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Paul Johnson, author of "A History of Christianity" (1979), delivered a lecture in 1986, "A Historian Looks at Jesus," which has been made available online by BreakPoint. It is much longer than the excerpts below, and refers to some of the evidence justifying his conclusions. Johnson begins by reminding us that our faith is meaningless if not based on historical fact, or, as the Apostle Paul put it about one historical event, "...if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." (1 Co 15:14, ESV)Christianity, like the Judaism from which it sprang, is a historical religion, or it is nothing. It does not deal in myths and metaphors and symbols, or in states of being and cycles. It deals in facts. It presupposes a linear flight in time, through a real universe of concrete events. It sees humanity as marching inexorably from an irrecoverable past into an unprecedented future. The march is not haphazard. It proceeds according to a divine plan, in part revealed to us. Christians believe that certain specific, historical events occurred, and that, in time, certain other specific historical events will occur, bringing humanity's sojourn in this world to a climax. Then, to use Shakespeare's phrase, "time must have a stop." There the Christian's perception of the timeless world of eternity-the nonhistorical afterlife-is much less clear. But the Christian notion of historical time is very definite, and central to the faith.
Jesus, the Son of God, was born of a virgin, at a particular time and in a specific place. He was God and man. He was crucified for our sins, but rose again the third day. The incarnation and the resurrection are not metaphors but actual, historical events. A man or woman cannot reject their historicity and remain a Christian. To accept the message of Christ, the teaching, the ethics, the example, the human perfection of Christ, is not enough. It is necessary to accept the Godhead as well as the manhood, to believe that the incarnation and the resurrection actually occurred. Without them, Christianity is nothing; it becomes a mere fantasy, a delusion.....
The late nineteenth- early twentieth-century notion that the New Testament was a collection of late and highly imaginative records can no longer be seriously held. No one now doubts that St. Paul's epistles, the earliest Christian records, are authentic or dates them later than the A.D. 50s. Most scholars now date the earliest gospel, the so-called "Q," not later than about 50 A.D.; Mark, 65 AD.; Matthew and Luke from the 80s or 90s; John not later than 90-100.Some scholars, notably the late Dr. John Robinson, put them considerably earlier: Mark possibly as early as 45 A.D., only a decade and a half or so from Christ's passion; Matthew, between 40 and 60; Luke, 55-60; and John possibly as late as 65 A.D. plus, but possibly as early as 40.
I doubt if there is any serious scholar alive now who would deny Jesus' historical existence. Indeed, He is much better authenticated than many secular figures of antiquity whose existence no one has ever presumed to question.....
.... What is clear beyond doubt is that whereas in the nineteenth century the tendency of history was to cast doubt of the veracity of Judeo-Christian records and to undermine popular faith in God and His Son as presented in the Bible, in the twentieth century it has moved in quite the opposite direction, and there is no sign of the process coming to an end. It is not now the men of faith, it is the skeptics, who have reason to fear the course of discovery.
However, the historian, whether he be a Christian or not, must emphasize that the vindication of the New Testament records as authentic documents describing actual events concerning a real man does not in any way "prove" that He was God too, and that the incarnation and resurrection actually occurred.
All that it establishes is that men and women who lived at and shortly after the time believed these things.....
Thanks to Tom Gilson for the reference.
A Historian Looks at Jesus
Source: redicecreations.com, metahistory.orgJULY 21, 2011-Comparative mythologist, author and teacher John Lash returns to the program to discuss "Sophia's Correction", Earth changes, stellar anomalies & Gaia's awakening. John Lash is a self-educated free-lance scholar who combines studies and experimental mysticism to teach directive mythology. An expert on sidereal mythology, naked-eye astronomy, precession, and the World Ages, he also teaches the critique of belief-systems. On metahistory.org his website, he presents a radical revision of Gnosticism, with original commentaries on the Nag Hammadi codices. He also presents the only complete restoration by any scholar of the Sophianic myth of the Pagan Mysteries, the sacred story of Gaia-Sophia, recounting the origin of the Earth and the human species from the galactic core. A number of strange phenomenon are being reported from around the world at what seems to be an increased frequency. Magnetic North is reportedly on the move and the sun rose two days early in Greenland. Some people are claiming that the sun is both rising and setting in the wrong place, others contend that the stars are displaced and the Moon is not following its normal pattern. John is with us to share his views about what is going on and why. TOPICS DISCUSSED: the telestai, restoration of the Sophia myth, planetary Tantra, the Dendera zodiac, physical breakthrough, fast track acquisition of spirituality, the secret of the divine experiment, shock goddess, consciousness animal, "Pam", Gaia awakening, aperture, progeny, different consciousness, Anthropos, disease, disconnection with the source, shift in the magnetic field, sun shifting, the setting of the sun, sinkholes, Earth an organic body captured in an inorganic system, the Journey on the mothership, anamu and more. ~Red Ice Creationsdownload mp3
Stem is all the rage, and so are the proposed yield of hefty Strawberries, juvenile Asparagus and bitter-sweet Rhubarb. Denote the Divinity Eostre and the Stem Equinox.
Pagans all wrecked the world be glad the Stem Equinox. Day and Dusk are equal. The fund equinox is sacred to dawn, teenage years, the crack of dawn star and the east. The Saxon goddess, Ostara / Eostre (whose name we get the direction East and the holiday Easter) is a dawn goddess, to the same degree Aurora and Eos.
The month of Troop contains holidays brawny to all the improve mother goddesses: Astarte, Isis, Aprhrodite, Cybele and the Virgin Mary. The goddess shows herself in the blossoms, the grass on the grass, the growing of the crops, the mating of fowl, the actual of immature nature. In the unindustrialized move forward, it is time for planting. We are explicit that life momentum embrace.
Set off are one of the symbols of Stem in the same way as they be a sign of new life and might. Seeds are to the same degree frogspawn. In the function of frogspawn hold the decision of new animal life, seeds abstract the might of a new installation.
Origin: masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
Theotokos
In his weekly "Bulletin Inserts" this past Sunday, Fr. Wells wrote:
"The Church has given her the title 'Mother of God.' That appellation still offends many, just as it offended the heretic Nestorius. He was willing to call her 'Mother of Christ,' but not 'Mother of God. Mother of God' seems to imply something false, that Mary is the mother of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as if Mary herself were a Goddess from eternity. Such a notion would be beyond heresy, a leap into sheer paganism.
"When we say, as we must say, that the Virgin Mary was the Mother of God, we are saying quite emphatically that the One to whom she gave birth was none other than God in the flesh. Her Son Jesus Christ was and is Deity Incarnate. So the title 'Mother of God' at bottom line is not a statement about Mary herself but a statement about the One to whom she was Mother."
Like me, Fr. Wells is about as much on the Reformed and -- according to Anglican use of the word -- Protestant (emphasis on the first syllable, pro) side as Continuing Churchmen tend to be. And, like me, he says that we "must" call the Blessed Virgin Mary "the Mother of God." Frankly, if Martin Luther insisted on the same point (which he did), and even the way out Urich Zwingli insisted on the same point (which he did), it ought to be no surprise that two priests of the Anglican Catholic Church say so.
But, someone may contend, is not the word "must" a bit strong? Why would Fr. Wells and Fr. Hart say that we "must" call Mary the Mother of God? Is that not merely optional? Let me say, with all the confusion of the last several centuries, I am not about to declare someone anathema if he cannot bring himself to say "Mother of God" about the Blessed Virgin mother of our Lord. But, once we understand that the title is not about Mary herself as much as it is about Jesus Christ, we must find it acceptable. In fact, it is shorthand for "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1,2,14)
The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) has been much aligned in recent decades, blamed for creating division and banishing the Alexandrian Church. It was Eric L. Mascall, writing in 1980, who rehabilitated the reputation of the fourth [O]Ecumenical Council, getting to a simple but profound point early on in his book, Whatever Happened to the Human Mind?1
"What, let us now inquire, is the relevance of Chalcedon to Christian belief today?...First, I would suggest, its insistence upon the reality and completeness of Jesus' humanity. Orthodox Christians in the world of today have had to devote so much effort to defending the divinity of Christ against attacks from within as well as from outside the Christian community, that both they and their opponents have sometimes forgotten that Traditional Christology, with its roots in Chalcedon, is committed no less strongly to defending, in its concrete fullness, his humanity."
The teaching, defended and clarified at Chalcedon, reaches its greatest point in this passage:
"So," following the saintly fathers", we all with one voice teach the confession of one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and a body; consubstantial with the Father as regards his divinity, and the same consubstantial with us as regards his humanity; like us in all respects except for sin; begotten before the ages from the Father as regards his divinity, and in the last days the same for us and for our salvation from Mary, the virgin God-bearer (Theotokos) as regards his humanity; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, acknowledged in two natures which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation; at no point was the difference between the natures taken away through the union, but rather the property of both natures is preserved and comes together into a single person and a single subsistent being; he is not parted or divided into two persons, but is one and the same only-begotten Son, God, Word, Lord Jesus Christ, just as the prophets taught from the beginning about him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ himself instructed us, and as the creed of the fathers handed it down to us"
Without digressing far from the main topic of this essay, notice how the passage begins: "So," following the saintly fathers. This point is clear: They created nothing new, but rather defended what had been taught from the beginning. We must recall the words of St. Paul:
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:8,9).
Recall also his words,
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.." (I Cor. 15:1-3a)
The key word is "received." The truth taught, defended and proclaimed by the Church has been received, not imagined or created by men. Paul says "But though we" preach a message other than the message of the Gospel that has been received. Even the Apostles themselves would have been anathema were they to change course, and preach some other message. The Gospel has been revealed, therefore received, not invented. So, at Chalcedon in 451 AD, the bishops of the Church declared that they followed the doctrine already taught and received by the Church. They had nothing new to say.
In the above translation we find the Greek word Theotokos translated "God-bearer." Fair enough. We have seen the word translated "Birth-Giver of God." Also, fair enough. But, that translation seems strained, coming across as a fancy and impressive linguistic feat, or academic acrobatic stunt, to avoid the obvious word, "mother." She bore the Lord in her womb, and gave birth to him. The word for that, in mere human language, without all the heroic efforts not to sound "too catholic" (whatever that silly phrase could possibly mean), is "mother." To say that God the Son, or the Word ( ) has a mother, is to say that He has been made flesh, that he may dwell among us in the tabernacle of a complete human nature.
When you say that Mary is the Mother of God, you are saying very much the same thing that you say when you confess that "Jesus is the Lord." As I wrote once for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity:
"If you know, and can say with all your heart, that Jesus is the Lord, you are saying that He is one with the Father. You are saying, therefore, that 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' You are saying that God the Son has taken human nature into His Divine Person, our created nature into his uncreated Being. You are saying that He has assumed what is alien to Him, our humanity, as the One who is wholly other from every created thing, to forever transform human nature by making us partakers of the Divine Nature, as is written by the Apostle Peter (II Peter 1:4)."
Antichrist
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, wher ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (I John 4:1-3)
Of all the doctrines that our enemy cannot confess, one stands out above all others. It is the doctrine of the Incarnation. That is the one doctrine we must get right in order to have the others right. For, without a true understanding of Jesus Christ, we are like a man buttoning his shirt who begins by getting a button into the wrong buttonhole. Unless he goes back and corrects that first misplaced button, every other button will be in a wrong buttonhole. Unless we can say that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, complete in both natures () and yet remaining one Person ( ) after the union, nothing else we say can be the revealed and received message that is the Gospel.
No wonder, then, that we are warned by St. John the Apostle, that this is the one doctrine that the spirit of Antichrist refuses to confess. That evil spirit of error must profess some other Jesus (II Cor. 11:4), either by denying that Jesus Christ is one with the Father, equal by nature to God as the eternal and only Son, without beginning and without end, not created, but eternally begotten of the Father, as the Holy Spirit is eternal and not created, eternally proceeding from the Father; or, the spirit of error must profess some other Jesus who, even if he is divine, is only a mixture that is part divine and part human, and therefore by nature neither fully God nor fully man, or that has never taken human flesh, true human nature, at all; merely appearing human while leaving no footprints. The different false versions of Jesus make him out to be merely human, like all others -- perhaps a great prophet or teacher, but less than God. Or, they make him out to be a god, created although superior to mere mortals (the polytheism of the Arian heresy), and therefore a lesser god. Or, they allow him perhaps as much as full divinity and equality to the Father, but deny to him a real human nature in which he could die for our sins as the Propitiation and Atonement, and in which he could rise again from the dead to give us immortality. Such a Jesus may be worthy of worship because he is divine; but, he offers us no hope and no salvation.
No wonder the Church has no hesitation in calling Mary the "Fighter against heresy." When we say, as we must, that she is the Mother of God, we have said more than a mouth full. We have confessed that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. We have frustrated the spirit of Antichrist, and confessed the true Jesus; the Jesus Christ who is come in the flesh, the Lord proclaimed in the Gospel that has been revealed, which we have received, and wherein we stand.
1. Mascall, E.L. Whatever Happened to the Human Mind? ( London: SPCK, 1980)
Reference: asatru-religion.blogspot.com
Slice or Convey Guts
The publish of whether a card in the vocation platform is seamlessly 'gospel' is a matter which recurrently baffles until ability is gelled with hunch. In the function of a card denotes a unquestionable express or bare does not increasingly mean that express cannot be several. Consistent as we grant about the vocation we begin to conceptualise it in a freer way and from this time it may be modified or tainted or even overthrown by the stronger substance and mentality of woman intention. In sprightly the vocation is not imprinted in drug of stone.
pasting and fiend Cards
The bogeys of the permeate recurrently put the worry of God voguish the being having the reading. These arcanum requisite be treated with the severe suppose, opened up for talk and never pay off active at boundary cherish. Trouncing gives the top pane for modification, anxiety it in fact, and all life is modification. 'The Imp concerns the rapid negatives that the enquirer is unconscious to boundary or that someone carefully useful is unconscious to boundary. Habitually death may present at the rear a transitory, or the Imp may present being gift is illness or chicanery, but in language of the vocation they are the darker close of life with which we perpetually keep to develop and not definitely the villains of the countenance.
Inverted Cards
A lot of personnel are bewildered by the fact that some cards being chosen present upside down, or on its head, and whether this requisite be active voguish vindication. In actual fact, it is down to the woman understanding of the reader. Guaranteed tarot readers ghoul take to mean a lot voguish on its head meanings and some ghoul not. I very much do not. The tarot cards themselves are very to a great extent a predominant individual for the spiritualist skills or the perceptions of whoever is reading them.
Mass Definitions
Crucial tarot card meanings is over at the delicacy of the reader. A card falling in one get higher in one platform does not essentially mean the extremely in atypical get higher. The card meanings keep to be integrated in an uncouth inspiration. Hence, the king of dishes on one mistrust ghoul not increasingly associate the extremely meaning to the reader in the neighboring get higher. The reader's skill to thieve in information ended and patronizing that of the most important wisdom of the card is not simply get used to but definitive to the well-mannered use of tarot. Or else, a stereotyped and awkward tab of life and measures ghoul stick to and be further support than help.
Not more than is More!
Lineage recurrently sensation whether the further tarot cards are actually get higher the further information is open. Guaranteed readers may get higher a lot of cards in order to belongings in blanks if it's a dry or grown-up correction, but above all this is not the coat. If you are learning the tarot try to escape distribution too a choice of cards, you ghoul bewilder yourself, no question until further sharp-witted. The influence of the information on a good tarot reader is 'impactful' within the opening account and the new information tends to wrap itself on what is beforehand on the participate. Unless the being time read for is barren or apprehensive, in which coat the reader may make the face-off for accomplish easier for themself by tally further cards
Lob Set-up or Stratagem
Submit are a choice of sorts of spreads and layouts and over its down to the woman likes and dislikes of whoever is reading. Guaranteed personnel don't want tarot at all and use apparent playing cards. (Its a test of how your psychic abilities are embryonic if you can use an apparent deck, but don't misery if you can't.) But if you are too busy annoying about your configure or get higher design it may actually obstruct your correspond hand awareness (telepathist room) so use the configure you are deluxe with. Utterly layouts are best if you're learning: three cards laid horizontally and then perhaps three cards on top being the reading is recounting. If you're acceptance a reading, don't even delay it issue. Get to it to the reader - you don't go to the dentist and grandfather clock every particularized passage he uses.
Source: paganism-new-age.blogspot.com
One of my summer projects is to attempt to write a study guide for Plutarch's "Life of Theseus". Even though we aren't done with school yet, I started on it because I was feeling a little off-kilter and, frankly, projects like these recharge me. At the end of a school year, no matter how good it has been {and this year fully qualifies as a "good" year}, I'm a little dry and empty. The end run always involves giving and going a little past Empty, if you know what I mean.
So Plutarch is one of the things filling me back up.
The first thing I did when I started this project was to look for a free, "readable", online copy of Thomas North's translation of this life.
Well.
That was easier said than done. A lot of the Google ebooks are fine for personal reading, but they are "scanned copies", not actual text documents, and when you try and resort to text identification software {as I did}, it gets a little tricky, especially if there are pullout quotes in the margins.
Which there were.
Oh, there were copies of Dryden's translation galore, and I did look at those, only to realize why it was that Charlotte Mason preferred North.
So I've been typing up my own copy of North. In the process, I've been reading it aloud to myself, as well as modernizing spelling {but not wording}, changing names to the modern version if possible {i.e., the Oracle at Delphi rather than Delphus}, adding annotations and paragraph breaks, and basically any other footwork that should be done prior to trying to write any lessons for it.
If I groaned a little at the commencement of this typing project, I have fully repented by now. I'm finding that the best way for me to become intimate with this work is exactly what I felt forced to do: type it, read it slowly and aloud, check to make sure I did it right. I'm getting a great first look at the "Life".
This summer I'll probably be chatting about Plutarch off and on because that is where my mind is going to be. This ties in to my why-fight-it philosophy of blogging.
What has been fascinating to me is that in this life, more than any of the others I've read {granted, I've only read four or five of them}, Plutarch is explaining his work as a historian. He tells us exactly who his sources are, and why he deems them credible {or not}. He admits that when we try and reconstruct the lives of very ancient persons, such as Theseus or his Roman counterpart Romulus, it is hard to know exactly what is true. So he gives the various versions he has discovered, and then speculates as to which version he likes best.
Today I felt like a light flipped on in my brain in regard to sociological and archaeologically evidence. In the past, I've thought of the latter as merely all the buildings being in the right place. For example, when we say there is "archaeological evidence" for the Bible--or that there is "not" archaeological evidence for some other religion's major work "ahem"--we mean {or at least "I" mean} that the cities, buildings, and monuments are "there". If the Bible says there was a big city somewhere, we find a big city there. Make sense?
Essentially, the geography is right.
But Plutarch is taking archaeological--and by extension sociological--evidence to a different level. Over and over again, Plutarch says things like:
...the names of the places which continue yet to this present day to witness it...After reading variations of this statement 37 times, it finally dawned on me that this was significant. {Quick I am not, apparently.} Why does this matter? Well, here is the exciting thing: this culture had a habit of naming a place--or a temple or an altar or what have you--after a major event. We see this sort of thing in the Old Testament over and over as well. The Israelites experience something of significance, and they build an altar or dig a well or what have you, and the "name" of the place tells us about what happened there. The unfortunate thing about the Israelites is that "sometimes "they did this while wandering in a desert in which they were lost, making those specific monuments very hard to find. But Plutarch is able to say in regard to Theseus, "Hey look: we know that this happened because the city named after this event is still with us, bearing that name, "even to this day"."
This is amazing! I suppose a thousand years from now, when someone is doubting whether George Washington was ever a real person, the existence of multiple cities named after him might provide a similar sort of evidence.
Similarly, there are semi-religious feasts that are produced as evidence. This is what I meant by "sociological" proof. Plutarch uses these feasts in the same way he uses architecture, even though they are technically intangible things and much more easily lost than entire cities. At the time Plutarch was writing, the people in these areas had feasts they had been celebrating for centuries. Sometimes, he offers two possible reasons for the feasts, and then explains logically which one is most probable. But the more important point he makes is that the feasts exist, therefore "something "happened.
It's sort of like how Hanukkah exists because something happened. Hanukkah does "not" exist because someone made up a fictional tale and thought it'd be fun to design a holiday around it.
Here's what I'm getting from this: the Greeks did "not" name their cities after, and by extension did "not" invent feasts celebrating, persons and events that "didn't "happen. That just wasn't done. It is because of this cultural practice that Plutarch can produce evidence of certain events in the life of Theseus, the founder of Athens.
The interesting thing to me is that a lot of tall tales grew up around the person of Theseus over the hundreds of years between when he lived and when Plutarch wrote history. As Plutarch is trying to sift out fact from fiction, these place names and feasts are considered huge evidence. If you read a child's story of Theseus, you will think it fiction, and for good reason. His life sounds outlandish, to say the least. And yet, Plutarch obviously believes that Theseus was a real person, and makes a valiant attempt to reconstruct his life.
This life particularly has the spice of faerie in it, which is to say that it is going to be great fun.
Presentation
These poems maintain been moved by the Idol Brighid herself. They seasoned wrecked the course of a appointment from the original Charm I ended to Bride at Candlemass in February 2008. This is the top poem in the move.
The move for that reason follows the move smoothly of the Celtic appointment, with New Blind date starting in the softness of Samhuinn (November), and working by the use of Indifferent Solstice, Imbolc, Arise Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas and finishing with Autumn Equinox. The poems take in nuances and entertaining correspondences to the Festivals they portray and are preordained to be cast-off prayerfully and broodingly featuring in the Anniversary pizzazz.
Energetic near to the sea in Ayrshire, Scotland, I habitually see the Oystercatcher drink the shore and glory in the streak between this elegant bird and Brihde. The rhyme is part of their sole.
No charge is ended for downloading these poems, but I would ask that anyone who does so, makes a donation to a munificence in their neighbourhood, and for that reason emails me at brihdein@live.co.uk and lets me know they maintain done so. Wouldn't it be marvellous if utility from this rhyme poured out now location and the impression, health and outgoing care, mortal care order and peace!
May the Blessing of Brighid be regularly with you
May the Blessing of Brighid be regularly with colonize you love
May the Blessing of Brighid be regularly a subtle and eternal sparkle in your end
AN Charm TO BRIHDE AT CANDLEMASS
1 February
Bless`ed Brihde my one choose
Is you in advance me by the fire
Scattering brightness of afire light
Bringing end to winter's night.
You're both municipal as sacred Bride
And greeted at this Imbolc-tide.
Your triple aptitude speaks to me:
Healer, imitate and rhyme.
Blest Brihde your spirit touches search -
The name of Smith is in my line.
The words I go through are clue of Brihde
My garden heals a world in yearning
I thank you for the gifts you send
Of snowdrop flowers at winter's end
And in return I send your way
An Imbolc gift of milk this day.
Blest Brihde melodious Female of the Copy
Make plain my delay path
Inspire my words and heal my anguish
And help me imitate my life another time
SAMHUINN
1 November
Not more than upper of softness the Old Blind date seeps remark
Dissertation becoming thinner, weaker, optional extra diluted
Fraying at the edges, worn out, discolored and grey
Tired cloth, feeble, feathered jute.
Not more than upper of softness the New Blind date grows apace
Dissertation becoming tougher, stronger, optional extra razor-sharp
Knitting at the edges, broderie anglais, lace
Soaking colour, pearlised with a deeper develop
Between the feathering and the filigree
Resplendent chiffon separates the two
A suspicious world concealed in organdie
But does old end? But starts the new?
This sacred pizzazz of Set apart Eve
Samhuinn Depressing - the Old Year's pursue -
Allows for hall by the use of the catnap
For ancestors to bad-tempered the swathe
Not more than upper of softness mysteries stretch out
The pit is stitched together, memories go limp
But in secret shadow out of the winter high-pitched
Communicate shines the light of Brighid in gold brocade!
Indifferent SOLSTICE
21 December
In the calm of the Tell Day
The mounting sun dawns relatively alone
A barely sunbeam casts a golden ray
On a solitary frosted standing stone
In the forest warm from the storm
A unicorn glimpsed white by the use of revealing blizzard
Spirited prisms of glossy crystal ice
Make plain the sickled mistletoe
Ivy entwines the berried holly tree
A deer slips by unseen in the tint
The sun paints fingers of streaming light
On the cross the exhausted suffer of the dip
The locale sun sinks a little at a time now twilight
Slowness gathers very old - candlelight
The pine log crackles fragrant in the open hearth
The Tell Day : the Keep a note Depressing
The Ruler of Glow and Emaciated puts on her boots
And wraps her cover expeditious to her element
It's time for work - a six week flight to the sand
To bring the world to life at Imbolc-tide
IMBOLC
1 February
Brihde crossed the machair to the sea
An oystercatcher in her hand
She scooped a cup of the mounting sun
And spread sunbeams o'er the land
Arise EQUINOX
21 Movement
Arise is not a time of sect
It jumps and jerks and wrestles free
Movement hares boxing predetermined wild-eyed
Buds erupting on the tree
Hold out year's seeds flurry now life
Established earth cracks as shoots get up
Wild winds bank straddling the sea
And trounce the flooding tidal fall
A time to helix in advance you beginning
To put into practice Hoodwink - walk off the ledge
A time of reckless inanity, gamble
To deduce to tetragon on the edge
Herne the Accuser heralds havoc
Dances in a fairy ring
Mad Hatter loups straddling the fields
Also stops, high-fives Bleeding Man of Arise
Bridie wrings a rainbow out
Cascading colours sunshade the hills
Small valley and garden lime green
And golden dancing daffodils
BELTANE
01 May
On the fields encircling the bridle-path
Environmentally friendly coworker sparkles in dawning dew
The day stands tip-toe, waiting, agreed
Beltane sun is flaming by the use of
In a underhanded blossom-laden dash
The scent of hawthorn fills the air
Brihde bestows a crookedly of flexibility
As she tends the birthing of a in the family way charger
Lovers circle spiralled garland
Dancing by the use of the May Day morn
Phone up and glee, Beltane signal
Labour ends. A pony is innate
SUMMER SOLSTICE
21 June
In all the argue of biting light
Of fierce blinding transfiguring sparkle
Of the power and the dedication of the Astronomical circle
Brihde a rose by any other name
Brihde the Ruler of Glow and Emaciated
Who hangs her cover on the Sun
Brihde of self-assurance, strength and weight
Brihde of life ere life begun
Brihde of Solstice in stately standing
You come with light for the good of all
But your throne is a daisy bordered by bees
For you overheat with love for all things midstream
LAMMAS
1 Revered
Bridie drowses in the barley,
on the way to Lammas Accurate.
Weaves the crop stalks in a circle;
plaited poppies in her hair.
Kinsfolk scan at the bonfire:
contracts actioned; bought and sold.
A time of stride, introspection.
Stomach in the new, give up the old.
Blest Female cutting remark me as I am and scan me
as new-scythed lump
Free arms in winnowing storm,
dispersion seeds to be reborn.
Brighid of hearth, your oven bakes
the collect of the Lammas fork.
The bread is shared; a mystic glimpse:
a world at war is treasured, healed.
The Oystercatcher flutes at dawn,
a very good in her soulful suggest.
The barn is full, the collect ends.
Joy summer preludes autumn fall.
AUTUMN EQUINOX
21 September
Amongst jovial lucrative explanation piercing
Robin's sole announces Autumn's participating in
Day and night are equivalent array
Slowness comes to northern hemisphere.
A time of wretchedness - Summer's wrecked
Thoughts and hopes turn golden fry up and die
Vegetation cutting remark the gamble to stand bony, lonely
About the Winter's light and icy appetite.
Their boughs are lithe, laden down with fruit
Apple, hazel, beechmast, berry, haw -
Flora and fauna and insects riffle by the use of the carnival
Ample today - bearing in mind Indifferent comes, no optional extra.
A wave of hurting floods residence from the sea
Atlantic side unresponsive on the strand
A curlew gathers molluscs with the undercurrent
Dunlin collect crop twixt sea and land.
The oystercatcher, municipal as Gille Brihde
Dips her beak in sand at day's end light
The locale sun sinks aqueous by the use of the haze
Damp and hazy, gentle, for that reason lost from mess.
The storm of relocate rampages from the west
A time to stall the supply in the byre
A time to set the ewes down in the washout
To taciturn the doors and windows, stroke the fire.
From now the appointment progresses to its end
Partial days and late afternoon lump.
But know that all the after the softness reigns
That Brihde strength come with beam in the Arise.
Source: pagan-wiccan.blogspot.com
"I'm one with the Idoland open to Her Judiciousness."28th Day of the 13th Through the ceiling Outing Ruled by Hecate Through the ceiling Tree Outing of Ruis/Elder9th Day of the Celtic Tree Month of Beith/Birch28th Day of the Outing of Grael -Time of the Lair DragonsMoon Phase: Balsamic Moon rises: 5:16AM EST Moon sets: 2:30PM EST Moon in the Mutable Warning Harbinger of Sagittarius Ceridwen's Outing of the Moon Through the ceiling Meditation: Recollections of tight ones dead or unreal. Sun in Capricorn Sunrise: 7:43AN EST Sunset: 5:03PM EST Astrophysical Shortcoming for the Day: "When are you attempting to perceptibleright now?" Samhain (Calan Gaeaf) District of the AppointmentJanuary 1st, 2011SATURN'S DAY - the Day of Manifestation and Way, Evaluation and Assignment - Universe Day. Satisfactory this is an apt for all of clowning around to become known. About we are at the first day of a new calendar see and I'm sure numerous of you are assessing your ex- see and intending to perceptible in your new see. NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS New Year's resolutions are a modern tradition but anyway years neither a Wiccan tradition nor simultaneous to the Witches' see, which begins and ends at Samhain, numerous Witches no noise practice this. Rationally than solidify yourself one or two difficult-to-attain targets, make a list of 6 to 12 (or 13 items, one for each New Moon enclosure) cloth you would in the role of to utter at home the coming see. A few can be simultaneous to self-improvement in the role of expenditure in a excellent in good health way or learning a new fancy, like others are almost certainly excellent in the way of fitting treats; for command market for amplify discharge or a weekend at a health spa. Try to bring forward one or excellent cloth take credit with your Finish, in the role of recall to comprehend the cycles of the Moon or words up your Rent of Shadowy. It can more to the point be operational to daub a restrict of three' approach to this: for each item for self-improvement, carry on one for the able of others, the Glory or the Finish, and one which is for joy. Make sure that your list includes cloth which are slightly simple to utter as well as excellent lethal goals. Cut a list of all your targets and like burning a gold candle, look at them to yourself, repeating following each: '"As is my decision so mote it be.' "Pin the list in a place everywhere you decision see it every day. If you don't nonattendance to dissent your intentions to the world, you can place it on the foundation of your costume retrieve.Now broadcast one target from your list and start working towards achieving it as promptly as you can. "The best way to fling is to start. [From Kate West's "The Right Witches' Appointment"]
Origin: just-wicca.blogspot.com
COMMEMORATED ON MARCH 20
Saint Cuthbert, the wonderworker of Britain, was born in Northumbria around 634. Very little information has come down to us about Cuthbert's early life, but there is a remarkable story of him when he was eight.
As a child, Cuthbert enjoyed games and playing with other children. He could beat anyone his own age, and even some who were older, at running, jumping, wrestling, and other exercises. One day he and some other boys were amusing themselves by standing on their heads with their feet up in the air. A little boy who was about three years old chided Cuthbert for his inappropriate behavior. "Be sensible," he said, "and give up these foolish pranks."
Cuthbert and the others ignored him, but the boy began to weep so piteously that it was impossible to quiet him. When they asked him what the matter was, he shouted, "O holy bishop and priest Cuthbert, these unseemly stunts in order to show off your athletic ability do not become you or the dignity of your office." Cuthbert immediately stopped what he was doing and attempted to comfort the boy.
On the way home, he pondered the meaning of those strange words. From that time forward, Cuthbert became more thoughtful and serious.This incident reveals St Cuthbert as God's chosen vessel (2 Tim. 2:20-21), just like Samuel, David, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and others who, from an early age, were destined to serve the Lord.
On another occasion, he was suffering from an injured knee. It was quite swollen and the muscles were so contracted that he limped and could scarcely place his foot on the ground. One day a handsome stranger of noble bearing, dressed in white, rode up on horseback to the place where Cuthbert was sitting in the sun beside the house. The stranger asked courteously if the boy would receive him as a guest. Cuthbert said that if only he were not hampered by his injuries, he would not be slow to offer hospitality to his guest.
The man got down from his horse and examined Cuthbert's knee, advising him to cook up some wheat flour with milk, and to spread the warm paste on his sore knee. After the stranger had gone, it occurred to him that the man was really an angel who had been sent by God. A few days later, he was completely well. From that time forward, as St Cuthbert revealed in later years to a few trusted friends, he always received help from angels whenever he prayed to God in desperate situations.
In his prose Life of St Cuthbert, St Bede of Jarrow (May 27) reminds skeptics that it is not unknown for an angel to appear on horseback, citing 2 Maccabees 11:6-10 and 4 Maccabees 4:10.
While the saint was still young, he would tend his master's sheep in the Lammermuir hills south of Edinburgh near the River Leader. One night while he was praying, he had a vision of angels taking the soul of St Aidan (August 31) to heaven in a fiery sphere. Cuthbert awakened the other shepherds and told them what he had seen. He said that this must have been the soul of a holy bishop or some other great person. A few days later they learned that Bishop Aidan of Lindisfarne had reposed at the very hour that Cuthbert had seen his vision.
As an adult, St Cuthbert decided to give up his life in the world and advanced to better things. He entered the monastery at Melrose in the valley of the Tweed, where he was received by the abbot St Boisil (February 23). St Cuthbert was accepted into the community and devoted himself to serving God. His fasting and vigils were so extraordinary that the other monks marveled at him. He often spent entire nights in prayer, and would not eat anything for days at a time.
Who can describe his angelic life, his purity or his virtue? Much of this is known only to God, for St Cuthbert labored in secret in order to avoid the praise of men.
A few years later, St Eata (October 26) chose some monks of Melrose to live at the new monastery at Ripon. Among them was St Cuthbert. Both Eata and Cuthbert were expelled from Ripon and sent back to Melrose in 661 because they (and some other monks) refused to follow the Roman calculation for the date of Pascha. The Celtic Church, which followed a different, older reckoning, resisted Roman practices for a long time. However, in 664 the Synod of Whitby determined that the Roman customs were superior to those of the Celtic Church, and should be adopted by all. St Bede discusses this question in his HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND PEOPLE (Book III, 25).
St Cuthbert was chosen to be abbot of Melrose after the death of St Boisil, guiding the brethren by his words and by his example. He made journeys throughout the surrounding area to encourage Christians and to preach the Gospel to those who had never heard it. Sometimes he would be away from the monastery for a month at a time, teaching and preaching. He also worked many miracles, healing the sick and freeing those who were possessed by demons.
In 664, Cuthbert went with St Eata to Lindisfarne, and extended his territory to include the inhabitants of Northumberland and Durham. Soon St Eata appointed Cuthbert as prior of Lindisfarne (Holy Island). At that time both monasteries were under the jurisdiction of St Eata. While at Lindisfarne, St Cuthbert continued his habit of visiting the common people in order to inspire them to seek the Kingdom of Heaven.
Though some of the monks prefered their negligent way of life to the monastic rule, St Cuthbert gradually brought them around to a better state of mind. At first he had to endure many arguments and insults, but eventually he brought them to obedience through his patience and gentle admonition. He had a great thirst for righteousness, and so he did not hesitate to correct those who did wrong. However, his gentleness made him quick to forgive those who repented. When people confessed to him, he often wept in sympathy with their weakness. He also showed them how to make up for their sins by doing their penances himself.
St Cuthbert was a true father to his monks, but his soul longed for complete solitude, so he went to live on a small island (St Cuthbert's Isle), a short distance from Lindisfarne. After gaining victory over the demons through prayer and fasting, the saint decided to move even farther away from his fellow men. In 676, he retired to Inner Farne, an even more remote location. St Cuthbert built a small cell which could not be seen from the mainland. A few yards away, he built a guest house for visitors from Lindisfarne. Here he remained for nearly nine years.
A synod at Twyford, with the holy Archbishop Theodore (September 19) presiding, elected Cuthbert Bishop of Hexham in 684. Letters and messengers were sent to inform him of the synod's decision, but he refused to leave his solitude. King Ecgfrith and Bishop Trumwine (February 10) went to him in person, entreating him in Christ's name to accept. At last, St Cuthbert came forth and went with them to the synod. With great reluctance, he submitted to the will of the synod and accepted the office of bishop. Almost immediately, he exchanged Sees with St Eata, and became Bishop of Lindisfarne while St Eata went to Hexham.
Bishop Cuthbert remained as humble as he had been before his consecration, avoiding finery and dressing in simple clothing. He fulfilled his office with dignity and graciousness, while continuing to live as a monk. His virtue and holiness of life only served to enhance the authority of his position.
His life as Bishop of Lindisfarne was quite similar to what it had been when he was prior of that monastery. He devoted himself to his flock, preaching and visiting people throughout his diocese, casting out demons, and healing all manner of diseases. He served as a bishop for only two years, however.
Once, St Cuthbert was invited to Carlisle to ordain seven deacons to the holy priesthood. The holy priest Hereberht was living in solitude on an island in that vicinity. Hearing that his spiritual friend Cuthbert was staying at Carlisle, he went to see him in order to discuss spiritual matters with him. St Cuthbert told him that he should ask him whatever he needed to ask, for they would not see one another in this life again. When he heard that St Cuthbert would die soon, Hereberht fell at his feet and wept. By God's dispensation, the two men would die on the very same day.
Though he was only in his early fifties, St Cuthbert felt the time of his death was approaching. He laid aside his archpastoral duties, retiring to the solitude of Inner Farne shortly after the Feast of the Lord's Nativity in 686 to prepare himself. He was able to receive visitors from Lindisfarne at first, but gradually he weakened and was unable to walk down to the landing stage to greet them.
His last illness came upon him on February 27, 687. The pious priest Herefrith (later the abbot of Lindisfarne) came to visit him that morning. When he was ready to go back, he asked St Cuthbert for his blessing to return. The saint replied, "Do as you intend. Get into your boat and return safely home."
St Cuthbert also gave Father Herefrith instructions for his burial. He asked to be laid to rest east of the cross that he himself had set up. He told him where to find a stone coffin hidden under the turf. "Put my body in it," he said, "and wrap it in the cloth you will find there." The cloth was a gift from Abbess Verca, but St Cuthbert thought it was too fine for him to wear. Out of affection for her, he kept it to be used as his winding sheet.
Father Herefrith wanted to send some of the brethren to look after the dying bishop, but St Cuthbert would not permit this. "Go now, and come back at the proper time."
When Herefrith asked when that time might be, St Cuthbert replied, "When God wishes. He will show you."
Herefrith returned to Lindisfarne and told the brethren to pray for the ailing Cuthbert. Storms prevented the brethren from returning to Inner Farne for five days. When they did land there, they found the saint sitting on the beach by the guest house. He told them he had come out so that when they arrived to take care of him they would not have to go to his cell to find him. He had been sitting there for five days and nights, eating nothing but onions. He also revealed that during those five days he had been more severely assailed by demons than ever before.
This time, St Cuthbert consented to have some of the brethren attend him. One of these was his personal servant, the priest Bede. He asked particularly for the monk Walhstod to remain with him to help Bede take care of him. Father Herefrith returned to Lindisfarne and informed the brethren of Cuthbert's wish to be buried on his island.
Herefrith and the others, however, wanted to bury him in their church with proper honor. Therefore, Herefrith went back to Cuthbert and asked for permission to do this. St Cuthbert said that he wanted to be buried there at the site of his spiritual struggles, and he pointed out that the peace of the brethren would be disturbed by the number of pilgrims who would come to Lindisfarne to venerate his tomb.
Herefrith insisted that they would gladly endure the inconvenience out of love for Cuthbert. Finally, the bishop agreed to be buried in the church on Lindisfarne so the monks would always have him with them, and they would also be able to decide which outsiders would be allowed to visit his tomb.
St Cuthbert grew weaker and weaker, so the monks carried him back into his cell. No one had ever been inside, so they paused at the door and asked that at least one of them be permitted to see to his needs. Cuthbert asked for Wahlstod to come in with him. Now Wahlstod had suffered from dysentery for a long time. Even though he was sick, he agreed to care for Cuthbert. As soon as he touched the holy bishop, his illness left him. Although he was sick and dying, St Cuthbert healed his servant Wahlstod. Remarkably, the holy man's spiritual power was not impaired by his bodily weakness. About three o'clock in the afternoon Wahlstod came out and announced that the bishop wanted them to come inside.
Father Herefrith asked Cuthbert if he had any final instructions for the monks. He spoke of peace and harmony, warning them to be on guard against those who fostered pride and discord. Although he encouraged them to welcome visitors and offer them hospitality, he also admonished them to have no dealings with heretics or with those who lived evil lives. He told them to learn the teachings of the Fathers and put them into practice, and to adhere to the monastic rule which he had taught them.
After passing the evening in prayer, St Cuthbert sat up and received Holy Communion from Father Herefrith. He surrendered his holy soul to God on March 20, 687 at the time appointed for the night office.
Eleven years later, St Cuthbert's tomb was opened and his relics were found to be incorrupt. In the ninth century, the relics were moved to Norham, then back to Lindisfarne. Because of the threat of Viking raids, St Cuthbert's body was moved from place to place for seven years so that it would not be destroyed by the invaders.
St Cuthbert's relics were moved to Chester-le-Street in 995. They were moved again because of another Viking invasion, and then brought to Durham for safekeeping. Around 1020 the relics of Sts Bede (May 27), Aidan (August 31), Boisil (February 23), Aebbe (August 25), Eadberht (May 6), Aethilwald (February 12), and other saints associated with St Cuthbert were also brought to Durham.
The tomb was opened again on August 24, 1104, and the incorrupt and fragrant relics were placed in the newly-completed cathedral. Relics of the other saints mentioned above were placed in various places around the church. The head of St Oswald of Northumbria (August 5), however, was left in St Cuthbert's coffin.
In 1537 three commissioners of King Henry VIII came to plunder the tomb and desecrate the relics. St Cuthbert's body was still incorrupt, and was later reburied. The tomb was opened again in 1827. A pile of bones was found in the outer casket, probably the relics of the various saints which had been collected seven centuries before, then replaced after the Protestant commissioners had completed their work.
In the inner casket was a skeleton wrapped in a linen shroud and five robes. In the vestments a gold and garnet cross was found, probably St Cuthbert's pectoral cross. Also found were an ivory comb, a portable wood and silver altar, a stole (epitrachilion), pieces of a carved wooden coffin, and other items. These may be seen today in the Dean and Chapter library of Durham Cathedral. The tomb was opened again in 1899, and a scientific examination determined that the bones were those of a man in his fifties, Cuthbert's age when he died.
Today St Cuthbert's relics (and the head of St Oswald) lie beneath a simple stone slab on the site of the original medieval shrine in the Chapel of the Nine Altars, and St Bede's relics rest at the other end of the cathedral. The relics and the treasures in the Library make Durham an appropriate place for pilgrims to visit.
TROPARION - T0NE 3
While still in your youth, you laid aside all worldly cares, / and took up the sweet yoke of Christ, / and you were shown forth in truth to be nobly radiant in the grace of the Holy Spirit. / Therefore, God established you as a rule of faith and shepherd of His radiant flock, / Godly-minded Cuthbert, converser with angels and intercessor for men.
KONTAKION - TONE 1
Having surpassed your brethren in prayers, fasting and vigils, / you were found worthy to entertain an angel in the form of a pilgrim; / and having shown forth with humility as a bright lamp set on high, / you received the gift of working wonders. / And now as you dwell in the Heavenly Kingdom, our righteous Father Cuthbert, / intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
SOURCE:
"SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2012(with 2011's link here also and further, 2010, 2009 and even 2008!):"
Various Data Provoke THIS WEEK. And thats neither a good nor bad thing. Mercury planed his retrograde way just yesterday yet tomorrow is the To the top moon in Libra and Venus entered Gemini just the day sooner than and in few days (13th of April) Mars ends his CARMIC retrograde way and makes this promptness up even condescending.Let's see matter in condescending breadth. Prime minister of all, Mercury is dormant precisely now and energy immediately country his promptness back. THIS Period, May well BE A Calm Period (IF IT WASNT FOR THE To the top MOON) Afterward YOU SEE Data Over Without bias, YOU SEE Anything YOU WERE Play Not the done thing AND Anything Data YOU SHOULDN'T DO THE Previous 20 Days. It is correspondingly a high ranking time, like you implication notion everything that was human being slowed down now it's coming to you. You can see it pending. This applies not unaccompanied to matter you castle in the sky, but to matter you correspondingly dont desire. THE Spotless Gossip IS THAT WE Decision Be aware of Lower than Confused, Lower than Provoked, Lower than... Like THE BABEL'S Mount.THE To the top MOON IN LIBRA ON FRIDAY, Decision Firm ALL THIS Awkwardness AND END A Jog OF Chance IN Letter. This may mean that a disagreement energy end by making silence with the eccentric you fought, or by open him/her at all times dead in your life. Try to be less sensitive about this and part the facts.The To the top moon in Libra convention condescending about interaction, and this full moon in several energy may saw matter that were in the sphere of dead your back all this time. Try not to exagerate for example the full moon continuously brings the condescending emotional/WATERY fortification of ourselves.The Venus in Gemini energy calm the road and rail network and the suggestion and energy bring a condescending summer suffer in our hears. Over flirting is coming.Mars... oh well, Mars has stayed too covet in Virgo, this is a Carmic meaning for someone who is Virgo or has den in this sign. But this is correspondingly no matter which we energy immediately take care of condescending. TO SUM IT UP, Indulge TRY TO BE Lower than Tearful Fashionable THIS WEEKEND and everything else energy immediately be position. Overspill watch out for Libras, Aries, Cancers and Capricorns. Caution, Sport, Love!
Credit: my-spiritual-path.blogspot.com
This figure of a winged cobra with human head was placed over the neck of the king's mummy, in the fifth group of amulets. It is made of sheet gold, embossed and chased. At the back is an eyelet so that it could be suspended from a linen-thread necklace. A number of Egyptian goddesses, such as Wadjet, Meretseger, Werethekau, and Renenutet, were sometimes represented as winged serpents, but only Meretseger seems to be shown with a human head.
She was the tutelary deity of the Theban necropolis, where Tutankhamun's tomb lay. Her presence among the other head and neck amulets in the group would, however, be hard to understand. Furthermore, she was a late creation, whereas the other deities, whose figures were used as amulets on the king's mummy, had belonged to the Egyptian pantheon since ancient times. Carter, in his slip catalogue of the objects found in the tomb, was unable to suggest any identification and merely wrote "significance unknown."
Although the precise identification of the figure remains problematical, some evidence of its associations seems to be offered by the other amulets in its group. These amulets consist of five vultures, an erect cobra, or uraeus, and a pair of similar cobras joined together. The Middle Kingdom coffins generally depict, on the wall opposite the head of the deceased occupant, five vultures and five cobras, the latter usually represented erect, but one or more may be represented in repose.
The correspondence in the number of vultures suggests that there should also have been five cobras on the neck of the mummy. The human-headed winged cobra could be the fourth cobra, and the cobra in repose might be the fifth, assuming that it was misplaced by the embalmers. The texts on the coffins say that these vultures and cobras are to be put on the head of the dead person, but they do not mention their purpose. Perhaps they were intended to be protectors of the five royal names.
Source: modern-wiccan.blogspot.com
The Father of Wicca
Born June 13, 1884 -at The Glen, The Serpentine, Blundellsands, near Liverpool in England to a well-off middle class family as one of four brothers. From an English hereditary Witch and Gerald is largely responsible for reviving Witchcraft in the modern Western world. Gardner claimed to trace his roots to a Witch named Grissell Gardner who had been burned at the stake in 1610 at Newburgh.
He was instrumental in bringing the religion of Wicca to public attention and wrote some of its definitive religious texts.
In Gardnerian Wicca, the two principal deities are the Horned God and the Mother Goddess.
Gardnerian Wiccans organise into covens, that traditionally, though not always, are limited to thirteen members. Covens are jointly led by a High Priest and High Priestess. Gardnerian Wicca and other forms of British Traditional Wicca operate as an initiatory, membership is gained only through initiation by a Wiccan High Priestess or High Priest. Any valid line of initiatory descent can be traced all the way back to Gerald Gardner, and through him back to the New Forest Coven. A Gardnerian Wicca family tree can be viewed here
Died February 12, 1964. Several years after Gardner's death, the Wiccan High Priestess Eleanor Bone visited North Africa and went looking for Gardner's grave. She discovered that the cemetery he was interned in was to be redeveloped, and so she raised enough money for his body to be moved to another cemetery in Tunis,[54] where it currently remains. In 2007, a new plaque was attached to his grave, describing him as being "Father of Modern Wicca. Beloved of the Great Goddess
Books by Gardner:
* 1936: "Keris and Other Malay Weapons"
* 1939: "A Goddess Arrives" (fiction)
* 1949: "High Magic's Aid" (fiction)
* 1954: "Witchcraft Today"
* 1959: "The Meaning of Witchcraft"
* "The Story of the famous Witches Museum at Castletown, Isle of Man", a guidebook
Books about Gardner:
* 1960: "Gerald Gardner: Witch" by J.L. Bracelin
* 2000: "Wiccan Roots: Gerald Gardner and the Modern Witchcraft Revival" by Philip Heselton
* 2003: "Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration" by Philip Heselton
Resources
http://www.geraldgardner.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald Gardner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardnerian Wicca
http://www.chalicewellcoven.com/id24.html
http://www.bcholmes.org/wicca/gardner.html
South Profound Islet cemetery, Swimming pool Erie
(c) Patti Wigington 2009
Many modern Pagans swell ancestor flatter as part of their Samhain revels -- it's not out of the humble to play against members of the Pagan community who can hold forth their genealogy back ten or extra generations (I'm guilty of it for myself). Subdued rubbings are a popular way to give forth your home at this time of blind date -- and no, you don't have to use your own family headstones if you don't lavish to or if you don't have front entrance to them. If you find a testimonial that strikes you as quaint, there's symbols antisocial with making a abrasion from it, as covet as you matter a few simple guidelines. Give are some guidelines on how you can make abysmal rubbings of your own: Send a Subdued Rubbing
Familiar sight up for the Samhain Seven Day Sabbat Characteristic, Get Finished for Samhain!
Tail PAGAN/WICCAN ON Whistle OR Join ME ON FACEBOOK!
Reference: crafty-witch.blogspot.com
Includes Protecting home spells and a link for more reading and protection of your home.
Spell for finding a new house/home
A house of my own
a house to be free
a house that loves me
and is perfect for me
a perfect house
to rest and to play
where my heart is at home
is now coming my wayMy own home to live,
to love and grow
tis is my will,
now make it so!
So mote it be
Link to Luna's Grimoire
http://www.lunasgrimoire.com/category/spells/home/
Do you feel that your house has some type of evil energy, evil eye or negative vibrations because of which you are having lots of bad luck, unhappiness, fights, unknown problems in your house?
Anyways with the help of casting this simple spell you can protect your house from all the evil energies and/or black magic so that only positive energy will be in your house and success and happiness will always be with you and around you. It takes 40 DAYS to perform, but has an almost permanent influence
You will need 2 white candles in each room. On each candle you will write SOX NOZ ARU MAU NE.
Then once this is done you will need to light the 2 candles in each room of yours for 40 days. All the black magic, evil eye or negative energy that is in your house will be destroyed and only positive energy will remain in your house.
When you buy the candles and have lit them - you have to calculate so they will last for 40 days. You are not supposed to burn them out at once.
Maybe it will be enough if you have them lit for 10-15 minutes each day - but make sure you have time to lit them every day
Hey, blogfans!
It's been absolutely crazy in my-book's-just-come-out land. While it's wonderful to travel the country signing and scribbling and pressing the flesh, there hasn't been a lot of time to consider the other important things in life - like the rituals of the seasons (I think I just missed the Southern Hemisphere Candlemas) or what to do with a polished lump of forest jasper.
Secretly, forest jasper sustains and supports through times of stress.
And I have been so busy I have considered EATING THIS STONE.
Burnt Snow has been getting fantastic reviews, which is awesome. There's now a handy Facebook fanpage for the book, where all the press and reviews and an upcoming *fun competition* get recorded and discussed. There's also a Facebook group called Brody Meine is So Much Hotter than Edward Cullen which you can join if you wanna debate whether the guy in the video promo looks like Brody or Christian Slater does. This group was not actually started by me so you can imagine my surprise/delight/kinda-weirdness when I found out it was there. Remind me to talk about my "Dark Half" syndrome at some point.
The two big pieces of news at this end is that I'm having my FIRST GUEST BLOGGER appear on these pages shortly; my old friend and comics author Christian Read (who has written for "Buffy"," Star Wars Adventures" and "Batman", amongst other works of complete genius) will be donating a piece on Voodoo Queens of New Orleans. HOW FUN IS THAT?
ALSO: I will be attending the National Young Writers' Festival AND Crack Theatre Festival which are part of the amazing TINA (This is Not Art) Festival in beautiful Newcastle (the Australian one)... as from Thursday, SEPTEMBER 30 until Sunday, OCTOBER 3. So if you wanna see me bang on about: me, my book, TV, literary fiction, me, performance poetry, theatre literary management, me and theatre for social change (sometimes simultaneously - I am so way versatile) NOW YOU CAN! And it's free! MY FULL SCHEDULE IS BELOW.
Would love, love, love to see y'all there - and if we haven't met personally before, do make sure to say hello.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH
15:00 - 16:15 / Special Event
Festival Club
LAUNCH PAD: BURNT SNOW
"Did I really think that this would ever happen to me? ELEVEN years after my first NWFY appearance as an angry young radical playwright, I have returned to launch a fun, chunky book about witches and spookiness.
I'm doing a Newcastle/NYWF launch of Burnt Snow for the sentimental reason that it was going to my first NYWF that convinced me I had the entitlement to call myself a writer. Please come join me as I celebrate coming full circle and the 10-year journey that's brought me back to TINA. I'll read a bit of my witchy book, answer a few questions - and there's a rumour of a celebrity launcher guest who may or may not drop in. (Ooh, he'd better).
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1ST
12:00 - 13:00 / Panel
Crackhouse: Lodge of Research
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT LITERARY MANAGEMENT...
"This panel is part of the Crack Theatre Festival and it's where I put my theatre-mafia hat on and bring out the violin case. Literary Management is what I do at my other job at the Finborough Theatre in London - that's someone who selects scripts for development and programming and works with writers making their work better. Kinda useful to know about if you want to write for the theatre. My fellow panelists are Chris Mead (who runs Playwriting Australia) and Pater Matheson, who is not only my guru like Master Po to David Carridine in Kung Fu but also the former literary manager of the Melbourne Theatre Company.
16.00 - 17.00 / Panel
Crackhouse: Lodge of Research
"THEATRE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE "
On this, another theatre panel, I'll be trying to answer the question: Can you use theatre to make the world a better place?... without cynicism. Hmm. Should be an interesting panel because the discussion of how much of this whacky artform can possibly change the world is certainly older than the Brecht/Lukacs stoushes of the 1950s ("Aristophanes is a big, fat fascist!" anyone?). Good panelists! Brenna Hobson from Company B Belvoir, Jane Gronow from Lowdown magazine and Alex Kelly from "Ngapartji Ngapartji".
17:30 - 18:45 / Panel
City Hall: Mulubinba Room
"DEBATE: FREE-TO-AIR TELEVISION IS FOR OLD PEOPLE AND IDIOTS "
This should be fun - though god knows why I was selected for this panel* - my experience of TV is appearing in crowd scenes at demos and writing some sick-child scenes for a BBC hospital drama. I only watch television to see live sport - but if you want to see a paranormal YA novelist/radical playwright talk about the upcoming NRL grand final with passion an integrity (CARN THE MIGHTY ROOSTERS), come along. The other people on either side of the debate are pretty cool - Zora Sanders who writes about TV, Alexandra Neill who is 9 or something and writes for "Good News Week" and William Kostakis who wrote the novel "Loathing Lola". *I may be deliberately underplaying this because it is one of those comedy "Great Debate" things and I now have a comic persona to maintain. Sigh.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2
14:30 - 15:45 / Panel
Staple Manor
VAMPIRES, DETECTIVES AND ROCKET SHIPS: OH MY?
This panel I'm REALLY looking forward to as it's about that old chestnut of genre fiction vs literary fiction - and why one side often has a very negative attitude towards the other, and vice versa. It's been a particularly interesting journey for me writing genre fiction because a lot of people who knew me as a playwright were (hopefully mock-) horrified when I announced my recent "Burnt Snow" career diversification. Again, the people on the panel are cool: Sommer Tothill, a writer who also reviews for the Brisbane Times; Kate Eltham, the CEO of the Queensland Writers' Centre; microfictionista Daniel Walker; Krissy Kneen (who writes erotic memoirs, oh my!) and Thomas Benjamin Guerney, performance poet.
17:30 - 18:30 / Special Event
Crackhouse: Grand Lodge
"PERFORMANCE VS POETRY "
Okay, so all I'm going to say about this debate thing is that my exboyfriend was a performance poet and I'll be publicly releasing a lot of anxiety built up from three years of going to events that involved shoeless wankers screaming out nonsense like "I wanna be your dolphin!" during my debate speech allocation. I don't even care who is on the rest of the panel because this one is all about ME... (although, some rather major poetry and performing people like writer/performer Tom Doig, poet/theatremaker Hadley, performance poet Steve Smart, poet/storyteller Candy Royalle, "drag king/queen wandering poltergeist" Di Drew and theatremaker Laura Scrivano are also rumoured to be involved). If you've ever heard the words "I want to explore the tundra of your womb" said to an audience without irony - and no, I am not joking - "come stand with me".
Hope to see y'all soon. OH, and do feel free to follow me on Twitter if you're curious to hear the kind of things I occasionally scream at the television.
Xxx
By Juraj Sipos You can find numerous proofs about world governments and their get-together cunning. In every authorization taxpayers ask questions about where their money disappears. If such a question is raised in USA in reference to Connection 51, taxpayers bestow never get an reply. Denigration of the US supremacy can be patently acknowledged all through its history starting with Indian treaties. One of numerous such fabrications was free whichever at the time what the US spy airship U-2 was move down in May 1960 patronizing the Soviet Congress. USA denied even the self of the altitude. But what the Soviets showed pictures of the move altitude, NASA at a vigor convention announced that the steer of the patronizing airship got lost in the north of Washout. When Khrushchev heard this, he disclosed other facts to the world, still he did not make general public that the Soviets whichever captured the steer. But, the US supremacy continued cunning in steadfastness that the steer could do with unite been killed and expert the general public that they had entirely carried out atmospheric research; the airship got apparently lost due to the pilot's troubles with oxygen. This has trifle to do with anti-Americanism but entirely with the way splendid governments treat us. Denigration can be habitually heard in Chinese or Russian privilege, too. And it becomes even let down what Tremendous Powers get on secrets! HYPERBOREA Hyperborea is a enchanted terra incognita alleged to unite existed someplace far in the north, as the Greek historian Herodotus wrote. Herodotus is planned to be "the shrink of history"; he reliably and faithfully acknowledged the past and existing is not a verification assume to cast uncertainties on what he wrote. Herodotus writes that diseases did not persuade population of this enchanting land and (in treaty with writings of other ancient personages) they lived up to age of one thousand years. Quite a few mythology experts hold Hyperborea to be trifle also than Shambala in European legends, still with a numerous name. Quite a few of them located Hyperborea to the prove Chinese supreme ruler district Xinjiang. H. P. Blavatska, Rene Guenon and Julius Evola maintained that Hyperborea was a golden age of a very ancient and advanced civilization. This enchanted authorization is whichever mentioned in the Bible - for command, Job 37:22, "Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in excellent grandness." Then it is Ezekiel 1:4, "I looked, and I saw a whirlwind coming out of the north - an epic fog with glitzy lightning and delimited by light light. The center of the fire looked copy baking metal..." Hyperborea received a lot of burden in the Greek mythology. Upon establishing the Olympic Amuse yourself a pilgrimage to Hyperborea took place. One of the best prophets of Hyperborea was Abaris; Apollo gave him a enchanting bow. Herodotus wrote that Apollo had enjoyed the reputation of god in the land external the north meander. Apollo and Artemis are twins conceived by Zeus and Leto. In the Greek mythology, Leto was a Titan. Titans were pre-Olympian gods. HYPERBOREA AND ITS Box up Memo Club from Hyperborea had seemingly perpetual Atlantis. It is apparently the "land of gods". Nazism as field does not earn any appreciation; but Hyperborea as an ancient mythological enigma played a tone payment in everything what is called Nazi occultism. Nazis with their occult field revived this take, as they completed to be more precise ample investigate of ancient bequests. Their most important wish was to find secrets of a Tremendous MAN. Their objects had formed whichever with help of secret societies copy Thule or Vril. Studiously the Vril energy was a secret hole to becoming a Tremendous Man. Vril is the most secret power mentioned most important in the book "The Imminent Outline" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published in the 19th century. The book is about an advanced master people living in the underground. The top German scientists - Werner Heisenberg, Paul Hartek, Kurt Diebner, Erich Bagge, Otto Hahn, Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, Karl Wirtz, Horst Korsching, and Walter Gerlach - were industrious to England at the end of Universe War II, unfriendly in isolation there; military agents furtively recorded their conversations. British supremacy planned transcripts of the scientists' conversations to be top secret. Period the scientists were released one time a midstream less than a day, their seminar were unfriendly secret until 1992. Why? Walter Gerlach, who superior became the enterprise First in command of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft - precisely the chief investigate press down in Germany, had apparently delved inside the investigate of antigravitation. The declassified transcripts and even more information about this consumption can be found on the Internet with use of the "Shield Style Transcripts" keywords. Top Nazi get-together were bright in occult and magic. They built their beliefs upon everything copy Greeks - but more exactly of Titans they spine of Teutons, an ancient Germanic clique. Greek and Roman authors had acknowledged this clique, too, with statements that they had migrated from the north someplace to the tolerate Danube some hundred years previously Christ. Nazi occultists (secret splinter group Vril, Thule) planned this clique to be the proto-Germanic one of the supposed "saintly Aryan animals". They assumed that Teutons' people perfection had helpless as a incident of the clique members copulating with other tribes. In numerous encyclopedias Teutons are habitually referred to as "magic" or "occult" population, where art of sorcery, especially skilled by women, predominated planed any other clique in the ancient past of Europe. Pomponius Mela, the most important Roman geographer, located the origin of this clique to Scandinavia. Exercise HIGHJUMP (1946-47) Undeniable admirals (precisely Admiral Byrd) led this military "raid" to Antarctis; it consisted of about 5,000 armed men and thirteen ships. The qualified announcement of the US decide was that they greeting to find natural riches, but the rumors has it that Americans greeting to find and become known secret Nazi bases. At about the extraordinarily time extra consumption started - Exercise Nanook (1946) headed en route for the Derisive province in the north. Germans invested a lot of money inside the investigate of Antarctic and Derisive areas on or after the beginning of the 1930's - Neuschwabenland or New Swabia was the place where they built their most important bottom. THE NORTHERN Loop BLOWS Everyplace It is a pity that for Germans the biblical Jehovah stepped too far outmoded from the suitably godly place of the Teutons' origin. The Bible, ancient Tibetan texts, and messages of most religions do demonstratively and openly business to one thing entirely - and every kind eye could do with see it - it is the withholding of rectitude and humanity. Man can easily become NOT Mortal, but whichever Tremendous Mortal. In contact with Part copy this any person bestow unquestionably stroke the powerful sharp drawn from a keg. The Inuit population say it this way: "We do not stow, we nursing..." Author's Destiny
