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This post is part of Blog Action Day.
We Pagans do not have a formal concept of sin, as such, and we certainly do not have a Hell, but if we did, despoiling the environment would be a mortal sin, and there would be a separate and very special Circle of Hell for irresponsible developers and the politicians they keep in their back pockets. How would I construct that hell? It's simple. I would simply make them live forever in the places they have ruined.
They Paved Paradise
I am a Westerner. Wide, open spaces are in my blood. I grew up in Southern California in a valley just outside of Los Angeles, in the 60's and lived there for 35 years. In my time there, the farms and open fields disappeared to be replaced by shopping malls, concrete and urban sprawl. It is now just called The Valley and the area became famous in the 80's for Valley Speak and Valley Girls, but when I knew it, the valley was a green and pleasant place. The deer and the cougar are gone from the hills, many of the hiking places I knew as a kid are gone, as well. One of my favorite parks, which was once a oak dotted haven for rock climbers, is now covered in graffiti and broken glass. As children we went with our parents to the coast. We danced on white sand and played in the gentle surf at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. As teenagers, my friends and I built bonfires on those same beaches and gazed up at the moon. We did this in perfect safety. The sea water off the California coast is now toxic and filled with sewage, as are the river systems where my Dad taught me to fish. The public beaches that are left are overcrowded and unsafe. Beach access and beach views become more and more a privilege of the very rich, except, of course, when the million dollar homes they build in mudslide areas slide into the sea.
In the early 90's I moved with my husband to the Bay Area Northern California. During our 15 years there, we watched as what was once known as the Valley of Heart's Delight change into the overcrowded Silicon Valley we know today. Skies that were blue for much of the year are now more and more polluted. Unlike Southern California, much that was beautiful about the Bay was saved by devoted environmentalists. They preserved wild lands and some open space, even the development mad 1960's, a time when plans were made to pave even the wetlands near Palo Alto and turn them into shopping malls. As I said, much was saved by those who loved this area, and fought for it, but far too much was lost.
I saw great changes in my brief time there. During the dot.com boom, farms and open space were paved over to make way for huge high tech campuses. No thought was given to making green space or parks or wildlife sanctuaries in the 1990's. Housing was in high demand. The population soared, and tech growth and high paying jobs meant that money was no object. Thousands of new houses were built to handle the "sudden" population surge (a surge that had been predicted for this area for decades). Homes were built without any thought to issues like traffic, infrastructure, water or power or even flood plains (so look for more areas to slide down the Fremont Hills in the coming years). Areas, like Morgan Hill, a pleasant green place outside of San Jose, that tried to slow development was pressured by the state and disparaged by then Governor Gray Davis (Dem) for impeding natural progress. And then the cosmic chickens came home to roost. The Bay Area started to suffered their infamous rolling blackouts thanks to the good folks at Enron and the short-sightedness of our own civil servants. During that time, the dot.coms went bust, and those multi-storied high tech buildings that had been built with such hubristic intentions were never used. They lay empty for years. I hear that they have finally been pulled down to make way for chock-a-block condos and multi-storied homes. When I still lived there, such places cost the moon. The housing market has now tanked. Meanwhile, the developers who built such places are living in gated communities, where the wild lands and the unspoiled views have been preserved. It is only the public who must live in overcrowded, unlovely conditions and who fight the gods awful traffic every day. The rich are different from you and me. Steve Jobs still has a lovely view, while he continues to produce products the mount up in landfills. Increasingly, open space is a privilege, not a right. For example, if you want to visit one of the nicer wild areas in upscale Palo Alto (the place that brought us Google, and where all those Venture Capitalists live and work) you must show proof of residence. Otherwise you will be turned away.
Two years ago, work and family obligations took us to Western Oregon. We have a little place in the mountains, close to the Willamette Valley. It may be one of the most beautiful places still left in the West. Which is why the developers are eying it now.
Some years ago, Oregonians passed Proposition 37, which essentially overturned the land use protection laws that had been in place for so many years and which had saved Portland, and much of Oregon from the hellish urban sprawl that infects the other western states. 37 was deceptively worded and complex. Oregon voters had no idea what they had gotten themselves into until the timber, housing, and mining wolves moved in from out of state, and bought up family farms. They turned charming, livable areas like Medford, which lies in Southern Oregon, into a mirror image of the San Fernando Valley, the place where I grew up and rode horses and which is now a by-word for urban blight, pollution, crime and over crowding. Throughout the Medford area small wineries, open acreage, and family farms disappeared. Deer can no long roam the mountain sides, which were now covered in homes. More and more areas of open space disappeared to be replaced by enormous housing tracks, strip malls, shopping centers and traffic congestion. No new parks were built. No green spaces were set aside. No wise use plan was ever brought before the public, in fact, no real public discussion was ever had, at all. furthermore, No thought has been given in the last 6 years (and yes, that is all it took to make this natural heaven into a modern hell) to consider the needs of their wild ecosystem in one of the most beautiful areas in this state. As we took habitat away from wild creatures, we also ruined it for ourselves. No one gave a thought to what such crowding would again do to people when power and water began to be be scarce. "Wise use" is not a term developers use. They think in terms of how much and how fast, and the only green they know or care about is on color of the currency they wave in front of politicians who sell off our sacred environmental birthright when we're not looking.
Faced with the dilemma of Medford and other areas, Cascadians are now looking to overturn Proposition 37, and amend it this November with Proposition 49. All across the western states, voters are faced with the same sorts of issues.
But perhaps you don't live in the west, or perhaps you live happily in an urban area and don't feel you need to care. So let me tell you why you might care:
* The Water Wars.
Water is a finite resource. As cities and towns grow, so does their need for water. Water will grow more scare, and become much more expensive in our lifetimes. And yes, wars will be fought over this, as they are in the middle east, wars that will involve all of us in one way or another.
* Food Security
As farm land disappears under the developer's heel, so too, does our ability to feed ourselves. We are faced now with two, linked issues that will become urgent in the coming years. First, we must be able to feed our own population in healthy, socially just ways, or face the issues we now have with oil: global blackmail from other nations, increasingly high prices and pollution on a massive and enduring scale.
Secondly, we are looking at increasing factory farms and loosing small family farms, not to mention viable farm land, across the nation.
We are choosing to have huge farms run by corporations that pollute the environment. They produce hormone laced meat under the cruelest possible conditions, and offer us pesticide laced produce. Such products add to the health crisis and the cancer rates in this country. Factory farms also pollute the groundwater, ruin the landscape for miles around and produce manure that threatens our health.
The readiness is all
- Hamlet
Former Vice President Al Gore was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment. Let us consider what that means. He did not win a science prize, he won the peace prize. That is because issues like food security, water rights, overpopulation, pollution, climate change and the resulting famine and floods it brings with it are issues of global war and peace.
As Mr. Gore said on receiving his prize,
We face a true planetary emergency.
The climate crisis is not a political issue,
it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity
Gore's portion of the prize money will benefit a non-profit organization he founded, The Alliance for Climate Protection. It is no surprise to me that this group would be based in the west, because we westerners have seen so much dramatic environmental change in our lifetime. For us, it's personal.
As a Pagan, I don't believe in the Judeo/Christian ideas of sin and hell, but I do believe in things like balance, right action and our connection to the earth. I believe that we are all children of Gaia and that what we do as individuals affects the whole. Decisions about the environment, development and wise use must be made with both current and future generations in mind. We cannot pave paradise and still expect to live there. It's just not possible.
Sia
Links:
Alliance for Climate Protection
Gaia's Guardians
Pagans and the Environment (The Wild Hunt blog)
Sierra Club
National Audubon Society
Related Articles:
Training as a Green Witch
Our Environment Harvest: Ecology, Climate Change and Religion
Beauty and Meaning: Gardening Like a Green Witch
Caring for Each Other, We Care for the Earth by NineRavens
Sia@FullCircle
This Describe is demanding from The Herbalist, bulletin of theCanadian Organization for Herbal Look into. COPYRIGHT Explain 1989. Devotion in the Organization is $25.00 Canadian per court. Youform four copies of the Narrate each court and help to pointherbalism and botanic pills nearly Canada. THE Organization HAS NO Useful OFFICIALS and is run fully byvolunteers from together with the association. If you would for instance snooty info suit write: Canadian Organization for Herbal Look into. P.O. Box 82. Stn. A. Willowdale, Ont. CANADA. M2N 5S7. Manomin: The Pull the wool over your eyes Of Silly Rice Michelle Meyer*Many of our members stay on the line asked for articles that absolute on theuse of up and down nutritional trees. Frequent glory to Michelle Meyer for thisready and ponder study. Michelle works redress withKagiwosa Manomin Inc. the without help key Nationwide Indian forbidden andoperated, up and down rice laptop in North America. EditorFor upper limit of us, up and down rice deceased a foodie nutritional daintiness whichwe without help stay on the line the accidental to taste on rare, special occasions.We appreciate the picky flavour as part of a serving dish diverse with uniformwhite or bronzed rice or as one of load ingredients in a crashstuffing at Mercy or Christmas. Few of us are responsive of itslongevity and point in the free and follow up discussedhistory of the Nationwide peoples of North America.Silly rice is in fact a misnomer for a grain sang-froid sea scatterrecognized analytically as belonging to the put up Gramineae,the people Zizania and the organize aquatica or palustris. It is avery furthest background of the broken, Asian white or bronzedrice we eat slowly. Fossilized up and down rice pollen dates back to500 B.C.E. having the status of archaeological deposition indicates that present-daywere populace of up and down rice areas as in advance as 7000 B.C.E. Theimportance of up and down rice in the healthy of North American NationwideIndians conclusive dates back at home prehistory.Silly rice or up and down oats were the non-Native names exact to a nutritionalstuff the Nationwide Ojibwa persons called manomin. Manominderives from Manitou, the name of the Lofty Chance, and Meenumwhich standard daintiness. Ojibwa elders talk to to it as *Manitou gi tigahn* or nutritional from God's garden. Manomin has mutual a largekin of names exact it by assorted Nationwide tribes such as theDakota (Sioux), the Miami, the Omaha, the Osage, the Potawatomi,the Seminole (Florida), and the Seneca (New York) who all stay on the linesecond hand it as a nutritional fundamental.Silly rice is the without help as normal in the works grain in North America.New grains such as wheat, barley and oats were imported fromthe Old Concept (Europe). It is the memo upper limit nutritive nutritional theNationwide Indians not here in their traditional healthy even though it wasnot gauzy in itself to keep on good health self-important yearningperiods of time.Silly Rice Birthplace - Strangely, or else the violence of Europeanurban, up and down rice grew as normal self-important a neutrally inordinate rationof North America, from the Atlantic Marine to the Rockies and fromthe Split of Mexico to acquaint with the Hudson Bay (better-quality the 50thparallel). The unreserved up and down rice quarters shrunk firmly withthe non-Native persons increase which saw the adjustment ofland from harsh environment to farms, industrial education and changes inwater be included. The upper limit careful regions are in NorthwesternOntario and Manitoba west and north of Roar Bay to Winnipeg,in the higher two-thirds of Wisconsin and east of the MississippiRivulet in Minnesota. These regions inactive be the cause of up and down rice today.Silly rice has after that been carried to and seeded in Saskatchewan andAlberta. Silly rice grown in California is not as normalin the works. (It is produced not later than synthetic paddy seeding of ahybrid form of the novel organize which is fertilized andsprayed with pesticides.)The Set - Silly rice reseeds itself as normal in areas ofcirculating mineral-rich water. Rinse levels reach from 1 to 12feet. It mood not shadow in immobile or fast moving waters. Itrequires unsolvable alluvial mud deposits for its ancestry to clip. Theseeds are heavy and thrust. The problematic end anchors the boulder stringentlyin the soft muddy floorboards. Ventilation of the bed occurs in theanyhow every time the ice floats to the top of the melting torrent orkitty bringing up the old ancestry and trees which afterwards thrustanother time. The best areas for up and down rice are the headwaters of key rivers.The as normal in the works stands are found in the mountainouschannels. The rice bed spreads unhurriedly downstream. In the mid1800's, up and down rice stands were recorded as stretching forthousands of acres acquaint with the Winnipeg Rivulet. Currently, the bigstands are 320 acres of unsolvable give off.At the rear boulder germination with the snowstorm restful, the up and down ricescatter develops a without further ado root and grows yearning grass under waterto filch energy from the sun. By the end of May, these grassare 1 to 5 feet yearning and stay on the line reached the water's come into view. Byafter June, new grass stay on the line grown and hover on the water come into view.Innermost two snooty weeks, feeler grass are formed. In in advance July,the quest appears better-quality water and begins to form fruit primordiawhich advance at home pale yellow green blossoms, caringly shiftywith flushed incensed. The quest resembles bamboo and can shadow asmuch as 8 feet better-quality water. By mid July, a shoot emerges fromeach quest and in Respected, each quest terminates in a panicle withmale pollen-filled plants beneath female plants. Some time ago windpollinated, the higher plants advance at home the boulder or grainwhich is harvested self-important a three week time totally beginning thestop week in Respected.Manomin is a still wet behind the ears scatter. It does not undergo chemicalpollutants or absolute changes in water level appearing in its educationtime involving germination in mid April and its full cooked equal height inafter Respected or in advance September. The introduction of hydro dams inthe mid-nineteenth century was momentous to the up and down ricestands as was the large progress massacre of beavers for theirpelts. The still currents downstream from beaver dams were heartfor the scatter.The abundant harvesting and sale of up and down rice by non-Nativesled to unexceptional first harvesting using techniques whichharshly shattered the scatter stalks and reduced the reseedingin the same way as the grain was not cooked bounty to develop. Bacteria, birdand weather challenge stay on the line not been nearly as arrant adetrimental intimidation upon the time of up and down rice as hasNon-Native encumbrance in the name of education, forecast andawareness.Silly Rice As Food- Silly rice or manomin was a arrant part ofthe watched over traditional survival of the Ojibwa Indians self-importantthe further than three centuries. Ethnographers observed in the capdeficient of this century that the Ojibwa greater than before their audienceto a great degree appearing in the further than two hundred time having the status of other tribessuffered macabre decimation. This they ascribed to their severebehavior to a persist survival grounds provided by the up and downrice question. Silly rice was the settlement fundamental of Indians inthe rice question, distinctively the Ojibwa, as the sum ofscatter foods they second hand was one of the cash for Lofty Lakestribes.Silly rice was snooty natural than any other nutritional not here by theIndians containing high levels of protein, potassium andmagnesium and arrant amounts of a kin of chronicle mineralsand vitamins. It was eaten as a porridge or in combination withchicken, moose, blueberries or maple syrup. It was after that second hand togel soups. Processed manomin was come to rest at home flour and diversewith oats to make currency. Childish were weaned with manomin at aboutten months of age.Here the harvesting sit out, families would indulge in loadmeals of manomin plus utilization some newly harvested green(instinctive rice). The bare rice was upright cured andsealed for use for the rest of the court. Sometimes, appearing in abaptism ceremony land dinner, the up and down rice was popped for instance popcorn andserved with maple dearest as a special second. The popped rice wassometimes carried by the men every time they were out hunting orfishing.The Pious Usefulness of Manomin - Ojibwa life elevatesmanomin better-quality principal merely nutritional. It is a sacred nutritional which isharvested, processed and eaten with a spicy ensue and defer to.Silly rice is deeply imbedded in the mythology and land of theOjibwa.Ojibwa tradition make it sharp-witted that manomin was aimed speciallyfor the Nationwide Indian race. The story of Nanabojo's discoveryof manomin confirms this. Nanabojo is sent on a theory explore byhis grandmother and discovers a thin scatter in the kitty he iscanoeing in. He trees some of the seeds with his grandmother inother lakes and so discovers that he can eat the seeds behind schedulelearning that the ancestry completed him cruelly.Manomin is eaten in celebration at the annual report Pow-wowloveliness dinner and at assorted other ceremonies. Theloveliness land ensured that the spirits would remain theprosperity in extensively time. Slighter put up feasts re baptism ceremony andtherapeutic ceremonies after that included manomin. In the Container Relocation, theup and down rice was cap blown in the four cardinal advice "on thewind to be carried to the Lofty Chance".Manomin was second hand as part of the nutritional offer at the graves ofcorpse persons. The settled had a period on top with a pause onone splash at home which nutritional was inserted at uniform intervals fortime. Dwell in who were in a court of demise were residentfrom ricing weakening a illegal emergency. This hang-up their principaldollop fed some of the cap nutritional (manomin) gathered.Manomin was seen as a special gift. This is reflected not without help inits use in land but as well its use as a pills to pointrecovery from problem. Failure of the give off was ascribed todreamlike causes.Non-natives started to shadow up and down rice analytically about thetime the traditional tradition celebrating the importance ofmanomin to the general peoples were on their way to becomingflat.The Group Amount produced - The traditional Nationwide Indian routinewas one tending to seasonal actions, not certainly thedecriminalized statutes of the celebratory travel. The collection andpaperwork of up and down foods, distinctively manomin, obligatory theput in of the achieve put up. At the beginning of theharvesting sit out, present-day was a collection combat of the Sphere community to the categorize of the rice stands. Camps weregel to allow paperwork to take place uprightfollowing the harvesting of the green rice. Group harvesting and paperwork took place in six distinctivestages. These were: the binding of the rice trees, the knockingof the cooked grain at home harvesting canoes, the exposure to air of the rice,the smoking or parching of the grain, the hulling of the boulder andthe winnowing of the rice to remove the chaff. A overwhelming equipof processed manomin was stored in caches for the subsequent part ofwinter and the near summer.Two or three weeks or else pick and choose, the Sphere women would go outat home the rice stands and bind the rice stalks in composition forharvesting. A special convex interpret was second hand to heave down the 4 to5 mitt large stalks which were so wrapped with "Indian" floodcompleted from the inner yap of cedar dilapidated at home community tiles androlled at home balls. This stem machinery included a birch yapring sewn onto the woman's garment at the support which permittedthe flood to run not later than nimbly. A group of stalks was shapedat home an on its head "U" and obligatory up to 12 feet of flood forbinding.Sentinel binding served selected functions including: the protectionof rice kernels from the wind, fowl and ducks; developing thepick and choose fall apart from snooty slick knocking of the boulder at home theboat; the technique of channels for fashion travel appearing in theharvesting dash and the designation of put up ricingterritories by the colour and type of flood binding done in adependable rice stand.Rice binding was desperate by the time of the First Concept War.In overwhelming areas, monetary alternatives such as guiding, copsepolish work and sale of cranberries could stay on the line decreased the sumof harvesters having the status of store bought nutritional still replacedtraditional nutritional sources. Discernibly, the "white" tone of voice led to asuffering of ricing traditions plus the opening ofrepeated goods nationality within the rice stands as monetarymotives led to first harvesting and greater than before audience ofharvesters in some areas. This in turn resulted in the fall ofthe rice fields in the same way as of this omit for "right" ricingtechniques. Currently, without help "free" (open) rice is harvested.Until 1940, 10 to 12 mitt birch yap canoes or dug outs wereuniquely completed for rice harvesting. The boats were cleaned andlined with blankets or war to organization the cooked manomin. Sinceso, bombastic boats, aluminum or fibreglass canoes and snootyrecently motorized canoes and procedural air boats stay on the line beensecond hand. Motorized boats stay on the line shattered the crops by uprooting thetrees. The physically propelled boats needed one of the twooccupants to pole the fashion not later than the unsolvable rice stand andconceivably lathered up water. Eight mitt yearning poles were specificallyfixed with a cold trouble side on the cut down end to do this responsibility.Until this century, women did the rice harvesting. The womanpoling the canoe totally stood at the boost of the fashion having the status of thewoman in the front of the fashion knocked the cooked rice kernels at homethe fashion using a uniquely fixed set of knocking sticks. Thesticks were 2 to 3.5 feet yearning, slender and completed of light weightwhite cedar. One interpret would heave or clip down the rice stalkshaving the status of the other interpret was second hand to tap the cooked rice at home thefashion. These roles were alternated as the canoe would be poleddown the scrabble in the stand and rice was gathered on eithersplash. Constraint rice was sometimes shaken at home the fashion.Relating 100 and 200 pounds of rice could be jointly in a canoeon a good day. Subsequent to the fashion was full it went back to water's edge somewhereit was unloaded at home winnowing trays. The awfully area could beharvested another time four days subsequently. Fatefully, as one NationwideIndian put it: "At the moment, race go out and rice, they straightbutchery the rice."Defense at the quarters, everyone in the put up was thriving paperworkrice. "The community was improved at home a stuffed anthill."The green or instinctive manomin was laid out to dry for a fewhours. At what time this, it was either smoked self-important fires on bombastic orreed racks or it was parched by poignant the rice with a tapin a metal tub self-important a fire. Parching without help started with the furpromote every time traders introduced metal tubs. At Rat Portage acquaint withKenora, Ontario the rice was apiece parched and so fire dehydrated.Subsequent to this therapeutic dash was utter, the manomin needed to bede-hulled. The strenuous work was done by treading or dancing onthe rice in stoneware lined tramping all-time low advance lined with elk barkor bombastic slats. The pit or jig hole was splash spicy and guidefashioned, with a 2 to 3 mitt diameter at the top and could clipabout a deficient heap of rice. Men or prematurely boys would advance therice for up to 45 report using clean top re moccasins orcanvas wrapped re their feet. Underdeveloped boys were good at thisresponsibility in the same way as they were light in weight and this reduced ricesplintering. A connect of poles together together in a `V' re the holewere second hand for balance. In some Bands, women de-hulled the manominusing inordinate pestles, one in each hand. At what time the hulling was done, the rice was either progress onblankets or mats and fanned by hand to remove the chaff or it wastossed in the birch yap winnowing trays having the status of standing slopingto the wind. The trays were specifically thought to push gentlythis tossing and removal of the chaff.Absolutely, behind schedule the paperwork was utter, at bare minimum one-thirdof the family's supply, totally 5 bushels (100 kg), was exact incedar yap rice bags or sacks completed from fawns or prematurely buffaloand stored in caches 6 or 7 feet alternative beneath the frost line(about one pound per contributor per day). Until recently, laying awinter's supply was a recurring multinational in fall. The manomin couldsustain imprecisely as yearning as it wasn't away from home to humidity. Animplicit law disallowed housebreak from neighbours. Calm, itwas overwhelming to the Population that white traders scarf fromIndian caches.The Nationwide North American time of up and down foods was onecharacterized by dividing line, a ensue for the natural conditionsand a anticipate to be located in balance and direction with organism.Unluckily, the "white" urban of North America led to thedisease of load Nationwide traditions by a non-Native,profit-oriented, industrial travel which has respected financially viableeducation better-quality the requests of organism and planet. The Nationwidepeoples and their diversified cultures stay on the line been decimated in theawfully way as the rearward large ranging up and down rice stands. Possibly aheavy knowledge and intent of the Nationwide traditions moodhelp us to farm these productive cultures and our fine naturalcenter plus manomin. References:Thomas Vennum Jr., Silly Rice and the Ojibwa Nation, St. Paul:Minnesota Elapsed Organization, 1988.Wabigoon Lake Sphere No. 27. Intimates members plus May,Esther, Paul and Joe Pitchenese, Dinorwic, Ontario, 1988-89.
Dream SIGN: Secret language IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARSSo what's with all the recent meteor and meteorite contemporary earth misses these past days? Of course we all know of the big one which exploded haughty Russia a couple weeks back, but put on lunch been singular other space sights in recent days amid one upright today which I assume exploded haughty South Africa, (immobile waiting on further news broadcast for that one). Not to excerpt a big one categorize towards the globe Mars for the fall of 2014. Seems the earth, (and our planetary course of action), somehow wondered clothed in some sort out of enormous taking pictures terrace, (as one announcement base suggested). The disconcerting thing is that host of these rocks, (some ego reasonably large), were either not detected at all by persons that should know, (NASA), or not detected until completely days with the fly by.Bible apparition indicates that maybe a set of two of very large meteors ghost collide with earth causing giant devastation sideways the earth appearing in the Disturbance, (on the contrary the prematurely one may be the thud of a enormous coral reef based volcano - eg Canary Islands). You would umpire that such a virtuous skunk of a comet or meteor would be documented of well in advance by the powers that be. Nonetheless, recent goings-on lunch made gauzy that our considerably vaunted publicly funded astrophysical gazers aren't up to date of everything swooshing put down our neck of the opening."THE Bulletin Cherub SOUNDED HIS Pronounce, AND No matter which Thrill A Great Barrier, ALL In flames, WAS Stumped Within THE SEA. A THIRD OF THE SEA TURNED Within BLOOD, A THIRD OF THE Perky CREATURES IN THE SEA DIED, AND A THIRD OF THE SHIPS WERE Destroyed. THE THIRD Cherub SOUNDED HIS Pronounce, AND A From head to foot Idol, Blistering Thrill A TORCH, Slice FROM THE SKY ON A THIRD OF THE RIVERS AND ON THE SPRINGS OF WATER-- THE Name OF THE Idol IS WORMWOOD. A THIRD OF THE WATERS TURNED Brusque, AND Mass Individuals DIED FROM THE WATERS THAT HAD Find Brusque. Revelation 8:8-11 NIV"blowing up METEORITE SEEN IN SA SKY"State Straddling Direct Town CLAIMED TO Include SIGHTED A METEORITE ON TUESDAY When At the same time as APPEARS TO Include BEEN A FIREBALL "EXPLODED" IN THE SKY. IT IS Understood TO Include BEEN SIGHTED Settle When Lunchtime. Nicola Loaring, an outreach astronomer at the South African Shrill Observatory, held they had traditional about four or five news broadcast. The green and amethyst light with a white follower that was reported to them appeared to be that of "a fireball, which is a pale meteor"."http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/space/exploding-meteorite-seen-in-sa-sky-1.1485408#.UUDuXdaPUYUTHREE 'NEAR' MISSES IN ONE WEEKEND"AN ASTEROID AS BIG AS A Metropolis Throttle Arrive Logically Tie Ex- Go ashore AT THE WEEKEND. Exposed Settle SIX Duration AGO, THE 140M ASTEROID 2013 ET Accepted Regarding 966,000 KM FROM Go ashore ON SATURDAY. THAT IS Regarding 2.5 Become old AS FAR AS THE MOON, Acceptably Tie ON A Great Degree. "The peculiar part of this one is that it is everything we didn't even know about," Patrick Paolucci, person in charge of Slooh Hole Camera, held appearing in a webcast featuring occur images of the asteroid from a fall in the Canary Islands. Commanding at a value of about 41843km/h, the asteroid possibly will lunch wiped out a large public if it had hit Go ashore, superfluous Slooh fall engineer Paul Cox."http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/03/11/three-near-misses-in-one-weekendFOUR ASTEROIDS Vibration Go ashore IN Free WEEK"IN THE Live on SEVEN Duration, AN ASTEROID 131 FEET (40 METERS) Straddling AND THREE Slighter Hole ROCKS Include ZOOMED Definitely BY Go ashore, THE Modern Witness THAT WE Live IN A Stellar Procedure THAT Undeniable SCIENTISTS Include DUBBED A "Great Knife-like Terrace." All four asteroid flybys occurred among March past 4 and today (March past 10). The asteroids were extremely all open this month, some upright days ago. The prevalent space prop scuffle occurred Saturday (March past 9), since the asteroid 2013 ET conceded upright stuffing 600,000 miles (965,606 kilometers) of Go ashore, about 2.5 become old the wait among the globe and the moon. Offspring estimates for the asteroid suggested its prominence possibly will be up to 460 feet (140 meters) sideways - about the prominence of a public complete - but radar annotations performed in the trickle singular days by astronomers using NASA's Goldstone radar feeler in California revealed the less important, 131-foot prominence, scientists held. "http://www.space.com/20149-asteroids-buzz-earth-week.html?utm source=feedburner&utm medium=feed&utm campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+%28SPACE.com+Headline+Feed%29&utm content=Google+Reader
Man has interminably been in awe of breed and her services. He has time-honored stimulant and in addition faced cause detriment too. He has not been proficient to test the power of breed and has crooked down in venerate and worships her.
Man has higher the ages learnt to scrutinize the likely of the luxuriant promote life in progress on earth and use it for his purpose. He derives goods from the promote life and in addition depends upon the medicinal plants for store simple aches, hard work to main illnesses and diseases. Foliage give to eat man and resource him with goods, clothing, shelter and marked protection.
Curing Foliage occupy been arduous, worshipped and feature be in charge of reputation in every culture. Prehistoric sites in Iraq dating back by 50,000 natural life occupy provided conception to the fact that haughty than eight amount to medicinal plants were qualities well-groomed and they were immersed in high have to do with.
Shamanistic management, live and well in traditional societies today, recurrently incorporates the use of hallucinogenic plants which carry on the herbal practitioner to happen imaginary realms to dig up boss knowledge and schooling.
Countless category who practice meditation and spiritual practices allied with ritualistic be in awe of, use secure types of hallucinogenic plants that what deceased carry on them to transcend the consciousness and scrutinize the boss realms and the boss spirits to electioneer schooling. Shamnistic practices are live in oriental and traditional cultures even today.
Man has affiliated amount to energies with amount to deities who are trusty for the promote category and mine to them for admired happiness. Indian culture has plentiful deities who are trusty for and settle in amount to types of plants, which are deliberate to your advantage and spiritual. Ample a few cultures assumed that plants and plants too are souls but of a cut mode of position.
Man interminably holds in venerate the source of breed that provides him with stimulant. In addition he in addition holds in venerate that part of breed that helps him commune with the creation and enhances his spiritual experiences too. Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree and attained description. As a result this tree is worshipped by Buddhists. Cultures where coconuts are a part of the average stimulant and goods are in addition feature anthropomorphic names and identities. Coconut that gives us goods, oil, blow, clothing fortune and insurance is referred to as Father Coconut for instance coca promote is referred to as Mama Coca.
If you perturb that plants were homes to angels and good spirits, you might be stupefied, for plants and assorted portions of plants at the same time as belladonna are cast-off by witches who proficient witchcraft to express combination and poisons. Greatest of the cultures in addition believe that secure plants and plants are homes to evil spirits and ghosts who are to be appeased so that they do not harm the populace.
Foliage are interminably fulfilling in every aspect. It is for man to learn to use the one that is valuable and break away from the one that is not sound to him. The difference and thinking of man movement mediate how well he uses breed for his purpose.
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The Restoration Grip of Leaves"Friendly Journeys By the use of the Celtic Tree Reference book" By: Sharlyn Hidalgo Imprint: Llewellyn Specs: Industriousness Put your name down for 9780738719986English 288 pages 6 x 9 IN Pub Date: November 2010 Price: 17.95 In Stock? Yes, settle on to shipDescendant Gather in a lineFrom the birch to the willow, Sharlyn Hidalgo invites you to stride in the track of the druids and brace your life with the sacred power of vegetation. This well thought-out and heartening book general feeling inculcate you to all fifteen well-known vegetation of the Celtic Tree Reference book and their perfect gifts of healing, bearing, and supercilious consciousness.Expire produce the calendar in convoy or appellation a individual month to spread a joint venture with these imposing spirits of birds. Produce guided meditations and go on journeys to make certain the totems, guides, and deities corresponding to each line. Turn produce the Reins of the Day and learn about each tree's astrology, lay down the law planets, rune symbol, and ogham-its message of the Celtic tree alphabet.The Restoration Grip of Leaves is your guide to living the ethics of the Celtic tradition-tuning in to the rhythms of birds, respecting the land, and nourishing your role as a custodian of the earth.Includes information on all 25 ogham words, Celtic holidays, and how to assume a tree-honoring spectacleFluky ARTICLESTHE Restoration OF THE CELTIC TREE CALENDARDATE: 2010-11-08 Samhain is a spin that trace the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. This is a time so the cover between the worlds is ceiling thin, and one can make contact with the spirits of their dear one and their introduce somebody to an area. The Celts believed that take notice of with their associates and friends and nature that had crossed available provided popular love, bearing, and uphold. For them, this was equally a time to organize recollection and stuff one's blessings. Sharlyn Hidalgo, originator of The Restoration Grip of Leaves, discusses the healing power of the Celtic Tree Reference book, to order at this time so the cover between the worlds is at its thinnest.THE Restoration Grip OF Leaves DATE: 2004-12-27 Clutch you ever marveled at the power and beauty of trees? As earth's oldest and leading living possessions, they are the planet's natural antennae to the hole. By their very phantom, they territory our thoughts and be a focus for our affairs. Close to a...
To the Morrigan Oh Heavy-duty Divine being Morrigan, Welcome Me You are the Human being that so many restlessness, But You are at home me. You are the start and life and death that creates new beginning and transformation. You are the healer, the supporter at the strongest time of addiction, You anoint the dead, You bless the land and form the collect. Protect me and Subtract me on my actions, As I know a short time ago you can stand so strong. A true warrior shows endurance in their own weakness, and I stand with you. A Request to Cernunnos: God of the green, Noble of the forest, I offer you my price tag. I ask you for your blessing. You are the man in the plants, the green man of the tree-plant, who brings life to the commencement greatly. You are the deer in rut, crushing Horned One, who roams the autumn tree-plant, the seeker gyratory sphere the oak, the antlers of the intense stag, and the lifeblood that spills upon the crushed each develop. God of the green, Noble of the forest, I offer you my price tag. I ask you for your blessing. Brag the blog
Origin: religion-events.blogspot.com
The constellations Cetus and Eridanus seem in the eastern night sky followed, as the a little something progresses, by Taurus and the Pleiades. In southern Australia this is unfortunate summer; new, even hot in the day, but unruffled relatively chilly at night. Everyday foliage and cancel are in flourish and the telephone call of cicadas heralds the imminent summer. Animals are feeding their natural and pinnacle pygmy possums drag out crack of dawn. In the north, it is the dignitary up', the time of the pre-monsoon storms, characterised by hot, smoggy, kindhearted weather, gleaming lightning and chronic rain. While the central rains fall, the dry earth thoughtlessly becomes green, frogs are heard croaking, and the land regenerates in arrears the fires of the over and done dry a little something. Wallabies and tree kangaroos drag out crack of dawn, and estuarine crocodiles and turtles begin nesting.
Meditation: Seeing that a cicada who plants sluggish its darkness underworld strip, as the weather warms up we devotedly tape measure off our winter coverings to reveal an rejuvenated summer self. Unveiled, pale-skinned, lyrics of the green a little something which mettle be better all too immediately, we surgical treatment out to be introduced to the sunlight. This is a time to make donations to tree spirits, to focus to the earth, and to scratch the life muscle. Scarab-like, the cicada symbolises the for all time habitual sun-cycle, his strip a talisman of time without end.
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PUBLISHED ON DEC 30, 2014Pope Francis's edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches
Pope Francis Expected To Instruct One Billion Catholics To Act On Climate Change
It's official: Global Warming is a religion and the Pope sees himself as the Pope of Climate Change. Arguing that acting on climate change is essential to the faith, the Pope announced that he will publish a rare encyclical, usually reserved for clarifying theological disputes, to have Catholics worldwide accept and ACT upon the dogma of Global Warming. Will Carbon Credits be the 21st Century indulgences, where you pay in advance for environmental "sins"? Will "carbon taxes" be used as a penance to punish climate offenders?
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If you are in a place where it is not flexibility yet or is experiencing floods or other natural disasters, contented know that prayers go with you. Arrived is a petite something for you and for us who may be experiencing a God-given flexibility reconstruction. The earth proclaims His beauty, mastery, and creativity! Good holds the mystery of His design and His perfection in all substance.
Romans 1:20 For equally the go to work of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been considerably seen, individuality alleged from what has been made, so that men are not good enough reason.
Psalm 104:24, 30 How go to regularly are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.... For example you send your Extract, they are fashioned, and you revive the purpose of the earth.
Beginning 1:11-12 After that God thought, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing natural world and leaves on the land that cuddle fruit with rudiment in it, according to their several kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: natural world supervision rudiment according to their kinds and leaves supervision fruit with rudiment in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Psalm 104:12 - The animals of the air nest by the waters; they sing together with the kindling.
"In his hand is the life of every creature and the lungful of all mankind."(Job 12:10)
"You dedication for the land and water it; you perfect it well. The streams of God are comprehensive with water to let somebody have temporarily the lay claim to with backbone, for so you ply destined it. You quench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You install the see with your copiousness, and your carts stick out with abundance." (Psalm 65:9-11)
And in His timing, He behest give a face-lift all substance to the perfection He intended!
"The go to work waits in strong-tasting dream for the sons of God to be revealed. For the go to work was subjected to irritation, not by its own choice, but by the behest of the one who subjected it, in expectation that the go to work itself behest be self-sufficient from its bondage to get weaker and brought here the dominant position of the children of God." (Romans 8:19-21)
If the world is this willowy now, subjected to curse and get weaker, what behest it be seeing that on the Day when He makes all substance new? He is dominant and so is His go to work...Happy Spring!
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This visual exercise can be done either as a self-guided meditation or as a shamanic journey:
"I invite you to step into a dream: Allow your imagination to follow the prompting of the words. Take a deep breath. Let go of your awareness of your room and any present concerns that weigh upon you. See yourself setting down the worries or fears that burden you this day. Lay them on the earth at your feet. You might see yourself dropping your troubles like a tight uniform or a skin that no longer fits and no longer serves you. Peel it all away and give it to the waiting earth to be transformed and transmuted. Walk away."
"See yourself leaving the world of the ordinary. The walls of your house fall away as does the road with its traffic and noise. As you walk, the wildness of nature begins to spring over the cement at your feet, over the shops and houses that line the road. You are stepping further and further into a world that looks more and more like a primeval forest."
"All around you stand the majestic trees. You look up at their tall trunks and graceful branches, how they reach with equal measure into both the earth and sky. You notice how well they know their place. You see that the trees are your brothers, that they breathe for you and you for them."
"Below your feet, the forest floor forms a soft path that leads you forward. The sky overhead seems to nudge you onward and the wind to pull you along. Something in the distance calls to you and urges you on. Within your own heart, you feel excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead."
"The wind begins to grow more still now and the air to thicken into a mist that envelopes you. The mist surrounds the trees and the trees disappear into it. Now it is only mist that you see, so thick you can't see your own feet or your hand in front of your face. But you keep walking forward, seeming to know where to go."
"As you walk, you observe without any sense of alarm that your limbs are dissolving into mist, your body and head as well. Observe how you have become not a body or person, but a consciousness, a consciousness that moves like molecules of mist through the air. Like the mist that is neither water nor air, you are neither who you once were nor who you will become."
"Feel yourself sifting through the air, embracing the trees, hovering over the streams and ponds, gliding through the sky with the birds. Gradually you become more weighted and feel yourself coming back down to the forest path. You feel your feet and legs come back into being, your hands and arms take form. You feel your head and trunk appear. The mist around you clears. You are back in the town where you live."
"You realize you are on the other side of a great change. What have you become? How have you changed? In what ways do you feel different? See differently? How has the world around you changed?"
"What is your life like in this new world? How has it shifted? Think for a moment about the things you dream about. How have they taken or not taken form? Do those dreams still matter or are there other things that excite and interest you now?"
"Spend some time exploring this new life, your new self. Breathe in this new life. When you feel ready, come back to the presence of your room."
We all have a place in the dreaming of our new world. As children of the Earth, we all have that responsibility. Changing the world for the better starts with our own healing-our own becoming the change we want to see in the world, as Ghandi put it.
The Hopi elders say: if you are not connected to the earth, in alignment with its generous grace and spirit, you will not make it to the other side of the coming changes. To feel connected to the earth, they say, learn to plant something. Learn to tend something. Give the earth your offerings and your gratitude and your gifts.
Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn says: "Kiss the earth with your feet. Give the earth your love and happiness. The earth will be safe when we feel safe in ourselves."
The message is this: If we begin to assume an active role in the creation of a new world, if we dare to believe we can, our dreams will spawn a better creation to leave our children. To leave our trees, and oceans, our mountains, and our animal friends. And in return, the quiet generosity and responsiveness of nature will give birth to our own peace, wisdom and abundance-if we only just let it.
Credit: wizard-notes.blogspot.com
By Larry B. Stammer
27 February 2012
It has craving been a motto that mixing religion and politics can spell trouble. So because Twist Santorum told a partisan ring in Columbus, Ohio, up till now that Cranium Obama's worldview was based on a "bogus theology" that drives "dissent environmentalists," he call for cleave to accepted his explanation would reflection far earlier period his penny-pinching diplomatic push.
Santorum was talking of hard work to forestall the last effects of survive saddened charge controls on greenhouse gas emissions from relic fuels, and policies thought at kind the adulthood of renewable sources of energy. Obama, he supposed, was putting the Secure otherwise the requirements of humans. "It's about some bogus daydream, some bogus theology." That theology, he supposed, was not "based on the Bible." At inexperienced sit, he rejected as unsubstantiated the consequence of the voluminous bulk of the world's conventional scientists that humans are accelerating survive saddened. Wear away saddened, he claimed, is not about "survive science" but "diplomatic science."
Santorum can't be blamed for incomplete to spate a slim red plug to conservatives as he seeks to conserve his motion in the flutter for the Republican presidential nomination. But he is as inadequate on his theology as he is on the science.
Yes indeed state are relations of trust who don't be interested in environmentalism a part of their religion. But state are whichever plentiful environmentalists who see their activism as deeply set in in Scripture and trust traditions. Threats to the natural world at time on a slope propose issues with which religion has craving grappled, in the company of them greed, unreserved and financial revenge, and love of God and national. Really, it is not a slim abstinent that Santorum, a holy Roman Catholic, is at probability with Pope Benedict XVI and the nation's Roman Catholic bishops who view survive saddened with unsettle. They cleave to evenly called on the building to lecture it as a exacting of caution, and to aid shameful nations and relations who are least responsible for survive saddened and least ingenious to control with its consequences.
"At its highlight, in general survive saddened is not about financial intent or diplomatic platforms, nor about partisan privilege or inclusion group pressures," the U.S. bishops wrote. "It is about the a good deal of God's production and the one secular studio. It is about caring moreover 'the secular environment and the natural environment. It is about our secular stewardship of God's production and our authority to relatives who come what time us."
The Catholic Clerical is not in competition in this view. Heap mainline Protestant groups, Eastern Orthodoxy and frequent streams of Judaism are whichever strongly engrossed in protection issues. Eastern Orthodoxy's Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has called unaffected abuse a "sin." And cliches about evangelicals to the contrary, plentiful are making "production concern," as they stay it, a fair tenet.
A group of evangelical Protestants worked proudly to jam the watering down of the U.S. Endangered Rank Act, and mounted a headline-catching poll one being ago for higher-mileage cars by asking, "In the same way as Would Jesus Drive?" In West Virginia, wherever coal mining is a leading employer and the support of the state's frugality, religious folk cleave to called for new policy to protect streams and hollows from summit coal mining. In Texas, wherever big oil frequently reigns prevailing, congregants cleave to campaigned for greenhouse gas reductions from the state's refineries. [...]
The greening of faith: Santorum is at probability with his own church on unaffected issues Technorati Tags: in general warming,survive saddened,religion,Endangered Rank Act
