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ZEN FOR THE INTELLIGENCE ANALYST AND OPERATIVE
By Ed Komarek
(5/10/06)
Blog: http://exopolitics.blogspot.com/
Copy and Distribute Freely
A background in both the natural sciences and in religion can been extremely useful in the gathering, analysis and modeling of exopolitical reality. I was born into a family of well know and respected ecologists where I received a good background in the natural sciences at a very early age. My study of religion developed later in my early twenties following a existential crisis that forced me to educate myself in the nature of self and reality. I have intuitively always attempted to mentally grasp the biggest picture possible of life so as to able to guide my actions and the actions of others in a constructive manner.
Correct intelligence collection, analysis and modeling are as essential to the study of ecology as they are to the intelligence community. The ecologist attempts to grasp a understanding of the natural world just as the intelligence analyst attempts to comprehend a understanding of human world. Since humans are a part of nature it stands to reason that human culture can be understood using the same basic tools or concepts as used to understand the natural world.
If I sit out on my back porch and observe the life around the pond, I am using the same tools of observation, data collection and analysis, and modeling that a intelligence operative and analysis uses when steping into another culture. Just as the ecologist must remove himself from his human culture and programing to understand nature, so to must the intelligence individual step out of his culture leaving the comfort and safety of the embassy enclave for he rigors of the culture he is attempting to understand and model.
The first step toward understanding nature or another culture is to get out of ones own shoes and into the shoes of the other, a very difficult task. The process is greatly assisted by religious understanding. Zen Buddhism and Taoist thought provide very useful insights into the importance of self understanding to the understanding of both natural and human culture.
So just how does one step out of oneself and into nature or another culture. The first step is an awareness of just how we have become embedded or indoctrinated into the culture we are in and what is it that keeps us stuck in our self and our culture. I believe this involves the mental dialogue that is constantly going on in our heads. We share mental self and cultural reinforcements continuously amongst those we associate with and over time this mental dialogue can become a impediment to observation and analysis of ourselves, nature and human culture with disastrous results.
In order to step out of ourselves and our culture we must exert discipline over the mental dialogue of culturally reinforcing views and beliefs constantly streaming through our minds. This mental dialogue separates and distorts individual and collective perception of the outside world and keeps the individual or collective bottled up in their own mental imagery and in a state of conflict inwardly and outwardly. An extreme case of this are people with mental illness walking down the street constantly talking to themselves, oblivious to their surrounding.
Zen Buddhism and teachers of meditation understand this problem with the ever present mental dialogue and work to develop techniques and disciplines to deal with the problem.
The most useful techniques are techniques that focus the mind on one thing and hold it there. One learns through these techniques how to slow down and even drop the mental dialogue resulting in great clarity of perception, observation, and analysis of both oneself their surroundings. In other words one learns how to step out of themselves and their culture and into a greater reality unencumbered by preconceived notions and beliefs tied up in the streaming mental imagery. One really has to look no farther than ones own self to understand and resolve problems of the individual and of humanity.
I strongly believe that as more people grasp what is right before them, closer than even their nose, then the futile chase for that ever elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will stop. The problems of humanity will begin to abate as we learn to stop seeing our own reflections superimposed on our surroundings both natural and cultural. This would be a great step in our human evolution and great boon to both our political and exopolitical understanding.
In 1975, Dannion Brinkley was speaking on the telephone during a thunderstorm. A lightning bolt hit the phone line, sending thousands of volts of electricity through his head and body. His heart stopped and at the hospital, he was pronounced dead, and a death certificate was issued. He was then covered with a sheet and wheeled towards the morgue....then he woke up! He had been dead for 28 minutes, and this was the longest clinically documented near-death experience ever recorded at that time.
He later told how he had gone down a tunnel into a bright light, went through a life-recall self-judgement process and was shown a series of future world events, up to 2014. Brinkley said that "between 2004 and 2014, more precisely between 2011 and 2012", there would be "the return of an energy system that existed here a long time ago", and that it would culminate in an "electromagnetic polar Earth shift" between 2012 and 2014.
The whole process would present mankind with a spiritual opportunity to raise their consciousness. What Brinkley didn't know, was that 2012 is the next "Creation Date" of the ancient Maya civilization.
The Olmecs, who are the first civilization known to have inhabited Mesoamerica, are said by archaeologists to have arrived there between 1800 BC and 1500 BC. Several Maya scholars now agree that the calendars used by the Maya were developed by the Olmecs in a town called Izapa, which became populated between 1500 BC and 800 BC, and which the Maya inhabited from about 250 BC. The "Tzolkin" (literally: "count of days") calendar was developed by the seventh century BC, according to Mayanist, Munro Edmonson, and consists of 260 days.
The calendar was used as an almanac, giving each of the 260 days a unique quality that not only influenced the character of those born on that day, but that would also make it favourable for doing certain tasks and unfavourable for doing others. The descendants of the ancient Maya that live in the highlands of Guatemala, have been using this 260-day calendar in an unbroken sequence, for thousands of years. They explain that the 260-day calendar is based on the period of human gestation.
The Long Count calendar has a direct relationship to the Tzolkin, since it consists of 260 "katuns" rather than the 260 days of the Tzolkin. The Long Count was fully developed by the mid fourth-century BC, according to Edmonson, although the oldest stela dating a contemporary historical event, shows a Long Count date equivalent to 36 BC. The Long Count consists of a hierarchy of cycles; 20 "kin" or days made one" uinal", or 20-day period; 18 "uinals" made a" tun" (360-day year); 20" tuns" made a "katun", and 20 "katuns" made a "baktun". After 13 baktuns had passed, a Creation Date is reached, which is written: 13.0.0.0.0. The last Creation Date occurred on a Gregorian historical date of 11th August 3114 BC, and this is the "base-date" of the 13-baktun cycle, from which all dates inscribed on stelae were counted. The next time the Long Count date reaches 13.0.0.0.0 will be on 21st December 2012.
Precession
Maya scholar, John Major Jenkins has made a strong case that the Long Count calendar of the Maya was actually a device for tracking the cycle of precession. This is the 26,000-year cycle in which the Earth's axis, which is 23.5 degrees off "vertical", rotates in a circle, and is measured by the movement of constellations against the fixed positions of the rising equinox or solstice Sun. The winter solstice 2012 termination point of the 13-baktun cycle indicates a 36-year time window (1980 to 2016) in which the winter solstice Sun rises on the galactic equator. Astronomers variously put the exact half-way point of this process at 1998 or 1999, but the Olmecs and Maya targeted it at 2012. Some commentators have said that the Maya were thus 13-14 years out with their end-point, which is still quite impressive considering it was calculated over 2,000 years ago by a non-technological society. However, as we shall see, there are reasons for considering that the year 2012 is a significant year in the Galactic Alignment process, and was deliberately targeted.
The Toltec people of northern Mexico, like the Maya, used the 260-day almanac and also a 365-day calendar known to the Maya as the "Haab." Each day had a name in the 260-day calendar and a name in the 365-day calendar, but it took exactly 73 Tzolkins, and 52 Haabs for the combination to repeat itself. This period is known as a Calendar Round, and every Calendar Round the Toltecs held a ceremony called a New Fire Ceremony six months before the day of the zenith passage of the Sun (when it is directly overhead). John Major Jenkins has shown that this New Fire Ceremony was originally also a method of tracking the cycle of precession. It is recorded that exactly six months before the New Fire Ceremony, the priests would go to the top of a hill to see if the Pleiades reached the zenith at midnight, and if the constellation reached the zenith, that meant that the "world would not end". They would then know exactly how close the Pleiades would be to the zenith Sun, six months later, when the stars were not visible due to the daylight.
THE STONE ALARM CLOCK
When the Toltecs moved down to the Yucatan peninsula, in southern Mexico, it seems that they merged their zenith cosmology with the Maya system, and encoded the result into the Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza. The pyramid has 91 steps on each of its four sides, totalling 364, plus the top step: 365 altogether. This is a clear sign of a calendrical meaning. Every year, on spring equinox, the afternoon Sun causes a shadow play on the pyramid, so it appears that a huge snake is descending the pyramid from the sky. The effect is enhanced by stone snake heads at the bottom of one staircase. The Crotalus durissus rattlesnake, whose zig-zag pyramid pattern has heavily influenced Maya art and architecture, also has a marking close to its rattle, that is identical to the Maya Ahau glyph, which is associated with the Sun. The rattle itself, is called "tzab" in the Yucatec Maya language and this is also the word for the Pleiades constellation. Jenkins argues that Kulkulcan, the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent of the Toltecs and Aztecs, is thus a symbol for the Sun-Pleiades-zenith conjunction, and sure enough, we are now at the beginning of a 360-year time window when the Pleiades conjuncts the zenith Sun directly over the Pyramid of Kukulcan. Right at start of the 360-year time window is 2012, and on the 20th May 2012, 60 days after the equinox snake shadow-play, the Pleiades-zenith Sun conjunction will occur on the same day as a solar eclipse, on the day 10" Chicchan "in the unbroken Tzolkin count of the highland Maya. "Chicchan "means snake, and the snake rattle is sounding our wake-up alarm call!
The Hopi Emergence
According to Frank Waters' "Book of the Hopi", the Native American Hopi people say that we are in the fourth of seven eras - the Fourth World, and that we are approaching the transition to the Fifth World. The First World ended by fire; the Second World ended when the Earth "teetered off balance", causing floods and an ice age, and the Third World ended in a flood. There will be a "Great Purification" just before the start of the Fifth World. The transition is called an "Emergence "and every year, in November, the Hopi have a ceremony called "Wuwuchim", held in an underground chamber called a "kiva", in which they re-enact the" Emergence", which is seen as a birth process, and "initiates undergo a spiritual rebirth". There is a hole in the floor of the "kiva", symbolising the previous ascent, or "Emergence" from the Third World to the Fourth World. The ladder leading up and out of the "kiva" represents the forthcoming "Emergence" from the Fourth World into the Fifth World. The ceremony includes a "New Fire Ceremony" and culminates at midnight, with the Pleiades constellation overhead, showing a direct connection with the Toltec (and later Aztec) New Fire Ceremony, which Jenkins has decoded as a precession-tracking method, as encoded in the Pyramid of Kukulcan, "stone alarm clock" with its 2012 rattle-snake alarm.
THE SPIRITUAL WEDDING
It seems that "the end of the world" actually means "the end of the World", as in the end of the current era, and there are at least three more to go, according to Hopi mythology. Archaeologist Laurette Sejourn'e says that the Aztecs misunderstood the religion of the Toltecs, which was based on the concept of rebirth - symbolised by the snake, since it sheds its skin and Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent, who is represented in the "stone alarm clock" at Chichen Itza, represents a union of Earth (snake) and sky (feathers).
In Kundalini yoga, there is said to be a fire-snake, coiled in three and a half coils in the base chakra (one of seven power-zones along the human spine). It is coiled around the Shiva lingham - the male line of force that comes down from the sky. Kundalini, according to Mary Scott, is an Earth force that comes up from the Earth. She also notes that there are several findings by dowser Guy Underwood, which confirm this connection. Kundalini yoga is the practise of awakening the snake and allowing it to rise up the spine until it reaches the highest chakra, the Crown chakra, where the meeting of Shiva and Shakti lead to enlightenment and the trance of Samadhi - ecstasy - the annihilation of the ego and the end of duality. This sounds very similar to the meeting of the Maori Sky and Earth gods, which has been predicted for 2012, and also the merging of the Inca Overworld and Underworld onto the everyday world - also predicted for 2012.
The original Toltec religion of rebirth associated with Quetzalcoatl has actually now been revealed in a long lost Aztec codex called "Pyramid of Fire" - (published by Jenkins), which says that Quetzalcoatl is "the man that achieves God", "and that concept of sacrifice was originally the sacrifice of the ego. Everyone has their own serpent, which is the energy of Tonatiuh, the Sun. "And in this serpent sleeps consciousness, in this serpent is hidden divinity. From this serpent his wings will grow".
Plasmatic Immersion
So the "spiritual opportunity for mankind" spoken of by Danion Brinkley can be confirmed as a time very close to 2012, when something will trigger a mass Kundalini experience in mankind... but what could the trigger be?
Alexey Dmitriev, a Russian geologist, has analysed the increasing changes in Earth's weather and seismic phenomena, plus recent changes to the geomagnetic field. He has also taken into account solar changes, and changes to the weather and magnetic fields of all the other planets in the solar system. A ten-fold increase to the layer of deflected interstellar plasma on the heliosphere boundary indicates that the solar system is headed into an area of magnetised plasma that Dmitriev says is causing these changes. An increasing incidence of plasma balls in the atmosphere is a sign of the imminent "transformation of Earth" says Dmitriev, involving an interaction with processes beyond the three-dimensional world.
Like Brinkley, other near-death-experience subjects have also foreseen Earth changes and consciousness changes associated with 2012, as have many who have undergone out-of-body experiences, lucid dreams, remote viewing, meditative trance states, and even alien abduction experiences. These are all mystical states in which the pineal gland in the centre of the human brain secretes dimethyltryptamine (DMT) into the blood, according to Rick Strassman's recent study, and the Maya shamans used a mushroom containing psilocybin, which is a close relative of DMT, apparently accessing some sort of global mega-mind - the developing consciousness of the Earth mother.
The13-baktun cycle is a 260-unit cycle and thus a macroscopic version of the 260-day sacred Tzolkin calendar, which is based on the period of human gestation, so the 13-baktun cycle may measure a planetary gestation period of 5,125 years, which is the length of human civilization's recorded history. It seems that our entry into the magnetised plasma band will cause Earth weather changes, and a geomagnetic reversal, which will trigger the pineal gland into DMT and pinoline production, leading to kundalini and out-of-body experiences and increasing incidents of telepathy, while we develop our ability to see beyond the veil and into the next World.
Buy The Book ( Title changed to "Beyond 2012 Catastrophy or Awakening )
Reference: practicing-wicca.blogspot.com
http://www.theage.com.au/world/the-m...#ixzz2Z7JgxKsc
I wanted to share this with you. Fr Jan was my childhood Priest, he is also our family Doctor. He operated on my sister, my Dad and myself. He encouraged all the girls in my family to continue our studies onto University. A wonderful, wonderful person. Our family drove him 200kms through the jungle to see Pope JPII the Great when he visited PNG, an experience I will always treasure.
When Jan Jaworski graduated from medical school in Poznan, Poland in 1970, he was determined to take his skills to someplace in the world where doctors were scarce. When a university friend became a Priest and was sent to Papua New Guinea, it became the young doctor's objective.
But first came many more years of medical training, accumulating the skills he hoped to one day take to PNG. Finally, in 1984, he was ready. He was in Vienna finishing up a final year of training. He dropped into an exhibition of PNG culture. The pictures showed highlands men in traditional costume. 'I was a little bit frightened of where I was going, and what I would do.'
Then 'a friend of mine, a Pallottine father who had been taking spiritual care of me for many years, said, 'Now is time for you to make a decision - you should enter the priesthood.' I was ready for this somehow I never before directly spoke of it, but I was sensing I was going in this direction. I was waiting for a sign from God.'
He sent off a letter of application to the PNG Health Department, and he put his name down to enter a novitiate to study for the priesthood.
'I made a contract with God - that whatever will happen, I will accept.' Two weeks before he was supposed to enter the novitiate, the visa paperwork came through from PNG, and he flew to Port Moresby - with some relief.
'The priests had said, 'You have to make a decision. Once you enter our congregation, you will not practise surgery.' This was very painful for me, but I said 'God's will is God's will.' One of the first people I met in PNG was an Australian missionary father, Father Peter Flynn, who had entered medical school and become a doctor, and was doing some basic surgery. I thought perhaps it is possible for me to be a priest and to practise surgery.'
But four years later, the Bishop who sent him to Rome to the seminary for late vocations was adamant that when he returned he would need to choose - he could be a doctor, or a priest, but not both. By the time of his ordination by Pope John Paul II in 1992, the Bishop had undergone a pragmatic change of heart - he could keep operating.
By all accounts, this was a great mercy to the people of Simbu. Professor David Watters, chair of surgery at Geelong Hospital and a former professor of surgery at the University of Papua New Guinea, based at Port Moresby General Hospital, describes Father Jaworski as 'a remarkable and wonderful man who has served the people of Kundiawa and Simbu province well', and whose breadth of surgical ability would be hard to match anywhere.
If you understand the lack of medical resources in the area, where people die from preventable diseases, to the thousands of people of my area he is a godsend. He is already a Saint in our eyes. When he departs from us, there will be a week long feast to celebrate his sacrifices, commitment to God and the area and for being an integral part of our family.
God Bless Fr Jaworski
:signofcross:
Below is a link to an awesome pumpkin soup recipe. Only difference between her's and mine: I add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg (aka pumpkin pie spice).
Spell properties: Pumpkin is a super food full of antioxidants for good health and all those spices provide protection, prosperity, and healing properties plus you get a little extra.
* CINNAMON: psychic power development and spiritual healing/growth;
* GINGER: luck;
* NUTMEG: clarity of mind for important decisions;
* CLOVE: curse removal and protection.
SPELL CAST
Now when you add these ingredients concentrate on your families health, protection, and happiness. Really "feel" these things. Humans are giant batteries that produce energy fields, we pull and push energy. This is why people can "feel" when your upset or when you walk into a room and you feel your not wanted. When you feel happy, protected, and prosperous you will push this energy into your ingredients. Plus they have a natural energy for each of these properties which increases the spell power.
Keep this energy going until you serve the dish. As I set it on the table I set the activator for the spell by saying "as they eat so shall it be". This adds when the spell will activate and by what actions are needed. Spells can be cast without activators but I like keeping control. If your a Wicca witch use "as they eat so mote it be".
Here is an awesome recipe for pumpkin soup. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/11/pumpkin-soup/
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Over and done with THE Put the lid on Several Report, THE Instructor GOES Another time BIBLE VERSES, BUT Thus THE Objective Story BEGINS.
An entrancing Tape that's to the same extent promoted by some Catholic Churches. They illustration that Sr. Lucia was killed and replaced by original individual to exclusively shield the truth about the Third Unidentified of Fatima. There's no conjecture the photos of this individual in her formerly days, compared to photos of her in future days reveal a thriving being individual.
How could this happen, unless she was vertical immature and replaced? Her moral regulate about announcing the Third secret that was particular her by the assumed Pious Mother, was crucial in her carefulness, but later she uncommon her carefulness and no longer felt the nation be obliged to understand it. So, as the church is saying, how is it that this fervent individual that was tailing the Pious Mother's ruling, all of a swift grave that "SHE" knew superior than the ostentatious Saint? How is it her looks uncommon so appreciably in this area the exact time?
This is a really suspicious story, but it seems to protect some big questions. One of inhabit questions is whether Lucia was replaced, but the tiny is if the aberrational check over that the children saw, really of a spiritual type, or was this from extraterrestrials, who manifold uniformity bind directed human's pace from the beginning?
.
Reference: magic-and-spells.blogspot.com
By Alan Joel
"Monday morning blues. Lack of motivation. Confusion. Depression. Anger. The "Why me?" syndrome. Fear."
These
are all topics that people are emailing us about. People are
experiencing these states because they have lost their jobs, are
affected by health issues, or are simply "waiting for the other shoe to
drop." They all want to know what kind of magical rituals and spells
can help them get back to feeling happy, positive, radiant, balanced,
and peaceful.
In magic, there is no "cure-all" that will fix all
problems for all people, but one the simplest magical rituals that
anyone can do to feel more balanced during these turbulent times is the
Beauty Way.
THE BEAUTY WAY MAGIC RITUAL
This ritual is a non-denominational set of exercises from very ancient times, which has many magical purposes, including:
* Restore personal power
* Develop a practical working relationship with higher powers and beings or natural forces and laws
* Be safe and protected without the need to build walls or hide behind masks.
* Maintain spiritual integrity for individuals or groups during times of high external change and stress.
HOW TO DO THE BEAUTY WAY MAGIC EXIT RITUAL
One of the most common forms of the Beauty Way is called the Exit
Ritual. You do the Exit Ritual every time you leave an enclosed space,
like your car or your house. Here's how you do the ritual.
1. Put
your focus up into the sky and say aloud, "Sky Above" or "Sky Father."
(Note: the reason we extend our focus first is that the exit ritual is
a form of asking favor from powers and beings, so it is appropriate
that we go to them rather than asking them to come to us. In ritual,
when we have carefully prepared sacred space, we can then invite them
in and then bid them farewell).
2. Keeping the awareness up above, extend your focus into the earth and say aloud, "And Earth Below" or "And Earth Mother."
3. Then, keeping awareness of both above and below, say aloud, "I Greet You."
4. Wait a moment and see what happens. Be alert for acknowledgment or response in one of these three ways:
* From within you, such as a realization, a change of attitude or belief, a new awareness.
* Changes in your environment, such as a sudden breeze, a change in
the color of the sky, a bird or animal suddenly appearing, or a tree or
shrub suddenly becoming vividly visible.
* A response from Sky and/or Earth: a special message for you, an answer to a question, or guidance and new directions.
5.
What happens may happen in just that moment, or it may happen
throughout the day. It may change the quality of our day, our awareness
... whatever we notice.
6. You may also want to use hand
gestures. Arms raised in a upward facing V for "Sky Father" and arms
down in a downward facing V for "Earth Mother."
Alan
Joel co-founded the Esoteric School of Shamanism and Magic with the
goal of the helping people create permanent, positive change in their
lives through the study of magic and shamanism. Get free magical and
shamanic tips and resources at http://www.shamanschool.com
Check out the upcoming Basic Magic class at http://tinyurl.com/basicmagic
"Neocore Games has announced the launch of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II" on Steam. The sequel to the popular action RPG, steampunk series arrives a year after the series was first introduced and brings new features that includes more playable classes, new mini-games and more. Read on for more details.
"The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II key features:"
* "THREE PLAYABLE CLASSES - Players can now choose from three very different classes: the classic Hunter with shooting and melee skills, the magic-wielding Thaumaturge or the Arcane Mechanic, the master of deadly devices, all included in the base game."
* "HUNTER'S LAIR - The Lair returns in the sequel as the perfect hideout for players to stash collected loot, trade with non-playable characters, teleport between locations, forge new items, utilize the alchemy lab and accept new quests from allies who join the resistance against the scientific scourge."
* "EXTENDED TOWER DEFENSE MINI-GAME - With enemies invading in waves, players have the opportunity to defend their Hunter's Lair and other strategic locations with deployable traps and several upgradable functions to ward off evil, now with improved gameplay mechanics and up to 7 levels presented as optional side quests."
* "RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT - As the leaders of the Borgovian Resistance, players now participate in the micromanagement of the allied troops, improve the equipment of the Resistance fighters or find loot that makes them more powerful."
* "RAGE SYSTEM - Enables players to dynamically modify their skills by activating Power Ups in the heat of the battle. Power Ups consume the player's Rage that they accumulate by slaying the most dangeroues foes in Borgovia."
* "UNIQUE COMPANION SYSTEM - Lady Katarina, a ghost with snappy wit, comes to the support of Van Helsing with her own set of abilities, behaviors, and skill trees."
* "RUNECRAFTING - Besides forging, enchanting and infusing items with essences, players now have another option to alter items to their liking. Artifacts can be taken apart, shattered into magical fragments. The process generates a basic shard, and then the enchantments also dissolve into separate fragments. Fragments can be turned into purely magical runes that can be altered and put on new items, changing them into various new powerful artifacts."
* "THE BEAST IN THE LAIR - The Chimera is a unique creature, an artificial monster straight from the Ink that players find during their adventures, claim as theirs, enhance its abilities and summon it into combat or send away to the Ink to hunt for treasure."
* "HALL OF TROPHIES - Players can decorate their Lair with trophies that give global modifiers to the game world, like empowering monsters, granting more spellpower to all allies or turning Katarina into a more lethal ghost."
* "MULTIPLAYER - Allowing players to test their skills against each other via the PVP mode (8 players) or join their forces and complete the story in the co-operative campaign (4 players)."
For more information on the game, check out the official "THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES OF VAN HELSING II" WEBSITE.
Credit: lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com
Dear Friends,
http://www.realitysandwich.com/playing infinite game
Be Well.
David
"PLAYING THE INFINITE GAME "
Kevin Kelly
"The following is adapted from" What Technology Wants, "published by Viking/Penguin, used with permission." There are two kinds of games in the universe: finite games and infinite games. A finite game is played to win. Card games, poker rounds, games of chance, bets, sports such as football, board games such as Monopoly, races, marathons, puzzles, Tetris, Rubik's Cube, Scrabble, sudoku, online games such as "World of Warcraft", and "Halo" -- all are finite games. The game ends when someone wins. An infinite game, on the other hand, is played to keep the game going. It does not terminate because there is no winner.
Finite games require rules that remain constant. The game fails if the rules change during the game. Altering rules during play is unforgivable, the very definition of unfairness. Great effort, then, is taken in a finite game to spell out the rules beforehand and enforce them during the game.
An infinite game, however, can keep going only by changing its rules. To maintain open-endedness, the game must play with its rules.
A finite game such as baseball or chess or Super Mario must have boundaries -- spatial, temporal, or behavioral. So big, this long, do or don't do that.
An infinite game has no boundaries. James Carse, the theologian who developed these ideas in his brilliant treatise "Finite and Infinite Games", says, "Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries."
Evolution, life, mind, and the technium are infinite games. Their game is to keep the game going. To keep all participants playing as long as possible. They do that, as all infinite games do, by playing around with the rules of play. The evolution of evolution is just that kind of play.
Unreformed weapon technologies generate finite games. They produce winners (and losers) and cut off options. Finite games are dramatic; think sports and war. We can think of hundreds of more exciting stories about two guys fighting than we can about two guys at peace. But the problem with those exciting 100 stories about two guys fighting is that they all lead to the same end -- the demise of one or both of them -- unless at some point they turn and cooperate. However, the one boring story about peace has no end. It can lead to a thousand unexpected stories -- maybe the two guys become partners and build a new town or discover a new element or write an amazing opera. They create something that will become a platform for future stories. They are playing an infinite game. Peace is summoned all over the world because it births increasing opportunities and, unlike a finite game, contains infinite potential. The things in life we love most -- including life itself -- are infinite games. When we play the game of life, or the game of the technium, goals are not fixed, the rules are unknown and shifting. How do we proceed? A good choice is to increase choices. As individuals and as a society we can invent methods that will generate as many new "good" possibilities as possible. A good possibility is one that will generate more good possibilities... and so on in the paradoxical infinite game. The best "open-ended" choice is one that leads to the most subsequent "openended" choices. That recursive tree is the infinite game of technology.
The goal of the infinite game is to keep playing -- to explore every way to play the game, to include all games, all possible players, to widen what is meant by playing, to spend all, to hoard nothing, to seed the universe with improbable plays, and if possible to surpass everything that has come before. In his mythic book "The Singularity Is Near", Ray Kurzweil, serial inventor, technology enthusiast, and unabashed atheist, announces: "Evolution moves toward greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, and greater levels of subtle attributes such as love. In every monotheistic tradition God is likewise described as all of these qualities, only without limitation.... So evolution moves inexorably toward this conception of God, although never quite reaching this ideal."
If there is a God, the arc of the technium is aimed right at it. I'll retell the Great Story of this arc because it points to an infinite game.
The story and game begin at the beginning. As the undifferentiated energy at the big bang is cooled by the expanding space of the universe, it coalesces into measurable entities, and, over time, the particles condense into atoms. Further expansion and cooling allows complex molecules to form, which self-assemble into self-reproducing entities. With each tick of the clock, increasing complexity is added to these embryonic organisms, increasing the speed at which they change. As evolution evolves, it keeps piling on different ways to adapt and learn until eventually the minds of animals are caught in self-awareness. This self-awareness thinks up more minds, and together a universe of minds transcends all previous limits. The destiny of this collective mind is to expand imagination in all directions until it is no longer solitary but reflects the infinite. Everything present in the universe is a winner.
There is even a modern theology that postulates that God, too, changes. Without splitting too many theological hairs, this theory, called Process Theology, describes God as a process, a perfect process, if you will. In this theology, God is less a remote, monumental, gray-bearded hacker genius and more of an ever-present flux, a movement, a process, a primary self-made becoming. The ongoing self-organized mutability of life, evolution, mind, and the technium is a reflection of God's becoming. God-as-Verb unleashes a set of rules that unfold into an infinite game, a game that continually loops back into itself.
I bring up God here at the end because it seems unfair to speak about autocreation without mentioning God -- the paragon of autocreation. The only other alternative to an endless string of creations triggered by previous creation is a creation that emerges from its own self-causation. That prime self-causation, which is not preceded but instead first makes itself before it makes either time or nothingness, is the most logical definition of God. This view of a mutable God does not escape the paradoxes of self-creation that infect all levels of self-organization, but rather it embraces them as necessary paradoxes. God or not, self-creation is a mystery.
In one sense, this is a story about continuous autocreation (with or without the concept of a prime autocreation). The tale tells how the ratcheting bootstrapping of increasing complexity, expanding possibilities, and spreading sentience -- which we now see in the technium and beyond -- is driven by forces that were inherent within the first nanospeck of existence and how this seed of flux has unfolded itself in such a manner that it can, in theory, keep unfolding and making itself for a very long time.
A single thread of selfgeneration ties the cosmos, the bios, and the technos together into one creation. Life is less a miracle than a necessity for matter and energy. The technium is less an adversary to life than its extension. Humans are not the culmination of this trajectory but an intermediary, smack in the middle between the born and the made.
For several thousand years, humans have looked to the organic world, the world of the living, for clues about the nature of creation and even of a creator. Life was a reflection of the divine. Humans in particular were deemed to be made in the image of God. But if you believe humans are made in the image of God, the autocreator, then we have done well, because we have just birthed our own creation: the technium. Many, including many believers in God, would call that hubris. Compared to what has come before us, our accomplishments are puny.
"As we turn from the galaxies to the swarming cells of our own being, which toil for something, some entity beyond their grasp, let us remember man, the self-fabricator who came across an ice age to look into the mirrors and magic of science. Surely he did not come to see himself or his wild visage only. He came because he is at heart a listener and a searcher for some transcendent realm beyond himself." That's Loren Eiseley, anthropologist and author, ruminating on what he calls our "immense journey" so far under the stars.
The bleak message of the stars in their overwhelming infinitude is that we are nothing. It is hard to argue with 500 billion galaxies, each with a billion stars. In the mists of the endless cosmos, our brief blink in an obscure corner is nothing at all.
Yet the fact that there is something in one corner that sustains itself against the starry vastness, the fact that there is anything bootstrapping at all, is an argument against the nihilism of the stars. The smallest thought could not exist unless the entire universe and the laws of physics were in some way encouraging it. The existence of a single rosebud, a single oil painting, a single parade of costumed hominins strolling down a street of bricks, a single glowing screen waiting for input, or a single book on the nature of our creations requires life-friendly attributes baked deeply into the primeval laws of being. "The universe knew we were coming," says Freeman Dyson. And if the cosmic laws are biased to produce one bit of life and mind and technology, then one bit will flow after another. Our immense journey is a trace of tiny, improbable events stacked into a series of inevitabilities.
The technium is the way the universe has engineered its own selfawareness. Carl Sagan put it memorably: "We are starstuff pondering the stars." But by far humanity's greatest, most immense journey is not the long trek from star dust to wakefulness but the immense journey we have in front of us. The arc of complexity and open-ended creation in the last four billion years is nothing compared to what lies ahead.
The universe is mostly empty because it is waiting to be filled with the products of life and the technium, with questions and problems and the thickening relations between bits that we call "con scientia" -- shared knowledge -- or consciousness.
And whether we like it or not, we stand at the fulcrum of the future. We are in part responsible for the evolution of this planet proceeding onward.
About 2,500 years ago most of humanity's major religions were set in motion in a relatively compact period. Confucius, Lao-tzu, Buddha, Zoroaster, the authors of the Upanishads, and the Jewish patriarchs all lived within a span of 20 generations. Only a few major religions have been born since then. Historians call that planetary fluttering the Axial Age. It was as if everyone alive awoke simultaneously and, in one breath, set out in search of their mysterious origins. Some anthropologists believe the Axial Age awakening was induced by the surplus abundance that agriculture created, enabled by massive irrigation and waterworks around the world.
It would not surprise me if we saw another axial awakening someday, powered by another flood of technology. I find it hard to believe that we could manufacture robots that actually worked and not have them disturb our ideas of religion and God. Someday we will make other minds, and they will surprise us. They will think of things we never could have imagined, and if we give these minds their full embodiment, they will call themselves children of God, and what will we say? When we alter the genetics in our veins, will this not reroute our sense of a soul? Can we cross over into the quantum realm, where one bit of matter can be in two places at once, and still not believe in angels?
Look what is coming: Technology is stitching together all the minds of the living, wrapping the planet in a vibrating cloak of electronic nerves, entire continents of machines conversing with one another, the whole aggregation watching itself through a million cameras posted daily. How can this not stir that organ in us that is sensitive to something larger than ourselves?
For as long as the wind has blown and the grass grown, people have sat beneath trees in the wilderness for enlightenment -- to see God. They have looked to the natural world for a hint of their origins. In the filigree of fern and feather they find a shadow of an infinite source. Even those who have no use for God study the evolving world of the born for clues to why we are here. For most people, nature is either a very happy long-term accident or a very detailed reflection of its creator. For the latter, every species can be read as a four-billion-year-long encounter with God.
Yet we can see more of God in a cell phone than in a tree frog. The phone extends the frog's four billion years of learning and adds the open-ended investigations of six billion human minds. Someday we may believe the most convivial technology we can make is not a testament to human ingenuity but a testimony of the holy. As the technium's autonomy rises, we have less influence over the made. It follows its own momentum begun at the big bang. In a new axial age, it is possible the greatest technological works will be considered a portrait of God rather than of us. In addition to holding spiritual retreats in redwood groves, we may surrender ourselves in the labyrinths of a 200-year-old network. The intricate, unfathomable layers of logic built up over a century, borrowed from rainforest ecosystems, and woven together into beauty by millions of active synthetic minds will say what redwoods say, only louder, more convincingly: "Long before you were here, I am."
The technium is not God; it is too small. It is not utopia. It is not even an entity. It is a becoming that is only beginning. But it contains more goodness than anything else we know.
The technium expands life's fundamental traits, and in so doing it expands life's fundamental goodness. Life's increasing diversity, its reach for sentience, its long-term move from the general to the different, its essential (and paradoxical) ability to generate new versions of itself, and its constant play in an infinite game are the very traits and "wants" of the technium. Or should I say, the technium's wants are those of life. But the technium does not stop there. The technium also expands the mind's fundamental traits, and in so doing it expands the mind's fundamental goodness. Technology amplifies the mind's urge toward the unity of all thought, it accelerates the connections among all people, and it will populate the world with all conceivable ways of comprehending the infinite.
No one person can become all that is humanly possible; no one technology can capture all that technology promises. It will take all life and all minds and all technology to begin to see reality. It will take the whole technium, and that includes us, to discover the tools that are needed to surprise the world. Along the way we generate more options, more opportunities, more connection, more diversity, more unity, more thought, more beauty, and more problems. Those add up to more good, an infinite game worth playing.
That's what technology wants.
"
Witch bottles are some of the oldest magic dating back hundreds of years. They are described in historical sources in England and the United States. The first mention of a witch bottle appears in the 17th century. One of the earliest descriptions of a witch bottle in Suffolk, England appears in 1681 in Joseph Glanvill's "Saducismus Triumphatus, or Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions"
Photo of one of the earliest bottles found.
Folk Magic contends that witch bottles protect against evil spirits and magical attack, and counteract spells cast by witches; they are countermagical devices, the purpose of which is to draw in and trap harmful intentions directed at their owners. Historically, the witch's bottle contained the victim's (the person who believed they had a spell put on them) urine, hair or nail clippings, or red thread from sprite traps. In recent years, the witch's bottle has taken on a nicer tone, filled with rosemary, nails and pins, and red wine. Historically and currently, the bottle is then buried at the farthest corner of the property, beneath the house hearth, or placed in an inconspicuous spot in the house. It is believed that after being buried, the bottle captures evil which is impaled on the pins and needles, drowned by the wine, and sent away by the rosemary.
Sometimes sea water or earth are used instead. Other types of witch bottles may contain sand, stones, knotted threads, feathers, shells, herbs, flowers, salt, vinegar, oil, coins, or ashes. A similar magical device is the "lemon and pins" charm. (Stick a lemon full of pins and bury.)
Another variation is within the disposal of the bottle. Some witch's bottles were thrown into a fire and when they exploded, the spell was broken or the witch supposedly killed.
The witch bottle was believed to be active as long as the bottle remained hidden and unbroken. People did go through a lot of trouble in hiding their witch bottles - those buried underneath fireplaces have been found only after the rest of the building has been torn down or otherwise disappeared. The origins of this tradition have been dated at least to the 16th century. In ancient times the bottles were made of stone and originally contained rusty nails, urine, thorns, hair, menstrual blood and pieces of glass, wood, and bone.
from Wikipedia
Saturn Astrology
PLANETARY ASTROLOGY SCIENCE, CONSIDERABLE SUBJECTS AS PER PLANETS IN ASTROLOGY, THE EFFECTS OF SATURN IN DIFFERENT HOUSES OF KUNDLI OR HOROSCOPE, THE SATURN ASTROLOGY, SATURN AND RELATED THINGS AND HOW IT AFFECTS THE LIFE, HOW PLANETS MAKES IMPACT ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS?, MANTRA OR SPELL OF SATURN, THINGS OF SATURN TO OFFER OR DAAN.
Saturn is a very harsh planet and give fruits of deeds. People generally fear of Saturn or shani because it gives the results as per the work done by person in past and present life. So actually it is not harsh but work as a judge. If any one has done good work he or she will get good results during shani mahadasha or saturn time. This planet actually purify a person life.
SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SATURN OR SHANI AS PER ASTROLOGY:1. It represent the element air.2. Saturn is ascendant in Libra and if this is present in horoscope then person is very lucky. He or she is able to get the property, power easily.3. Strong Saturn is able to provide abundant money.4. The Saturn of Aries, Cancer, Leo and Scorpio give problems too much at the time of Saadesati.5. The combination of Saturn, Mars and Sun is always dangerous.6. The combination of Saturn and Sun create contradiction.7. The combination of Saturn and Mercury makes a person Civil Engineer.8. The combination of Saturn and Moon makes candid i.e. who speaks straight. 9. Many types of diseases are happens due to Saturn malefic effects like as diseases of feet, ghost impacts, sufferings from stones or wood, mental problems, Poision due to empty stomach.10. It is good to feed servent, blacksmith, crow, cuckoo etc to get the grace of Saturn.
If any one is facing problems due to Saturn then it is good to consult a good astrologer who will tell you how to get the power Saturn.
Don't read your own kundli. It is better to reach at any decision only after taking advice from an experienced astrologer because there are many other rules which must be kept in mind while analyzing any horoscope.
SIMPLE MANTRA OR SPELL OF SATURN OR SHANI :'Om Shanaye Namah'
THINGS OF SATURN OR SHANI TO OFFER OR DAAN:Iron, black things, blanket, black sesame, mustard oil, black urad pulse, black cloths, blue sapphire etc.
DAY OF SHANI:Saturday is the day of Saturn or Shani So if any remedies or rituals are done on Saturday to cool down the malefic Saturn or Shani then it is very beneficial.
SUBJECTS RELATED WITH SHANI:Saturn or Shani is related with many important subjects like as Servant, Age, Death, West Direction, Laziness, sneak or sycophant, anger, agricultural work, captivity, moron, cheating, strife, greediness, selfishness etc.
There is no need to fear of shani or Saturn. Use the occult sciences to get rid of problems of Saturn. If you are facing any type of problems related to Saturn then don't worry consul now and get the best remedies to protect your life from evil Saturn.
Powerful Solutions of Saturn Problems
READ MORE ON:
Planet and Astrology-- The Power of Sun
Planets and Astrology-- The Power of Moon
Planets and Astrology-- The Power of MarsPlanet and Astrology -- The Power of Mercury
Planet and Astrology-- The Power of Jupiter
Planet and Astrology-- The Power of Venus
Planet and Astrology-- The Power of Saturn
Planet and Astrology-- The Power of Rahu and Ketu
HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL BUILDER THROUGH ASTROLOGY?Navagrah Remedies
PLANETARY ASTROLOGY SCIENCE, CONSIDERABLE SUBJECTS AS PER PLANETS IN ASTROLOGY, THE EFFECTS OF SATURN IN DIFFERENT HOUSES OF KUNDLI OR HOROSCOPE, THE SATURN ASTROLOGY, SATURN AND RELATED THINGS AND HOW IT AFFECTS THE LIFE, HOW PLANETS MAKES IMPACT ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS?, MANTRA OR SPELL OF SATURN, THINGS OF SATURN TO OFFER OR DAAN. ASTROLOGY FOR LIFE, ASTROLOGY FOR SUCCESS, ASTROLOGY FOR LOVE LIFE, ASTROLOGY FOR CAREER, ASTROLOGY FOR PROFESSION, ASTROLOGY FOR MARRIAGE LIFE, ASTROLOGY FOR BUSINESS, ASTROLOGY FOR HOLLYWOOD AND BOLLYWOOD, ONLINE ASTROLOGY FOR OVER ALL SUCCESS.
Credit: mysteryvoodoo.blogspot.com
(c) Intifada-Palestine.com
INTIFADA-PALESTINE.COM Mar 7, 2014 William A. Cook
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PEACE IS ISRAEL'S HIGHEST ASPIRATION. I'M PREPARED TO MAKE A HISTORIC PEACE WITH OUR PALESTINIAN NEIGHBOURS - - A PEACE THAT WOULD END A CENTURY OF CONFLICT AND BLOODSHED. PEACE WOULD BE GOOD FOR US. PEACE WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE PALESTINIANS" (BIBI NETANYAHU BEFORE THE AIPAC CONFERENCE EARLIER THIS MONTH)."THERE ARE THOSE WHO STAND IN REGAL SPLENDOR IN HALLS RESPLENDENT WITH BRILLIANTLY COLORED FLAGS AND EMBLEMS OF RANK TESTIFYING TO THEIR POSITIONS AS LEADERS IN THE WORLD, ACKNOWLEDGED WITH RESPECTFUL APPLAUSE, AS THE AUDIENCE STANDING IN ADULATION OF THAT POSITION, WITNESS THE ENTRANCE OF THE ANNOUNCED LORD OF THE REALM AS HE ASCENDS TO THE PODIUM TO DECLARE HIS MORAL RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE THE WORLD SPREAD OUT THROUGH THE NATIONS IN THE TEMPLE OF TELEVISION, AND BOLDLY, SHAMELESSLY LIE BEFORE ALL HUMANKIND-THEY ARE THE FACE OF FALSEHOOD. YESTERDAY THAT FACE WAS GEORGE W. BUSH ADDRESSING THE JOINT SESSIONS OF CONGRESS AS HE ANNOUNCED VENGEANCE AGAINST AN UNKNOWN ENEMY AS LIE AFTER LIE FELL FROM HIS LIPS. TODAY IT IS NETANYAHU DECLARING HIS LOVE FOR PEACE WHEN HE SPEAKS FOR A NATION LED BY ZIONIST IDEOLOGY THAT HAS NEVER SOUGHT PEACE AS THAT WORD IS KNOWN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD AND THUS MASKS TRUTH IN OBFUSCATION, FOR "PEACE" TO THE ZIONIST HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE "GREATER ISRAEL" ACHIEVED BY POWER NOT BY PEACE AS WE KNOW IT. -
(c) Intifada-Palestine.com
For all the years of my life, from 1936 when the Zionists began their efforts to fill Palestine with Jews to displace the existing people who lived there, as recorded in documents seized by the Mandate Police and acknowledged by many historians (see Ilan Pappe's Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine), through the war Zionists declared against their British hosts in Palestine, and through their brutal Nakba against the defenseless Palestinian people as they invaded and massacred the inhabitants of more than 416 towns and villages on their way to declaring the existence of a new state called Israel, and then for 65 more years held out hope for a peaceful two states to exist in peace side by side, two doves joined by a laurel wreath, to today, this March when the two peace loving nations of Israel and the United States declare before the world once again that they want peace when there can be no peace when they shovel lies through deception masked as "peace negotiations."
Zionism is a contagion that has infected the Jewish people in the last 100 years, a contagion emanating out of a minority of European Jews who manipulated their way to control of those in positions of power seeing opportunity for gain in land and wealth regardless of the truth they told about their motives or the faith of Judaism. True Torah Jews will speak to this as they find their faith distorted and used by deceivers. There is a tale that can illuminate the dichotomy represented by Zionism and true Judaism, a tale told by Herman Melville in "Moby Dick".
Father Mapple's sermon in Melville's tale of the white whale teaches a lesson with the fable of Jonah, "a lesson to us all as sinful men...it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah." It is a story that bears repeating since we live in a world drowning in sin, the sins of deception, omission and outright lies, sins committed by those who pretend to lead the world like Puritan preachers of old, bathed in despair, guiding by fear, controlling by naked power, pretending to believe in a God of morals, rectitude and love when in reality they believe only in self and whatever they can amass from the resources that should be the shared goods of all.
Before setting sail for voyages that could last more than three years, sailors went to the Whaleman's Chapel in New Bedford, and there in moody silence they prayed to their respective gods for a safe voyage, a safe return and safe from sin. Perhaps before America joins an unknown voyage captained by a madman, we should listen to Father Mapple that we might understand the dangers that lurk beneath the ocean of lies this Captain utters from his pulpit at AIPAC's offices in Washington D.C.. He is no Father Mapple.
"As with all sinners among men, the sin of (Jonah) was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God...which he found a hard command." What is the command of God? Love all, share God's riches with all, respect all, dignify all, know thyself in all, give yourself to all, hard commands indeed and commands Zionism neither understands nor desires to hear much less abide by. It's easier for Zionism to be the god that controls all, that commands all, that uses all for its ends. Hence the lies that drool from Netanyahu's lips like drops of blood sucked from those he has destroyed as he feigns a moral stance on the right side of the "red" line he draws for himself:
My friends, I've come here to draw a clear line. You know that I like to draw lines - especially red ones. But the line I want to draw today is the line between life and death, between right and wrong, between the blessings of a brilliant future and the curses of a dark past.Those Syrians discovered what you've always known to be true: In the Middle East, bludgeoned by butchery and barbarism, Israel is humane; Israel is compassionate; Israel is a force for good. That border, that runs a hundred yards east of that field hospital, is the dividing line between decency and depravity, between compassion and cruelty. On the one side stands Israel, animated by the values we cherish, values that move us to treat sick Palestinians, thousands of them, from Gaza. They come to our hospitals. We treat them despite the fact that terrorists from Gaza hurl thousands of rockets at our cities. (MWCNews, 3/4/14, NETANYAHU'S SPEECH TO AIPAC).
(c) Intifada-Palestine.com
NEEDLESS TO SAY, THE LIFE HE CHOOSES IS LIFE FOR HIS PEOPLE IN THE JEWISH STATE EXECUTED BY HIM ON HIS TERMS REGARDLESS OF RIGHT OR WRONG REGARDLESS OF THE CONSTANT AND CALCULATED ETHNIC CLEANSING THAT HE PERPETRATES ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, INDEED ON THE VERY SYRIANS HE DECLARES HE IS HELPING. THAT RED LINE HE DRAWS SWIPES ACROSS SYRIAN LAND THAT ISRAEL OCCUPIES ILLEGALLY AND THE FIELD HOSPITAL HE REFERS TO SITS IN SYRIAN LAND THAT ISRAEL HAS ILLEGALLY BOMBED ON THREE RECENT OCCASIONS WHEN IT DETERMINED WHAT IS RIGHT FOR ISRAEL AND NOT WRONG FOR ISRAEL THOUGH IT DEFIES INTERNATIONAL LAW AND IS IN FACT AN INVASION OF A SOVEREIGN STATE; SO MUCH FOR TRUTH. INDEED, WHAT THE SYRIANS REALLY DISCOVERED IS WHAT THE WORLD HAS ALWAYS KNOWN TO BE TRUE: IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BLUDGEONED BY BUTCHERY AND BARBARISM, IT IS ISRAEL THAT IS THE BUTCHER AND THE BARBARIAN; WE NEED ONLY RECALL THE "BUTCHER OF BEIRUT" ARIEL SHARON AS HE WATCHED HIS MERCENARIES SLASH AND SLAUGHTER THE DEFENCELESS WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF SABRA AND SHATILA REFUGEE CAMPS IN LEBANON.
"That border," Netanyahu proclaims, "that runs a hundred yards east of that field hospital, is the dividing line between decency and depravity, between compassion and cruelty." Where is the decency and compassion in stealing the land of those Syrians displaced by an invading occupier whose responsibility under International Law requires compassion and care for those imprisoned by occupation and true settlement for return of the stolen land to those who own it? "On the one side stands Israel, animated by the values we cherish," values that any civilized state would find repugnant, especially when the true facts reveal Israeli IDF forces preventing hundreds of Palestinians from getting to hospitals even to bring a child into this world or the record of intentional killings by sniper fire of children. We need only check the weekly reports of the PCHR that lists those murdered by name. How repulsive to proclaim civilized behaviour when you lead a nation so savagely.
But there he stands in his pin striped suit, Israeli star embossed on the US flag pin, glistening in the podium lights, smiling delightedly as he mouths lie after lie to the delighted listeners, including some 400 Congress members who find it a bit awkward as the klieg lights get brighter and brighter shining on them as stooges for this foreign government that commands them how to vote regardless of the desires of the American people, a slightly different picture than that of Jonah who knew his sin.
"See ye not then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God? Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So disordered, self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen in those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been arrested ere he touched a deck." But there are still no policemen to arrest this "miserable man, most contemptible and worthy of scorn."
Jonah's shipmates knew of his evil, they sensed it and demanded to know of him. "What is thine occupation? Whence comest thou? Thy country? What people? He in repentance of his known crimes cries out, 'I am a Hebrew,' he cries-and then-'I fear the Lord the God of Heaven who hath made the sea and the dry land!' Fear him, O Jonah? Aye, well mightest thou fear the Lord God THEN!" Where we might ask is the repentance of Netanyahu? Certainly his crimes are greater by far than those of poor Jonah, who sinned against his soul and his fellows by usury only while this man leads a state that defies the citizens of the world in assembly by mocking their councils and executing crimes against humanity.
BUT THE MAN IS BLIND TO HIS CRIMES; HE CONTINUES HIS BABBLING LIES:
Ladies and gentlemen, peace is Israel's highest aspiration. I'm prepared to make a historic peace with our Palestinian neighbors - - a peace that would end a century of conflict and bloodshed. Peace would be good for us. Peace would be good for the Palestinians. But peace would also open up the possibility of establishing formal ties between Israel and leading countries in the Arab world.
WITHOUT BLINKING AN EYE, HE UTTERS LIES THAT DEFY THE 65 YEARS OF ISRAELI INTRANSIGENCE AGAINST PEACE, AGAINST THE POSSIBILITY OF A TWO STATE SOLUTION WHEN THEY HAVE CONFISCATED ALL BUT 11 PER CENT OF PALESTINIAN LAND; WHEN PEACE TO ISRAEL MEANS NO CONTIGUOUS LAND FOR A STATE OF PALESTINE, MEANS NO RECOGNITION OF THAT STATE FOR YEARS TO COME, MEANS ONLY THEIR TROOPS WILL PROTECT THEIR PEOPLE AND NO PROTECTION IS PROVIDED FOR THE PALESTINIANS EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE THE VICTIMS, MEANS PEACE CAN ONLY BE ATTAINED IF ISRAEL DETERMINES IT IS SAFE, NOT BEHIND BORDERS, BUT BEHIND THEIR TANKS, MACHINE GUNS, DRONES, F-16S AND NUCLEAR DETERRENTS TO BE USED AT THEIR WHIM.
A man cannot proclaim peace if he does not understand the word; he cannot be a man with morals if he does not know what morality means; he cannot offer peace if he's not prepared to sit down with Palestinians and the communities of the world if he has predetermined that he will not and his nation has never determined that it will share Palestine with its indigenous people. Yet that is the reality; everything the man says is fabrication. This is not Jonah;
"...he drops seething into the yawning jaws awaiting him; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish's belly. But observe his prayer, and learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy temple. And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale."
This is the essential difference between Jonah and Netanyahu: the one is a human who understands his place in the community of peoples he must live with, the other is devoid of human sympathy even as he survives on cradling his own exclusive tribe to maintain his power, lies are but a means to his end. This is the dividing line between Zionism and true Judaism and would that Netanyahu would draw this line and cross to the true moral side!
"...when the whale grounded upon the ocean's utmost bones, even then, God heard the engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried. Then God spake unto the fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth; and 'vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;' when the word of the Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and beaten-his ears, like two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean-Jonah did the Almighty's bidding. And what was that, shipmates? To preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!"
NETANYAHU CANNOT PREACH TRUTH TO FALSEHOOD, HE IS THE VERY FACE OF FALSEHOOD; HE MUST FIND TRUTH OUTSIDE HIMSELF AND SEEK REDEMPTION FROM THOSE HE HAS SLAUGHTERED, AND KNOW AS JONAH KNEW THAT HIS PUNISHMENT IS JUSTIFIED AND WILL BE DETERMINED BY GOD AS IT MUST BE. AND WHAT IS THAT GOD HE MUST FACE? LISTEN TO THE ELOQUENCE OF FATHER MAPPLE AS HE BRINGS TRUTH TO FALSEHOOD FROM THE LESSON OF JONAH:
"This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonour! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!" But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight;...Delight is to him-a far, far upward, and inward delight-who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight,-top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven. Delight is to him, whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and deliciousness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final breath-O Father!-chiefly known to me by Thy rod-mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world's, or mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?"
That God is all who live on this earth and rightfully share all that this earth has provided, for those who lived before us, those now living, and for our children and their children. That God is our desire to find love with all, to recognize the equity of all, to acknowledge our limitations and our potentials and aid all in fulfilling their promise. That God is understanding the finality of our being, our momentary existence, our need to comprehend the rights that must be passed on from generation to generation lest destruction and death be our gift to all children yet to come. None of us will outlive that God; existence of all things is the God we pass on but only if we have comprehended the totality of our responsibility to gift all to those yet to come in equal measure. Our ultimate responsibility is to Preach Truth to the Face of Falsehood; if we do perhaps Netanyahu will be preaching to an empty room.
"
James Tissot, Jesus Found in the Temple" (1890)
Yesterday's Gospel has one of the most shocking verses in the New Testament, Luke 2:51, "And he [Jesus] went down with them [Mary and Joseph] and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart." Is there any Marian hymn in the world with a more scandalous message than that? Scripture is telling us that the God of the all the Universe, the omnipotent, omniscient Second Person of the Trinity, chose to lower Himself and become obedient to Mary and Joseph.
The point of the occult, of every bit of black magic throughout every age of history, has been fixated on one thing: bending the supernatural or Divine to our wills. Instead of obeying God, the occult seeks to make God obey us (or, barring that, settling for working with one of His fallen angels). Yet Jesus Christ takes the initiative, and gives this most coveted authority to a poor Jewish couple. If this weren't explicitly in Scripture, can there be any doubt that Protestants would accuse Catholics of idolatry for believing this about Mary and Joseph?
This affirms that Mary and Joseph are true parents to Jesus Christ, as shocking and upsetting as that might be. There is a tendency amongst some Protestants to reduce them to something much less: to treat Mary like some sort of human mason jar that happened to hold the Christ, but who can be discarded after Christmas along with the tree, or to treat Joseph like an imposter. A Protestant reader actually accused Mary of being a liar for calling Joseph Jesus' father (Lk. 2:48), yet that's exactly what Scripture says of him (Lk. 2:41). True, he's not Jesus' "biological "father, but that's how adoption works. And since all of us are adopted (since Christ is the only-begotten Son, as John 3:16 says), who are we to complain?
And the timing of this verse is significant. It comes just two verses after Jesus says to His parents (Lk. 2:49), "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
That is, Jesus doesn't trade obedience to God the Father for obedience to Mary and Joseph. Rather, in obeying His parents, He is obeying the Father; and in obeying the Father, He is obeying His parents (since this is their greatest desire for Him). There's no tension or competition between the two. The Father isn't jealous of Joseph for doing the very thing He placed him on earth to do, for example. Loving and honoring Mary and Joseph isn't somehow contrary to loving and honoring the Father.
So we, who are adopted into the Holy Family by virtue of our Divine adoption (cf. Ephesians 1:5), must follow our Lord's example. LOVE, HONOR, AND OBEY MARY AND JOSEPH WITH ABANDON, with the knowledge that you are doing the will of God, and following the example of Jesus Christ.
Something is happening out there, and within. Life is speeding up, changes are happening at a faster pace than ever before, what we used to rely on doesn't seem to be there any more. We are dreaming more lucidly than ever. Things are no longer as they seemed. What is happening?
One possible reason is that we are on the brink of an evolutionary leap, to the 4th or higher dimensions. The Mayans predicted that on December 21, 2012, our current world phase would end, to be replaced by the next one, repeating a cycle that has occurred approximately every 5,000 years since the beginning of time. A number of other religions, races and belief systems say that a major event will occur in the early part of this century, that will change our way of life completely.
Part of this process is said to be causing the acceleration we are experiencing at the moment, and will continue to experience at an ever-increasing pace until 2012, as we get closer to the 4th dimension.
Some say that the activation of dormant DNA strands will happen at that time, as part of our spiritual and physical evolutionary path. This will be apparently experienced as a spiritual awakening, or ascension to 4th dimensional living, which will see the expansion of our 3-dimensional world into a completely new experience. This experience will result in a lighter physical body, increased mental and spiritual abilities, and connections to other dimensions.
Each of our DNA strands are said to vibrate at a particular rate, and so can be activated with particular frequencies, by sounds that we can hear, and sounds that we cannot hear. These frequencies are apparently being emanated by the universe at the moment, affecting our abilities, and speeding up our daily life. Things we never knew existed will suddenly become a reality. Abilities we never had will suddenly emerge, and will vary according to the energy patterns we already hold.
For example, some will excel in healing abilities, and move objects with telekinesis, others may see into multi-dimensions. Many of us will be able to communicate telepathically, and manifest wonderful and self-fulfilling outcomes. We will be guided by our existing interests, and soul journey. As part of this process, new synapses will be forged in the brain to widen our sphere of reference.
The skeptical mind may dismiss this whole theory as ridiculous. However, there is another part of the mind we could also use, one that is not restricted by self-limiting beliefs. Now is the time to break free and open up to new possibilities.
This is an exciting time to be alive! This momentous event can be described as strings of energy pulsating through the universe, raising the octaves of life's being, and creating a major evolutionary shift. Once the process is complete, everything will synchronise in perfect harmony, and the world will experience the magnificent symphony of life, in all its beauty
Angela Clarke is an author, having published her first novel 2012 The Symphony http://www.2012thesymphony.com, a story based on the Mayan Calendar predictions for 2012, in December 2008. Before becoming an author, she was a business consultant. Angela lives between London and Southern France.
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Are you considering a wonderful name for that new little baby boy or baby girl? If so, then let us look at some heavenly baby names from the Greek Gods.
These beautiful baby names and their meanings would be a treasured gift for a beloved child.
Here are a few of these best baby names.
BABY GIRL NAMES AND THEIR MEANINGS
ARIADNE - (Greek) meaning "Very Pure." Ariadne, daughter of the sun god, was the goddess of spring. Legend has it that Ariadne helped save the life of Theseus, King of Athens. She unwound a ball of string to show him the way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth and reach safety. Ariadne is also known as "Ariana," or "Arianna."
DAPHNE - (Greek) meaning "Laurel Tree." In legend, Daphne was a maiden who, while fleeing Apollo's advances, turned into a laurel tree. Apollo was so saddened by this that he made a laurel wreath from her branches and wore it on his head as his symbol. The laurel wreath remains a symbol of the highest honor bestowed on man.
HELEN - (Greek from the name of the Greek sun god, "Helios") meaning "Light." According to legend, Helen was so beautiful that word of her beauty spread from land to land. Finally, Paris, son of the King of Troy, abducted Helen and this act started the Trojan War.
PENELOPE - (Greek) meaning "The Weaver." Penelope has come to mean "One Who is Faithful." Legend has it that while Ulysses, her husband, travelled, she kept suitors away by vowing to first finish her weaving. However, every night, she undid the woven piece and started anew in the morning. This beautiful name remained mildly popular until mid 20th Century. Today, it is rather rare.
DORIS - (Greek) meaning "Of the Sea." In mythology, Doris was a sea goddess. She was also mother of the sea nymphs, or "nereids," and had great influence on the gods and goddesses. In the late 19th Century, "Doris" burst upon the scene with great popularity. The name remained high on the charts throughout the 20th Century.
BABY BOY NAMES AND THEIR MEANINGS
DAMON -(Greek) meaning "One Who Tames." However, over the years, "Damon" has come to mean "Loyal Friend." This last designation is due to the amazing tale of Damon and Pythias, who were the best of friends. As the story goes, Damon offered his own life to save that of Pythias. Damon is also known as "Damian."
JASON - (Greek) meaning "The Healer." This great hero of Greek mythology set out on his quest for the Golden Fleece. The King of Colchis had placed this Golden Fleece in a grove that was guarded by a dragon. But the brave Jason with his warriors, the agronauts, set sail and captured the Golden Fleece.
ORION - (Greek) meaning "Light." According to legend, Orion was a handsome young hunter. When he was killed, the goddess who loved him placed him in the sky among the stars. As a constellation, he is pictured on charts as a hunter with a belt and a sword.
HECTOR - (Greek) meaning "Holding Fast." Legend tells us that Hector was an outstanding hero of the Trojan War. In the midst of frenzied fighting, Hector was slain by Achilles. Hector was a beloved figure and was greatly mourned. He remains an enduring hero.
HERCULES - (Greek) meaning "Glory of Hera." This fabled Greek hero was known for his amazing strength. Hera, Queen of the Gods, forced Hercules to perform 12 seemingly impossible feats of strength. With steely determination, Hercules perform them all.
Perhaps these heavenly baby names from the Greek Gods will help you choose your own beautiful baby name.
To learn more about your own name, visit http://www.giftscrolls4u.com Also, browse through unique gift ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, baptisms and many other occasions. Claim your personalized name scroll and receive a free treasured gift. For more information, visit http://www.giftscrolls4u.com
(c) Benedict Manovill. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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