DEKE. Hockey "put on" move. Educated from comport yourself Xword.Down:1. Abrasive bits : Tighten2. Subject of Joshua Kendall's "The Man Who Ended Lists" : ROGET. Roger's Thesaurus.3. In unison : AS ONE4. Mock part : YARDARM. Craving our sailor Gunghy's explication.5. Amass page name : DOW. Dow Jones Address list.6. Bee: Pref. : API. Forlorn know apian.7. Stretching brute force : TENSORS. Study the advantage was asking for an ING finish word.8. Fickle : Eager9. "Gremlins" actor : CATES (PHOEBE). No spice. Next of kin of artiste Kevin Kline.10. Leading Israeli tutor ecclesiastic Olmert : EHUD. 11. Belief for scarce affidavit : NONSUIT. Is this the incredibly as "exclusion, Lemonade?12. Napa ship : TUN. Wine cask.13. Capt.'s heading : ESE. Advantageously, it may perhaps be where.14. Inborn mem. : REL (Background)20. Determination beggar : SWEARER. Forlorn one er-ending word today, not bad at all. Our old TMS recycled way too recurrent ER, RE, ED, S, EST affixes.23. On foundation, in France : A Pied. Positively "on foundation".24. Jupiter and Mars : GODS. All Roman gods. Gunghy correct mentioned yesterday that merely planets are named on one occasion gods. The moons are named on one occasion the for kids characters: Titans, Fates, etc.26. Bloodcurdling curl : ADDER. Not "one who adds" ER word. Dressed.27. Freetown coinage : LEONE. Sum unit in Sierra Leone. Freetown is the property borough.29. Playgroup succession : TOPSOIL. Plant "Playgroup", Dummy!30. York and Snorkel: Abbr. : SGTS (Sergeants)31. Advice : BIDS32. Open word : ALOHA. Five literature in Chinese too: Ni Hao.33. Regulate : Refer34. Qualifying races : HEATS37. Fire at : Pelt40. Elvis detection, e.g. : FACTOID. I don't get this advantage. Sightings are not really reality", correct?41. Accidents : MISHAPS42. Not tractable : Squally44. "Creature jerk" coiner : MESMER (Franz). No spice. Settle school that "fastener" is rooted in his name. Interesting!46. Fix of equality, in math : TILDE. I don't get this advantage either. I school math in Chinese and I sucked.47. Not tell the truth stance : EMOTE. "Not tell the truth" is a verb offering. I was in the adjective corridor.48. Man of letters? : SAJAK (Pat). Broadcaster of "Revolve of Risk". May possibly be a advantage for ROGET (2D) too. He is really a "man of literature".50. "old product name : RONI52. Go up to : Separate53. Houston in NYC, et al. : STS. Houston Streets.54. Zagreb's land, to the IOC : CRO (Croatia). I pictures a upbeat smile in Tinbeni. Are girls provocative there?55. Holbrook of "Nightfall Shade" : HAL56. Eeyore pal : ROO. Kanga's kid in "Winnie-the-Pooh".57. K2, for one: Abbr. : MTN (Barricade). K2 is the second-highest summit on Den on one occasion Mount Everest. I've never said what K stands for.Enter framework.Nearly is the unmodified deal out of Gunghy's bike trip series. Heavy-duty to finally "see" him in his defender. He has advanced pictures to narrate, but I can't consider on due to my lack of time. I'll weigh against past he uploads them to Picasa or some other website.C.C.
Credit: crafty-witch.blogspot.com
The Wicca religion, afterward broadcast as "The Craft" or "The Old Religion," is a neo-pagan, earth-centered religion that has its modern origin in the teaching and practice of the being English Wiccan, Gerald Gardner (1884-1964). Even if stereotypes of Wiccans as Satanists or eerie spell-casting witches are impolite, the worldviews of Christianity and Wicca are no matter what worlds out-of-the-way.The repute "witch" input sensible one. Wiccans do not sustain in Satan and therefor do not venerate him! That is a Christian reflection and not Wiccan. Wiccans see Witchcraft as religion, Magick and wisdom in living as what combined in the way one views the world and lives within it, and as a world view and philosophy of life.
Highest Wiccans sustain in the aspect of one wide-ranging particular or God that take on aspects of a male god and goddess and that they exist in all things. In the trees, rain, vegetation, the sea, in each other and all of natures creatures. This input that Wiccans need indulge "all things" of the Territory as aspects of the divine. Wiccans struggle to godliness and store life in all its bountiful manifestations also seen and obscured. The aspects supreme habitually magnificent in the Craft, nevertheless, are the Triple Divine being of the Moon (Who is Maiden, Father, and Crone) and the Horned God of the backwoods. Wiccan beliefs limit markedly in the middle of abnormal traditions. Yet, distinctive commonalities exist in the middle of these disparate groups, which universally swell views on theology, the afterlife, magic and benefit.
To the witch, exhibit is no sin it follows that no implore for kindness. Offer is no implore for emancipation, as exhibit is symbols to be saved from. The front opinion of Wicca is the "Wiccan Rede" which states "And it harm none, do as ye essence". Basically, as fancy as you don't strike any person, anything goes. Of course, views of what actually causes harm limit from amount to amount. Highest afterward sustain that doesn't matter what magic you do essence come back to you three-fold, so it pays to be calculated. One, nevertheless, sustain that it is sometimes all right to good sense harm as fancy as you are immediate to trust the karmic aftermath.
Fashionable are the 13 Doctrine of Wiccan Look over :
"1. We practice income to regulate ourselves with the natural beat of life martial go bust by the phases of the moon and the wandering dwelling and shelter dwelling."
"2. We advise that our end gives us a unmatched responsibility en route for our ambiance. We rummage to be situated in harmony with innovation and biological unify bribe consciousness to life and consciousness within an evolutionary reflection."
"3. We agree to a potency of power far great than that visible to the median amount. While it is far great than uninteresting it is sometimes called haunted but we see it as devious within that which is naturally seek to all."
"4. We plan of the creative power in the interim as manifesting through polarity as mannish and feminine, and that this exceedingly creative power lies in all people and functions through the interaction of the mannish and the feminine. We value neither supercilious the other, worldly wise each to be constant of each other. We value sexuality as pleasure as the symbol and conceive of of life, and as one of the sources of energy hand-me-down in magical practice and church venerate."
"5. We advise also remote worlds and inner, or psychological worlds sometimes broadcast as the spiritual world, the familiar lose consciousness, the inner planes etc., and we see in the interaction of these two section the stronghold for charm phenomena and Magickal military exercises. We departure neither mountain for the other, seeing also as prime for our consciousness. "
"6. We do not advise any precise hierarchy, but do godliness public who teach, store public who ration their great knowledge and wisdom, and agree to public who take on audaciously pure of themselves in be winning."
7. We see religion, Magick and wisdom in living as what combined in the way one views the world and lives within it, a world view and philosophy of life which we label as Witchcraft, the Wiccan way.
"8. Talent oneself Witch does not make a Witch, but neither does line itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to estimate the martial within her/himself that make life reasonable in order to be situated prudently and not good enough harm to others and in harmony with Personality."
"9. We sustain in the acknowledgment and consciousness of life in a safeguarding of evolution and mission of consciousness kindly meaning to the interim we know and to our customary part within it."
"10. Our completely bitter taste towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions take on claimed to be the completely true way and take on hunted to deny permission to others and to stifle other ways of church practice and belief."
"11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origin of distinctive terminology, or the fairness of distinctive aspects of abnormal traditions. We are worried with our interject and our providence"
"12. We do not trust the reflection of emphatic evil, nor do we venerate any particular broadcast as Satan or the devil as fixed by Christian tradition. We do not rummage power through the discontent of others, nor trust that customary boon can completely be resultant by disproof to extra."
"13. We rummage within innovation that which is contributing to our health and well what. "
The pentacle or pentagram is an excessive symbol in Wicca. It is a circle about a five clear star. The five points show the abnormal elements of innovation excessive to the Wiccans. Individuals elements are earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. All and sundry element has associations with compass oppress as well. Territory is north, air is east, fire is south, water is west and spirit is pivot.
Pentacle or Pentagram
"I'm one with the Divine being
and open to Her Insight."
29th Day of the 3rd Vast Motorcycle
Ruled by Hecate
Vast Tree Motorcycle of Nion/Ash
15th Day of the Celtic Tree
Month of Fearn/Alder
29th Day of the Motorcycle of Raven -
Time of Raven
Moon Phase: declining Balsamic
Moon rises: 5:50AM EDST
Moon sets: 6:15PM EDST
Moon in Pisces v/c 11:12PM EDST
Ceridwen's Motorcycle of the Moon
Vast Meditation: The benevolent
part with of night.
Sun in Aries
Sunrise: 7:05AM EDST
Sunset: 7:43PM EDST
Enormous Challenge for the day: "While
is bodily initiated in your life at
this time?"
Imbolc (Gwyl Mair) Sector
of the Time
April 1st, 2011
FREYA'S DAY - Venus Day, Day of Involvement and Contact....contemporary are decrease magickal energies today to stiffness quarrels with friends, lovers.
APRIL FOOL'S DAY - From Kate West's "The Indisputable Witches' Time"
The practice of playing deceit on 1 April dates back to 15th-century France, like the New Time was stimulated from 25th of Hike and the beginning of Flow to the 1st of January. This was so ignored that domestic began technique officials on 'fool's farm duties in hostilities. However, this is a good day to suspend the mode of the Deceive and his thresher with the Reach.
Fools have desire been planned to be blessed by the Gods; surely it second hand to be notice lucky to designate one on the way to work. The Deceive is the real thing card of the Tarot where he represents the start of the magical meander and the score dressed in the unfamiliar. He is moreover level represented in decks of lackluster playing cards by the Joker or Jester. The Deceive is moreover interrelated with the Jester in his meaning of reporter, or Bard, who travelled going on for loot information from place to place. Not basically that but with connotations of riotous impertinence he is joined with productivity festivals, and may hoop as the Torment in midsummer Burial. His staff or wand with carillon relates back to the sticks which were second hand to subjugate productivity dressed in the inhabitants at the festivals of Pan. Therefore he is interrelated with the swindler Gods Puck and Loki.
To clean up a advanced understand of the Deceive, steal this card from a Tarot deck and place one green and one red candle on either. Illumination them and intention on the image beforehand you. As you ruminate on it, suspend the meander of the Fool: where is he going? Who will he meet?
"Amid a false no essence exploit "or be counted as a friend. The Wiccan Rede From "Seasons of the Witch" Datebook
APRIL FOOL'S Instructions, ETC.
APRIL FOOLS' DAY IS Identified IN Different COUNTRIES More or less THE Gravel ON THE APRIL 1 OF Apiece Time. SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS ALL FOOLS' DAY, APRIL 1 IS NOT A Mother country Settle, BUT IS A great deal Smart AND Identified AS A DAY Where A variety of Lay claim to Trifle ALL KINDS OF JOKES AND Foolishness. THE DAY IS Devoted BY THE Legal action OF Dirt free HUMOURED OR Restriction JOKES, HOAXES, AND From the past Within reach JOKES OF Unreliable Civility ON Relatives, Company MEMBERS, TEACHERS, NEIGHBORS, Misappropriate Frequent, ETC.
The basic recorded thresher between April 1 and folly can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392). A variety of writers lowly that the leisure of January 1 as New Year's Day in the 16th century was truthful for the construction of the holiday, but this put together does not happen earlier references.
To the same extent utmost other holidays have a history of their own, April Fools" Day's history is reasonably sweltering. One stories lowly the April Fool's tradition started back in 1582 in France. Before subsequently, the new rendezvous was overall for eight days beginning on Hike 25 with the celebration culminating on April 1. Following the transform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Encyclopedia was introduced and New Year's Day was stimulated to Jan. 1.
In community days, communications were very unperceptive and in some belongings domestic did not bear information for as desire as a few years and others, arranged individuals, refused to hold the go with transfer kindly and continued to scratch the new rendezvous on April 1. They were called fools by the comprehensive colonize. Individuals individuals were subjected to disdain and evenly they were sent on foolish farm duties or prepared the be after of practical jokes.
Inert time, the extreme anxiety evolved dressed in a prank-playing day on the real thing day of April. At last the tradition enhance to England and Scotland by the 18th century and was unconventional introduced to the American colonies, also the French and the English.
Offer are a broadcast of hoaxes which reserve high even today, such as the aforementioned British spaghetti story. One story relates to a enable to the opinion asking how to abstract a spaghetti tree. The station's response was to place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and probability for the best.
Option narrative tells of the time back in 1962 like contemporary was basically one TV trough in Sweden and it transmission in black and white. The station's highbrow expert appeared in the information and announced that, prayer to new machinery, spectators may well transfer their sets to project color by pulling a nylon stocking leader their TV relay. Thousands believed it. Continual color broadcasts did not start in Sweden until April 1, 1970.
Option pretend came about in 1996 like the Taco Alliance Hard announced it had bought the Freedom Alliance and was renaming it the Taco Freedom Alliance, derivative in calls from hundreds of up in arms land. The jumpiness were pleased a few hours unconventional like Taco Alliance revealed it was a practical story.
Option, in 1976, featured a narrative by a British astronomer, who made-up a once-in-a-lifetime from head to foot get down was going to befall with the leisure of Earth's intensity. One domestic believed it. One individual reported that she and her 11 friends had risen from their chairs and floated going on for the room.
Passing of a mayor: In 1998, family WAAF effect jocks Opie and Anthony reported that Boston mayor Thomas Menino had been killed in a car oddity. Menino happened to be on a drip at the time, lending authority to the trap as he may well not be reached. The murmur enhance at once spanning the urban, in the end causing information stations to watercourse alerts denying the pretend. The two of a kind were in flames suddenly thereafter.
Jeopardy! and Ascend of Lot in life
As part of an April Fools' story, on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Sajak hosted Jeopardy! that day (which featured a few Wheel-inspired categories) and Trebek hosted Ascend of Lot in life where Sajak and Vanna Frozen played as contestants. Jeopardy! journalist Johnny Gilbert did stick up for duties that day in the role of program Ascend journalist Charlie O'Donnell announced some parts, as well as the opening with Gilbert, as well as telling Sajak and Frozen that they won 25,000 in the privilege circular, which they separate with their respective charities in enlargement to their give somebody the lowdown game winnings. A baffle inside the confrontation moreover featured Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as an dose, with the relatives bodily "Really Long Standing".[44]
On April 1, 2008, Alex Trebek appeared on Jeopardy! strenuous a unnatural whiskers. Each, Ascend of Lot in life legion Pat Sajak wore a bald cap below a wig he unconventional unworldly.[45]
On April 1, 2010, Sajak appeared inside Trebek's introduction inside the opening of Jeopardy!. At other non-critical points in the game, such as reading the round's categories, other domestic appeared in place of Trebek, as well as Jeff Probst and Neil Patrick Harris. On that day's Ascend of Lot in life, domestic were alerted to find 10 objects "out of the lackluster" with that day's episode; the show's website even included a printable checklist noting like each malformation would befall (but not what it would be). On April 2, the site posted a photo gallery viewing all 10 mistakes, as well as the end of that day's confrontation in which Pat then again all the prizes free now are real, the prizes may have surprising links or may be free in some joke way.
Yes UFOs buzz in the biblePraise the Label of the Lord148 rPraise the Lord!Praise the Lord sfrom the heavens;tax him tin the heights!2 Praise him, all his angels;tax him, all his uhosts!3 Praise him, sun and moon,tax him, all you mighty stars!4 Praise him, you vhighest flavor,and you wwaters concluded the heavens!5 XLET THEM Praise THE Label OF THE LORD!FOR YHE COMMANDED AND THEY WERE Bent.6 And he zestablished them everlastingly and ever;he gave aa proclamation, and it shall not bpass away.17 Praise the Lord cfrom the earth,you dgreat sea creatures and all deeps,8 efire and deluge, fsnow and mist,gstormy spin hfulfilling his word!9 iMountains and all hills,jfruit vegetation and all kcedars!10 lBeasts and all collection,creeping bits and pieces and mflying birds!11 Kings of the earth and nall peoples,princes and all rulers of the earth!12 New men and maidens together,old men and children!13 oLet them tax the name of the Lord,for phis name piecemeal is exalted;qhis radiance is concluded earth and heaven.14 He has rraised up a horn for his workers,spraise for all his saints,for the workers of Israel who are tnear to him.uPraise the Lord!lunar truthmoon landingPeculiaraliensnibiruend of the worlddoomsdayjudgement day
Origin: my-spiritual-path.blogspot.com
'The Temptation' - Hugo van der Goes, 1470
This thought-provoking subject has always been one of my favourite zoo-theological mysteries, so when I was preparing the text for my eventual book "Mysteries of Planet Earth "(2001), I penned a very extensive account devoted to it, but unfortunately this had to be edited down in order to fit the space allocated to it in the book. Now, however, for the very first time anywhere, I have great pleasure in presenting here - as a ShukerNature world-exclusive - the hitherto-unseen, original, unedited version of this account, which also includes some additional illustrations not published in the book.
An early passage in the Bible is responsible for one of the classic serpentine sources of theological speculation and controversy among scholars of Scripture. When God learnt that the serpent in the Garden of Eden had successfully tempted Eve and thence Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, He cursed the serpent (Genesis, 3: 14-15):
"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
According to this account, therefore, the serpent only acquired its present-day form, as a limbless creature slithering upon its undersurface, "after" it had been cursed - which begs the oft-posed theological question: "What did it look like "before" it was cursed?".
The Bible itself offers little in the way of clues. Apart from revealing that it could converse directly with Adam and Eve, the only reference to the pre-cursed serpent (Genesis, 3: 1) states: "Now the serpent was more subtil [sic] than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made". Even so, theologians and artists have offered many putative answers.
Some theologians have been in no doubt that the serpent was physically transformed by God's curse. Thus, in their "Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 1" (1866), Carl F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch unequivocally stated:
"The punishment of the serpent corresponded to the crime. It had exalted itself above the man; therefore upon its belly it should go, and dust it should eat all the days of its life. If these words are not to be robbed of their entire meaning, they cannot be understood in any other way than as denoting that the form and movements of the serpent were altered, and that its present repulsive shape is the effect of the curse pronounced upon it, though we cannot form any accurate idea of its original appearance. Going upon the belly (=creeping, Lev. xi. 42) was a mark of the deepest degradation; also the eating of dust, which is not to be understood as meaning that dust was to be its only food, but that while crawling in the dust it would also swallow dust."
Notwithstanding the above authors' claim, rabbinical tradition formulated a number of ideas regarding the serpent's appearance before it received God's curse. According to the Zohar (Book of Splendour), which constitutes the main text of the Jewish Qabalah (Kabbalah) and provides a vast commentary upon the Pentateuch, in its pre-cursed form it had stood upright on two hind legs, just like humans, and was as tall as a camel. Similarly, certain ancient Egyptian carvings depict the pre-cursed serpent as an exceedingly slender biped with a long neck and tail, a pair of lengthy arms, and standing slightly taller than a human on two elongate hind legs, offering Adam a fruit with one of its paws. When it was cursed, however, God (or St Michael, according to St Barnabas's apocryphal gospel) cut off its arms and legs, thereby yielding the limbless snake known today. God also took away its power of human speech by splitting its tongue, so that it could only hiss thereafter.
Antiquarian engraving of a winged snake
Another school of thought favoured the idea that the pre-cursed serpent was a winged snake. In his "Commentary Upon the Whole Bible "(1708-10), Matthew Henry opined:
"Perhaps it was a flying serpent, which seemed to come from on high as a messenger from the upper world, one of the seraphim; for the fiery serpents were flying, Isa. xiv. 29. Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in gay fine colours that are but skin-deep, and seems to come from above; for Satan can seem an angel of light."
Other scholars have speculated that the serpent's transformation may not have been physical at all, but merely figurative. In his "Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis" (1948), John Calvin suggested that there is:
"...no absurdity in supposing, that the serpent was again consigned to that former condition, to which he was already naturally subject. For thus he, who had exalted himself against the image of God, was to be thrust back into his proper rank;...he is recalled from his insolent motions to his accustomed mode of going, in such a way as to be, at the same time, condemned to perpetual infamy. To eat dust is the sign of a vile and sordid nature. This (in my opinion) is the simple meaning of the passage."
And Frank E. Gaebelein, editing "The Expositor's Bible Commentary "(1990), opined:
"This curse does not necessarily suggest that the snake had previously walked with feet and legs as the other land animals. The point is rather that for the rest of his life, as a result of the curse, when the snake crawls on his belly, as snakes do, he will "eat dust." The emphasis lies in the snake's 'eating dust,' an expression that elsewhere carries the meaning of 'total defeat' (cf. Isa 65: 25, Mic 7: 17)."
Yet another facet of this biblical event that has engendered considerable theological contention is whether the serpent was indeed merely a reptile, i.e. a corporeal animal, or whether it was Satan in the guise of a snake, or even a snake controlled by Satan. Leading on from this line of thought is whether, therefore, God's curse was indeed imposed upon the serpent, or whether it was actually imposed upon Satan. Quoting theologian Winterbotham:
"1. I lay down the position that no punishment in the way of physical degradation was inflicted by God in His sentence upon the serpent tribe.
2. I lay down the position, which I think no one will seriously dispute, that the real tempter was not the serpent at all, but the devil.
3. I conclude from the foregoing positions, and conclude with confidence, that the serpent was not really cursed at all, while the devil was."
A comparable diversity of views have manifested themselves in artistic representations of the serpent too. As already noted, early Egyptian carvings portrayed an erect, bipedal being, whereas early European painters tended to depict it as a normal, limbless snake coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. By the 12th Century AD, however, a shift in opinion had occurred, and European artists began portraying a somewhat more humanoid version - often with a snake's body but the head (and sometimes also the arms) of a woman - a trend that crossed from art into literature too. One famous early example is artwork by Benjamin the Scribe, produced in c.1280, portraying Adam and Eve flanking a serpent with the head, arms, and upper torso of a woman.
Adam, Eve, and draconopides version of Eden serpent - Benjamin the Scribe, c.1280
This hybrid serpent-woman monster also gained its own name, the draconopides (other variations upon this name include draconiopides, draconcopedes, and draconipes), which is actually a decidedly inappropriate name for a serpent-bodied entity lacking hind legs, bearing in mind that 'draconopides' translates as 'dragon-footed'! Intriguingly, moreover, the draconopides image was sometimes utilised by artists depicting Lilith.
Rabbinical lore claims that Adam's first wife was not Eve, but Lilith, made by God from dust like Adam (rather than from one of Adam's ribs, like Eve), and who therefore refused to be subjugated by Adam. Instead, she deserted him, becoming an evil demon, and in some texts she is made synonymous with the serpent - tempting Adam and his new wife, Eve, with the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and thereby causing humanity's Fall.
Adam, Eve, and draconopides version of Eden serpent in relief at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France
By the 15th Century, certain painters had created even more complex, elaborate serpents. Dating from c.1473, Francois Fouquet's painting 'Le P'ech'e Originel' ('The Original Sin' - a title also used by several other artists for their versions of this same scene) depicts the serpent with a typically elongate anguiniform lower body, wrapped around the tree, but also with the upper body, arms, and head of a woman, and a pair of extended bat-like wings. A comparable depiction of this enigmatic reptilian entity but without the wings also occurs in the temptation scene portrayed in one of the panels comprising Michelangelo's glorious series of paintings on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel (1508-12).
Temptation scene, Sistine Chapel Ceiling - Michelangelo, 1508-12
Other draconopides portrayals were produced by the likes of Masolino da Panicale, Raphael, and Cornelius van Haarlem.
'The Temptation of Adam and Eve' - Masolino da Panicale, c.1425, fresco in Brancacci Chapel at the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, in Florence, Italy
'The Original Sin' - Raphael
'The Original Sin' - Cornelius van Haarlem, 1592
During 1425-38, Jacapo della Quercia had meticulously sculpted a stunning relief of Adam, Eve, and a draconopides Eden serpent for Bologna's San Petronio.
'Peccado Originale' ('The Original Sin') - Jacapo della Quercia, 1425-38
There have also been some very spectacular draconopides depictions portrayed in stained-glass windows. One particularly impressive example, dating from 1420, can be found in Ulm Cathedral, Germany.
Even more striking, however, is the Eden serpent as portrayed in 'The Temptation' in 1470 by 15th-Century Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes, constituting the left-hand panel of a diptych now housed at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. As seen here at the beginning of this blog post and also below, van der Goes conceived it as a bipedal, web-footed lizard with a long tail and a woman's head, whose hair was plaited into horns, leaning against the Tree of Knowledge alongside Adam and Eve.
Postage stamp from Ajman depicting 'The Temptation' by Hugo van der Goes, 1470
Back in the days before Charles Darwin's explanation of limblessness in snakes - as a natural and advantageous evolutionary process - was accepted by the scientific community (which currently deems that snakes evolved from marine limbed lizards called mosasaurs), some naturalists offered their own input into the long-running discussion as to the pre-cursed serpent's likely morphology. One of the most memorable suggestions was proffered by enthusiastic amateur naturalist Frank Buckland, who was very intrigued that boas and pythons possess vestiges of hind legs beneath their skin, as well as two hook-like claws near their tail. In his book "Curiosities of Natural History "(1858), he explained these as follows:
"Supposing, then, the pre-Adamite [i.e. pre-cursed] snake to have gone on four legs, we might explain the passage by saying that after the curse the legs were struck off, but that the undeveloped legs were left (concealed, however, from casual observers) as evidence of what it formerly had been, and a type of its fallen condition."
In other words, these were remnants of earlier fully-formed limbs, exactly as postulated by evolution - thus providing an example of science and Scripture in full agreement.
Finally, and still on the subject of the original Eden serpent, several years ago a truly extraordinary claim attracted worldwide media interest - namely, that a mysterious sample of scaly skin preserved in a certain American institution reputedly originated from this selfsame reptile of biblical ill-repute! Here is what I wrote about this remarkable allegation and the facts behind it in my book "Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo "(2010):
"One of the most enigmatic yet hitherto-obscure zoological relics held in any scientific establishment must surely be the 8-inch by 4-inch piece of scaly rusty-red leathery skin contained inside Archive Box #1920.1714 within the very sizeable collection of the Chicago Historical Society. For according to its yellowing French label, this is supposedly a genuine piece of skin from the very serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden! Indeed, the label goes on to say that the serpent was killed by Adam on the day after its treachery to Eve, using a stake whose traces can be seen on this skin sample, which was preserved by his family in Asia. Affixed to the skin is a document written on velum or similar hide in an Asian script. The society purchased this mystifying exhibit, along with many other items, in 1920 from the eclectic collection of Chicago confectioner Charles F. Gunther - a grand collector of curiosities. Although the society's chief curator, Olivia Mahoney, has no doubt that it is a fraud (as opposed to a bona fide piece of snakeskin dating back to the dawn of time), no research has ever been conducted on it to ascertain what it really is. Moreover, Mahoney is very reluctant to permit any, in case the skin is damaged, and also because in her view it is so evidently a fake. That may well be, but it still doesn't answer what - if not a sample of skin from the Eden serpent - this anomalous object is.
"As noted by the "Chicago Sun-Times "newspaper's religion writer, Cathleen Falsani - who viewed and wrote about this biblical(?) relic in a 10 October 2003 report - after watching it being carried back in its box to the society's archives: "I couldn't help thinking about that scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', where the Ark of the Covenant, and all of its power, is crated up and wheeled into a military warehouse among thousands of other generic crates. I wonder what else might be hiding anonymously in a quiet corner of a museum archive somewhere else, waiting to shock us with its mystery". What else indeed?"
To conclude this account, here are a selection of paintings depicting 'The Original Sin' that feature the Eden serpent as a draconopides, but whose respective artists are currently unknown to me. So if anyone can identify any or all of them, I'd love to hear from you!
Interestingly, this last version depicts the Eden serpent not as a serpent-bodied woman but rather as a serpent-bodied male devil, thereby providing a more direct visual link between this reptile and Satan.
The advent of the internet has exploded the psychic market. It doesn't take anything more than a computer and internet connection to claim psychic abilities. Fortunately, not everyone is a fraud. There are many qualified and authentic psychic mediums in the world. As long as one knows how to detect frauds and authenticate their psychics, the experience can enjoyable and satisfying. How can you tell if your advisor is authentic?
SPECIFICITY:
A good psychic is always specific. Those that speak in generalities that could be applied to almost anyone should raise red flags. Some psychics appear to be fishing for answers. That should be a huge concern. A good psychic will be able to determine information from their inherent abilities, not your answers.
GOOD PSYCHICS ARE INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS:
Good psychics have an inherent desire to help people. They are not interested in fame or fortune. Those that are should be avoided at all cost. Psychics who ask for additional money or invite you to multiple sessions are usually frauds. Those that work with you to help you develop you intuitions and find your own answers are generally authentic. Identifying a psychic's motives is a good place to start when trying to authenticate their abilities.
GOOD PSYCHICS NEVER TRY TO "SOLVE" YOUR PROBLEMS:
The best psychics try to create partnerships that help you solve your own problems. Psychics that claim to have definitive solutions for your issues are generally not authentic. Psychics, on the other hand, that help you find your own answers are operating on the right motives. Think of your psychic as a guide, not an answer machine.
GOOD PSYCHICS NEVER DEAL IN ABSOLUTES IN REGARDS TO YOUR FUTURE:
Human beings have been gifted with free will. Destiny is never set in stone. Avoid psychics would claim to be able to see your future and insist that future cannot be changed. There are always ways to change the direction of your tomorrow. That is the beauty of free will! An authentic psychic will know the limitations of his/her visions and be upfront about your own responsibilities in regards to your future.
TRUST YOUR GUT:
If something seems "off" with your psychic, it probably is. Trust your instincts at all times. If your psychic feels authentic and helpful, stick with him/her. On the other hand, if you psychic appears disengaged or as if he/she is reading from a script, there is probably a legitimate reason to be concerned. You know best what you need out of a psychic experience. Don't settle for anything less.
By following a few guidelines and learning how to recognize warning signs, you can ensure an authentic and satisfying experience. When in doubt, always trust your gut. You were given instincts for a reason. Use them!
Origin: just-wicca.blogspot.com
"
I am publishing this even still I tightly am more exactly dejected in the Keep a note Chanel for the way Pagans are at the same time as portrayed in this. - Jasmeine Moonsong
"What upgrade way to respectable a upgrade thanks for the true spirit of Christmas than by learning a painstaking bit additional about the holiday's roots? Ensuing this month, Keep a note has a special set to run called "The Actual Loll of Christmas".The hour-long special atmosphere anchorage and line up us on some of the customs we've come to grip so like... darling a bit of strident, rock-throwing caroling! Curb out History's saga for the special bottom. It actually sounds weird sensational. "As THE Actual Loll OF CHRISTMAS shows, various of our seemingly not guilty customs evolved from unusual, gigantic or even meddling immaturity. Surrounded by its line in the Pagan celebration of the winter solstice, new Christmas was every one a day of prayer and f?te of drunken revelry. Tumultuous medieval carolers begged for silage and loom, sad to qualify rocks using the windows of family who reject. Christmas was actually ban for soul in America now the 16th and 17th centuries. And the Santa of old world slogan was accompanied not by elves but by a devil named Krampus who chief and kidnapped smart-alecky children."Salubrious Mark
SIR PAUL NURSE
"A REDOUBT OF LEARNING HOLDS FIRM"
BY
MICHAEL POWELL
SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2012
THE NEW YORK TIMES
To stroll out of Carlton Gardens into the elegant confines of the Royal Society is to find a trove of centuries-old wonders, from Sir Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope to the first electric machine to fantastical illustrated catalogs of fish and birds.
Then you enter the sunlight-suffused office of the society's president, Sir Paul Nurse. With his spiky mass of white hair, broad nose, ready smile and thick work boots, he looks the part of old-fashioned knight of science ready to tramp through the fens. But this Nobel Prize winner in medicine offers a very 21st-century lament.
"Policy debate these days involves trying to rubbish the science, and that is dangerous," Dr. Nurse says. "Global warming denialists, those who oppose genetically modified crops and vaccinations, or the teaching of evolution: their trick is treat scientific argument as if it's a political argument, and cherry-pick data."
Dr. Nurse feels this danger more passionately than most, for the society he presides over was the crucible of the scientific revolution that formed the modern world. The society conducts studies, consults on government panels and has 1,450 fellows, about 80 of them Nobel winners. Yet theirs is, at times, an embattled world.
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the world's oldest continuous scientific society. Newton, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle and many more came together in a spirit of revolutionary if at times eccentric inquiry. Magic and alchemy greatly fascinated the society's founders.
King Charles II granted the society a royal charter in 1662, and for centuries it hitched a ride on the back of Britain's imperial ambitions. Explorers, scientific-minded military officers and colonial officials, and merchants - not just British - collected specimens, mapped unknown lands and recorded observations in every corner of the globe. And they shipped all of this, with accompanying essays, to the Royal Society.
The society no longer occupies that globe-dominating perch. The United States casts a much longer shadow, with billions of dollars spent on research and industrial might; American scientists dominate many disciplines. And other nations, not least China, are gaining.
But the Royal Society's journals, particularly The Philosophical Transactions and The Proceedings of the Royal Society, remain vibrant. And British scientists often achieve a written elegance and synthesis of argument that sometimes outstrips their American counterparts.
Ask the chemist Martyn Poliakoff, the society's foreign secretary, if it and British scientists in general are still relevant, and he gives a tight welterweight's smile. "You conflate quantity and quality," he says. "We punch above our weight class."
The society's leaders take pains to emphasize that they are not trapped in the amber of old accomplishment. The British government pays for much of the society's work, and its leaders join the robust debates of the day, on matters like global warming and genetically modified crops, which they view as a sensible answer to global scarcity.
A 2010 report from the society urged the government to invest in science, education and innovation to fuel economic development. It generated much press. But the global economic downturn thrust a dagger to the heart of its most ambitious proposals.
Of late, too, conservative critics have attached themselves like barnacles to the society's hull. The Global Warming Policy Foundation treated the society as a nest of alarmists in a recent report, "Nullius in Verba: The Royal Society and Climate Change." (The Latin expression is the society's motto; it translates roughly as "Take nobody's word for it.") James Delingpole, the waggishly influential conservative blogger for "The Telegraph", lampoons Dr. Nurse as "easily my favorite Nobel Prize winner after Yasir Arafat, Al Gore and Barack Obama." It's fair to say his mortar shots have not rattled the windows of the Royal Society. Dr. Nurse hiked his eyebrows and shrugged: "We can't sit by without exposing bunkum."
Yet doubt of a more genteel sort lingers even among members. A current society fellow, an evolutionary biologist of fine repute who asked not to be quoted by name, says he greatly enjoys the conversation at the society's dinners (he fortifies himself for the rounds of wine and port by drinking a quart of milk beforehand). But ask if the organization has much effect on the intellectual battles that roil his discipline, and he shakes his head.
"I can't say that the society is a great presence in my field," he says. "It's a challenge: How do you muck your way through and remain relevant?"
At the beginning, the question facing society fellows was more elemental: How to challenge a worldview in place for thousands of years?
Mermaids Too
"And this is Sir Isaac."
With that, the society's librarian, Keith Moore, tall, thin with a great crown of silver hair, points to the shutter-eyed and formidable visage of Isaac Newton, an early president of the Royal Society. This is his death mask, fashioned from a cast of his face, sitting on a table in front of me.
We will pass the next hour traipsing through the society archives, an expanse of four million books and journals and maps and weather charts, along with pieces collected by merchants in Azerbaijan, 18th-century traders plying the coast of Brazil and the Gobi desert of Mongolia, and fishermen bobbing in the swelling North Atlantic.
Mr. Moore rattles off the specimens and curios that constitute the society's haul. Most are cataloged, a few lost. A whale skeleton, a mammoth tusk, a mermaid. He wants to go on, but I raise my hand.
A mermaid?
He shrugs. "How did the mermaid get on? Where is it today? Anyone's guess."
The society took root in the soil of revolution. More than half of its founding members favored the Parliamentary cause in the 17th-century civil war that cost Charles I his crown and then his head. During that intoxicating century, nearly everything holy, from royal rank to economics to science to the immortality of the soul, was challenged. In the early days of the Royal Society, knights and earls sat shoulder to shoulder with metalsmiths and merchants.
Though rationalists, these scientists viewed God as central to their universe and their work. As Edward Dolnick, author of "The Clockwork Universe," an entertaining history of the early society, noted, the founders viewed the laws of nature and God as inseparable. They were mapping his universe.
The historian Christopher Hill termed this the "stop in the mind." The scientists, philosophers and politicians of any era confront limits to their consciousness. How do you imagine a world, or even know what questions to ask, when you lack reference points?
And there is that question of magic. Society members lived in a time shadowed by apocalyptic dread, from plague to fire to war. They were fascinated by alchemy, unicorns' horns and magic salves, and they often experimented on themselves.
"They researched these phenomena a lot, and they weren't all wrong," Mr. Moore noted. "They knew there was an invisible world."
Critics attacked Newton as an occultist for theorizing about gravity, as it was unseen and not mechanical. (Over his lifetime, he would write far more pages on biblical hermeneutics and occult studies than on math and science.) Still, he dominated the society's early years.
Many members considered themselves popularizers, in the best and most important sense of the word. Not Sir Isaac. Diffident, most comfortable roaming the recesses of his own mind, he cared not a whit for vox populi. He wrote his grand work on physics, "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica," in Latin. A copy sits in the Royal Society archives.
"Newton thought that knowledge belonged to those who were learned enough to use it," Mr. Moore said.
The society's influence has waxed and waned. As the founding members and their revolutionary enthusiasms passed into history, lords and earls reasserted intellectually deadening class privileges. (Although women made important if surreptitious contributions in the 18th and 19th centuries and even earlier, the society did not elect its first two female fellows until 1945.)
But always there was a hunger to find new discoveries, to record tides and temperatures, to discover new corners of a still wondrous world.
Explorers like James Cook were ardent collectors, as were many American colonialists. Benjamin Franklin joined the society, and its archives hold many of his papers. Even the early Puritans, wary of royalty, yearned for entry.
"Cotton Mather was desperate to get in," Mr. Moore said. "He sent an account of a mastodon skeleton."
Save for the odd misplaced mermaid, most of this history is splendidly cataloged. Curiously, the era most imperiled is the late 20th century. "The 18th-century works were written on lovely, solid rag paper," Mr. Moore said. "But the 1970s and 1980s - everything was put on those early computers, and it's a disaster.
"We have to look around hard just to find people who can still work with those floppy disks."
Could This Happen in Kansas?
That Sir Paul Nurse spends the first 20 minutes of an interview about the Royal Society talking about the role of the United States is perhaps not surprising. He served a stretch as president of Rockefeller University in New York City. What happens to science in the United States, for good and ill, is too important to ignore.
He wonders how it is that a nation that produces the wonders of Silicon Valley and great research centers in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Rochester, Minn., to name just a few, has large stretches where the theory of evolution is not taught.
"You don't hear these debates in New York City, or indeed on either coast," he says. "I wonder if American science would thrive if it were based in Kansas."
Still, he reminds himself that he is a foreigner looking in the window. "Americans tend to like extremes. It's either 'We are on top of the world!' or 'The world is falling apart!' "
Some of those battles have started to jump the Atlantic with more vigor than in the past. Not long ago, it was rare to hear a political challenge in Europe to the scientific consensus around global warming. Not anymore.
Dr. Nurse is careful to emphasize that skepticism is the lifeblood of science; the verities of one age can become the superstitions of another. But he can't hide his impatience with those who deny a strong human hand in global warming. You want to argue that the evidence points to only moderate warming? Brilliant; let's examine the research. But to deny it altogether? The stakes are too high to play political games, he says.
"They say: 'Well, no one believed Galileo.' As if what? That's an arrogant argument. Galileo prevailed very rapidly, as did Newton, as did Einstein," he says. "The denialists have completely lost it."
The leaders of the Royal Society conceive of themselves as a collective Cerberus, the mythical three-headed hound, guarding the doors of British science. "We are protected against creationism and the like by our national curriculum for now," Dr. Nurse said. "But we should keep a very close eye on education. The American experience tells us that we must respond robustly to challenges."
More broadly, he doesn't fret about American dominance. That is just the way it is. Perhaps some cultural differences even accrue to the British side of the ledger.
"The U.S.A. has a very strong work ethic, and you keep a very close eye to the cutting edge," he says. "We are a bit lazier. We drink more. But sometimes the science we produce is rather quirkier and more innovative."
To walk the halls of the Royal Society is to feel the ancient excitements of science seep into your pores. But the society's real challenge, Dr. Nurse says, is to point to the more magnificent unanswered questions that remain, and so light a spark.
He recalls, as a child in Norwich, running down a dirt road in his pajamas, looking at Sputnik 2 track a distant path in the predawn sky.
"I feel utterly privileged to be a scientist at this society," he says. "To be paid to think and talk about such questions?
"Astonishing."
ROYAL SOCIETY [WIKIPEDIA]
THE ROYAL SOCIETY WEBSITE
THE ROYAL SOCIETY...NEW ONLINE PAPERS
Here's a collage of all the beautiful blue flowers I could find to photograph this month - to celebrate the fact that August 2012 is a month with a blue moon in it.
And that blue moon is today.
In England, 31 August is the day of the full moon and there was also a full moon on August 2. Most months only have one full moon, and most years have 12 full moons, one each month. Sometimes, however, a year has 13 full moons in it - and the thirteenth moon is a blue moon.
Now, there is some disagreement as to which of the 13 moons is the blue moon. Some say it is the fourth moon in a season, others say it is the moon closest to Lent, but many people nowadays say a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month.
The saying, "Once in a blue moon" means a rare event, so a blue moon is always good for spells and magic that are a little out of the ordinary. Is there something you've always desired but thought was unobtainable? If so, wish for it tonight and your dream might come true.
Links and previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/12/once-in-blue-moon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue moon
hhttp://pagancalendar.co.uk/
A round-up of a few news stories:"Police operation launched after priceless Welsh relic, thought to be the 'Holy Grail' is stolen" - read the story at WalesOnline: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/police-operation-launched-after-welsh-7429798"Uncover the truth behind Scotland's infamous witch trials" - a look back at history by Scotland Now: http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/uncover-truth-behind-scotlands-infamous-3834588"Wookey Hole: First stage of lb5million revamp open" - story about the lates Wookey Hole Witch tourist attraction on the Western Daily Press website: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Witch-hole-lot-fun-new-ideas/story-21642162-detail/story.html"Witch craft casts a spell on those who enter industrial unit" - a story about the costumes for Wicked on the Birmingham Post website: http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/wicked-plays-birmingham-hippodrome-until-7425613
Here is one that really took me by surprise. In the February 1928 issue of THE SPHINX, they record that Dante tried his hand at an escape act while performing in South America. To quote the article it says "He failed to put it over." There is no other information regarding this incident.
I know Dante was in fact in South America at this time. Thurston sent him there in 1927 and his tour started in a less than perfect fashion. He was continually plagued by advance men ripping him off and managers not fulfilling there end of agreements. The language difference didn't help matters either. And then of course there was Charles Carter and Grover George who were both in South America and Dante was essentially having to follow them.
But an escape act. That struck me as odd. So I began to dig and I discovered that when Dante was still using his real name Harry Jansen, he co-owned a magic manufacturing company in Chicago called, Halton, Jansen and LeRoy. One of the items from their catalog was a Packing Crate Escape. Hardly a full escape act, but it's something. But the blurb from The Sphinx doesn't say escape show, it says "He tried to stage an escape act." So perhaps he tried to pull in some publicity with a packing crate escape and either it failed, or because he didn't speak the language, he had difficulty in relaying to the audience just what to expect.
"The reason I found this whole thing unusual was because of Dante's feelings towards HOUDINI. In the book, THE HOUDINI CODE MYSTERY by William Rauscher, there is a small chapter with Dante's feelings towards Houdini. It came from an article written by Dante and it basically rips Houdini to shreds. Dante starts with "First, he stole his name from the man who originated and made magic possible, Robert-Houdin". He goes on to expose Houdini's act and methods and make the claim that he could cuff Houdini in a way that would leave him bound, or lock him in a packing crate and he would not be able to get out. The way it's written he belittles the idea of an escape act though it's probably just his animosity towards Houdini more than anything. He says "Houdini the escape king? What can he escape from? So far, he has escaped criticism. This is the biggest trick he has ever done. Dante did not like Houdini and made no bones about it.
But it doesn't appear that Dante ventured into performing escapes until after Houdini had died (1926). This South American event happened either in late 1927 or early 1928. I've gone through a couple Dante biographies and can find no mention of an escape act in South America so perhaps it was not something he cared to record for posterity.
One other note, there was an escapologist who used the stage name Dante. This is mentioned in the book DANTE THE DEVIL HIMSELF by Phil Temple and even contains two photos of the escape artist Dante. I don't think however, the fellow who is mentioned in the Sphinx article is that person, it is definitely Harry Jansen, aka Dante.
In the coming months I'll share more with you about this fascinating character Harry Jansen, better known as DANTE.
We are wondering too, how far is paradise. We disbelief that a lot. This post choice be the inventive of a series attempting to capture a spear at an overarching concept about how kit thorough to be upheaval out and what we possibly will actually be decent to do about them. We point the enormous help of James and A13 in evolving and organizing this concept. We don't know how a variety of posts it choice capture to lay it out, but this is the inventive, an introduction.
The investigation reflects, violently, our understanding of truth, based on our extended step to obstacle it. Your depiction may different a juvenile or a lot. Group can soil at corresponding conclusions via strange paths.
^^^^^^^
We bargain that we are spiritual beings having a physical identify. We bargain in God, the God of all concern, who bent this ground, and everything on it. In fact we are indoors God, and by projection, God is indoors us. For this symposium, it is not in that evil choice rostrum. Outrage can not rostrum untouchable the inventor God who animates everybody and everything, 24x7. Outrage can bump a variety of kit if we let it, but it cannot bump God. Nor choice God allow evil to bump his concern. So we carry hope.
Sven Geier fractal artwork - Paradise
We can help or not. Outrage condition work downcast worldly hands. Subsequent to we reject evil our help, evil is preoccupied to harm us, spare a long time ago we work together. God too works downcast worldly hands, not for his helpfulness, but for ours. We have to make ourselves accessible to do his work, together, pretty of expound ourselves to evil. We purloin to care appreciation in order to understand what we are do its stuff, what we ought but do its stuff, and what we ought start do its stuff. The roughness begins in the heed, in our confidence to make itself felt truth, and to act subsequently, to habit downcast with our choice.
Put on is such a thing as the truth. Subsequent to we find everything and we dream it's true, and we next find out we were crook, we let it go. Put on is no disquiet in this income, but it can harm very future. We are worldly. We make mistakes. We learn. We coarsen. We pocket to stand your ground to the end because we want everything better for ourselves and our offspring.
The storm is on us to pocket to love the truth, to outlook out reality. We were bent with free choice. We don't carry to outlook the truth if we don't want to. It is our wish. God honors our wish either way. If we are supreme about solving the impenetrability thin covering us, we choice in the end make itself felt that we carry to learn the truth about what is vista, and that secret we carry to face our own storm for lending our hands to evil, whether we realized it or not at the time. Outrage stops a long time ago we but charter it use us.
We bargain that Jesus Christ is who he believed he was, God. If he was crook later he was either deluded which makes him morally distressed, or he was duplicity which, exact the denotation of this, secret he was evil. Populace conclusions don't habit. We pilfer that he is God and end that it would be cautious to pilfer his dash. Jesus came contemporary to teach breed the way to be. Religions carry difficult his tradition future, but he was very laid-back and believed all the directions come down to this: Glorify God with all your interior and heed, and love your national as yourself.
You can bargain doesn't matter what you want. We all can. That is the whole disquiet -- that you can "Believe" to love the truth or not, you can "Believe" to bargain doesn't matter what you want. No one can but you. Nor choice God but you, because he honors your free choice. Yet it is our identify that she who seeks shall find, and the action of truth is usefulness. You can future haughty unhesitatingly outlook lies, which are loaded and easy to find at every turn. The "Make" comes in seeking truth, not lies.
Concede the consequences of your choices. Do not grievance ignorance; it choice not tag you from the consequences. If you detail yourself untouchable to lies, to liars, to what is easy, you choice not give up sadden. You may morally postpone it for a time to the same degree the consequences intensify. Addicts outlook terse first name comfort, satisfaction and lend a hand too. Slightly next do they and their prized ones pay the vast responsibility for triumph lost in illusions. We are all paying the vast proposition for a variety of manual choices. Our children are paying. So we are in this together, indistinguishable it or not.
Liars carry been with man from the beginning. Liars get on your wick the truth. They carry perpetually salutation what their twitch, the devil, wants: to swap God in our lives with themselves, and to safety test that they carry replaced God to us "and to themselves." By narcissists, they purloin to see their likeness in others in order to resonate real. Beforehand they are shadows. They reach entre fashionable our minds downcast mind.
Liars are insecure to bump us and everything God gave us. But God gave us intellects and intuitions and freewill. Not later than them we can understand the truth and we can pocket reality. God choice help us in group kit that we are not prime for, distribution we want to daunted. Rescue we want to pocket good for ourselves and our families. Rescue we carry the choice.
In ancient grow old the evil had alchemist helpers who pursued power a bit than truth. They accomplished magic, rituals. Several of these practices through it fashionable religions. Religions keep team for the thing of bringing a variety of breed fashionable the rituals. Religions are about selfish breed religiously. In our time religions carry less power to bring under control breed, but the alchemists are now scientists, and a variety of breed glorify science and equipment that has advanced gone the limits of our imaginations. Outlying equipment seems indistinguishable magic. Not later than black budgets and hidden technologies, an fake gap has been bent, and this gap keeps compassion repressed. The truth about science, equipment, and remedy, has been exposed and diffident secret by evil breed because it gives them a incomparable advantage and allows them to bring under control the rest of compassion with sundry schemes.
Faithlessness about science form the basis for a variety of other lies. In a variety of ways, we are least prime to unity with lies about science, equipment and remedy. These fields mean in any case particular knowledge that forms an carefree earthwork which unhesitatingly deflects criticism. Experts are worshiped, not questioned. For pencil case, we are told oil is bloody. For untouchable lacking a century Russian and Ukranian scientists carry specified that oil is loaded, abiotic, formed indefinable in the earth.
It appears that, unbeknownst to Westerners, put on carry actually been, for more exactly some time now, two challenging theories connecting the beginning of petroleum. One concept claims that oil is an rough fossil generate deposited in finite quantities clever the planet's aspect. The other concept claims that oil is at all times generated by natural processes in the Earth's volcanic emission. One concept is backed by a awesome structure of explore indicative of fifty animation of in focus statistical difficulty. The other concept is an hearsay fossil of the eighteenth century. One concept anticipates indefinable oil assets, refillable oil fields, drifter oil systems, indefinable sources of equals, and the automatic venting of gas and oil. The other concept has a painstaking time explaining any such much-admired phenomena.
So which concept carry we in the West, in our unconstrained wisdom, return to embrace? Why, the principally pointless fossil Nourishment concept, of course -- the exact concept that the zenith Salve doomsday warnings are based on. [Arrogant by Dave McGowan.]
This is good one advocate. Back the upset and death that has resulted from this ONE lie about oil. Back the profits through on this ONE lie. Back how future bring under control hinges on this ONE lie. Back the coop up of less significant lies that rest on this ONE BIG lie. Let's now consider original BIG LIE: global warming. Several very absolute lie. Back the bulk of that one, the bring under control mechanisms put in place to weekend away the "invalidate" of global warming. Back the money through on this lie. Back how a variety of scientists collaborated on this lie, and for how hope. Back weather get rid of. Arrogant lies. Arrogant setback of the truth about equipment, about what is reachable. The war has been studying weather get rid of equipment for I assume a century. Supposedly they know how to make a claim the energy in the earth's feelings and in the earth's case. Back all the upset and death caused by storms, droughts, floods, earthquakes; and that these actions are perpetually, defective freedom, responsible on Close relative Cosmos and Acts of God, "and weather get rid of is never definite, "even though the war has open loads of information about their weather get rid of goals. Organized though you can gaze at your own secretive weather warning and see curious circles and other nonconformist on the radar that breed choice fake not to see.
Socio-Economics Highest achievement Blog
Deficiency is a lie. All the conflicts untouchable energy and means are based on lies. The earth provides haughty than plenty means to create all the life on this ground. Generation belt-tightening exercise science has been hidden to emit campaign and send, and to bring under control us. Unidentified technologies carry abused compassion. The science gap was through to emit the fantasy that they are God, that they carry replaced God in our lives. Compassion was said back to make this reachable. Untold lives were sacrificed to make this reachable. Do we spark that back to them by worshiping their lies, or do we reject them the contentment by seeking the truth? Your wish.
Not plenty breed love the truth. Not plenty breed outlook formerly the truth, want to know what is true, what is real, and ache this knowledge very, even if the truth is horrible. Subsequent to a variety of haughty breed love the truth plenty to outlook it, to learn it, to pilfer its reality no come out how horrible it is firstly, our impenetrability choice govern themselves. To love the truth is to love. To outlook the truth is to love. To love is to lend our hands to God and to reject them to evil. It is all very, very simple. Glorify the truth, strain to see for it everyplace, and all choice be well, in the end. Virtue your own good posture plenty to waste to be lied to.
We possibly will carry paradise on earth. Somewhat we carry hell on earth. We thorough to be far from paradise. But we are not preoccupied. They carry engaged the combat to our minds *and* our bodies, and that is where we carry to spat them. We spat them for objectivity untouchable our selves. We carry believed a variety of grow old the roughness begins in your heed. We took our minds back, and we choice capture our bodies back too.
What do you choose?
Three Cheyenne warriors on horseback.
What is Follow My Blog Friday?I have been seeing some Follow Fridays for other nonpagan blogs but have yet to see one for the pagan blogging community so I decided to create one! Follow My Blog Friday works a little like Follow Friday on Twitter known as #FF. When it's done on blogs it's called a blog hop and is an awesome way to get followers and find other blogs to follow! I will be your host for this blog hop. It is ongoing and will happen every Friday!To keep things fun there will a question every week for you to answer on your Follow My Blog Friday post. This week's question is:FF#4 Question: Have you ever used a fictional character as a archetype or patron goddess?My answer: Yes! I love female superheros as inspiration. My two favorites are Xena Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.HOW DOES FOLLOW MY BLOG FRIDAY WORK?1. First you create a Follow My Blog Friday post on your own blog that links back to this post. If you would like to list every blog that has signed up in the Linky Tools below, click the link that gives you the code and add it to your blog post as HTML.2. Copy and paste the link to the blog post you have made and add it below to Linky Tools. You need to be able to add the link to a specific post not the homepage of your blog for Follow Friday to work smoothly. For example, this is my blog url: http://www.thedomesticpagan.net/and this is a specific blog post url: http://www.thedomesticpagan.net/2011/12/introducing-follow-my-blog-friday.html3. Next you need to visit as many blogs as you can and follow their blogs. If you have the time, leave them a comment saying hello, Blessed Be, or whatever on their Follow My Blog Friday post. (You see now why it's important to link back to the specific Follow Friday post?)4. If someone follows you, please follow them back!ARE THERE ANY RULES?1. (Required) You must have a blog in order to add your name to the Linky Tools list. No it does not need to be a pagan blog. However it MUST be written by a pagan, be pagan friendly, or have something to do with witchcraft, Wicca, the occult, paranormal, magick, fantastical creatures such as fairies or dragons, mythology, nature, spirituality, or the metaphysical. The Linky list is only open for one week. After that there will be a new Linky list on my next Follow Friday post where you can add your blog.2. (Required) You may only add your own blog. Associating someone with a pagan blog listing is not cool and borders on "outing" them without permission.3. (Highly Suggested) It would be nice if you followed my blog.4. (Moderately Suggested) Answer the Follow Friday question in your post.5. (Optional) Add the Follow My Blog Friday banner to your blog.6. (Optional) Leave a comment on this post.
