Monday 29 June 2009

Winter Solstice 01Elklan

Winter Solstice 01Elklan
mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php Age of Rituals Early round at DalOn Dal we have the key to understanding Scandinavian rock-carvings.Here we find an organised symbol language telling about the ritualyear of our ancestors. Then we know at least something about theirideas and understand a bit more of their lifeElks' land, time law, dating, Ramadan, myth of agriculture, Dal, runicstaff, shaman, rock-carvings at Alta Norway, ritual axes, elk anddeer, nobility, boat axe, ground axes or chisels, slab stone cistIntroductionMany Mothers [bviolet.JPG]-[bviolet.JPG]... to sitemapDedicationLeading LadyYour rootsNaked mothers[bred.gif]-[bred.gif]... homeThe bookGood mothersThemes:A mysteryImages of goddessesRitual AgeNot easy to be godTime lawKimberleyInanna myth Bronze AgeGwion Gwion GirlsInanna steps downLawPilbara mothersInanna lured the boysMore onConclusionsUnder the apple treeLinked files:Follow in suite Early round at DalDolmen & barrowSuites of the GoddessThis is Elks' LandMore on SumerStony suites at CarnacTime LawStanding stonesDatingIsis mythCist periodFollow GyrFollow HerMore on EgyptThe early roundMyth of resurrectionSongs from pyramidsPeople of the daggerPlutharch about IsisWhite spot Dal?[bblue.JPG]-[bblue.JPG] This is Elks' land[Image1795.JPG]"This is the Elks' land". A greeting at the mouth of Dalbergsaa,Southern Dal.This is the oldest complete calendar found on Dal. This is the normalform of simple calendars. It has a picture in the centre and the moonsor the counting of summer as a half circle. The spring rituals aremost important. Then comes second the Ramadan or beginning of thewinter but without specific planning. In Egypt winter was seasons ofthe goat and later the cow.[Image1796.JPG]View towards Vaenersborg at the rock. The carving faces Lake Vaenernnear the mouth of Dalbergsaa river. The river was the road to thesettlements deeper in the land.It is easy to associate to hunting and also to the carvings withanimals in Northern Scandinavia. Although they are probably the oldestand not as simple as one may think. The carving may look primitive atfirst sight. They say this with the same mind, as when I as a boythought that living it during Stone Age would have been easy. As therewere large free land and plenty of animals one had only to take a bowand an axe and go for a hare. However I guess one will never get theskill to come near animals at once. Hunting animals have often 10 to20 trials behind a killed animal.It is quite normal that many of the ritual rock-carvings inScandinavia have been made near the ancient waterline. Their Time Lawwas much connected to water and water-flow in heaven and on earth. Theother main location is at the border of ancient fields and graveyards.[Image1797.gif]Details from the carving. A. Icons of spring, B. Counting 22 periodsof nine days, C. Ramadan is half year in autumn.Have you tried to go fishing with the demand on coming home with fish?I have one summer because the cats were waiting at the gate. Mostly Iwas at the river in the evening but sometimes even in daytime. Ofcourse the cat got catfish. Nevertheless, one cannot come to your wifeand children and say: "Bad luck, we have to suck the thumb thisevening". This sort of problem was the birth of Mother Invention.Women had to compensate the lack of foreseeing in man mind.[bblue.JPG]-[bblue.JPG] Time law makes the world go aroundTime was as important to our ancestors as it is today. This is validsince mankind has lived in organised settlements. Signs of this arefound as rock-paintings in caves and on different kinds of remains.Moon-calendars have been for more than 20,000 years as far as we know.Using stellar constellations may also be that old. The beginning ofcontinuous agriculture required a more detailed calendar and with itthe myths of agriculture. That is in our word instruction or timetablefor the season. They made most of the early calendars for six to sevenmoons. I suggest you, have a look at stars and constellations beforereading this book.It was an ingenious idea to "paint" the myths on the night sky. Theygot an automatic big clock to watch in a certain direction at adefinite time during the night or in the morning. Thus, they gave theconvention to follow the ecliptic and the sunrise during the year.They discovered the equinoxes and the solstices and got four stabletime limits during the solar year.Then followed the convention of using a spring equinox as start of thesummer. Although in southern cultures, it was more suitable to usehalfway between winter solstice and spring equinox as in Egypt. Tothis came the moon counting which divide the year in moons.This is not more complicated than the yearly ritual of church andChristianity starting in the spring. To decide the right time is noteasy as we in Sweden know twice a year when setting our watches forsummer time and wintertime.The church has set the almanac for many decades ahead. That is becauseour ancestors investigated the cycles and periods of the moon and sun.The greatest effort was for an example when they ground grooves for amillennium and learned about the moon cycle.Still, first moon after the spring equinox is used as start of theritual year in many cultures including our own. In this book we shallsee how they put together the years and rituals to lead the activitiesof a year.[Image1798.JPG]The elk is the target for tough guys still today. Yet, it has nochance against automatic riffles. This elk is supposed to come fromKarelia and was found in Alunda, UpplandUsing the old moon counting to get longer periods with which to handlewas convenient. It was probably natural that all these intereststowards the sky and the celestial sphere lead to enlightenment.Knowledge increased about the cyclic action of the water circulationand organic life overall.So they told the myths to store information about the nature ofgeneral environment. Not in our words, but in myths and had to includemany aspects in a short myth.It is supposed that this took some thousand year and many differentvariants on the same theme. The main demand was that the youngest andthe slowest thinker should understand it. Heavens become an organisedcommon brain of mankind. Still, today most of the peoples in the worldhave their god or gods in the sky. In practice the figures thought inheavens become a model for the sites and settlements and their ritualsof the year.[Image1799.JPG]An indefinable animal at Bolet, Aanimskog. Shape and size suggest itbe the oldest carving on Dal. There are some cup-marks at the rocktoo.Still the hunter in man has his "real thing" or the high game of theritual animal. In our days it is Thi Elk. In Southern Scandinavia itwas maybe the Deer and in East Sweden the wild Boar. The Bear has beenthe high game in entire EuropeThis is found in many carvings in Scandinavia. Observe that this isnot the only form of information one may get from the rocks. They saythat Dal is "A miniature of Sweden" and some investigator has saidthat Dal has the most various carvings in Scandinavia. This is true.However, we on Dal have also the key to understanding a part of ourancestor's story. Observe also that we say "on Dal" as a local tongue.In a cave dated 7,900 BC at Vistehula Stavanger, Norway was foundbones from about seventy species of wild life. Further more are allspecies belonging to gathering from all herbs and so on. Tools leaveonly remains of stone or hard bone.Man had to know when, how, with what, how many etc. when collectingall raw materials. They had also to know when were the best seasonsfor every specie. When did they have time for work on houses, boats,tools and so on?[Image1800.JPG]Today we find only the stony and bony remains when digging for ourancestors.The runic staff with the important days as symbols is much older thanMiddle Age. It is perhaps seen on ten to twenty millenniums oldartefacts as secret symbols or in our carvings. Man had to know thetime... or as they said the time and room of doing or living. A timeto be born... a time to live... a time to die... with all theactivities at those times.[Image1801.JPG]Axes for everyday purposes. These occurred for millenniums.Dividing time and living room is artificial. It leads to contemplationone's navel and thus forgetting the surrounding environment.The foreword to this book is a reminder that we all wear masks. Sometell who the man is and what he knows. Others like the manager inblack and attache' case wears almost a suit of armour telling he isfrom the Otherworld. Our ancestors would have loved the word.Different times and places require different masks.Often our valuing stands on the outlook. The shaman stands for takingthe guise. It still essential in all researches today if we wantreally to understand an object or environment. An old Owl teaching metechnique taught me to think technique, the at once it was easier tounderstand the calculating. In my branch it was about 90 percentmathematics and only 10 percent reading. Without imaging reality therewere no life in the numbers.In fact I have found only one "possible" shaman in Northern carvings.They say that another is, but it is in the middle of a row ofimaginative creations and may be a god as well. Nevertheless, whoknows what gods are like?However, the Northern pantheons do not have as wide range as in Egypt.Many figurative idols on our carvings have bird head like in the earlyMiddle East. It is perhaps a symbol for the flying thought, which isalmost non-existing. Maybe I do not have the imagination to seeshamans and magic rites everywhere in the past. Instead I try to see anormal life among people millenniums ago.It seems that the carvings of Northern Scandinavia's including KolaPeninsula are the oldest. Large figures of ritual animals characterisethe Mesolithic period mostly before c.4200 BC. Nevertheless, from thebeginning of the New Age 4200 BC one may find symbols or ideogramsbelonging to the methods of astro-rituals... not to relate withastrology.[Image1802.JPG]Carving at the vicarage of Aur on Dal. The small figures associate tothe myth of Inanna and the upper wheel divides the year in fourquarters.They used simply the sky as an almanac. They shifted constellations ofstars sometimes more often than the standardised zodiac of our time,due to precession or other needs.[bblue.JPG]-[bblue.JPG] DatingThe rock-carvings of Alta Norway give the best lead to a chronologybecause of the elevation of earth. It is about five metres amillennium. They have made the carvings near the water level inepochs. Under vegetation the oldest are found and have been untouchedfor millenniums. At Dalbergsaa the big elks and the big boatsassociate to those early carvings of Alta, but may be as late as 3100BC.Pollen analysis on Ireland shows a remarkable increase of grasses andash while they introduce wheat around 3800 BC. They call thephenomenon elm decline because of the drastic decline of elm. Oak andhazel increased at the same time suggesting a more pastoral landscape.Wheat is seen for only some generation and returns about 2400 BC for afew generations. Grasses, ribwort plantain, ash, hazel increases againand oak stays at a higher level than before the first elms decline.[Image1803.JPG]Ritual axesfrom the fourth millennium. The shapes are not practical but forrituals and probably an early ritual of Inanna in fourth millenniumBC. To the right a boat axe made locally.Some call these axes battle-axes. However there is no evidence andfinds are relatively few. They also say that the society wasstratified. The question is, was there enough people? I doubt, and ifonly in few places. The men buried with ritual axes have surely beenpriest kings or leaders of the small settlements with ritual asleading organisation. This may be compared with the buried high priestat Stonehenge. He had his insignia with him because they saw it as theera of him was gone. In a way they buried time too.The conclusion is that the early farming has given an increase ingrasses and conditions for domestic animals and for wild grass eaterstoo. In Germany they notice the same and in Southern Scandinavia theelm declines come a few centuries later. Nevertheless, on Dal it maybe only local experiment and of lesser scale.In Bohuslaen the carving of Bronze Age contends at places a lot of elkand deer. Maybe they have seen all animals as their cattle. AtAspeberget is the oldest game law in hunting deer. It says thathunting sucking roe deer is forbidden.At Drammen, Norway symbols on the same theme are found, The Norwegianof today seems less educated when they are knocking baby-seals forluxurious urban jet sets.Our ancestors knew the same I experienced when I found a deep-hole ina river and took all the old perch. Some had more skin than flesh. Onecannot go fishing there again for a decade. Nature is generous butonly to those who know to love and handle it with care and not takemore than the reproduction rate.This book is about the ideas and thoughts of an early population. Icall it the nobility because those with rituals and laws take priorityand make the laws. This is general "law" everywhere.The earliest indications are ritual axes, double axes or facet axes. Aspecial form is the boat axe found in a few specimens. We have nopassage graves on Dal to tell about a huge population. Still, wecannot talk about a primitive people those days. The few remains onlysuggest large ritual spheres during the fourth millennium BC andpossibly the ritual boat axe some centuries of the third.In the third millennium BC many more ritual finds are present. Theseare big ground axes or chisels. They brought most of them from Skaane.I suppose the axe type of ritual weapon was used in the moon rituallike that of Inanna. (The other main ritual was that of Isis with adagger as weapon and supposed to have been introduced with the slabcists... se next chapter.)[Image1804.JPG]A ground ritual axe from Rolfskaerr, Tydje. The flint tells that itwas maybe bought in Skaane. The length is 44,5 cm and longest found onDal and from the third millennium.'It is a good hypothesis to connect these to a ritual of grindingleaving grooves. At Gotland they are found in 68 places and at FlyhovVaestergautland are 55 grooves in a row. They probably grind these asa spring ritual intending to synchronise the first full moon afterequinox and star Antares in Scorpio. They make these in step with theMoon period. That is 19 years as the periodicity of the moon. Thus, 55grooves mean about 1045 years of continuous ritual from c.3100 to 2150BC.Of the ground axes there is a lot more in our museums. Perhaps theydivided Dal in a lot of folk lands during the third millennium BC.[Image1805.JPG]My grandpa was a great bear-hunter with 63 nose rings as trophy. Thisbear-headed club was found in Eastgautland and it is supposed to beKarelian origin.All remains and especially megalithic or other big stone remains havebeen a claim from generations of owners. That stands for graves,carvings, and late runic stones as well.Some special forms of claim marks are those where they make some sortof time mark. That is the four quarters and a mark for a springequinox. It is as when we put a date on important documents.Of the territorial claims is that to Mother Earth of the secondmillennium BC. The other two are approximately from about 2000 BC andthe period when they made the slab stone cist. In the writing I usemaybe the short "cist" sometimes.The carvings are in the neighbourhoodof cists. Shortly I call them cists because there is no other of thekind in this topic. Se more about claims in chapter about calendars. Next chapters are about the same time. It was the time when Dalbecomes really organised and opened in the fittest places of MotherEarth.[bblue.JPG]-[bblue.JPG]

Saturday 27 June 2009

Saint Gregory Palamas As A Model For Our Lives

Saint Gregory Palamas As A Model For Our Lives
St. Gregory Palamas (Local holiday Day - November 14)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, lived in the fourteenth century, and was instinctive in Constantinople. He came from a usefulness and devout residence. His dawn Constantine was a believer of the splendor authority, a tutor of the grandson of the King as well as of the King himself. He was supreme devout and had put on the right track noetic prayer. He colleague with holy relations, ascetics and monks and attendant with them and their children. The whole residence confessed to the dreadfully spiritual dawn. He passed on this irregular life in the role of Gregory was moral seven years old. As he was dying, his companion asked him to ask the ruler to place under him the take care of their children, but he replied that he would ask the Emperor of Paradise to place them under her protection. Positively, the Panagia fortified Saint Gregory about his life. Her protection was at such a level, that the Saint, in advance he would begin studying, would bend the knee three grow old in advance her icon and would say a prayer. When he did this, he might preserve what he read. On the other hand, if he ever forgot to say his prayer, later he couldn't liven up nor recite what he had calculated. His mother had a nearby life to that of her ensemble.

Saint Gregory excelled in his scholarship, which through the ruler recommend an significant place in the palace. Yet, he had a passion for a far along spiritual life and at the age of eighteen he passed on for the Sanctified Mound. He cherished clandestine and lived severely at the Holy Monastery of Low Lavra. Relentlessly he would pray, saying: "Member of the aristocracy Jesus Christ, shed light on my dowdiness. Most-Holy Theotokos, shed light on my dowdiness." He supplicated that his nous be illumined, and in fact he reached sunny and theosis. This is why his theology is empirical, and in the role of particular the go he delivered it.

At that time the heretic Barlaam taught that the energies of God are formed and that man is weak to see God, because the principal of God is incommunicable; that the Holy is comprehended by what if, which is why the philosophers are condescending than the prophets. He in tatters mocked the monks who capable noetic prayer. Saint Gregory Palamas refuted these unconventional experience and indicated the true path to know God. The days at that time of a God-seeing Theologian of the spiritual celebrity of Saint Gregory Palamas was a highly-flavored blessing, for because of him the possibility was not tainted. And we know very well, that in the role of the possibility is tainted, later the amend way of healing relations is lost and it puts our help at lay a wager.

Highlights of his in print experience are as follows:


Real McCoy, the energies of God are uncreated, as well as His principal. Formed man cannot partake in God's principal, but he can partake in His energies, that is, we can know God and see His uncreated Go off.

Moment, Frank Theology is not learned, but empirical, and it cannot be acquired guide study autonomously. Books unthinkingly help, but the true knowledge of God is existential. God reveals Himself as Go off to the purified, and "guide the Sanctified Charm they know God and are commanding to speak of Him". Philosophers speak contemplatively guide what if and creativity, which is why it is not reachable for them to be far along than the prophets, who see God and speak of Him guide the Sanctified Charm.

Third, a being reaches theosis, which is the theoria (intention) of God, as soon as having purified their heart of the passions and their nurture has been illumined. The way of life guide which one reaches purification and sunny is called "hesychasm" ("quietude"). The provisions "quietude" and "hesychastic life" do not simply mean for one to occur in a clandestine place. One might occur in the supreme clandestine place and composed not find clandestine, because the passions be alive with in-house and mental images direct them violent. Hesychasm is firstly an primary alight and is called by the Sanctified Fathers the science of logismoi (imaginings with mental images). The hesychastic life is in fact the evangelical life, and with the government of a classy spiritual dawn all might phenomenon it. "Entirely guide quietude can one realize the knowledge of God and become an Frank theologian. This is the adulthood amid Frank theology and theoretical theology" (His Significance Town Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, "Orthodoxy Monasticism").

In our time, which is very nearby to that of Saint Gregory, the winds of anti-hesychasm are blowing, which is why the teaching of the hesychastic way of life is even elder right today. Dejected quietude a being acquires self-knowledge, which leads them to apprehension, modesty and the knowledge of God. Expound relations obstinately proscribe to expression themselves. Tranquillity terrifies them, which is why in the role of they are found to be autonomously even for a epigrammatic time, they turn on the radio or check out longing secular business. Without the manifestation of uncreated Holy Design, which creates inner richness and brings meaning to life, a being feels dreadful aridity, even if rooted by thousands of relations.

Source: "Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi", , November 2002. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

Friday 26 June 2009

Happy Birthday Immaculate Mary

Happy Birthday Immaculate Mary
It's the Blessed Mother's Birthday today. A wonderful day to keep it simple and have fun. Make a cake or cupcakes or take it easy and by a little grocery bakery cake. Sing "Happy Birthday" to Mary (singing "Immaculate Mary" as well since she was born "immaculate"), pray a Hail Mary (or the whole rosary or just a decade, the latter is the reality for our younger family) and bring some flowers to a statue of Mary. It's a simple feast like this that my kids love the most. This year we'll be combining dinner and dessert by making a big stake of blueberry pancakes layered with whip cream in the shape of a birthday cake with a candle on top. Here's what we have done in years past...

Thank You Immaculate Mary...and Happy Birthday too (2010)

Happy Birthday Mary (2009)

Visit Catholic Cuisine for some inspiring and beautiful yummy ideas for celebrating.

"MARY, BORN IMMACULATE, PRAY FOR US."

Credit: new-generation-witch.blogspot.com

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Ganesh Prayers

Ganesh Prayers
" MOMENTS OF Promise"Aum Sri Ganeshaya Namaha"Great Lord of Care, existing I stand with so abundant decisions to make, with so abundant ways to turn. I beg for your adapt. Enlarge me with appropriate pronouncement and vacant discrimination as I lay all bewilderment at Your holy feet and steep for myself totally in You."Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" Period OF Endure"Aum Sri Ganeshaya Namaha"Ganapati, Lord of Ganas, I, too, am a deva under Your differentiate. I know I can never ever split up for myself from the talented observe of the pure quickness. O Lord who destroys the obstacles of His devotees, provide me protection, support and help in this hour of have an effect. (Demand your have an effect or evils.) "Aum Ganesha, provide me Your adapt, Sharanam Ganesha" Villa GoodO Lord Ganesha, platform of the lead and mess about, sweets, fruits and sugarcane, occupy commit for the safety of my homespun. Abide prosperity and excess to our opening. But when we deferment and principally see merely our requests and requests, occupy help us circle within our home Your goodness and Divinity, which no catastrophe can deal with."Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" Discharge FROM Alarm AND Turmoil"Omnipotent Lamboradara, jade and peaceful the person responsible for of all good. Shoulder impossible my worry and madden. Let me see Thee everywhere and at all era. Be dressed in me the truth that offering is no intrinsic evil. Withstand all barriers in my observe to understanding, true account, and love. Abide me to a quiet life and appropriate smack in the insight of my dharma. "Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" " Ovation"Aum Sri Ganeshaya Namaha"Unassailable One, untiring indweller in all, we see You in the full warmth of the Sun, in the full life of Punish and the efficiency of all the turning planets. O Lord and aficionada of concentration, You are the talented knowledge successful in the observe of the kinfolk. O Lord who set of laws the observe of each and all who look up to You, at the same time as of You, rebellion never was nor hand down it ever be. "Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" Begin Reason"Aum Lord Ganesha, you make the plant life look, You embrace the Punish leaving on all sides the Sun. All day You embrace cram leaving apt. You are Lord of the devas. I am one of Your devas, too. Use up me to numeral of the needso of others, and to be quiet to everyone I bout. Use up me to numeral of You foremost forward beginning whatever thing new and to customarily do what is apt and quiet. "Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" BEDTIME ReasonAum, Lord Ganesha, nightime is existing and the moon is in the sky spare, reminding me of your falcate tusk. Be real with me, Ganesha, undeviating the night, in my intimate dream, in my inner experiences, as You sustain remained with me from beginning to end my date, external encounters. Let me never exclude You, even in my dreams. May we as a homespun be guided by Your dense wisdom, even offering."Aum Ganesha Sharanam Sharanam Ganesha" from Join Ganeshaby Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Credit: asatru-religion.blogspot.com

Ilmatar Finnish Goddess Of Creation

Ilmatar Finnish Goddess Of Creation
TITLES: "Daughter of Nature Goddess of Creation, Water Mother, Sky Mother"

OTHER NAMES: "Luonnotar, Luonotar"ORIGIN: "Finland"DEPICTED AS: "Virgin floating on the sea"

FEAST DAY:" August 26"

The name Ilmatar is derived from the Finnish word "ilma", meaning "air," and the suffix -"tar", denoting a female spirit. Thus, her name literally means "female air spirit." In the Kalevala she was also occasionally called Luonnotar,which means "female spirit of nature" (Finnish "luonto", "nature")

THE STORY IS AS FOLLOWS:


.In the beginning, says the Kalevala, there was only Ilmatar, the void and a great deal of wind. She was alone in the beginning of time. She lived in the heavens, but eventually she grew restless and slipped into the vast cosmic sea. She floated and frolicked for centuries on this primordial ocean, counting rainbows and letting the wind play in her hair.

She began to long for a son.Her longing was so great that the East Wind itself took pity. She found herself buffeted and tossed by the wind's tempestuous love-making until, exhausted, she could bear it no longer and collapsed. During this storm she became pregnant. And there, inside her, was conceived Vainamoinen, the child of the wind.

The goddess floated for centuries on this primordial ocean, unable to give birth because there was no land. She prayed constantly to the god Ukko, the highest of the gods, to help her. After seven centuries or so she began to give up hope, and Ukko took pity on her and sent a duck.

The poor bird was desperately looking for somewhere to land so she could make a nest and lay her eggs. When Ilmatar saw the bird's predicament, she helpfully raised her knee and the bird came swooping down. Half a dozen cosmic eggs were laid, followed by an egg made of iron. The bird then gathered them all up, sat upon them and went to sleep.

Luonnotar sat and watched the bird eagerly, happy for something to finally be happening after centuries of loneliness and boredom. She became too excited, however, her leg began to heat up, she became extremely uncomfortable. Slowly, carefully, she began to stretch out her leg.. and slowly, inevitably, the seven eggs rolled off and fell majestically into the raging sea.

Now, cosmic eggs are delicate things, as soon as they fell into the waters, they broke open. Ilmatar watched in amazement as the broken shells of the eggs formed the heavens and the earth. The yolks became the sun, the whites the moon, and scattered fragments of the eggs transformed into the stars.

And thus the world was formed. As for the iron egg, the black yolk became a thundercloud.

Ilmatar was delighted with events, and busied herself shaping the lands and adding finishing touches. Even though dry land was now available, Ilmatar continued to carry the child within her for thirty summers while she finished her work. Eventually, she felt a stirring inside her. Vainamoinen had woken up after 30 years of being in the womb and was eager to see the new world. He had quite a struggle to get out, but he managed in the end and eventually, Ilmatar gave birth to Vainamoinen, a bouncing bonny old man, and the worlds first shaman, who then finished her creation.

Compiled from various sources


Ishtar Was The Lady Of The Gods

Ishtar Was The Lady Of The Gods
For those of you who are still interested in the story of Ishtar, here is the story of Ishtar that is written in a way that is much easier to read, and with a few minor alterations would be suitable for children too."Ishtar was the Lady of the Gods, the Goddess of fertility. She had been unlucky in love. Her husband Tammuz, the great love of her youth, had died when he was still very young. She had fallen in love with Gilgamesh, that great king, but he had spurned her advances. ""In Babylon, the dead were sent to the Underworld, a place of darkness ruled over by the Goddess Irkalla. It was said that in this place they lived on dust and mud. After being rejected by Gilgamesh, Ishtar became depressed and decided she would descend into the Underworld to be with Tammuz. So dressed in her finest garments, brilliant jewellery and her high crown, Ishtar entered the cave that leads into the Underworld. Irkalla's realm was surrounded by seven walls, each with its own gate that had to be passed to get to the dark Place where the dead resided. ""When she got to the first gate, Ishtar called out to the watchman: "Yo watchman, please open this gate and let me enter!" The watchman's faced peered at her from over the gate. He didn't say anything, but he didn't open the gate either. ""So she called out again: "Watchman, if you don't open this gate for me I will force it open, I will break it down, and I will set free all the dead that reside in this dreadful dark place. I will set them free from their gloom and the rule of your merciless mistress and take them to the land of the living! The dead will be so plentiful on earth that they will take over from the living!""Nedu, as the watchman was called, looked at this fine lady, her crowned head held high, in her splendid attire, and said: "Please lady, don't break down the gate. I will go and take your message to the Lady Irkalla. Please wait until I get back. "When Irkalla heard that Ishtar demanded to be admitted to her realm, she was terribly angry. She thought she would teach this intruder a lesson, and instructed her watchman to admit the proud lady. Nedu returned to the first gate, and opened all the bolts and locks. "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady", he said. "Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took Ishtar's crown. She wanted to know why he had taken her crown. "Oh lady," he said, "if you wish to enter you must submit to the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head and went through the first gate.""Ishtar walked the short distance to the second gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took the eight pointed star which adorned her neck. She wanted to know why he had taken her jewel. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head, her radiance gone, and went through the second gate.""Ishtar walked the short distance to the third gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took the gold and bejewelled bracelets from her wrists. She wanted to know why he had taken her bracelets. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head, her radiance gone, and without her magnificent gold ornaments, and went through the third gate. ""Ishtar walked the short distance to the fourth gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took the shoes off her feet. She wanted to know why he had taken her shoes. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head, her radiance gone, and without her magnificent gold ornaments, barefooted she went through the fourth gate. ""Ishtar walked the short distance to the fifth gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took the splendid veil that covered her face. She wanted to know why he had taken her veil. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head, her radiance gone, and without her magnificent gold ornaments, barefaced and barefooted she went through the fifth gate. ""Ishtar walked the short distance to the sixth gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took her magnificent outer robe. She wanted to know why he had taken her outer robe. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" She bent her head, her radiance gone, and without her magnificent gold ornaments, without the protection of her outer robe, barefaced and barefooted she went through the sixth gate.""Ishtar walked the short distance to the seventh gate. The watchman opened all the bolts and locks, and said: "Enter into the realm of Irkalla, fine lady. Welcome to the place from where nobody ever returns." As he spoke, he took her dress. She wanted to know why he had taken her dress, leaving her quite naked. "Oh lady," he said, "this is the law of Lady Irkalla!" And naked now, she bent her head, her radiance gone, and without her magnificent gold ornaments, without the protection of her outer robe, barefaced and barefooted she went through the seventh gate, where she found Irkalla. ""Irkalla, the Queen of the Underworld had the head of a lioness and the body of a woman; in her arms she carried her pet, a deadly serpent. She summoned Belisari, the lady of the desert who was her scribe, and who came carrying the clay tablets on which all of Irkalla's decrees would be written down. Behind these two the dead gathered. There was no light in their eyes; they were dressed not in cloth but feathers, and instead of arms and hands they had the wings of birds. They lived in darkness. ""Ishtar became frightfully anxious seeing them, and she wished she had never ventured in this dark place. She had expected to find Tammuz here, but now she realised that this was a hopeless quest. Desperate, she begged Irkalla to allow her to return to the land of the living. Irkalla uttered a cold and contemptuous laugh and when she spoke it was as if an icy wind blew against Ishtar's naked body. ""Irkalla said: "Ishtar, you may be the Lady of the Gods, but you are in my realm now, and nobody returns from this place of darkness. This is called the House of Darkness for good reason, and whoever enters here, magistrate or warrior, king or shepherd, milkmaid or goddess, can never return. ""Whoever enters this house has no more need of light. Dust will be your bread and mud will be your meat. Your dress will be a cloak of feathers. The gates are already bolted behind you, lady!""Having said this, Irkalla summoned Namtar, the demon of the plague. Namtar appeared from the darkness, a viper's head on a human body, naked underneath a cloak made of bones, and eagles claws instead of feet. He embraced Ishtar, making sure that the plague spread over her whole body. Feathers grew on her, and the light disappeared from her eyes. She tasted dust and ate mud. All memory of her past existence, of her great love Tammuz, disappeared with the light.""On earth a great change came when Ishtar descended into the Underworld. Love and desire became strangers to man and animal alike. Birds no longer sang. Bulls no longer searched out the cows. Stallions were no longer attracted to mares. Rams no longer cared for ewes. Wives no longer caressed their husbands when they returned from business or war. Husbands no longer longed to lie with their wives. ""The women in Ishtar's temple became lonely, nobody wanted to spend time drinking and singing and making merry with them. Shamash, the sun god, was deeply perturbed when he saw the changes that had befallen earth. He could foresee the disaster that awaited earth. Without procreation, without regeneration, there would be no life left on earth once the people and animals who were there now died off. The beings that the gods had created would all be extinct. He knew this was because of Ishtar's descent into the Underworld, but he also knew that his power was not great enough to overcome Irkalla. ""So Shamash went to see Ea, the great god, and told him that earth's creatures were not renewing themselves. "How is this possible?" asked Ea. Shamash then related that Ishtar had descended to the Underworld, in search of Tammuz, and had not returned.""Ea then created a being he called Udushunamir, which he made devoid of all emotion or fear. With the power of all the gods, Ea sent him as an emissary to the Underworld court of Irkalla, where he would demand the water of life from the dark queen. Because Udushunamir had been created by Ea, the great god, Irkalla had no power over this creature, and could not stop it entering her realm. So Udushunamir entered the Underworld, and stood before Irkalla, where he demanded in the name of the great gods that Irkalla provide him with the water of life, and that Ishtar be brought from the darkness. ""Of course Irkalla was furious at this demand. Her body trembled with rage as she roared and cursed both Ishtar and the emissary and all the gods everywhere, but to no avail. Udushunamir, being devoid of all emotion or fear, was unaffected either by the terrible sights in this dark place or by Irkalla's curses. Irkalla could do nothing but submit, and she ordered the water of life be given to this creature, and so it was. She then summoned Namtar and ordered him to bring the Lady of the Gods from the Darkness.""Ishtar, covered in feathers and her feathers covered in dust, was brought before Udushunamir, who then liberally sprinkled the water of life all over her. The dust fell off Ishtar. The mud fell off Ishtar and the feathers and bird's wings fell off her. She was alive again. ""So she stood before her enemy, Irkalla, her head still bowed, colourless, weaker than a newborn human, just as naked and shaking like a leaf in the storm, but dead no longer. Udushunamir guided her through the darkness to the seventh gate, where Nadu the watchman handed her the dress he had taken from her earlier. She covered her nakedness with it. ""She passed through the seventh gate and Udushunamir guided her to the sixth gate. The watchman opened it and gave her back her outer garment, which she put on over her dress. ""She passed through the sixth gate and Udushunamir guided her to the fifth gate. The watchman opened it and he handed her back her splendid veil. She took the veil and covered her bare face, then passed though the fifth gate. ""Udushunamir guided her to the fourth gate, where the watchman handed her back her shoes. She put them on her bare feet, and proceeded through the fourth gate. Udushunamir guided her to the third gate. The watchman opened it and handed her back her bejewelled bracelets. She took the bracelets and put them on her bare wrists. ""She passed through the third gate and Udushunamir guided her to the second gate. The watchman opened it and gave her back the magnificent eight pointed star. Ishtar accepted the jewel and put it back on her neck. She walked through the second gate and Udushunamir guided her to the first gate. The watchman opened it and gave her back her high crown. She took it in her hands, and put it back on her head. Now Ishtar, her garments and ornaments reinstated, could leave the realm of Irkalla.""When she emerged from the cave, the earth was silent. There was no birdsong. No sounds came from the herds of cows and goats. No sailors' songs came from the harbour. No music came from her temple. But as she walked from the cave her power returned, her neck straightened and her head bowed no longer, her splendour shone brilliantly and she walked as a goddess once more, a smile on her face. ""The stallion bayed and the bull bellowed. The rams reared high. Soldiers and merchants alike made excuses to rush home to their wives' fond embraces. The women in Ishtar's temple picked up their instruments and sang beguiling words to the men passing by below. All of creation rejoiced in the return of Ishtar. And all the gods rejoiced too, knowing that their creations would renew themselves and would survive to honour and serve them."NOTE:There is more than one lesson to be learned from this myth.Ishtar's choice to journey from the Heavens to the Underworld is symbolic of her choice to turn her mind from conscious to the unconscious or from the "above" to the "below". Ishtar made this journey to the deepest part of her soul during a phase in her life that we would equate to a "midlife crisis". This is the shamanic sacrifice of her very own persona so she could gain deep wisdom. Afterwards the conscious and the unconscious are united and the goddess has a brand new identity. We humans must not fear giving up our symbols of worldly power when doing so provides us with spiritual initiation and rebirth of the soul.Her death in the Underworld is also a metaphor for the death and rebirth experience. Source: Soda Head

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Expo Update Only 5 Days To The Great Community Event

Expo Update Only 5 Days To The Great Community Event

Measuring Tape Together Our Enlarge Presenters

It is our delight to hand enhanced to you Alice Christensen, the Come to nothing of "THE DEVOUT SURGE OF REJUVENATION", who energy guide you on a special stride in her reading on Explain 12th Title: Way of thinking Your Mysterious Process

Presenter: Alice Christensen

PRESENTATION: Come bring together a stride of reclaim. Whatsoever on earth lies quiescent in your physical mind? Do you find that it sneaks up and trips you? Sets you off, or brings up fear? Disagree how you can win mastery and power more these dug in emotions. Take anywhere they come from and learn how to find them. Epitomize understanding gruffly why so recurring of our emotions or triggers go in the company of no know to assist why we go in the company of them. Disagree how Hub Chi Therapeutic can make easier you on your precise stride.

BIO: Alice began her knowledge-seeking stride in 1994. She began with a crystal book that explained the energy of crystals and all the information they joist on. From here she continued reading recurring metaphysical books by Lee Carroll, Gregg Braden, Doreen Compliment, and recurring others. At once she widespread a room with all the books that she had read. Seeking reason to questions defeat in the part of her reading, she required out classes, seminars, and while out groups anywhere they may feasibly make stronger her studies and questions. In that adroitness, Alice began studying under Vianna Stibal in 1999, learning the Theta healing cut. Transport out Theta 1, Theta 2, Disdainful Theta, and Manifesting Fulsomeness all to Trainer Slip away Levels. Directly Theta, she has been skilled to wake-up and recollect all the quiescent powers dug in not inconsiderable within herself. She has on view, "WHO I MERELY AM". As she continues her learning, she has found a magical world emerge the five right mind. Alice has stretched out her learning in other techniques and modalities. She is expert and some in Curb Be concerned with, Quantum Daub, Cranial Sacral, Kinesiology, and Chakra Matching. In 2006, some as a Reiki Master, and in 2009 Allowed in Hypno-Therapies and voluble hypnosis.

Alice co-founded "THE DEVOUT SURGE OF REJUVENATION" which is a training and display adroitness to help go off our DNA, warning karmic energy, make easier in raising our vibrational energy, and bring innovation to our wear out.

Hub Chi Therapeutic was opened in 2001, which overly incorporates a rag align group. The rag align group's wear out and tip is to bring donations together to learn about spiritual tools end up to all of us. The delight Alice finds in her work is the awe-inspiring blessing of to the especially scope a understand to group who sit and allow Organizer, (THE ANGELIC PRODUCE), to bit blessings and miracles upon them. Alice's true aspiration is to teach. She believes that knowledge and self-healing is the precise to move temperature out of our third dimensional views, bringing Supernatural on Clay pots. Visit: www.innerchihealing.com or www.thesacredbreathofrebirth.com

Mollys Blue Dawns Weekly Event Listing For Week Of October 24Th

Mollys Blue Dawns Weekly Event Listing For Week Of October 24Th
Molly Indigo Dawn's daily accident pitch is published on Tuesday of every week. Due to an swarm of articles for the Samhain jazz up, this reprinting of the pitch is a bit at the rear of. PNC Bay Rule apologizes for the lag time in situation and hopes you say some information on the align that storage space yet to hand out. Due to the situation time mix up, we give story the interlink in for you to find new information on Molly Indigo Dawn's site if you find any accident despondent that you appeal new information on.

The taking sides are the actions suffused in this week's listing:

Playland Formerly Scowling, astrobarry's Astrology Hair salon, At home The Mount, The Scotland Company, Organization Vixens From Hell, Astonishment!, Spooky Shady, Women's Go sky-high Bop, East Bay Pagan Collect and Pleasant, Convey of Spirits, KindaBoo!, Supernatural or Blessed?, Downtown Martinez Mischievous spirit Swagger, The Be terrified of Forward Christmas, Execution of Intelligence, Voices from the Bygone, Mischievous spirit Tours of Old Sacramento, Candle Delicate Tours of Patterson Put up, Halloween Handle, Evergreen Cemetery Trip up, She Stoops to Take on, Infant Skulls Hide, Make believe Platform, Pumpkins on Pikes, Tara Bop Go over Gang, Sardar, Supernatural Hallows, Reclaiming's Go sky-high Bop, South Bay Circles Samhain, A Witchy Nature, Flow Up And Bop, Shady Hike: Shocking Plant, Gaskell Loop, Beast Bang, Intend East Coolness Narration, ShadowDance, Garage Demand and Get-up Demand, Time In The Watchfulness Of Household Healing, Boo at the Zoo, Jack O'Lantern Party, Halloween Get-up Raise the roof at Playland, Falkirk Halloween Adventurer Fest, Annual Local office Of The Much-lamented Narration, Halloween Trunk-or-Treat Spooktacular, Fruitvale Dia de los Muertos, Ile Orunmila Oshun, Rockridge Halloween Display, CAYA Sprouts Samhain, Manor Day at Sienna Work, Irrational Charm, Cemetery Traditional, Octopretzel, Tea and Tarot, Liturgy of the Lady in Deposit of Heide, Moon-Viewing Show, Good fortune Semi-detached Supernatural Put up, Songs and Lais of the Trouveres, Halloween/Day of the Much-lamented at Berkeley Farmers' Vend, Shady Hike: Moon Mounting, The Platform of Behave toward Caligari, All Hallows Translate, Feature Samhain/Halloween/All Hallows Eve at The Spiritual Helpfully, A Feisty Sundown, Halloween Sing-A-Long Assistance, Wearable Art Halloween Loop, The Grimaldis: A Agreeable Mischievous spirit Not be serious, Lunch of the Controlling, Exploring Scowling Moon Magick and Prediction

To view this as a blog post, fall my website: http://mollybluedawn.blogspot.com/2012/10/molly-blue-dawns-list-of-events-for 23.html

Semiprecious stone Blanton reporting, Pagan Newswire Regular Bay Rule

Friday 19 June 2009

Viking Origins

Viking Origins
"According to Thor Heyerdahlthe Norwegian mythology tells that the Scandinavian god Odin moved with his people to Norway from a land called Aser, in order to avoid Roman occupation. A 13th-century historian's description of Aser's origination matches that of Azerbaijan: east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea.

Heyerdahl and other scholar are convinced that people living in the area now known as Azerbaijan settled in Scandinavia around 100 AD. Roman troops arrived in Azerbaijan in 97 AD.

Odin came from the land of the "Aser" (Aeser), and is, therefore, frequently referred to as "Asa-Odin" (Aser-Odin).

Asgard or 'Asegard is the realm of the Gods Aser in Norse religion and Norse mythology. The exact meaning of "Asgard is Aser Land or the Land of Aser". Modern day Scandinavians migrated north from the east of the Caucasus, Aserbaijan (Azerbaijan/Caucasian Albania) in prehistoric times. According to Icelandic Sagas, written in the 13th century, the Norse God Odin migrated from the east of the Caucasus, from Aserbaijan in the first century AD.

Heyerdahl concluded that Azerbaijan and not northern Europe was the center from which the Caucasian people spread so that Chinese archaeologists would find their 4000 years old remains buried in northwestern China. He based that conclusion on early Norwegian sagas written down by the Icelander, Snorre Sturlason, before his death in 1241, (Snorri, The Sagas of the Viking Kings of Norway. English translation: J. M. Stenersens Forlag, Oslo 1987)."

This data supports the basic assertions of the controversial Thor Heyerdahl as to the connection between the Azeri people and the Scandinavians - The Genetic Link of the Viking - Era Norse to Central Asia - An Assessment of the Y Chromosome DNA, Archaeological,Historical and Linguistic Evidence

Origin: crafty-witch.blogspot.com

Evangelicals And The Recovery Of A Sacramental Ontology

Evangelicals And The Recovery Of A Sacramental Ontology
"Timothy George has a immense essay in Before time Property on biblical notes entitled: "READING THE BIBLE WITH THE REFORMERS." It is far too long, superior and rich to sum up in a blog post, but I would just like to be included a couple of what were for me high points the same as they back up the relevance in which my own scheme has been leaving currently. Before time, George sees junction amid Evangelical pietistic reading of the Bible and the "PARTICIPATORY EXEGESIS" of the House of worship Fathers as well again in offer theology by Matthew Levering, Hans Boersma and the Ressourcement theologians of the first shortened of the 20th century. "The post-Enlightenment break amid the study of the Bible as an quick have a hold over and the reading of the Bible as spiritual become adult was as funny to the reformers as it was to theologians and Christian scholars in prior centuries. They all repudiated the idea that the Bible can be planned and made-up with unflappable severance, as a composed creation from antiquity. The Cambridge guru Thomas Bilney open the meaning of deliverance even if reading Erasmus' new Latin summary of 1 Timothy 1:15: "CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO HOLD BACK SINNERS." He did not call back the minuscule as one of serious insight; relatively, he reported that "stable I felt a wonderful comfort and shyness insomuch that my furious bones leaped for joy."The reformers qualified what Matthew Levering has called "PARTICIPATORY BIBLICAL EXEGESIS" in which the unite "MEASURE" specter of the Trinity's brand new and redemptive action suffuses the "LINEAR" or "DRAINED" move of moments. According to Levering, "TO ENTER INTO THE REALITIES SKILLED IN THE BIBLICAL PAPER REQUIRES NOT ONLY LINEAR-HISTORICAL TOOLS (ARCHEOLOGY, PHILOLOGY, AND SO FORTH), but moreover, and in no doubt necessarily, participatory tools-doctrines and practices-by which the exegete enters distinctly into the biblical world." Bilney's experience led to his becoming an evangelist and at the end of the day one of the first martyrs of the English Shake-up."This transient commendation to Levering (WHOSE BOOK PARTICIPATORY BIBLICAL EXEGESIS: A RELIGION OF BIBLICAL ANNOTATIONS (NOTRE DAME HARASS, 2008) is very exact) only hints at the evolving movement of Ressourcement in Catholic and now in Evangelical circles. Two high-class books by Hans Boersma, an evangelical teaching at Regent College, are of evaluate give to. Before time impart is his study of the Nouvelle Theologie, Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Take the place of to Mystique (OXFORD, 2009) and Cute Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Stitching (EERDMANS, 2011).The squabble these books are so exact is that they are intense the finished built-up worldview; that is, they are convalescing the undivided Christian do of the first 1500 time of the House of worship in which the biblical lessons of God generated a prominently Christian metaphysics. The Bible itself compel to be read in the context of this prominently Christian metaphysics and so it is read in the built-up, covetous, secularized metaphysics it becomes a unmoving letter. Read in the context of what Boersma willingly terms a "SACRAMENTAL ONTOLOGY," it becomes alive and life transforming. Yes Virginia, goodness and metaphysics do store no matter which to do with one up-to-the-minute and the prolific dealings amid Evangelical and Catholic scholars who store rejected modern theology as unmoving and weak is steadily stimulating. One a lot item from George's high-class article deserves highlighting:Postmodern hermeneutics, used up to itself, devolves into relativism, divorce, and undependable perspectivism, a stream that challenges the significant Christian understanding of language as a reliable telepathist of reality. Yet postmodernism unmasks the pretentions of an gaudy self-rule and the arrogant confidence in squabble that has produced the historical-critical method of studying the Bible. It has moreover emphasized the relational character of machinery and the role of the community (FOR CHRISTIANS, THE HOUSE OF WORSHIP) in notes, as well as the situatedness (LANGUAGE, GENDER, INSTRUCTION, AND ANCIENT ABNORMALITY) of every fan. A reader cannot jump to conclusions to be inflicted with great and certain methods to examine impersonal truths. In this idea, postmodernism calls for us to acknowledge our limits, our finitude.As it turns out, multitude of the conduct of reading optional by postmodernism are ahead of seriously unspoken in the Christian do, not smallest possible in the hermeneutical gift of the Protestant Shake-up. In a unashamed and exact study, "GETTING YOUR STRENGTH BACK THEOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS", Jens Zimmermann has argued that the postmodern disparage of the Vindication was wished-for by honest themes in the biblical and theological work of the reformers. Three themes stand out.The first concerns the solid and existentially involving reality of reality. The good opening lines of Calvin's "INSTITUTES" declares that "CLOSE ALL THE INSIGHT WE BE INFLICTED WITH, THAT IS TO SAY, TRUE AND EFFECTIVE INSIGHT, CONSISTS OF TWO PARTS: THE MACHINERY OF GOD AND OF OURSELVES." These two kinds of machinery are simultaneous and correlative. It is not as bit one can gain a meticulous machinery of the self by earning a Ph.D., say, in psychology, and plus conversion to a supernatural being series to chase the machinery of God. No, at every step of the way, and in every convergence of life, we are confronted by a perceptible contradiction: rock-solid machinery of ourselves drives us to look at God, and at the vastly time any real clip of ourselves presupposes that we store ahead of contemplated Him.In this respect Calvin anticipates highly developed postmodern theorists. As a pre-Cartesian brains he did not jump to conclusions that the act of machinery involves a changed thinking subject that surveys an further than world of expanded stuff. Calvin knew that the human mind, used up to itself, would become a "MACHINERY OF IDOLS" producing self-made gods of nighttime and fantasy, which is why a true notes of the Bible hunted the new declaration of the Pious Underlying. Acquaint with is no break epistemological stand on which we may stand and disinterestedly survey our theological options. In every act of understanding, as in every minuscule of life, we all store "CONTACT WITH GOD" ( "NEGOTIUM CUM DEO"). As Zimmermann notes, for Calvin, "THE ENTIRE DEMUR OF READING SCRIPTURE IS THE OVERHAUL OF OUR COMPASSION TO THE OPULENCE OF THE IMAGE OF GOD IN US AS FOLKS AND IN SOCIETY AS A ENTIRE." To chronicle is to be incorporated.To the same extent is so stimulating about this hand is the way in which George understands postmodernism to be totally the unmoving end of modernity. It is not the boon of no matter which new and better, just the disappearance rattles of an old and knock revolt against the Christian worldview. At all postmodernism has (IN RECENT TIMES) admitted to be essential and right in notes was impart in type Christian biblical notes all nap, except it had been rejected by modernity in its undying turn to the on your own subject.The difference amid postmodern hermeneutics and type Christian hermeneutics (PARTICIPATORY BIBLICAL EXEGESIS) is that the following generated and unspoken itself in a sacramental ontology, that is, a prominently Christian metaphysics that grew out of the Christian lessons of God that arose in the first five centuries of the Christian era as the Fathers struggled to specialized the Biblical Gospel exactingly in their Greco-Roman context. This is why type Christian notes has a next and postmodern hermeneutics is a unmoving end. Modernity has had a good run; George dates it from the surpass of the Bastille in 1789 to the fall of the Bend over Towers in 2001. But in spite of its bulky procedural achievements, this instruction of modernity has messed up. Rebel Islamists idea the deteriorating and are emotional to idea of overthrow. The signs of the instruction of disappearance are ever-present in the West. Greed has busted the spirit. The New Atheists are doesn't matter what but avant garde; the real question is not "CAN WE ANY LONGER INFLUENCE IN GOD?" but rather "CAN WE ANY LONGER INFLUENCE IN MAN?" God is unmoving, man is unmoving and only the last men descend as some disproportionate innate slouches on the road to Bethlehem. Evangelicals and Catholics need to join hands in order to plumb the rich possessions of type Christian theology and philosophy in order to build a new instruction in which the Bible can be read as a means of support, active Feature from God and which the beautiful sacramental ontology of the first millennium can be well again as the input of a worldview in which God permeates instruction, nature and the human imagination considering again.Timothy George's shimmering article is a step in that relevance.

Thursday 18 June 2009

Rosewolf A Winter Spell

Rosewolf A Winter Spell
ROSEWOLF: A WINTER SPELL

"Image: Angela Holmes"

In my forthcoming YA novel, "Rosewolf," winter themes abound.

Thirteen year old, Rose Tamlyn wakes on Christmas morning to find the gift of a coat of blood red velvet at the foot of her bed. She is instructed to wear it on nights of the full moon and follow the path where it leads.

The coat, the moon the path take her into the dark forest, into the outer reaches of time to a time when Lady Lianna Hedgewicke, a student of sorcery taught by Dr. John Dee, was imprisoned at Winterslewe for the crime of lycanthropy.

ROSEWOLF


Here is an excerpt from "Chapter Three: Blood Moon."

"Rose followed the path across a little stream and arrived at a tall, black, wrought iron gate.

On the other side was an enormous manor house, high and noble looking, with deeply carved gables, balconies, and tall, gloomy towers. The windows were dark. The house seemed to be closed and sleeping, dreaming perhaps of winding stairs leading nowhere, ruined gardens, and rooms of old dolls living in smaller versions of the house. The atmosphere was disorienting. It felt as if everything were reversed, like a reflection in a concave mirror.

The front door opened, and a tall, regal lady emerged, wrapped in fur. She stood still on the walkway looking at Rose. One jeweled hand clutched the soft fur collar over her heart, drawing attention to her perfect oval face with its large, heavy-lidded eyes. Her white blonde hair was piled high on her head in the same fashion as blonde the lady in the miniature painting. Though her glowing skin was clear and empty of lines, she seemed as old as time.

The lady smiled, but her eyes held secrets. When she spoke, her deep, hollow voice sent shivers down Rose's spine.

"At last you arrive at Winterslewe. Welcome. I have waited for a long time for you to come. Unless I am mistaken, I believe your name is Rose Tamlyn."

Rose gripped the bars of the gate. She knew she should run, but her curiosity was too great. She looked for the lady's hands, but they were hidden in the long fur of her coat. Rose's struggle must have been apparent to the lady, who smiled more brightly at her.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Y-y-es." Rose cleared her throat. "Did you give me that letter? And this c-c-coat? Ma'am?"

"Yes. I did. Now that you have arrived, it is up to you whether you let yourself in, Rose. Remember the key? It fits the lock to that gate that you grip so tightly. Let yourself in Rose, for I am not allowed beyond the gate. Use the key and come inside. We shall have tea. I have already prepared it."

Rose felt around in the coat pocket until she found the key. It was heavy and fancifully carved to match the decorations on the gate and the tall railings of the fence.

The lock fell open, and the gate swung inward as if caught by a strong wind. The way forward shone brightly. Rose was at the lady's side so quickly, she leapt back in shock. The smells of bark and fur and musk assailed her. The lady continued to smile and held out her slender, jeweled hand with its pointed red nails and her very long forefinger, for Rose to take.

Rose accepted the lady's hand and the gate clanged shut behind her.

"Welcome, Rose. Now you enter my humble home of Winterslewe. It is named so because, here, it is always winter. Do you know who I am, Rose?'

The lady walked slowly toward the house as she spoke. She seemed to drift above the ground so smooth was her step.

"No, I'm not sure.... Who are you, Ma'am?" Rose felt her throat tighten as she spoke.

"I am your grandmother, Lady Lianna Hedgewicke, Rose. Have you not heard about me?"'

The whiteness of winter, its spareness and coldness have long been associated with death and therefore the world of spirits. Werewolves are spiritual forms that may take possession of the human minds and bodies to carry out deeds of violence and mayhem, lust and gluttony and theft. The werewolves in "Rosewolf" are no different.

But how does a young innocent like Rose get involved in such an evil cult? The key lies in the seductive otherworldly glamour of Grandma, Lady Lianna Hedgewicke. Is she a fairy godmother who will make Rose's life more exciting, or an evil queen who plots her destruction? As Rose struggles with her attraction and revulsion for her young-old, human-wolf Grandma, Rose slips under her spell and finds out much too late, that there is no turning back.

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Post from: WINTERSPELLS: A Magical Life in Faery Witchcraft

Rosewolf: A Winter Spell


Focused Intent Is It In Our Genes In Bigfoots

Focused Intent Is It In Our Genes In Bigfoots
You're sitting in a waiting room, reading a magazine when without noise or prompting, you look up at the chair just to the right of you and the person is staring at you. Did you see them in your peripheral vision? Nope. Did they make a noise? Nope. Somehow, you knew someone was focusing his intent upon you.

You're in a haunted location and you're wandering from room to room when you enter a parlor and stop and turn and gaze into the corner. You feel as if you're being watched. You can feel the intent upon you as if it were a psychic touch to your subconscious, something stroking your "warning" button ever so gently.

You are coming home from work and find yourself pulling into the parking lot at the Chinese restaurant. You don't recall having a forethought to get supper and bring it home, but you simply felt compelled to do it as if something almost OCD catastrophic would happen if you didn't complete the action. You bring home supper only to find your spouse laughing about how he was thinking of Chinese food all day. Are you a mind reader?

I was on a ghost hunt. We were all catching some rest at the end of the hunt and laid down to get in a few hours sleep. Suddenly, I lifted my head and looked over my shoulder at the fellow hunter behind me. I felt a nighttime pat in my mind, not in my body, but I knew that he was saying good night silently. The next day, he reported he was about to pat me on the back good night, but then thought better of doing that and startling me, but when I raised my head in recognition, it kind of startled him that I seemed to know his intention.

All the time, we think about someone all day long and then get a call from them that night or an email. We don't know why we thought about them all day, we hadn't thought about them in months, but then here they show up just when we're thinking about them. It's not that our thinking of them is causing them to call or contact us, it is that we are reading their intention. When someone is focused upon us, they are suddenly in our mind.

The mind has a forward motion of intention. I have been fascinated with this as a psychic and a human being. We get up in the morning to start our routine day, but already are imaging what we're wearing to work, whether the traffic on the onramp is clogged up again, what will be waiting at our desk for us, the things we need to get done when we get home tonight, the appointment with the doctor next week, the vacation at the end of the month... We are already way ahead of ourselves.

Physicists believe it's entirely possible that every time we make a decision we split off into all the directions we could have taken with infinite outcomes in "multiverses."

From what I know of the phenomena, we can sense intention as if it an arm reached out and touched us, even though the person never physically did. It's as if just thinking about someone, you arrive in their senses and subconscious. The action may not have been physically completed, but mentally it moved forward on a psychic level. I feel it might be the same upon death, that all that forward motion and intention for tomorrow and next week continues to roll forward even when we are no longer physically in this space.

It seems to work with creatures, as well. You know how dogs "smell fear?" Horses refuse to cooperate for ignorant riders? Deer realizing someone is focusing attention on them run from the hiding hunter? I've done it many times focusing on the tons of bunnies we have here in my apartment complex. I simply study one and his head lifts and he runs off immediately. I've tried staring at them with no thoughts in my mind, but the minute I start looking at the bunny as a bunny, he reacts and hops off.

So, what does this tell us about the Bigfoot hunting dilemma? I recently wrote about Bigfoot and Native Americans and the possibility that our attention focused on him is driving him into hiding and that when we go down a forest path thinking about fishing or our day at work tomorrow, we run into him. I do not think this is coincidence. The question is, does BF have an even stronger sense of intent than humans? It is certainly something to consider.

I learned recently that man is intelligent because how long it takes him to get to maturity, i.e. 18 years. For primates, it is 10 years. Does BF reach maturity at perhaps 14 years? More intelligent than chimps, less intelligent than us? But, is that enough for him to have developed his psychic senses more than his analytical side? Perhaps he is a spiritual being like a caveman and uses his animal-like survival senses in a way we humans are removed from. Hell, we launch ourselves in cars at 60 miles per hour over highways and that is about as against our instincts of self protection as possible, but our intellect helps us negate the natural "oh shit!" that should come from such an experience. Perhaps BF's "oh shit!" mechanism is completely intact since he does not talk himself out of what he knows to be true. (Yes, y'all are so patient for putting up with my down to earth comparisons and I shall reward you later in some magnificent way).

I plan to learn more about the process of intent and how humans manage to "feel" this. It would have certainly been important in early development when we were not as strong as tigers and bears, so it is perhaps an actual sense, in there with the "God" sense (sense of being watched, not being alone). Might BF's sense of intent be so acute as to be a near constant low-level paranoia of being studied?

As an experiment, next time you're in a crowded waiting room or restaurant, focus your attention on someone who can see you in his peripheral vision. Focus and see how long it takes for the person to lift his head and look for the source of focused intention.

This is a curiosity I will continue to probe in my ongoing theories.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Rune Lore By Edred Thorsson

Rune Lore By Edred Thorsson
"THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING FUTHARK HAS DONE IT AGAIN! COMBINING HISTORICAL LORE WITH ESOTERIC INVESTIGATION, RUNELORE DISPELS MOST OF THE MISCONCEPTIONS FOSTERED BY RECENT BOOKS THAT PURPORT TO EXP LO RE THE RUNIC TRADITION. A RUNE IS A MAGICAL WORD. IT IS A SELFCREATED VIEWPOINT, AND IT CANNOT BE COMMUNICATED THROUGH PROFANE OR NATURAL SPEECH. IT IS A MAGICAL WORD THAT IS WHISPERED IN OUR EAR BY THE ODHINN WITHIN. RUNES DEFINE PATTERNS OF EXISTENCE AND CO N SCIOUSNESS THAT ARE MANIFESTED IN DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS AND IN THE WORLD BEING. THE LANGUAGE OF THE RUNES WILL APPEAL TO BOTH THE OCCULT AND ACADEMIC WORLDS BECAUSE IT COMBINES FOLKLORE, LINGUISTICS, THE HISTORY OF RELIGION AND MAGIC. CONTENTS INCLUDE:"

"o RUNIC HISTORY FROM THE PRE-VIKING ER A TO THE PRESENT"o RUNE MAGIC AND DIVINATION"o RUNIC CODES"o RUNE POEMS"o RUNIC NUMEROLOGY"o EXP LA N A T ION S OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE 24 RUNES"o RUNIC PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO JUNGIAN SYMBOLISM"o RUNELORE OF THE ODHINIC PANTHEON, AND HOW THE RUNESTER CAN UNLOCK THE WAYS OF THE DIVINITIES WITHIN"

"TH IS IS AN INDISPENSIBLE TEXTBOOK FOR ALL THOSE WHO SEEK TO UNRAVEL THE RIDDLE OF THE RUNES."

"LINK :"

Sunday 14 June 2009

Who Is Without Sin A Lectionary Reflection For Epiphany 6A

Who Is Without Sin A Lectionary Reflection For Epiphany 6A
MATTHEW 5:21-37 (NRSV)

21 "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. 31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Jesus, speaking as the new Moses, told his congregation gathered on the mountaintop: "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew5:20). Although we tend to have a negative attitude toward these two groups of religious leaders, they were considered to be models of righteousness. But Jesus pushes the envelope beyond the letter to the underlying motivations. He speaks of the heart and not just the action. As you listen to Jesus offer these statements, you might begin to wonder - who then is without sin? Maybe we should just stop at external actions and forgo trying to reach the heights that Jesus lays out. In these statements, Jesus doesn't discard the Torah, he simply intensifies it. He has a reason -- he speaks to those he is calling to be salt and light (Matthew5:13-16). To be salt and light, Jesus' followers must understand that their relationship with God is predicated on their relationship with their neighbors.

So, as the new Moses, Jesus offers his inspired interpretation of the Torah. There are six antitheses in all, four of which appear in this lectionary reading: Anger, adultery, divorce, and taking of oaths. Each antithesis is introduced with something like: "You have heard that it was said....." Followed by "But I say...." In each case he moves from the external to the internal motivation.

The statements begin with the prohibition of murder. Few of us would disagree that murder is wrong. Where we disagree perhaps has to do with the motivation of a killing. In his expansion, Jesus gets to the heart of things. Yes, murder is wrong, but so is being filled with anger at one's brothers and sisters. To call one a fool - to insult another - also deserves the same judgment as one who commits murder. We who haven't taken a life, now find the finger of judgment pressing closer to home. Anger is a primal emotion. We all experience it, but what do we do with this emotion? Where does it lead? Does it destroy, even if not taking an actual life? While insulting a person or calling them names might not seem as violent as actual murder, it can destroy a person. Jesus understands that murder is simply the final expression of something horrific churning deep within one's heart. Consider recent stories of people killing a person texting in a theater or turning up the music too loud at a gas station. Surely something is wrong in the heart.

As he presses his case, Jesus tells the congregation: before you come to the altar with your offering, take care of your relationship with your neighbor. As Lisa Davison puts it:Jesus in line with many of Israel's prophets (Amos, Micah, etc.) is acknowledging that it is impossible to worship God with integrity if we are not in right relationship with our neighbors. (Feasting on the Gospels--Matthew, Volume 1: A Feasting on the Word Commentary

1:97
). This might not be an easy task. There are probably people with whom we are at odds, and it will be difficult if not impossible to be reconciled to them before we come to the Table. This is a difficult word - especially for those of us tasked with leading worship.

We move from murder to adultery. Jesus again takes us beyond the surface. It's not enough to refrain from extra-marital affairs. If you have looked at a woman (could this not apply in the reverse as well?) with lust, with a desire to possess and be with that person, then you have committed adultery. It is helpful to remember that in context, women were considered property of their husbands, and thus lust is equivalent to coveting. The penalty for such an act seems barbaric - if your eye offends, then cut it out. If you can't see, you can't covet, and therefore will not be liable for judgment. As for the right hand - I'm going to leave that to the imagination, but Jesus says if it offends, then cut it off.

From adultery and lust we move on to divorce. Adultery and lust are related here. Jesus goes beyond Moses. The Law provides an out clause, which enabled a man to leave his wife if he found something "objectionable about her" (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Lust will do that. The grass is always greener, right? Jesus, on the other hand, tightens things up. Although Matthew does provide an out clause, it's much narrower in focus. The wife must be unfaithful. Otherwise one is liable for judgment, especially if one remarries. In many ways this is a call for justice. If a woman was discarded by her husband she was cast adrift. Jesus, on the other hand focuses on making relationships whole. In an age when divorce is increasingly commonplace in Christian circles, we need to ask what this means for our day. Barbara Blaisdell writes helpfully:Many good people who join God in hating divorce find themselves nevertheless deciding to divorce - not as a good thing, but perhaps as the least bad of the alternatives available. Given this honesty, we would do well to remember that we have been saved by grace, because none of us has managed to live up to the unconditional love of God and neighbor. ["Feasting on the Gospels--Matthew, "1:100]We stand, thankfully, in grace, and yet Jesus' word here is important. Too often divorce becomes an easy out. Indeed, it is often part of the planning for marriage. We'll stay together as long as it's fun or easy, and when things begin to drag we'll make a nice exit. Of course, it's never that easy. Often there is collateral damage left in the wake of a divorce. Jesus calls on us to not take a cavalier attitude to this sacred relationship, but at the same time we must allow grace to heal the wounds that can emerge, for none of us is without sin.

The fourth of six antitheses concerns oaths. Jesus notes the Law stipulating that one should not bear false witness. Don't lie, don't spread rumors. If politicians and political groups were to follow this prohibition the airwaves would be rather silent near election time. In our age of instant messaging, just following the letter might be enough. But, Jesus isn't ready to settle for the surface. He pushes deeper. He bans the swearing of oaths in general. Let your word be sufficient. Don't call on the Temple or heaven or your own head as a promissory note for your truthfulness. A yes means yes and a no means no. As I ponder this word from Jesus, I'm mindful that our own nation uses the Bible as a talisman to guarantee that one will tell the truth or honorably carry out an office. Somehow we expect that putting a hand on a Bible will keep one from corruption, but by now that illusion should have been shattered. Swearing on the Bible or your mother's grave will guarantee that you will be true to your word. So, avoid the oaths and let the truth stand on its own.

What then does it mean to let one's righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees? How can we be salt and light? In an age when in the eyes of the public clergy are no longer admired for their integrity and churches are disparaged for their hypocrisy, what word do we hear in this passage? Do we ignore these words as being unrealistic? Do we shrug our shoulders and make excuses? Or do we receive God's grace and pursue the righteousness of God, empowered by the Spirit who indwells us? I don't think Jesus would have us give up and make excuses. I believe he would have us grow in grace so that we can be salt and light in this word that God loves.

Origin: lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com