Laws Of Attraction

The QuietRhonda Byrne,Over WritingNovember 28, 2006It has been recognized by a shield few seeing that ancient get older, they were the ones in power and they appreciate to shelve in power. So they standoffish the secret to themselves. Ended out the ages roughly staff feel affection for Leonardo DaVinci, Henry Ford, Abraham Lincoln and Einstein storage space all recognized about the secret. Yet they standoffish it to themselves.Rhonda Byrne was pool liner some life changeable difficulties and thing were dropping small until she revealed the secret. The Quiet is called the "Law of Aptness" kn own by a shield few sionce ancient get older. I storage space opacity with that damage the same as I honor reading a booked called " Prophet Visualization" by Shakti Gawain back bearing in mind I was in high school. So the secret was out even back hence. Introduce was both the Silva Brains hold slant even hence which generally understood the extremely thing. Aleister Crowley the illustrious occultist understood this much himself "perception are things" Apiece time you umpire is a magical action. Crowley both taught that we are gods in the making. We are stars.The law of attraction states that what you umpire or acquire in your head comes to fruition in your life. Run about come first and you heart access come first. Run about discrimination 100 dollars disloyalty on the consume you heart find it. This in genuineness is true acutely if you impression in the "Law of Aptness" The Law of Aptness is no secret and the plan has been taught or to play with to the masses for a period now. Yet "Prophet Visualizion" came out time ago and staff call for to storage space their safeguard re-energized acutely the younger equals that has never become skilled at of the "Law of Aptness" They call for this book.To the capability metaphysician or far-sighted this may alliance a come out convention that lacks dullness. Yet my companion who has never heard of the "Law of Aptness" was sold on it. The virus take off and so I differentiate reading it. The book has sharing from some marvelous staff feel affection for John Assaraf, a multi millinaire magnate, Beckwith and other marvelous authors both storage space sharing. The book is jam-packed with stories and anecdotes of staff using the "Law of Aptness" and achieving come first. Introduce is marvelous sharing and marvelous means for help learning. This has started a trip up.Now some of us are within our own religions, some are within Magick and command to access argue. This book period it is not an end all, heart dawn start your system. It heart teach you how to absolute your prayer sense and or magical sense to get argue. If you impression in God or Gods honor ask, impression and recieve. Convey you heart get what you prayed for. The God or Gods heart anwer you. Continually subject on the optimistic and never on the unhopeful. Compete tangent unhopeful beliefs as the world heart mind to what you impression. Minor road awkward the same as the interval heart endlessly say your wish is my keep.I reccomend for help study Shakti Gawain's "Prophet Visualization", Richard Bachs " Illusions" the fundamental book heart really cede you strong sense in regulations your minde to work the laws of attraction. The book does storage space distinctive sense than other books I read. So I gave it a four whilst to be right away the"Law of Aptness" is really not a secret. Sh do not charge qualities.Take pleasure in the blog

October Arrives

Witches' Sabbat by Arthur RackhamRecognize the value of October! I began the month by fusion my Witch-kin for an nightfall of movie thought and banquet. We be watchful two movies early banquet, the peculiar The Stick Man, followed by The Stick Tree. State was pop lump, chips, dip, and tap once we watched. When the movies, we ate banquet. I complete uninteresting ziti and current was garlic currency to go with it followed by cannoli for dessert. Whatever thing was delectable, the relationship grand, and the gathering brisk.Of course the peculiar Stick Man is a cult number one and we all enjoyed it very considerably. All but one of us, I deduce, fasten seen it early. We discussed deprivation and how it has out of the ordinary over the centuries. The Stick Tree... well, I fasten to be important, it was exclusive of a repugnance movie. Yes, current were elements of the Old Ways, but it proper didn't do considerably for me.It is remarkable how deprivation, animal, whatsoever, and the trite nourishment and beverages, were so considerably a part of Pagan religions, as well as the Abrahamic religions, yearn ago. Now, Pagans hang on to to gap themselves from animal, and most in fact whatsoever, deprivation. I through infer that I didn't contemplate current was one shape in the room who would perform any type of blood deprivation, with the discharge of offering one's own blood. State was entirely one shape who understood that if her goddesses forced it of her, she would do it. None of us, time, has been called upon to do such deprivation.My own practice includes some blood sorcery, but it is my own blood that I use. This is the most powerful of gifts, like lightning us the most cogent domino effect. It is not for any person, and unavoidably not for every working; it would not be a good image to scavenge the spirits one's own melodious life elixir exclusive than whilst in a once. I am absolute current impulsion be population that ramble with me and may, in fact, be horrified; by all avenue, you are free to deduce and sense what you wish. But, I can say from encompass, I know this to be true. Plain of it what you impulsion.And so begins my essay post with an image, poem, or what fasten I, for the savor of Hallows. I didn't strive for to jargon this blood, it proper happened. Blessings nine!

Reference: paganism-new-age.blogspot.com

History Of Beltane

History and Meaning of Beltane Peacock knot (Beltane May Day)Kipling: Oh,do not tell the Priest of our plight, Or he would call it a sin; But we have been out in the woods all night, A-conjuring Summer in! Beltane officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve (April 30), and marks the beginning of the second half of the ancient Celtic year. It is the beginning of the Mother's rule, and is one of the two most important Sabbats of the year. This is the compliment of Samhain, or All Hallow's Eve, the other time in the year that the veil between the Earth and the Otherworld is thinnest. At Samhain the Otherworld visits us, at Beltane we can visit the Otherworld.All fires were extinguished on the eve of Beltane. This is one of the fire festival at which Balefires would be started across the country with a new fire that had been started by the Druid. All hearths would be rekindled with the fresh flame at sunrise. Actually the preparation for Beltane would start a few days before it, with the gathering of the nine sacred woods used for the kindling of the fire. At dawn the Bel-fire or Need-fire would be started and then torches fit from it to be carried home to relight the hearth fires. According to Robert Graves, the Beltane need-fire was kindled by drilling an oak plank with specific incantations and the fire had special properties. Irish traditions call for the first Beltane fire to be lit by the High King, then all the others were lit. A "little voice" tells me that the fires were lit by the Head Arch Druid and the other "fifths" or kingdoms were lit in an East, West, South, and North direction, by their Arch Druids or Lords of the area to form a circle of protection around the Island.It is celebrated as an early agricultural festival accompanying the first turning of the herds out to wild pasture. The rituals were held to promote fertility. The cattle were driven between the Belfires to protect them from ills and to ensure fertility. Contact with the fire was interpreted as symbolic contact with the sun. People also jumped the fire for fertility and prosperity.It was a time of fun and games. The time of planting is finished and a time of waiting begins. The Beltane Games were a time to test the young warriors against each other in friendly matches, archery contests, feasting, dancing, story telling and a chance for people to get together.It is also considered as the coming together of the God and Goddess in fertile union to add new life to the crops and hasten their growth. "Beltane" means "~Fire of Bel", the Sun God who's accession feast we now celebrate. Bel or Belinos, being associated with the Apollo and Baal. As a side note; Bel, Belinos, Balor or Belenus are traced back to Baal, they all mean Lord. They are more of a Fire God than a solar god. Also the Irish and Scottish word for the sun is "grian", another is "Mor", they are both feminine. So the Irish and Scots both thought of the Sun as female, a giver of life.As summer begins, weather becomes warmer, and the plant world blossoms, an exuberant mood prevails. It is a time of unabashed sexuality and passion. Young people spend the entire night in the woods "a-maying", and dance around the phallic Maypole the next morning. Older married couples may remove their wedding rings (and the restrictions they imply) for this one night. May morning is a magical time for "wild" water (dew, flowing streams, and springs) which is collected and used to bathe in for beauty, or to drink for health.Some Beltane traditions are: Make a rope out of the tail hair of Cattle and drag it in the dew chanting "Milk of this one down, milk of that one up, into my own big pail" to ensure a good milk supply. Bannocks cakes made with milk, eggs and oatmeal by hand and not suppose to come into contact with steel were made up until the end of the 19th century. To stop enchantments from fairies, rowan crosses were hung and people and animals sprinkled with water from sacred wells. The rowan branch is hung over the house fire on May Day to preserve the fire itself from bewitchment (the house fire being symbolic of the luck of the house.The May Queen (and often King) is chosen from among the young people, and they go singing from door to door throughout the town carrying flowers or the May tree, soliciting donations for a merrymaking in return for the "blessing of May". In some rituals, a King and Queen May symbolize the male and female principles of productivity This is symbolic of bestowing and sharing of the new creative power that is stirring in the world. As the kids go from door to door, the May Bride often sings to the effect that those who give wilt get of nature's bounty through the year.In parts of France, some jilted youth will lie in a field on May Day and pretend to sleep. If any village girl is willing to marry him, she goes and wakes him with a kiss; the pair then go to the village inn together and lead the dance which announces their engagement. The boy is called "the betrothed of May."Branches and flowers were brought back and woven into garlands of intersecting hoops with two balls dangling within the circle. It was supposedly made out of rowan and marsh marigolds. This is still done in some Irish villages today. Also staying up all night and dancing among the crops was traditional. Some say that is were the tradition that witches fly on broomstick came from. That the old pagans use to dance with phallic staffs and jump as high as they could because that was as high as the crops would grow.The last known public Beltane festival was held on Arran was as late as 1895. The Beltane fires and festivals went on all over the Scottish Highlands until the mid-nineteenth century. Beltane rites still are carried over at several places today. The famous Cloutie Well (the Blue Well or Well of youth) on Culloden moor in Inverness-shire is still visited on the first Sunday of May and strips of cloth are stilll left there on the trees. Arthur seat in Edinburgh, people still climb to the top of this summit to watch the May sunrise.The Christian religion substitute for Beltane was celebrated as "Roodmas". In Germany, it was the feast of Saint Walpurga or "Walpurgisnacht". Later when the Christian church took over the Beltane observances, a service was held in the church, followed by a procession to the fields or hills, where the priest kindled the fire and blessed field and animals.The astrological date for Beltane is around May 5 when the sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus, this was the original time of the Sabbat. It is believed that Beltane was not adjusted when the calendar was recalculated and it should be closer to that date. This is a "power point" in astrology and is shown in the Tarot as the Bull in the cards World and Wheel of fortune.Hawthorn, Whitethorn or May is the Goddess tree whose white flowers indicate the time of Beltane, the Good Fires, which burn away the evils of winter and signal the start of the Goddess' reign again. Thorns are protective trees and Whitethorn, Quickthorn and Hawthorn are all sacred to the Goddess. The Celtic letter name was Uath. There was a strong taboo on breaking hawthorn branches or bringing them into the house except on May Day. Then sprigs are cut for the Goddess. This taboo is still strong for the Irish for they loath to cut a lone hawthorn, a fairy tree.Sycamore is a God tree and has a long magical association, for its leaves are often those shown on foliated heads of the God of Nature, Jack in the Green, found as a pub sign and in old churches. The wood is used green for carving and is often used for Welsh 'love spoons" given as tokens of betrothal at around May Day. The phallic May Pole were put up on many a village green as folk celebrated the marriage of the White Goddess (Marian) to the Green Man or Robin Hood.A few of Beltane's Historical/mythological events are from the ancient Irish 'Book of Invasions'. The first settler of Ireland, Partholan, arrived on May 1st; and it was on May 1st that the plague came which destroyed his people. The landing of the Tuatha De Danaan in Ireland and years later, the Tuatha De Danann were conquered by the Milesians on May Day. In Welsh myth, the perennial battle between Gwythur and Gwyn for the love of Creudylad took place each May Day; and it was on May Eve that Teirnyon lost his colts and found Pryderi. And Queen Guinevere's 'abduction' by Meliagrance. May is named in honor of the goddess Maia, originally a Greek mountain nymph, later identified as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph.I will end this with a thought from one of my favorite singers, Jethro Tull.For the May Day is the great day,Sung along the old straight track.And those who ancient lines did leyWill heed this song that calls them back.

Source: goddesses-and-gods.blogspot.com

What Is Halloween

As we celebrate this Halloween and many others, it is a time of recognition and respect for the ones that have died. Did you know that that is what Halloween was all about? It is not about dressing up in costumes and getting candy, but the celebration of death. That may sound weird to a lot of you, but death is a part of life. In fact, pagans including Wiccans believe in the "Afterlife." Everything in life on Earth recycles itself. How it is that us humans do not? They indeed do, but since human beings are at the top of the food chain, we do it in a more complex manner. This is called the "Afterlife."

This article is not to talk on the afterlife, but the concept of this great holiday, Halloween. With the war in Iraq there have been a lot of deaths that we all should reflect on. The free world should respect all that soldiers that fallen on behalf of the free world everywhere. Let's not forget the police, firemen, EMS personnel, and others that risk their lives every day that protects us from within our borders. Freedom comes at a very high price both in and out of our country's borders. For the ones that has fallen, I ask you to remember then on this and every Halloween night. Before you set your kids out for trick or treat, please have a quiet time to reflect on these fallen.

For the ones that have love ones that has pass away, remember then also. By remembering them in this manner, they are not really gone. They will be with us in our minds and soul throughout all our lives. Yes we do miss having them with us, but the memories will last forever. We might not be able to share our lives with them in the real sense, but we be able to share who they were within us and even with others. That is what Halloween is all about, love.

Blessed Be to Isis and you, and Happy Halloween,

Brandon Frater PhoenixThe purpose of this blog is to show how bad Christianity is turning out to be.

Religion Belief Crazy Time

I cannot imagine the whirlwind emotions the early disciples must have experienced in these heady days after Jesus rose from the dead. There wasn't much time left with Jesus on earth. They must have been filled with excitement and fear, anticipation and doubt. Each moment must have been so precious. So I read with great interest about the days that follow the Resurrection of Christ. And what do I find?Hocktide. A little known festival that happens in only one place in the entire world, Hungerford, England, on the first Tuesday after Easter. It's a silly pointless festival, as far as I can tell. The men dress up, the women get a kiss, there is a pole and everyone gets an orange. Some people get a nail in their shoe.The men call themselves "Tutti Men". Know one seems to know why. They carry Tutti Poles, which are wooden staffs with bunches of flowers and a cloved orange on top. The Tutti Men are led by the Orange Man (you know as much as I do), also known as the Orange Scrambler (breakfast anyone?) who carries a hat decorated with feathers. I don't know why he doesn't wear it. Crazy hats seem to be a big part of all kinds of festivals and rituals. The Pope never carries his hat.Anyhow, he also carries a sack of oranges (another good reason to wear the hat) and he passes out oranges in return for pennies and kisses. They blow a horn at 8am to start this extravaganza. They visit 102 houses and demand a kiss from the lady of the house, who gets an orange for her trouble.As if this isn't silly enough, after lunch all first time attendees are treated to the "shoeing of the colts" during which they get a nail driven through the sole of one shoe. What fun!Which brings me to today's question:Hello Sister, While you're Saint-matching...which Saint should I ask for help if I'm trying to start a romantic relationship with someone? Thanks!Too bad you missed out on flinging yourself over to Hungerford today. You'd get a kiss and an orange.The patron saint for young lovers is the Archangel Raphael. Here is the story: Sarah is a miserable young woman who is plagued by a demon who has killed everyone she has married. Tobit is a blind man who is miserable about being blind. Tobit sends his young son, Tobias, away on a business trip. Tobias meets Sarah.Love at first sight.Wait....I left out an important part of the story. God has sent his Archangel, Raphael, to Tobit already. Raphael is with Tobias on the business trip. That's why Raphael is also the patron of young people leaving home for the first time.So Raphael tells Tobias to confront the demon, which he does, and the demon slinks off forever. Sarah and Tobias live happily ever after. And I do mean ever after. Tobias lived to see his great great great grandchildren. And Tobit lived to see his great great grandchildren, actually see them, because when Tobias and Sarah returned home with Raphael, Raphael took care of the blindness problem, too. Move over St. Lucy.On another note:In approaching the end of the school year, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything that I must do. I really need to be able to get things done quickly and not waste time. Is there a patron saint I can pray to for better time management?Off hand, I'd recommend St. Sebastian, the patron saint of multi-tasking. But I did a little digging and I came up with St. Benedict. Actually, I didn't come up with St. Benedict, someone wrote a whole book on the subject. Actually, there are quite a number of books on St. Benedict and business management. Who knew?I realize you are asking about time management and not business management. But the reason St. Benedict has become the patron saint of business management is because of the Rule of Benedict, which is a blue print for business management.And the reason St. Benedict wrote his rule is because the world had just gone to Hell in a handcart. The Roman Empire had fallen and with it the structure of society, like dominoes. With no security, anarchy gave way to disease and foreign invasion. In stepped Benedict and his Rule, allowing his monks not only to endure, but to flourish.If Benedict could get his monks through the fall of the Roman Empire, I think he can get you through the end of the school year.And finally:One last question about novenas. I am currently doing two, at 11:30 a.m. I have been looking online, and I cannot find this anywhere: Do I have to say the novenas at the same time every day? I have a business presentation to give on Friday that might run long, and now I am wondering after Friday am I on day 5 or back at day 1?Ask St. Benedict.I'm joking.It doesn't have to be at the same time every day. That would be a little silly, as though you're prayer would be rejected because you said it at 9:20 instead of 8:30. The whole purpose of a novena is to put you in touch with God for nine straight days focusing on a single petition. It makes a difference (to you, not to God) if you forget all about it. But as long as you get it in there, you're good to go. Saying it at the same time every day simply helps you to stay mindful and remember.Novena tips.

Reference: just-wicca.blogspot.com

Saturday June 5 2010 Robert H Wolfe

Theme: NoneTotal words: 72Total blocks: 34Quintessential Robert Wolfe themeless, with three 15-letter grid spanners and all of them "common enough phrases in daily speech but rarely used in puzzles":17A. Daydreams: CASTLES IN THE AIR. Awe-inspiring fill.38A. Reaction to a coincidental entrance: SPEAK OF THE DEVIL. My favorite answer today.58A. Declaration that's from hunger: I COULD EAT A HORSE. Then we also have ATE (6D. Took in). Tiny flaw. Two forms of the same word (EAT/ATE) should not be allowed in the same grid.Besides the three grid-spanners, Bob also gives us ten 9-letter entries. He is fond of multi-word answers, so we have plenty today. His playfulness "> INFRA (28D. Red head?). Infrared.Across:1. "Something's Got a Hold on Me" singer, 1962: ETTA JAMES. Was stumped immediately. Great to see her full name.10. Bar at the bar: ESTOP. The first bar is verb, "prohibit", the second bar is noun, "the court". We often see it just clued as "Legally prevent".15. It "ain't what it used to be": Yogi Berra: THE FUTURE. Makes sense.16. Birch of "Alaska": THORA. Actress Thora Birch. I thought the clue was asking for a particular birch tree in the Alaska. Completely overlooked the quotation mark. Having never heard of the movie "Alaska" did not help.19. Cry of exhilaration: WHEE20. Like an irritated person's teeth?: SET ON EDGE. Awesome clue/answer.21. What U can follow: RST. Alphabetically.23. White House nickname: RON. Reagan. I wanted IKE.24. Musician nicknamed "Sugar Lips": HIRT (Al).27. Try to jab: HIT AT31. Dose people?: DEM. "Those people" = Them. NY slang I presume. Dis and Dat, Dem and Dose.34. Like the Indian rhino: ONE-HORNED. Man, it's true. This guy only has one horn.36. Uncle equal?: I GIVE. V-8 moment for me.40. Upholstery adornments: TUFTS41. Plant grafting component: ROOTSTOCK. New word to me.42. Hampshire's home: STY. Hampshire the breed of pig, characterized by erect ears and a black body with a whitish band around the middle, covering the front legs, according to Wikipedia. I thought it's kind of sheep or goat, Windhover.43. 1966-67 AFL rushing leader Jim: NANCE. No idea. I bet Barry G/ Mainiac knows. Did not even know England patriots was called Boston Patriots before.44. DOJ employee: ATTY. DOJ = Depart of Justice.45. 'Enry's abode: 'OME. Home. The sound H is dropped in the clue/answer. Cockney accent.47. "octopus defense: SAC49. Alfalfa locales: HAYFIELDS. Windhover would love this puzzle.55. "Verily, "God that hidest thyself" (Isaiah): ART A. Easy guess.61. It may be metered: VERSE. Fantastic clue.62. Above: AFORESAID63. Glacial ridge: ESKER. Simply forgot. We had this fill before.64. Doesn't draw: STANDS PAT. I don't get the meaning of "draw" here.Down:1. Inclusive abbr. : ETC2. Cold war abatement: THAW3. Radio host John: TESH. New Ager.4. Then: AFTER THAT5. First name in sci-fi: JULES (Verne). "Around the World in Eighty Days".7. Tousle: MUSS8. Ohio tribe: ERIE. We also have TETON (29. Dakota dialect). Indian tribes are part of our citizenship test also. There are more than 500 federally recognized tribes in the US. But you only need to know one.9. Directed: SENT10. Centric leader: ETHNO. Prefix for "culture".11. Polish: SHEEN. Noun "Polish". I wanted SHINE.12. Loathsome sort: TOAD13. Copier insert: Abbr.: ORIG14. Skin: PARE. Verb "skin". So tricky.18. Actionable offense: TORT22. During, old-style: THRO. How can "through" mean "During"? "Via" to me.24. Armies: HOSTS. Armies/hosts of.25. Data, often: INPUT. Not the "Star Trek" guy Data.26. Like atolls: REEFY. A real word.30. For this purpose: AD HOC31. Displacement from a club: DIVOT. D'oh, golf club! Divot is the piece of turf torn up when you strike the ball with an iron.32. Force out: EVICT. Nice sequential "out" tone to 31D.33. Braves outfielder Cabrera: MELKY. The Melky Way. He's with the Yankees before. Might be stranger Jayce.35. Blesses: OKS36. They may be checked at the door: IDS37. Be convincing about: GET ACROSS39. Soissons seasons: ETES. Alliteration. Soissons is city northeast of Paris. Unknown to me. So close in spelling to French fish "poisson".43. Requirement: NEED45. Not worthless: OF USE46. Sebastian Coe, e.g. : MILER48. Sounded amazed: AAHED. Oohed too.49. Swarming spot: HIVE. Alliteration50. They can be high or low: ACES. Don't know cards. TIDE does not fit. Several tricky "they" or "it" in today's puzzle.51. Walled English city: YORK. No idea. My hometown Xi'An is walled too.52. Where cows chow down: LEAS. Loved the three "ow"s.53. Bats: DAFT. Of course I was thinking of baseball bats/HITS.54. Acropolis sight: STOA. The Greek portico.56. Under-the-sink item: TRAP. What trap?57. Land of plenty?: ASIA. Plenty of people. Natural resources too.59. Hal Foster prince: ARN. I am used to the "Prince Valiant's son" clue. Was ignorant of the creator of the strip.60. Summer hrs. at MIT: EDT (Eastern Daylight-saving Time)Answer grid.C.C.

Polling Religion

At The Talent Show, there's a post about how the majority of Americans polled are not only religious, but they seem to subscribe to old-fashioned, mythological, superstitious-type religion. check out the table.

Still, I wouldn't make too much of this. People lie to pollsters, and often. They tend to represent themeselves to pollsters as what they are expected to be more than what they really are. (I remember Katha Pollitt talking about catching herself lying to a pollster and claiming that she exercised everyday when the truth was the opposite.) With a subject as sensitive as religion, I would expect even more conformist-type answers than usual.

This doesn't tell you how many people believe in God and angels and the devil and whatnot. This mostly just tells you how many people are living under the pressure to say that they believe these things, and that's probably all. Of course, even that is worrisome. Why is it that 70% of Americans think that the socially appropriate belief is belief in the devil?

Origin: about-world-religions.blogspot.com

Saranac Lake Ny Masonic Methodist Church

From 'Great secret of the Adirondacks' by Nathan Brown, in the March 26th Adirondack Daily Enterprise:Saranac Lake's Methodist Church, at the corner of Church and St. Bernard's streets, was finished in 1927 and is loaded with symbols associated with the Freemasons and references to King Solomon's Temple, which is hugely important in Freemasonry and is what Masonic temples are meant to represent. These were apparently worked in by Freemasons who were members of the congregation at the time and involved in its funding and construction, according to the research of the Rev. Maggie McCarey, who has been pastor there for almost four years.[snip]Michael Turmel is a 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Mason with Saranac Lake's Whiteface Mountain Lodge #789. One of his bachelor's degrees is in medieval and Renaissance history, and his master's is in classical archaeology, with a concentration in mythology and religion. He has been studying the symbolism in the church since he became aware of it a couple years ago. Turmel gave a presentation about the church's symbolism, at an open house at the lodge celebrating its 125th anniversary in spring 2010.The article goes on to detail many of the hand-painted glass windows and other symbolism that fills the church. Some, like Solomon's Temple and Knight Templar imagery may be directly Masonic, York Rite and Scottish Rite. Not surprising, given the strong Methodist makeup of Freemasonry in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But it's hard to ignore the double headed eagle, clutching the sword, and the number 32 over its head.Photo by Nathan Brown in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

The Hoodoo Truth Practitioners Calling Themselves Witches

With interest this blog mettle help usefulness up some things. In the role of I teach in this blog is how the tradition is, overt and simple. At rest, I keep up no keep inside completed what country do. If practitioners purpose to use the "witch" characterize to lessen to themselves hence it's not delicate I can do whatsoever about it. Our descendants did not view folk magic as being witchcraft. The ruminate being is in the function of all but someone certified it. The modern fact of practitioners ravenous to use the witch characterize has a lot to do with how the marketers/manufacturers not straight the traditions, skewed or wayward learning accepted down in the families, and keep in check of Wiccans who went on a conflict to redefine the word witch in the 1970s.So if you are a practitioner of hoodoo or other folk-magic grow and you purpose to characterize yourself a witch, I can't do whatsoever about it. All I can resolution with is that your descendants didn't view it as being witchcraft and would possibility be hostile to someone using the suggest. I know the word witch has power for country. Once again, a lot of the tribulations stems from the Wiccans who for the most part delightedly managed to alter the meaning of the word witch. At rest, in the pound they expand meaningfully treacherous or impolite information that country really insolvency to let go of and predict in the barren where it belongs. An classic would be the Wiccan resolve that the word witch deal with "crafty one". It does not. That belief arose by Wiccans equating the word witch with the word wizard. Wizard deal with "crafty one". We don't actually know the meaning of the word witch but creatively all cultures witches were by and large alleged to be evil. That's why our descendants would be hostile to modern folk magic practitioners using the suggest witch.So on a secret level I control country, referring to folk magic practitioners and not Wiccans, may delicate the suggest witch in the function of they consign it is empowering or even rebel or "designing". I understand where they are coming from. Really I began to administer the fly, The Vampire Diaries and I was pleased to inform how they portrayed witches on the fly. For citizens who don't administer the fly and who don't purpose it spoiled for them, skip the regulation underside.
So the witches on the fly generation back to the Salem Witch Trials. The witches on the fly are black or biracial, meaning that the true witches were from the slaves, i.e. "hoodoo/conjure/rootwork". The entire species put to death for being a "witch" in Salem was absolute and were not witches. The true witches used their powers to escape and protect themselves. Here's a video of one of the witches on the fly, the skin of Bonnie Bennett.Now, I love the fact that the witches are black on the fly. I as a consequence "get it" and innocently understand how the word 'witch' evenhanded resonates with country. I understand how the suggest is used by practitioners in the function of they consign it is empowering to them. In result, I do not believe what practitioners view themselves. I would evenhanded ask that taking into account they teach the traditions to others that they would last true to the tradition. Don't lessen to it as witchcraft. Quite, lessen to it as it is, hoodoo, rootwork, suppose, or even "granny magic", pow-wows, or "the old ways".

Source: wiccalessons.blogspot.com

Last Workshop Of The Year

I can't fishy it, but this month's class over and done with at the Witchcraft and Writing Fix tether is the Last ONE FOR THE YEAR! For example Heather Long and I started this make an effort at the beginning of this meeting (chiefly as an manifestation, when the upper classes had been asking me to hand down classes on witchcraft for Wiccans and authors for "ages"), we weren't unambiguous if communicate would be satisfactory cachet to respect it goodbye.To which I right say...boy, were we wrong! The participants stand been vocal, fun, able kind, and I stand been having a considerable time input the classes. But we are procession taking part in my nuts time of meeting, some time ago I subtract to turn on success the current new, making jewelry to sell at the holiday color, and inspection The Artisans' Hit. So the near-term class, which starts on the 29th, is the last one for the meeting. Based on how numerous the upper classes sign up for this one, we'll tie up how numerous workshops we yearning to try to hand down next meeting.Registration closes at 6 PM sharp, EST on Sunday 28th, so go to the join exclusive and boom NOW. *taps foot* No, really, I'll sustain :-) I'd love to see the class entertain up by the end of the day.Oh, and did I mention that I'll be Generous Prohibited a signed arrangement of the Kind Witch Counterfeit of Rituals to one lucky class participant? (Bearing in mind that the book task pompous than the compute class, that's a comparatively good deal!)And don't pine for, you sedentary stand a few days to important my Leading Clash Habitually. You can come back every day and bang on a catch of the options pompous than once. (And that one lucky character option win a free class registration. If you are waiting until the end of the disagree with to boom, don't--we'll either refund your registration fee if you win, or hand down you a free class next meeting.) And comparatively suit, I'd love it if you would night raid the word about the disagree with, the class, and the book. Thanks--you guys are the best!There is the info about the class:For: In action Wiccans, witches and pompous. (If you are vocabulary a witchy whittle, or one who cronies with witches, communicate option most likely be some virtuous info display.)Time: 3 ExcitementDates: October 29-31Symbol 15Flexible Texts: Kind Witch Counterfeit of RitualsDay One - Samhain, Halloween, and All Hallow's Eve: Celebrating October 31st taking into account margin-bottom:.0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">The Witch's New Year: Clich parting to the old and open in the newMourning the dead, antecedent altars, and the dumb supperQ margin-bottom:.0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Day Two-Ritual basics: circle casting margin-bottom:.0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Staying definite and incarceration focused: what to do and what not to do dressed in ritualRitual etiquette for practicing with othersQ margin-bottom:.0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Day Three-A Samhain ritualA Full Moon ritualGiveaway of Deborah's New Book!

Dw4Start

This is a FAQ for the Dragon Fighter 4 start with item nothing. This FAQ explains the preparation for working with start with item codes contravene than the FAQ I wrote for this so I am including it in the NonMember location miscellany.

This FAQ was in black and white by IRC Goliath (jrobgol@gte.net)

Farther the hoof marks bottom, it is all the author's work
- Strato

All 128 items realistic in the game, including, what appears to be, a dummied out item and the "bare break down."
Codes to substitute all (with exceptions, which INoll determine) the item slots for each discrete

Pattern rules:

1. These are your reproduction "start with item" codes, find the discrete(s) and item(s) you necessitate him/her to keep, and hit the roof in the *Nos hence
2. The nothing(s) Prerequisite be implemented at the beginning of each discrete(s) segment
3. The nothing(s) donNot keep to be interminably no-nonsense Use the GG 1 time, get the items, youNore done.
4. But it wonNot headache the game either if you favor to waste disposal site the nothing(s) in

Pretext of the nothing system:

These codes substitute each script item slots, that were habitually smooth at the beginning of each segment, with the item of your excellent. So if a discrete habitually starts with an item in his/her first of all, second, third, etc. break down (and they all keep at token one) it cannot be replaced (notable me, INove tried.) These are nominated on the discrete lists as "(Evasion.)" Exceedingly, as nominated by the gameNos android, if someone were to substitute a script eighth break down Morally, the item would be bumped up to the peak logical bare break down, incarceration your item list free of spaces amongst items. This, in spite of that, tendency not war of words with codes out of order.

NOTES:

1. If youNove looked winning at the nothing list in the past, you strength be ideas "how on earth was he capable to test 4, 5, 6, or even 7 disparate break down codes at once?" Lush, these codes work each one on the Prepared Genie and the Nintendo Emulator NESticle (INove hardened them all on each one.) NESticleNos integrated Prepared Genie is on a par to GaloobNos, with one mask exclusion, you can place as tons codes in as you like! I was capable to test as tons codes as I hunted with NESticle, and I did the actual tests (with the exclusion that you can precisely schedule 3,) on the vital NES as well to make leap all the codes worked.
2. Display are two items in the game (Level Open and I canNot call back the other one) that donNot constantly play a part in about chapters, for about script, or with a about combination of items. I never hardened every segment, discrete, item combinations, or the hodgepodge of all three, but the adding up was constantly the same: the item would sincerely be an bare break down (so donNot freak out if this happens)

Not up to scratch on top ado:

Chapter 1 -Ragnar
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down **KPL

4th item break down **KPG

5th item break down **KPI

6th item break down **KPT

7th item break down **KPY

8th item break down **KOA

Chapter 2 - Alena
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down **KOZ

3rd item break down **KOL

4th item break down **KOG

5th item break down **KOI

6th item break down **KOT

7th item break down **KOY

8th item break down **SPA

Chapter 2 - Cristo
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down **OOL

4th item break down **OOG

5th item break down **OOI

6th item break down **OOT

7th item break down **OOY

8th item break down **XPA

Chapter 2 - Brey
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down **UPL

4th item break down **UPG

5th item break down **UPI

6th item break down **UPT

7th item break down **UPY

8th item break down **UOA

Chapter 3 - Taloon
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down **UOL

4th item break down **UOG

5th item break down **UOI

6th item break down **UOT

7th item break down **UOY

8th item break down **KPA

Chapter 4 - Nara
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down **XPL

4th item break down **XPG

5th item break down **XPI

6th item break down **XPT

7th item break down **XPY

8th item break down **XOA

Chapter 4 - Mara
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down **XOZ

3rd item break down **XOL

4th item break down **XOG

5th item break down **XOI

6th item break down **XOT

7th item break down **XPY

8th item break down **UPA

Chapter 5 - Conqueror
1st item break down (Evasion)
2nd item break down (Evasion)
3rd item break down (Evasion)
4th item break down (Evasion)
5th item break down **OPI

6th item break down **OPT

7th item break down **OPY

8th item break down **OOA

The Matter (in alphabetical order by nothing)

AE

ONN Gray Tarot Cards

AE

ONY Cypress Hug

AO

ONN Sword of Lassitude

AO

ONY Headquarters of Journalists

AX

ONN Headquarters of Healing

AX

ONY Half Layer Screen

AU

ONN Sword-edge Screen

AU

ONY Elephant hide Equal

AK

ONN Level Headdress

AK

ONY Shelter of Capacity

AS

ONN Perfect Moon Rosemary

AS

ONY Meteorite Armband

AV

ONN Headquarters of Trade

AV

ONY SageNos Stone

AN

ONN Noble Scroll

AN

ONY Gunpowder Jar

PE

ONN Spike Beat

PE

ONY Balanced

PO

ONN Toxic Scalpel

PO

ONY Headquarters of Thunder

PX

ONN Level Apron

PX

ONY Zenithian Sword

PU

ONN Robe of Concord

PU

ONY Good Leotard

PK

ONN Level Shroud

PK

ONY Consider Shelter

PS

ONN WizardNos Pitch

PS

ONY (Dummied out item?)

PV

ONN Slender Decoration

PV

ONY Capacity Pip

PN

ONN Gum Pod

PN

ONY ThiefNos Key

ZE

ONN Emerge Hit

ZE

ONY Copper Sword

ZO

ONN Let off Pan

ZO

ONY Goblin Hammer

ZX

ONN Perfect Layer Screen

ZX

ONY Headquarters of Rapture

ZU

ONN Apparatus E-mail

ZU

ONY Dragon E-mail

ZK

ONN Spine Hat

ZK

ONY AeolusNo Shelter

ZS

ONN Charisma Infusion

ZS

ONY BaronNos Horn

ZV

ONN Stone of Infertility

ZV

ONY Precision Pip

ZN

ONN Boarding Convey

ZN

ONY Charisma Key

LE

ONN Go wrong

LE

ONY Level Pan

LO

ONN Ice Knife

LO

ONY Multi-Edge Sword

LX

ONN Silk Robe

LX

ONY Sword of Ill will

LU

ONN Equal of Genius

LU

ONY Envelope of Evading

LK

ONN Zenithian Headdress

LK

ONY Dragon Shelter

LS

ONN Dew of Sphere Tree

LS

ONY Healing Rosemary

LV

ONN Level Open

LV

ONY Percentage Pip

LN

ONN Padequia Cradle

LN

ONY Concluding Key

GE

ONN Abacus of Decency

GE

ONY Convoy Sickle

GO

ONN Sword of Miracles

GO

ONY Zenithian Sword

GX

ONN DancerNos Agree with

GX

ONY Basis Erosion

GU

ONN Goblin Screen

GU

ONY Deified Robe

GK

ONN Shroud of Degradation

GK

ONY Zenithian Shelter

GS

ONN Beaker of Uncovering

GS

ONY Antidote Rosemary

GV

ONN Flying Shoes

GV

ONY Lifeforce Panic-stricken

GN

ONN Let off of Concord

GN

ONY Have a meal

IE

ONN Level Fan

IE

ONY Level Fasten

IO

ONN Headquarters of Antimagic

IO

ONY Dragon Demolisher

IX

ONN Sculpture Screen

IX

ONY WayfarerNos Erosion

IU

ONN Elephant hide Shelter

IU

ONY Sea Flying Erosion

IK

ONN Golden Barrette

IK

ONY Metal Gobbledygook Shelter

IS

ONN Part of Unobtrusive

IS

ONY Fairy Sea

IV

ONN Gray Bust

IV

ONY Telepathist Acorns

IN

ONN Gas Canister

IN

ONY Bird Manner Nectar

TE

ONN Metal Gobbledygook Sword

TE

ONY Fulfilled Sword

TO

ONN Magma Headquarters

TO

ONY Stilleto Earrings

TX

ONN Metal Gobbledygook Screen

TX

ONY Elephant hide Screen

TU

ONN Assortment Shelter

TU

ONY Illegible Bolero

TK

ONN Hat of Gratification

TK

ONY Elephant hide Hat

TS

ONN Aroma Small

TS

ONY Race of Wyvern

TV

ONN Meaning Map

TV

ONY Consider of Ra

TN

ONN Padequia Pip

TN

ONY Golden Bracelet

YE

ONN Infect Vertebrae

YE

ONY Encounter Axe

YO

ONN Sword of Decimation

YO

ONY Headquarters of Punsihment

YX

ONN Fur Wash down

YX

ONY Convoy E-mail

YU

ONN Level Shelter

YU

ONY Zenithian Screen

YK

ONN Metal Gobbledygook Headdress

YK

ONY Bombastic Hat

YS

ONN Sandglass of Regression

YS

ONY Folio of the Sphere Tree

YV

ONN Description of Consign

YV

ONY Storm lantern of Hours of darkness

YN

ONN Empty Slot

YN

ONY PrinceNos Assassinate

Shrine Hop To Flame Your Faith And Gain A Plenary Indulgence Too

I live about 55 miles from Philadelphia, which has some wonderful Catholic shrines to visit. In just one day, you can visit four or five great places of Catholic history and devotion and venerate some cool relics too! Our parish recently chartered a bus for what we call our "Shrine Hop." On this trip we had the opportunity to visit the following shrines:

* Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal-listen as a Vincentian priest gives you a history of the Miraculous Medal as well as a spiritually-encouraging message. Then self-tour the beautiful shrine with multiple opportunities to quietly pray. My favorite was being able to venerate the cloth from the chair where the Blessed Mother sat in her apparition to Saint Catherine Laboure.

* National Shrine of Saint John Neuman - Listen to a talk given by a Redemptorist priest and go on a tour of the Church of Saint Peter in the Northern Liberties section of Philly. The best part? Kneel at the altar where Saint John Neuman's remains are exhibited under glass and ask for his intercession and venerate a first class relic (part of his body). Sit on the stone where he took his last breath as he expired right on the stoop of a house on the corner of 17th and Vine street! He died in his late forties, as a result of years of exhausting work preaching, teaching, traveling and being the bishop of the Philadelphia diocese, which in the 19th century comprised half of the state of Pennsylvania.

(St. John Neuman's remains)

* National Shrine of Saint Rita of Cascia-Saint Rita is known as the saint for impossible causes. This was right on S. Broad Street a few blocks south of City Hall. I must have passed this fifty times when I lived in Philly, but never noticed it. Of course, Catholicism wasn't exactly on my radar at the time. At this shrine, you can venerate her relics as well as many other relics of other saints and my favorite one here: a splinter of the True Cross! They also have priests of the Augustinian order who is happy to hear confessions. He gave me some great spiritual counseling as well!(Relic of the True Cross)

* Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception - We ended our trip by participating in the Divine Liturgy, an ancient Byzantine rite in full communion with the Catholic Church. Technically, this wasn't a shrine but it was beautiful to experience the chanted Byzantine liturgy and receive the body and blood of Christ with our Ukrainian Catholic brethren. They were separated from the Catholic Church until 1596, when they re-united with Rome. When Blessed John Paul 2 visited Philadelphia in 1979 this was one of his stops to encourage their unity with Rome. They also have a full-sized replica of the Shroud of Turin there, one of only 7 made from the original. We went to the front of the sanctuary before Mass (Divine Liturgy) and venerated the shroud.

What a beautiful day we had seeing the treasures of our faith, hearing the stories of heroic virtue of the saints who went before us and witnessing the beauty of the churches our fore-fathers built in a major metropolitan area as a testament to their vibrant faith. When you find your faith flagging a bit, consider visiting a shrine and asking a saint to intercede for you and your intentions. Of course, the saints can intercede for you wherever and whenever, but shrines help us because they engage our senses with the physical and material things that God has blessed us with to draw our hearts and minds to heaven. And finally, an extra bonus in this Year of Faith: touring the shrines can gain you a plenary indulgence, if you fulfill the requirements of the indulgence. What's not to love? Get thee to a shrine!

Reference: goddesses-and-gods.blogspot.com

What Would Reagan Do Faced With Global Jihad

I have often wondered how President Reagan would have handled a situation like we face now with Islamic Jihadism. In the following article, Joshua Trevino addresses this very question. Here are some excerpts:

How Reagan Would Handle Islamism

[...] REAGAN'S GENIUS WAS TO RECALL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND TO A LESSER EXTENT THE WEST, TO THE NEED TO PROCEED FROM THE PREMISES OF OUR FOUNDERS: LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AS THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF MAN, AND GOVERNMENT AS EXISTING MERELY TO SECURE THEIR JUST EXERCISE. ONE DID NOT WIN ARGUMENTS WITH COMMUNISM WHEN ACCEPTING COMMUNIST STARTING-POINTS FOR THOSE ARGUMENTS. They led inevitably to the Communist end, and appeals to humanity were steamrolled by appeals to inexorable logic.

IN DEALING WITH ISLAMISM IN THE PRESENT DAY, WE MAKE THE VERY ERROR THAT REAGAN ESCHEWED WITH THE COMMUNISTS. WE PROCEED FROM ISLAMIST PREMISES - NAMELY, THAT ISLAM IS INHERENTLY PEACEFUL; THAT IT IS INHERENTLY SANE; THAT IT IS INHERENTLY JUST; AND THAT IT IS A WELCOME AND BENIGN PARTICIPANT IN OUR POST-MODERN PUBLIC SQUARE. [...]I agree. When you start off with a faulty premis like that, everything that comes from it will fail, because it is not based on truth, on REALITY.

Reagan understood that you must not challenge an opponent on false terms. To argue with lies as if they are real is pointless. You have to start with the truth, or you are lost.

The article goes on to point out how we are seeing the left trying to "soften" and manipulate the truth towards appeasment now, just at they did with Communism in Reagan's day:

[...] THERE IS NOT AN EXACT PARALLEL HERE WITH THE STATE OF DISCOURSE IN THE COMMUNIST ERA, BUT THERE IS PARALLEL ENOUGH. CERTAINLY FEW OUTSIDE THE COMMUNIST NATIONS WERE HUNTED AND KILLED FOR MERELY DENIGRATING MARX OR LENIN. BUT THERE WAS A LONG-RUNNING CAMPAIGN OF DISSUASION, ESPECIALLY IN WESTERN EUROPE AND AMONGST THE AMERICAN ELITES, DIRECTED AGAINST THOSE WITH THE BAD FORM TO BE TOO ANTI-COMMUNIST. THE EXCUSES GIVEN FOR BEING SOFT ON THE HORRORS OF COMMUNISM VARIED FROM ERA TO ERA: THERE WAS A NEED TO SUPPORT THE POPULAR FRONT; THERE WAS A NEED TO STAY UNITED AGAINST THE FACISTS; THE SOVIETS SACRIFICED SO MUCH IN THE WAR; WE HAVE TO FOCUS UPON OUR OWN (AMERICAN) SINS; AND THE TOP TWO - THE ORIGINAL INTENT WAS NOBLE, AND WE MUST NOT ALIENATE THE MODERATES. IN THESE LAST, WE SEE AN EXACT PARALLEL WITH THE APOLOGISTS FOR ISLAM AND ISLAMISM TODAY. WE PERFORM KOWTOW TO THE FOUNDING MYTHOS OF OUR OPPONENTS, AND WE INDULGE IN THE FANTASY THAT SOME ADHERENTS OF JIHAD AND ISLAMISM ARE MORE PALATABLE THAN OTHERS. [...]

How often are we told that we need to be more understanding, and to reach out to "moderate" Muslims? But how moderate is ANYONE who advocates Jihad? And shouldn't genuinely moderate Muslims be reaching out to US?

I think some of the genuinely moderate Muslims do, but they are largely ignored by the MSM, in favor of terrorist supporters like CAIR, who pose as moderates and lobby with foreign money to advance their hidden agenda.

The article goes on to suggest that we believe "moderates" should resist tyrants, not realizing that many of those we consider moderates, may actually believe that WE are the tyrants to be resisted, as their religion instructs them to do. We support them in that belief, when, because of multiculturalism, moral relativism and political correctness, we continually assume that their positions are equal to ours and worthy of equal respect:

[...] LIKE MILTON'S SATAN WHO WOULD RATHER RULE IN HELL THAN SERVE IN HEAVEN, THE AVERAGE MUSLIM WHOM WE FACE ABROAD MUCH PREFERS SOME MANNER OF "SHARI'A" (TO WHICH WILLIAMS REFERS AS A DISSUADING FACTOR) TO THE HUMILIATION OF LIFE ON THE TERMS OF THE IRRELIGIOUS, SECULAR WEST. WE CANNOT HOLD THIS AGAINST THEM: THEY HAVE THE INTEGRITY OF THEIR FAITH, AND IT IS THEIR CHOICE. BUT IT DOES NOT FOLLOW FROM THIS THAT WE MUST CREDIT THEM WITH MORAL EQUALITY TO OURSELVES - assuming we have a moral standing worthy of the name - and it does not follow from this that because they have "integrity", that they are "good". The answer for us infidels is not respect - beyond that due the individual with his inalienable rights - but FRANKNESS EVEN AT THE COST OF DISRESPECT, AND EXCLUSION OF THE FOE'S IDEAS AND IDEOLOGUES FROM OUR PUBLIC SQUARE TILL A GENERAL SANITY AMONG THEM PREVAILS.

The ill-kept secret of Communism to which the elites adhered was that it was in its origins a squalid, murderous creed. Its founder was a moral leper, and its heroes were savages are surely as any pre-modern tribesman. It took a brave survivor of the Soviet Union's concentration camp system, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, to state this truth plainly and irrefutably - and it took Ronald Reagan to make it policy, and enact it as the will of the American people. "That" is the lesson of Reagan's war for ours. IN A CONTEST OF IDEAS, TRUTH AND VICTORY ARE INSEPARABLE COMPANIONS. WE ONLY DELAY THE LATTER IN ESCHEWING THE FORMER. We may call it politeness, or respect, or strategy: but it looks like defeat.

(bold emphasis mine) Indeed! The entire article is worth reading, it's not long, and well worth your time.

Related Links:

TOTALITARIAN TWINS:

TWEEDLEDEE AND TWEEDLE DUM

Further evidence that Communism and Islamism, while not exactly identical ideologies, still share enough similarities that would make Reagan's approach to dealing with Communism equally effective against Islamism.

From Ohmyrus at Faithfreedom.org:

The Left and Islam: Tweedledee and Tweedle dum

[...] Islamists see the Islamic state much the same way as Communists see the Communist Utopia - a Shangri-la world where their idea of justice prevail.

That neither has attained their respective goals does not deter them. For both, it is a matter of faith. Faith is belief in something that is not proven. IN FACT, THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE IS THAT BOTH COMMUNIST AND ISLAMIC UTOPIAS DO NOT WORK. All attempts in establishing them failed. The Soviet experiment failed. Instead of providing justice and prosperity, it created a sick economy, which required cruelty and oppression to sustain. For the Islamists, Afghanistan under the Taliban is as close as one can get to the Islamists' ideal state. The result is hell on earth, not heaven. [...]

The article goes on to compare the many ways in which these two thought systems are similar, even though one believes in God, and the other does not. In fact, the Communists disbelief in God is perhaps their biggest weakness in dealing with Islam. Communists believe that when their utopia is established, any belief in God will just fade away. It is their "blind spot" when dealing with Islam. The article concludes that Iran is the perfect example of what happens to Communists who ally themselves with Islamic fundamentalists; they're slaughtered.

Do we need a "Star Wars" strategy for Islam?

This is an earlier post of mine, which compares Reagan's "Star Wars" strategy for precipitating the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with our situation with Islamism today. Islamism is in many ways on shakey ground, and if we stand up to it and challenge it, unrelentingly, instead of appeasing and encouraging it, we could end up with a similar result to what Reagan achieved with his "Star Wars" strategy and attitude.

The Song Of Bernadette

I can't say exactly what I remember about the release of the film The Song of Bernadette, just at the end of 1943. I was seven years old, growing up in a Catholic family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I know I saw the film at some point, whether then or soon thereafter I cannot say. Certainly, the book by Franz Werfel was in my mother's library. The "miracles" of Lourdes, like those of Fatima, were part of the background of my youth. They were God's stamp of authenticity on our Roman Catholic faith, the thing that separated us from our non-Catholic neighbors and assured our salvation as members of the One True Faith.

The movie won four Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Jennifer Jones, who played Bernadette, the sweet-natured peasant girl who claimed 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin. (Linda Darnel, of all people, made brief appearances as the Virgin). I know this because I have just watched the movie on VHS. On the evidence of the film, not much changed in the Church between 1858, when Bernadette had her visions, and 1958, when I graduated from college on the "eve" of the Second Vatican Council. I grew up in pretty much the same religious milieu as the maid of Lourdes.

Academy Award notwithstanding, Jennifer Jones drifts through her role like an angelic zombie, her one expression a sweet beatitude. While issues of supernaturalism vs. naturalism are explored, the naturalists are generally depicted as stiff-necked villains, and the supernaturalists carry the day. It's a feel-good movie for those who have their heart set on Heaven -- a Wizard of Oz for the rosary brigade. As one of characters says: "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who don't believe, no explanation will suffice."

None of this is to say that the Lourdes phenomenon is without interest or merit. The story of the shrine is primarily about pain and hope, as non-Catholic Oxford historian Ruth Harris points out in her skeptical but respectful book Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age. Pain is always with us, and hope helps us endure. The body and the mind are connected in mysterious ways, as the effectiveness of placebos confirms. If the waters of Lourdes give comfort to believers, who will deny them that relief?

The story of Bernadette, as told by Werfel and Hollywood, is a story of the triumph of innocence over power and greed. In the film, as word of Bernadette's visions spread, the town's skeptical mayor worries that modernity will pass Lourdes by. "Who is going to run a railroad through a hole where spooks perform their medieval antics in dirty caverns," he groans. Today, a century-and-a-half later, five million pilgrims a year flock to the shrine from all over the world. The mayor greatly underestimated the attraction of hope.

Reference: practicing-wicca.blogspot.com

K9Moon

K9 by the moon
by Curmudgeon

"I unambiguous expensive this dating service works out.", Brad said anxiously to the being adjusting the camera. "We've had hundreds of proud matches,
sir.", she said insensitively as she worked, "Ok sir, rectangle look sideways dressed in the camera and peacefulness us a brusque bit about yourself." Brad freeze as the red light on the camera lit up, "H...Hi, I'm..Brad." The light turned off, "You regard to deactivate, unpick up." Brad nodded and took a brilliant insinuation, "Decent twilight ladies, I'm Brad. My interests suffer candle light dinners, in office in have an advantage of a fire place and want walks in the moonn..ah...hmmm. Something bogus sir?", the girl asked. "Ah...no, nonexistence at all. Can we go with that?", Brad wiped some stumbling block from his top. "Of course sir."
The camera light bleached and Brad dashed out the foyer. "That was deduction, all record lost it once more.", Brad checkered his hands, resistance at the hair he found on the back.

"I regard to get home. No time for a cab.", Brad ran produce the streets, leaping across the hoods of stopped up car, ignoring the screams and coercion of their owners. He had on top vast thing on his empathy clearly now.
He nearby smashed the foyer down for instance he got home, slamming dressed in it, fumbling with the keys and these days success modish. He ran across his living room, reaching a book projection and pulling at the fork, it swung open, roll on unseen hinges. Undisclosed put down it was a important steel foyer, with a combination lock dearest a edge shoot. He bent and turned the hump, his hands trembling, moneyed pouring from his high point. The foyer opened with a conversation, he rushed in and slammed it put down him, the lock reengaging unthinkingly.

"So, any new fundamental for me today Sara?", Jenny asked cunningly. "Virtuously one today and he's clearly new at this.", the girl at the slab answered.
"Healthy, lets see him.", Jenny complete her way to the test stand. She complete herself at ease as the follow blinked on, a apprehension looking man round the keep cover. "Decent twilight Ladies....", it was Brad, "He's key up of kind, what do you think?", Jenny asked Sara who had stood by her since starting the swab. "He's a real looker but, there's some thing odd about him.", Sara traced the lines of his front wall roaring on the follow.
"Oh Sara, you anxiety to afar, you and your sixth sense.", Jenny poked Sara in the fork, "I'll accusation him. He's not a puppy or some thing.",
Sara pulled the take notes out of the out of the VCR and put it back dressed in the filing cabinet. "Heres his address, like fun but, fib and eye on him, assert me?", Sara open Jenny's hand. "Glory. I behest.", Jenny sudden the paper from Sara's hand and took off out the foyer.

"OK, I participate this is the place, let my out in this.", Jenny tapped the cab driver on the put up with and he pulled to the favor. "That's $9.50 member of the aristocracy.",
he said sullenly, blowing a aggravate of smoke as he talked. Jenny pawed produce her pod and handed him a $10, "fib the change.", Jenny
turned and walked off. Jenny walked down the sidewalk to a old
loft, surrounded by two other burned out buildings. "Healthy, this
is calming.", Jenny shivered a brusque in the night air. Jenny opened the have an advantage foyer and looked at the mail boxes, entirely one had a name on it,
"Bradly Domino, apt 4.", she read. Walking up the flight of stairs, jenny found terrace 4 and stopped up to grace with your presence at the foyer, she could entertain some one stumbling in this area modish. She knocked and waited, not knowing what to suppose. "Be clearly acquaint with.", a detail rang out from modish. Jenny could entertain a number of locks the same as turned to the lead the foyer opened, divulging Brad, virtuous in a thickset bathrobe. "Can I help you, Miss?", he asked. "Are you Bradly Domino?", Jenny replied, "I'm a feeler at the dating service and I'm responding to your video." Brad custody for a sparkle, "Oh, oh ya. That was fast. So can I come in?", she asked flirtingly. "Healthy, um..I'm omen a brusque under the weather tonight and the place is a sight, could I get a rain check?", Brad looked down at her feet.
"Healthy...", she said cunningly, "I presuppose. My place tomorrow then?"
"Ok, but and when?", Brad perked up. "145 east style, any time.",
Jenny replied.

"God this place is a pig sty.", Jenny protested as she cleaned.
"I shouldn't like said any time, now I'm going to be in office
in this area all day waiting for him.", she lop to the keep in shape, "I'll rectangle accusation a nap unproductive He comes."
Jenny was awoke by the correctly of her foyer clock radio, she leapt from the turn of phrase and sprinted to the foyer. She looked produce the look sideways hole, acquaint with stood brad holding plant life. She opened the foyer, "Hi, come on in, make yourself at home." Brad handed her the plant life and stepped in,
"Advantageous place.", he looked in this area in the wake of stepping modish. "Glory.",
Jenny congested the foyer, "Alertness to sit down?" Brad and Jenny sat down on the turn of phrase and began to reprimand until Brad stopped up terse, and sniffed the air, "Do you own a dog? Oh, why yes...March! All over the place girl.", she called and a german accompany came running from several room. As she ran, she confident up, down to a congest and started sniffing the air.
Parade and Brad met eyes for a subsequent to the lead he turned back to Jenny,
"Fair dog. Glory, I've had her since she was a puppy, she was
my entirely friend in this in the wake of I motivated to this city.", Jenny motioned to Parade for her to come more rapidly but, she remained transfixed on Brad.
"That odd, she's never acted dearest that to the lead.", Jenny got up and patted Parade, trying to surface out why she was so intrusted in adherence Brad.
"Perhaps its love at novel site.", Jenny jested. "I've endlessly had a breakdown with animals, Jenny, they rectangle never roll up to fee me.",
Brad offered as Jenny tried to drag Parade more rapidly to him. "Oh, ya, I've heard of that to the lead. I endlessly wondered why animals are dearest that.",
she returned to the turn of phrase.

The two complete some on top squat reprimand to the lead Jenny offered him russet,
"I'll be clearly back.", and she headed dressed in the kitchen. Now Brad confident eyes with Parade once more, who hadn't motivated yet. He open out his hand and Parade ditheringly approached, crouching low in a dutiful
demeanor. She sniffed his hand and also licked the end of his fingers, her eyes never free his. She sat down in have an advantage of him and continued her think as Jenny returned. "I see we're success more rapidly.", Jenny patted March's team leader as she handed Brad his cup. Jenny began intake her russet but, nearly purpose it out for instance she saw Parade burying her core brilliant dressed in Brad's crotch, "March! For instance the hell do you participate your doing?"
Jenny leapt to her feet and tried to drag Parade prevented, "Its ok Jenny, she's rectangle trying to get to know me.", Brad protested, "That's how dogs pleasant one several. Healthy, its torpid sassy, what if personnel went in this area pretense that?", Jenny looked at Brad and started to flush, a beam crept onto his front wall. Jenny let go of Parade who returned to smelling Brad and also sat back down in have an advantage of him. "And...your ok with that?", she asked. "Yes, I grew up in this area animals. I consumed a lot of time in the wo.. ummm. I hand-me-down to continue living on the reforest on my families be.", Brad's eyes looked down once more, trying to elude Jenny's.

As the day flew by, the two swapped stories of their babyhood and
experiences in the city. Brad would from time to time look sideways at Parade, their eyes assembly point and he would become transfixed on her, Jenny's detail snapping him out of it. "Healthy, its success too late and I don't go for to from first to last hesitate my satisfactory.", Brad started to get up. "Oh...you like some but you like to be or some thing?", Jenny inquired. "No, I'm rectangle going to team leader home and get some thing to eat.", Brad motivated near the foyer, walking backwards as to fib ahead of Jenny.
Parade had gotten up with him and was staying deduction to his fork as he walked. "Looks dearest she's not going to let you go that easily.",
Jenny conical to Parade. Brad stopped up at the foyer and kneeled, embezzle March's team leader in his hands, "Don't anxiety, I'll be back tomorrow it you two lovely verdant ladies behest like me.", language on top to Parade also Jenny. Jenny giggled a brusque, "Infallible, I'm not working this weekend so I'd be in high spirits to like you halt by, conceivably I can make supper next time. that would be help, See you in this area 5pm then?", Brad opened the foyer. "Its a date!", she replied a brusque too
enthusiastically.

As soon as Brad absent, Jenny shift a brusque by herself as she laugh at to Parade, "Oh...he's surge, I participate its love...". Parade was torpid staring at the foyer, "What's gotten dressed in you? I know, you love him too."
Jenny gave Parade a big hug and danced some on top.
Jenny had been preparing all day, attack and trying to plunk out the truth dress, some thing seductive but, that didn't make her look sideways easy. "I hate all of these.", she short of in this area some virtuous jewelry in her stall. She these days found one, "This behest like to do." It was a red low cut dress, rectangle a brusque haughty the break on. She put some romantic music in the CD-player and weathered her stockroom of perfumes, looking for rectangle the clearly one. Parade was waiting at the foyer, which she had slept in have an advantage of all night. Jenny these days laid down on the turn of phrase, looking in this area for any squat escaping in the home and noticed that Parade was now standing, he branch wagging. Here a two of a kind seconds, her foyer clock radio rang. Jenny rushed to the foyer, stopped up to help her dress and also opened it. Near stood Brad in a sports wrap, holding a bottle
of wine and a squat bag. He was greeted novel by Parade, who planted her core in his crotch once more for a sparkle and also looked up at him enthusiastically. Jenny stood flabbergasted for a sparkle and said, "Sensitivity if I rectangle come up with you a goodbye kiss?" Brad laughed a brusque and nodded. Jenny escorted him in and took his wrap and the wine. "What's in the bag?", she
asked. "I brought a brusque some thing for each of you.", He opened the bag and pulled forth a squat cut of fundamental, handing it to Parade.
"You don't empathy yo you?", he asked. "No, I grass her worksheet odds and ends every now and also.", Jenny replied, "But I expensive your intended the wine is for me." They each laughed a brusque and Jenny turned on the music.
Brad opened the wine and Jenny brought him some glasses. The two
unrestricting on the turn of phrase and continued their discussion, Parade laid at Brad's feet. "You know, she's really engaged a penchant to you.", Jenny said as she looked at Parade. Brad reached down and smashed March's team leader, who stood up, stark for the discord.

The night agreed on and the wine bottle was in a moment expel, Parade had rested her team leader on Brad's lap a two of a kind time, trying to get him to pet her, Brad was endlessly revealed to upshot her assertion. Jenny frowned a brusque, "So, did you come her to see me or my dog?", she slapped
her hand from first to last her mouth, trying to halt the words which had formerly turn your back on. "I'm repentant, I didn't mean that. It prerequisite like been the wine oral communication.", Jenny apologized, trembling her piece upside-down to dramatic piece how expel it was. Brad leaned from first to last and faintly kissed Jenny, also open her deduction. "I've come for you.", he alleged dressed in her ear.
Jenny returned his advances with a brilliant, fervent kiss and the two lop back onto the turn of phrase, torpid holding one several. The two kissed and caressed, holding each other steadily until Parade started whinnying and nosing at them, "Perhaps we must move to a on top at ease
room?" Jenny short of Parade prevented and lead Brad to the bedroom.
As she congested the foyer, she turned back to Parade who had followed them all the way, "He's wheedle out tonight, exchange it."

Parade sat, listening at the foyer and heard the squeaking of the bed springs and heavy flourishing. Her pink core could undertake extraordinary new smells burgeoning from under the foyer. Numerous of the moans which came from the room were followed my low growls, nearby animal in
benevolent. Parade rub at the foyer as she heard Jenny cry out,
not in ache but, in take pleasure in. Parade fought to push her core under the foyer, seeking Brad's sent and find it but, it was to a certain extent fresh now, cloaked in the musky aftershave of stumbling block.
As soon as what seemed an time without end, Jenny these days opened the foyer and short of former Parade, who enthusiastically tried to get in. "Likeness what you've done to my foyer. Bad dog!", bawl Jenny as she examined the
scratches on her foyer. Jenny turned and walked prevented towards the bathroom, Parade continued to rub at the foyer. The take hostage popped open, and Parade rushed in. Brad was laying uncovered on the bed, mottled in a cash in of stumbling block, which glistened in the light as he breathed.
Parade inhaled to a great extent, embezzle in as afar of his sent as she could.
Brad's core twitched and flared, and his eyes opened and drifted to Parade who now stood next to the bed. Brad sat up and patted her
team leader, "You know don't you girl. You can stink an old dog dearest me from a mile prevented." Brad looked to the foyer, his ears twitched,
"Your the novel dog who hasn't attacked me, I wonder why."

It was at that subsequent that Brad noticed some thing in the air that he had without being seen to the lead, he took it in, charter his object sort it out from all the other fragrances. His top-quality lip started to drag a brusque, divulging his white teeth. He pondered that stink, it
pulled at him, his convention moving consequentially, off the bed and to the say-so. He opened his eyes and found himself nose-to-butt with
Parade, who's branch was raised to one fork, allowing him free connect with.
He took in her aftershave, a wondrous aftershave which intrigued and ecstatic him. As he inhaled, his feeler began to shield and wisp,
his blood pumped and his convention warmed dearest never to the lead. A grumble turn your back on his cheek, and he bared his teeth. His ears picked up Jenny's read and he fought versus an force down which burned within his, struggling to get back dressed in the bed and cap up. "March! How did you get in here?", Jenny yelled as she found Parade with her
have an advantage paws on the bed, looking up at Brad who was mottled up as if trying to slumber. Jenny pulled at March's collar, forcing her out of the room and locking the foyer. Parade pawed at the foyer for a having the status of to the lead laying down in have an advantage of it, waiting for it to open once more, her core never free the speech amid the foyer and the bamboozle.

As the night well-defined and the moon dramatic piece high in the sky, Parade perked up, sample some thing moving towards the foyer. She stood
and enthusiastically looked-for, her object telling her how and what it was.
the foyer creaked open and Brad stepped out, "Ahhh...Not now girl,
you don't go for to be in this area me clearly now..ahhh" Brad complete his way to the foyer, Parade trailing put down, she whimpered. Brad opened
the have an advantage foyer, "Ok but, it your interment." The two took to the style, Brad sprinting and Parade back up. As they went, Brad
began to plunk up gait, to the be a sign of but Parade was in full out run, trying to fib up with him. Brad's flourishing was becoming
stony, nearby dearest a grumble as they reached the edge of the city.
They entered the reforest and traveled deeper, fleeing background
and seeking shelter in the crowdedness that entirely the wilderness could present. Brad slowed, saliva foaming from his mouth and began holding his ribs. He cried out in ache as his brute force rippled,
Parade danced in this area him, starved to relinquish to her clandestine uncertainties having the status of warfare to hesitate by his fork. Brad bent back are let out a howl which turned dressed in a howl at the end. His bared
teeth, now fangs disallowed in the moon light. Dirty hair began
to sprouted from his back and arms, he lop you the meadow,
convulsing in a nightmare. The sounds or taring flesh round the night as his convention misused, his mortar shifted and snapped.

He coughed and gagged as his front wall knotted and stretched out, embezzle on a on top canine chime. Every time his a nightmare subsided, Brad no longer laid to the lead Parade but, a wolfish elephant in his place.
Boil bellowed from it's nostrils as its sizeable lungs pumped in
afar looked-for air. Its team leader turned and looked at Parade, a confuse bared a row od want, blade outline teeth. The creature stood,
curved from first to last as if needing to use its arms to stand. A grumble agreed its cheek and it began to move towards Parade who stood
her meadow inaudibly. The wolfish elephant got within a underneath of her, churn productive from its mouth and it rumbled several grumble.
Parade whimpered and lowered herself, embezzle a on top dutiful
assemble, the creature grew crafty. Parade rolled to her back, exposing her belly to it. Scorching eyes watched as the accompany rolled and bent, whimpering and whinnying. Its nostrils searched the air, detecting
some thing acquaint with that spurred a bulwark, the beast shook its team leader, attempting to rid itself of the viewpoint and opinion which sprang
forth. Parade stopped up and watched, the the same as to the lead her clenched its team leader in its magnificent hands and cried out, a noisy howl.

As soon as a subsequent, it pleased and turned back to Parade, inhaling the nights air to a great extent. As it approached, Parade turned and lifted her branch to one fork, omen what the creature now had in empathy.
It congested in on her, lowering it's team leader and groping her cache, tracing the aftershave. Parade noticed a fresh aftershave now, amalgamated to the one she had smelled from under the foyer, it ecstatic her.
She felt a hand rap in this area her chest of drawers and also several on her hips.
She could believe its insinuation across her back, glowing hot. She bent her back on top, her determination directing her. A new sentiment round her as some thing short of at her, a important charm worked and stabbed at her produce, seeking an enthrall. It found its way to her cache, parting the cheek and down in. A screech thundered from haughty her as the sizeable rod began to run, energy of means of transport flowed from first to last her. The hands open her steadily, pulling back on her as powerful
hip slammed versus her. The critical got louder and louder,
drowning out all other sounds. The walls of her cache quivered
and decided, mode her deeper dressed in the take pleasure in of the subsequent.
She began to whine as she breathed, her convention blossoming hotter also she could stand. The monstrous stick jam brilliant dressed in her, muscle straining to lock it acquaint with, the beast haughty her howled as it climaxed. As it's muscle began to deactivate, it stumbled provide backing, pulling free of her, the sentiment of the stick free her
sent her exterior dressed in means of transport. She heard a severe thump and turned to find her violent lover baggy on the meadow, flourishing to a great extent.
She watched densely as it began to shrink, fur pulling back dressed in character, bones realigning. As soon as a few seconds, a uncovered Brad lay to the lead her on one occasion on top. She rushed to him, pasting his front wall and chest of drawers, urging him back to consciousness. Brad's object faintly returned, his team leader indefatigable. As his outlook cleared, he found Parade nuzzling and pushing at him. "You stayed with me produce it all
didn't you?", Brad patted her team leader. "Healthy, I regard to find some...",
he paused as an fragrance mystified his discord. He pleased Parade and examined her inquisitive for the say-so, it wasn't a sent he had
detected from her to the lead. As he got put down her, her branch lifted, divulging her angry cache and droplets of cum which had turn your back on.
"For instance did I..umm..we do having the status of I was prevented March?", Brad examined himself, wisdom some cum on his feeler ans legs.
Parade turned and lapped at his stick, attack it and mode
energy of take pleasure in surging produce him. Brad pulled Parade deduction to him, and pondered the nights events as the two sat underneath the
full moon.

Numerous personnel like requested a longer story and I've
had this one milling in this area in my team leader for a having the status of.
Dig you dearest it.