Lk 222 35 Walking Into The Light

"Lk 2:22-35 "WALKING INTO THE LIGHT

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What is it that makes Christians unique? It is the way they love. Love is "giving" and "forgiving"; being proactive and reactive like Christ. "Whoever claims to abide in the Lord ought to walk just as he walked (1Jn 2:4). I have to walk the talk. It's not easy to say loving things. It's not any easier to do them. But the Lord demands that we keep his commandments. If not, then we are the biggest hypocrites, the grossest liars; the most obnoxious of worshippers.

LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS. Christmas ceremonies and traditional rituals are getting hit hard this year. I don't know about you but I feel as though I am seeing less and less Christmas decorations than in the past. I don't know if it is something imaginary or if it is real. But I believe it is important that we go through the rituals; that we put up a Christmas tree, the tinsel, the bells, and the manger; that we wrap our gifts and take the time to enjoy the reason for the season. Mary and Joseph went through the rituals. If anyone did not need to be purified or dedicated it was Mary and Jesus. And yet, they did it, according to God's Law. They went through the ceremonies and fulfilled the Lord's desires. Little did they realize how their lives connected so intimately with others. Simeon had been waiting all his life for this moment. The Holy Family did not skip it. If they had, Simeon would still be waiting to this day for the promise of the Lord to be fulfilled. Regardless of the noise surrounding the family or the very public danger around them, they were surprised of Simeon's words. They needed to hear it just as much as Simeon needed to see them and say it. When we place God above all other things, miracles happen; people seem to appear; dots begin to connect; the light begins to break through the darkness (1Jn 2:11).

LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Not too long ago I gave a High School student a penance to love more or to love everyone he met. He got up and said, "That's all?" I told him, "That's it." Afterwards, I thought to myself, maybe I didn't give him enough of a penance. But then, thinking more, I realized that I had given him the toughest penance you could give to anyone. To love everyone you met; to "love more" is extremely difficult. It's not easy at all. When Christ gave this commandment to his disciples, they must have been shaking their heads. Love everyone? Love our enemies? Love our neighbors? Love those who persecute you and hate you and utter all kind of false things against you? Love without condition? Love without receiving? My goodness, is this really possible?

St. John tells us, "Whoever says, 'I know him," but does not keep the Lord's commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

The two most important feasts in the Church are Christmas and Easter. They are the two feasts of light and love; "Giving" and "Forgiving". Let us ask the Lord for an increase in faith, hope and love. Hatred has no place in the heart of the Christian.

May the Lord bless us as we keep ahead of the darkness by loving more and walking swiftly towards His light.

Reference: magic-and-spells.blogspot.com

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Traditional African Religions Continue To Thrive

According to a new Pew Forum study on Christianity and Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa:Side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in the countries surveyed retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. In four countries, for instance, half or more of the population believes that sacrifices to ancestors or spirits can protect them from harm. In addition, roughly a quarter or more of the population in 11 countries say they believe in the protective power of juju (charms or amulets), shrines and other sacred objects.The Pew study focussed on 19 countries. The country found to have the highest rate of belief in "the power of [traditional] shrines and other sacred objects" is Senegal, where 75% of those surveyed reported such beliefs.Other clear indications of the continued survival of traditional religious beliefs at odds with both Christianity and Islam are:"In most countries surveyed, at least three-in-ten people believe in reincarnation.""in 14 of the 19 countries surveyed, more than three-in-ten people say they sometimes consult traditional healers when someone in their household is sick.""sizable minorities (roughly 20% or more) in 12 countries say they possess traditional African sacred objects, such as shrines to ancestors, feathers, skins, skulls, skeletons, powder, carved figures or branches, spears, cutlasses or animal horns." [Sound like anyone you know?]"Substantial minorities (roughly 20% or more) in many countries also say they participate in ceremonies or rituals to honor their ancestors."Overall, one quarter of all those surveyed "exhibited high levels of belief and practice" in traditional African religions. In three countries this was over 50%: Tanzania (62%), Senegal (55%), and Mali (52%). In four more countries (Cameroon, South Africa, Guinea Bissau, and Chad) these "high levels of belief and practice" continue to be found in over 1/3 of the population.If these results are typical for all of Sub-Saharan Africa, it would mean that now, in the 21st century, there are over 100 million Africans who continue to believe in and practice the religious traditions that Christianity and Islam have tried so hard to destroy. This is certainly good news!Those interested in traditional African religions might also want to check out this post on Fela Kuti, and also this one on the Afro-Caribbean religion of Candomble in Brazil.Also see the series "Heart of Darkness", consisting of five posts on topics related to Christianity and Colonialism in Africa:Part One: "By This Sign We Prosper"Part Two: Christian Demographics Fun FactsPart Three: Doing the Lord's Work In RwandaPart Four: Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from RwandaPart Five: Preparing the Way for Genocide in RwandaOther posts on Traditional African Religions:"Africa became Christian by Submission not by Conversion"You might be Pagan if.... (Part Deux)You might be a Pagan if.... Every picture tells a storyTraditional African Religions Continue To ThriveMore On Traditional African ReligionsFela Kuti and Traditional African ReligionSecret Knowledge, Sacred Knowledge (on Candomble)[And, finally, for those who don't know already, I'm not really a big fan of the Pew outfit. If you are interested to know why, check out my earlier post on "Push Polling For Jesus".]

Reference: magick-keys.blogspot.com

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Psychic Protection Grounding Ideas

There are many times you may feel you need an extra bit of protection. Meeting someone negative, walking into a room of strangers or just out in a busy High Street.. I'm sure we have all been aware of standing in a queue and feeling uncomfortable as someone steps in to our space. This is them invading our aura (energy field), and if our energy field is unprotected we will pick up on any energy that they may be giving out. The more spiritually aware and intuitive we are the more sensitive we become to all the energies around us. We especially need to be aware of protecting our energy fields when dealing with other people as a healer/medium or clairvoyant for example..An important part of protection is to stay grounded. An easy way of doing this is to stand and imagine you are a tree with your roots growing deep into the ground beneath you. Try and do this as often as you can, once a day is ideal. If you can stand bare footed this is even better but don't worry if you don't have anywhere convenient to do that.

Credit: theartofastralprojection.blogspot.com

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The Way To The Mill

The 1st of August is Lammas, or Loaf-Mass. This short meditative piece reflects on the importance of corn and wheat from ancient times to the very present day in our Jersey heritage, and also on how the plight of Africa calls for our aid. The friar, incidentally, is quoting verbatim from the Carmina Gaedelica, the book of ancient prayers from the Hebrides. The voice that speaks in the Forest is a verse from Leviticus. Cerridwen is the goddess of the grain.The Way to the MillIt was a pleasant afternoon, and I thought I would take the path to the mill. I watched the ducks and geese gliding across the pond, for a while, and then I took the bridge across the gently flowing stream, and headed up the path into the woods. The path forked, and I decided to take a different path. I had always taken the lower path, which still meandered up and down until it came to the mill. I had often wondered where the other path led, and sometimes when I had passed, it had been overgrown, hardly a path at all.It was as if it came and went at times, sometimes there, and sometimes gone. But this time it was there, leading up the hill, and inviting me to take it, to be adventurous, and go forth into the unknown.The day was warm, and hot, but the trees gave shade, and the sunlight dappled though to the ground, as I climbed steadily upwards. At times, I paused for breath, for this path was steep in places, and required an effort. And then I was walking out onto the summit, the meadowland, rich with sweetly scented heather, and a dolmen ahead of me.I had seen many dolmens, ancient structures of huge stones, but they all looked weathered, with many stones destroyed by greedy landowners. But this dolmen looked complete, and it looked new, freshly built. The capstones came cross the whole length of the dolmen, and it had been inset inside an artificial mound; all that remained was for the top to be covered over and sealed in. Outside, there was a larger circle of smaller stones. And beside the dolmen, sitting on the wild grasslands, were people, dressed in rough woollen clothes. There was a lady sitting there, and beside her was a large quern, a rounded piece of granite with an indentation in it. In this was some corn, and she held in her hand a smaller stone, which she was grinding into the corn on the other, and all the while, she was singing a song. And I sit down, and listen to her sing:Let wind take seeds and scatterThe good seed on the land,Let rain come down and waterBy Cerridwen's mighty handThat seeds buried in winterMay warm and grow as grainIn breezes and in sunshine,And soft, refreshing rain.Bless here our humble acreHer hand reaching so farTo give us grain for flourAnd be our guiding starFill cup of mead to brimHer moonlight overheadAnd so to us, her children,She gives our daily bread.And a man comes, and offers me bread and mead, and we break bread together, and each in turn take a sip of the same cup, and he says:Blessed art thou, Cerridwen, goddess of the cornWho brings forth bread from the earthA cloud obscures the sun, and it is suddenly getting cooler. A breeze springs up, rustling the wild grass, and I know it is time to take my leave of this tribe. I bow to the man, and he to me, and I head off back into the forest, along the path.The sky above the forest canopy is darkening, and I feel some drops of rain falling down upon me, and I hasten along the old track. The side of the track is earth, worn and shaped by rain, and there is a stream flowing downwards. But then the track levels off, and the raindrops cease, and I find myself in a clearing, and in the clearing is a man in a simple brown gown, with a girdle around his waist, and his head shaven in a tonsure. He has short brown beard, and a gentle, peaceful face. And I know he must be a friar, on his travels around the land, pausing between towns, coming to this quiet place to meditate.He is sitting down on a fallen log, and he opens a knapsack and takes out a flagon of red wine, and a loaf of bread. As if expecting me, he looks up, and holds up the bread, and breaks off a piece. He says:I ground it in a quern on FridayI baked it on a fan of sheepskinI toasted it to a fire of RowanAnd I shared it round my people.I went sunways round my dwelling,In name of the Mary Mother,Who promised to preserve me,Who did preserve me,And who will preserve me,In peace, in flocks,In righteousness of heart.And he hands me the bread, and I take it, and afterwards, I sip the rich wine from a wooden cup, and he says to me:Blessed art thou, Lord God of the UniverseWho brings forth bread from the earthThen we sit together for a while, he and I, looking at the world, the birds calling from the trees, the butterfly fluttering across the clearing, and the small ants going to and throw in their business. We see all this, but we are just watching, the still point in the moving world.Suddenly, the clouds return, blotting out the sun, and the rain begins to fall heavily. The friar gets up, places the remains of the meal in his knapsack, and bows to me, and hurries off along one path. But I take another path, one into the more heavily wooded trees, that may offer more shelter from the rain.There is the sound of thunder, and the sky darkens, and I hurry down the path. The rain is running in rivulets down the side of the path, and my feet are beginning to churn up the soil as it turns to thick mud. And the thunder ceases as quickly as it came, but the rain continues, and I see the light sparkling in the water on the leaves, as a voice whispers softly:I will send you rain at the right time, so that the land will produce crops and the trees will bear fruit.And I hear the running water even more clearly, and see the water running into a swiftly flowing stream. The stream is running along the lower boundary of the woods, and I see water a meadow between it and the natural stream in the valley bottom.Then I come to an old stone wall, and a small garden, where there are many different kinds of herbs flourishing. I reach out, and pick one of them, crush it in my hand, and at once, I smell the sweet scent of rosemary. Behind the wall, I hear the creaking as the watermill wheel turns, and the rushing noise of water pouring down. And I turn through a gap in the stone wall, and there is the water mill, towering above me in all its glory, a fine granite building.I enter the mill, and see a huge fireplace, stone paving for floor, and climb the stairs. And there are the wheels turning, the great central shaft, large wheels geared to turn smaller ones, and finally the burr stone turning to grind the wheat into flour. There is a man seated there, the miller, and he rises to greet me, and he says:Hear the call from distant landsDistended bellies ache in painThe crying of the hunger pangsCalling for the wholesome grainHear the call from distant landsWhere children hunger to be fedThe crying comes across the globeTake the flour, and bake the breadHear the call from distant landsFamine strikes, no time for thriftGive across the world, you mustBread of life, Cerridwen's giftAnd he hands me sacks of flour to take with me, and I know that my task has just begun, and I begin to walk back through the forest, knowing that this precious grain has a longer journey than I.Soon I will pass it to others, and they in turn to others, and with them I will make a chain which reaches across to those who starve in lands cursed with drought; for I am kindred with those who hunger in distant lands, all fellow children of our Father in Heaven and our Mother Earth, reaching out, hand to hand, to feed the hungry world.

Origin: ceremonial-magic.blogspot.com

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A Pagan Christmas In A Yuletide Way

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BY PEG ALOI, So BLOG

Being I was muffled, and parallel spend time at kids further on me, Christmas was special for spend time at reasons that had very muffled to do with the wedding anniversary of toddler Jesus. I dear the pass quickly lights, decorating cookies, burning up the tasty tableware my Italian grandparents served on Christmas Eve, biting down our tree in the forest, and in concert Christmas carols accompanied by Mom on her Hammond appendage. I was raised Catholic, but my parents weren't poorly violently, and so for me Christmas was always a balance worldly come across.

Many being later, following I settled I considered necessary to be a witch and that Paganism was quicker to my existence than Catholicism, I realized I wouldn't really pride yourself on to permit up what I dear about the Yuletide lace with. The solstice celebrates the return of the sun; the rejuvenation of the sun is not far cloistered from the start of the son, is it? Christ is a lunar god, privileged with gifts sacred to lunar gods all-around history: gold, frankincense, myrrh. To some, he's the light of the world, and so pleasant the return of longer, furnace days is a way to house the Christian mythology and bedeck our celestial communication to the innovation. Many Pagans perform official duties aspects of Christmas from their beginnings or dwelling traditions, combining them with an trust of Yule as the lunar solstice celebration.

My edge was an covetous appellant, and deer hunting was a dear dodging from Kindness redirect in upstate New York. One appointment, preferably of stringing Christmas lights up on our porch, Dad settled to initiative a mounted deer head, an eight-point buck he had named "Percy," and tie a wide red and white striped bow interspersed with brood boughs as regards his neck and hanger him on the leadership porch. I was mortified: what teenager wouldn't be? Conformist high society hanger lights, not taxidermy!

But I now understand Dad was a true pagan at existence, and his pleasantry and love of humor are two mortal traits I'm likely to to pride yourself on inborn. I now pride yourself on Percy floppy on the wall in my living room, and he has holly boughs floppy in his antlers. I always cut cool greenery from my lodge or the wooded area for this time of year: holly, juniper, cedar, brood, lower. The image of deer in the snowstorm is my dear lifelike matter for the holidays, and I perform official duties it by choosing cards with this image, and making dioramas with toy deer and evergreen foliage. Being performing Yule rituals that tell the story of the Holly King and the Oak King, vying for say-so, until the Holly King convincingly surrenders to the Oak King until the summer solstice, I parallel to grasp my Dad would esteem the woodsy, manly imagery.

To the same degree becoming a Pagan, I've eminent Yule in spend time at recognizable and alluring ways. One appointment, I stayed with friends in the Berskshires, and we stayed up all night as a vigil. Family who finally considered necessary to peacefulness would light a candle to substantiate their vigil, nonetheless the rest of us sang songs, read poems or stories, or played games. In the first light, further on lunch, we brought a cavern of family unit wassail outside to "toast" (this stare comes from the slices of currency on the edge in the wassail) and bless the apple foliage in their wood.

I've attended Yule finances with bonfires shiny their golden give somebody their cards on the snowstorm. I've rolled in the snowstorm once upon a time climbing out of an outdoor hot dub, less a solstice full moon. One appointment I was house-sitting in a desolate village in England, and left the day abandoned, walking to a Neolithic site in the on its last legs rays, and victuals banger stew for my holiday banquet. In other being I've performed with Pagan musical groups, production the Abbots Bromley horn cavort, in concert songs in Gaelic and Welsh, and chanting about fire, foliage, and snowstorm. Give is a echoing tradition of music full of green humor imagery that lends a unspoiled spirit to the traditional code of belief of Christmas carols and best part songs.

My Boston-based coven celebrates Yule as a ritual muggy the old appointment and beginning the new. In 2001 I extolled the temple for our Yule rite and settled I considered necessary the western altar to be a celebration of light: no statues of gods or goddesses, precisely dozens of candles of all shapes and sizes in dyed casement holders. It wasn't until we were middle manage the rite that I realized the altar resembled one of the impromptu road memorials that appeared in spend time at neighborhoods once upon a time 9/11.

In our Yule ritual, the sty (our coven founder, who died in 1997) includes a poem by Charles Mackay which is informal three become old manage as everyone, individually or with a favored belong to, walks less a holly section hanging from the check in the fundamental of the circle. It is a renewal of the mingle and influence of our contact with others, a write to apology others, to curtail board on unrest and move occur with possibility. It seems higher and higher substance with every appointment that passes.

Ye who pride yourself on scorn'd each other

Or injured friend or brother,

In this fast on its last legs year;

Ye who, by word or do something,

Hath prepared a accomplish existence leach,

Succeed storeroom into.

Let sinn'd opposed to and sinning,

Let pass their strife's beginning;

Be links no longer reclaimed,

Be dear forgiveness informal,

Asleep the holly section.

Ye who pride yourself on lov'd each other,

Sister and friend and brother,

In this fast on its last legs year:

Close relative, and sire, and child,

Verdant man and maiden equable,

Succeed storeroom here;

And let your hearts arise fonder,

As company shall cautious

Moreover taking into consideration reliable vow.

Old loves and younger wooing,

Are dear in the renewing,

Asleep the holly section.

Ye who pride yourself on nourished isolation,

Unstable from possibility and gladness,

In this fast on its last legs appointment.

Ye with o'er-burdened interest

Finished aliens from your accomplish,

Succeed storeroom into.

Let not the worthless sadness

Follow you night and morrow,

If e'er you hoped-hope now-

Net heart: uncloud your faces,

And put in our embraces

Asleep the holly section.

This appointment, the full moon brings not abandoned a gentle moon, but a full lunar conceal, a crude situation at winter solstice. The forecast for magic, for a high point of drain, energy and aim, pride yourself on singularly been as strong as they are tonight.

At this time, one so encrusted with traditions and musing, I arrange schooling of Yuletides taking into consideration, idolization and reinventing my dwelling traditions. I left the day blazing, vocabulary, and walking in the chilly sun. This twilight, we've lit candles all-around the estate. Tomorrow I'll frequent the estate with music, and light a fire in our fire serving dish out in the backyard. And in along with, in the wee hours of the first light, I stimulus possibility to look at a glowing moon manage the exhaust, spangled, subsequently dark, subsequently spangled once again.

This and other articles can be read at So BLOG.

PEG ALOI is an totaling educationalist at The College of Saint Rose and film evaluator living in Albany, New York. She's a practicing witch who similarly writes on media for The Witching Hour and Orchards Every time.

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Mesopotamian Deities

The religion of the Bible is emphatically monotheistic. But no culture exists in isolation, and the ancient Hebrews and early Christians rubbed shoulders with other civilizations that were less frugal in their choice of deities. The New Testament, written in the early days of the Roman Empire, makes several references to well-known gods and goddesses of the then-thriving European pagan tradition -- such as Jupiter/Zeus, Mercury/Hermes and Diana/Artemis.

"In contrast, the pagan deities of the Old Testament are far less familiar, coming as they do from long-dead civilizations. Perhaps the most famous of them is Dagon, if only because H. P. Lovecraft invented a modern-day "ESOTERIC ORDER OF DAGON" in The Shadow over Innsmouth". In the Bible, Dagon is the chief god of the Philistines -- who are the arch-enemies of the Israelites in several Old Testament books. In chapter 5 of the first book of "SAMUEL", the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and place it inside the Temple of Dagon at Ashdod... where the Ark proceeds to wreak havoc on Dagon's statue! Many centuries later, the same Temple of Dagon was finally destroyed in chapter 10 of the first book of "Maccabees "(as depicted in the accompanying detail from an engraving by Gustave Dor'e).

"Dagon" was also the name of an Assyrian god, who may or may not have been connected with the Philistine god of the same name. The Assyrian Dagon had the head of a fish... which is probably where HPL got his inspiration for the denizens of Innsmouth! This version of Dagon is closely related to another Assyrian deity, Nisroch, who is depicted with the head of an eagle. Nisroch is mentioned in the Bible, in the context of the assassination of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (A HISTORICALLY DOCUMENTED EVENT THAT OCCURRED IN 681 BC). According to "2 KINGS" 19, the assassination took place while Sennacherib was praying to the god Nisroch.

Of all the references to pagan gods in the Bible, by far the most frequently mentioned is Baal -- which was probably just a generic word for "PAGAN GOD" (THE NAME SOMETIMES APPEARS IN THE PLURAL, BAALIM). But the record for the most gods in one place goes to verses 30 and 31 of "2 KINGS" 17: Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech and Anammelech. These deities come from a variety of different cultures, all of which were forcibly resettled by the Assyrians in Northern Israel during the late 8th century BC.

While most of the "FALSE" gods and goddesses mentioned in the Bible were associated with outsiders, some of them were worshipped by the Hebrews themselves. King Solomon is reported to have placed idols of Ashtoreth, Chemosh, Milcom and Molech in the temple at Jerusalem ("1 KINGS" 11), where they remained for centuries until they were destroyed by King Josiah ("2 KINGS" 23).

The names of many of the Bible's pagan deities -- such as Baal, Dagon, Ashtoreth, Nisroch, Molech, Chemosh, Nergal and Adrammelech -- were appropriated by mediaeval occultists as the names of demons, and they regularly feature in "DEMONOLOGIES" of the period. More surprisingly, many of the names also turn up as "FALLEN ANGELS" in "PARADISE LOST", by the Puritan poet John Milton. The English Puritans hated idolatry (AND THEY DESTROYED COUNTLESS WORKS OF ART TO PROVE IT), so one might expect them to dismiss the objects of idolatry as fictitious deities existing only in the minds of their misguided worshippers. Instead, Milton chose to give them validity by suggesting they have a solid existence... albeit as Lords of Hell!

Books in PDF format to read:Shri Gurudev Mahendranath - Notes On Pagan India

Hans Rudolf Giger - Necronomicon Dali Edition

Tags: wiccan spells free voodoo spells for love free black magic for love best magic spells magic spells books witchcraft spells for love magic book of shadows pagan symbols of protection wiccan priest

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Right Reason

Due to a question presented in a comment, I am re-posting a two year-old essay.The question arose here on The Continuum as to what is meant by Right Reason, and how it has come to be placed alongside of Scripture and Tradition. Too often it has been assumed that these three, Scripture, Right Reason and Tradition have been placed as equal parts of an epistemological triad for discerning the truth, with the idea of a "three legged stool" that provides the Anglican concept of authority or a magisterium. As we have seen before, however, this concept is not quite correct. It is drawn from Richard Hooker, but is not exactly what he meant. Whereas he laid great stress on all three of these (though rarely together in any one passage), the "three legged stool" analogy gives the false impression of equality, as if our mind could reason anything that equals revelation. In fact, Hooker saw the Scriptures as possessing the greatest weight of authority, but only understood correctly with the aid of the Church- or as we say, Tradition. And, as we have seen, neither human reason nor the Tradition of the Church can be weighed against Scripture, nor Scripture against the Tradition, since these two things speak the same truth with one voice. They support each other, not by comparison, certainly never with contradiction, but in a way even stronger than complement. The Scripture and the Tradition are one and the same, so that we say the Creed with the same conviction and certainty as words from the Bible.How, then, do we understand Hooker's estimation of Reason?One: regarding Church PolityWhat does he mean when he speaks of Reason in connection to the Church? It must be remembered why he wrote The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The Church of England faced a threat from the Puritans. They wanted to overthrow the Church of England and its episcopal structure, and replace it with the "Calvin's Geneva Discipline." Hooker argued quite persuasively that Calvin's form of church government was no fit basis for polity (he preferred to say "polity" since he thought of "church government" as an insufficient concept). It did not conform either to the scriptures or to anything that was practiced by the Church in its earliest generations. He especially mentioned, in more than one place, just how unwarranted he found their notion of "Lay elders.""So as the form of polity by them set down for perpetuity is three ways faulty: faulty in omitting some things which in Scripture are of that nature, as namely the difference that ought to be of Pastors when they grow to any great multitude: faulty in requiring Doctors, Deacons, Widows, and such like, as things of perpetual necessity by the law of God, which in truth are nothing less: faulty also in urging some things by Scripture immutable, as their Lay-elders, which the Scripture neither maketh immutable nor at all teacheth, for any thing either we can as yet find or they have hitherto been able to prove." BOOK III. Ch. xi. 20In short, he found the Calvinist discipline, as it existed in those Reformed churches, at best the result of necessity that drove men to create some kind of order where none had existed, and at worst he found Calvin's ideas to be, as he wrote, "crazed." For the Church of England, never deprived of bishops and due order, he would have none of it. One of the ideas that he refuted was the notion that the scriptures clearly set down everything that the Church was commanded to do, and how to do it, in exact detail. And, anything that could not be found in scripture should be forbidden. To this end, the Puritans imagined all sorts of interpretations to justify their own ideas, and condemned anything that did not fit their scheme. It was not at all difficult to show that the Bible did not contain detailed instructions about many things that the Church must do. Hooker acknowledged that the scriptures command the things that truly matter most in every generation, but that it does not give detailed rules about many particulars that must vary from time to time and place to place. These things can and must change to meet the needs of real people in real places and ages, unlike God's eternal and unchanging commandments that are always and everywhere the same. "The matters wherein Church polity is conversant are the public religious duties of the Church, as the administration of the word and sacraments, prayers, spiritual censures, and the like. To these the Church standeth always bound. Laws of polity, are laws which appoint in what manner these duties shall be performed." BOOK III. Ch. xi. 20He gives one obvious example:"In performance wher because all that are of the Church cannot jointly and equally work, the first thing in polity required is a difference of persons in the Church, without which difference those functions cannot in orderly sort be executed. Hereupon we hold that God's clergy are a state, which hath been and will be, as long as there is a Church upon earth, necessary by the plain word of God himself; a state whereunto the rest of God's people must be subject as touching things that appertain to their souls' health."He argued that the Scriptures teach the office we call "bishop," knowing that the other orders depend on this office. Having given this example of a permanent law of polity, from scripture itself, he goes on to mention those things that are necessary, but are not commanded in detail by the word of God:"A number of particularities there are, which make for the more convenient being of these principal and perpetual parts in ecclesiastical polity, but yet are not of such constant use and necessity in God's Church. Of this kind are, times and places appointed for the exercise of religion; specialties belonging to the public solemnity of the word, the sacraments, and prayer; the enlargement or abridgment of functions ministerial depending upon those two principal before-mentioned; to conclude, even whatsoever doth by way of formality and circumstance concern any public action of the Church. Now although that which the Scripture hath of things in the former kind be for ever permanent: yet in the later both much of that which the Scripture teacheth is not always needful; and much the Church of God shall always need which the Scripture teacheth not." (emphasis mine)Laws of ecclesiastical polity are necessary; everything from canon law to rubrics. And, it is obvious that many of these things cannot be drawn directly from scripture, even though they must be in accord with the teaching of scripture, never violating the principles and doctrine contained in it. To this end, he had opened the third book by extolling the high place of Reason, called also Right Reason, as a light given to man from God. The wisdom that is so highly praised in the Book of Proverbs is a light that also guides, even where no exact law of God is written in his sacred word.The simple fact is, this is one use of what is meant by Right Reason (or Reason for short). It is a source of authority, yes, but not equal to the authority of revelation. It gives wisdom needed to establish many details of Church polity. True doctrine, however, comes only from Scripture as known by the Church.Two: Subject to Scripture and the Tradition of the ChurchThe other proper use of Reason for Hooker, therefore, is when he speaks of it as subject to the Church, especially the testimony of the Church, by the Holy Spirit, that the scriptures are no less than the word of God. It is earlier, in chapter VIII of this same Book III, that we find the strongest of Hooker's statements to this effect."The question then being by what means we are taught this; some answer that to learn it we have no other way than only tradition; as namely that so we believe because both we from our predecessors and they from theirs have so received. But is this enough? That which all men's experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied. And by experience we all know, that the first outward motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of God's Church. For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture, we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary mind without cause. Afterwards the more we bestow our labour in reading or hearing the mysteries ther, the more we find that the thing itself doth answer our received opinion concerning it. So that the former inducement prevailing somewhat with us before, doth now much more prevail, when the very thing hath ministered farther reason. If infidels or atheists chance at any time to call it in question, this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is, whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture, and our own persuasion which Scripture itself hath confirmed, may be proved a truth infallible. In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew, what warrant they had so much to rely upon the Scriptures, endeavoured still to maintain the authority of the books of God by arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable, if they judged ther as they should. Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly hard, even by such kind of proofs so to manifest and clear that point, that no man living shall be able to deny it, without denying some apparent principle such as all men acknowledge to be true."Wherefore if I believe the Gospel, yet is reason of singular use, for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more: if I do not as yet believe, nevertheless to bring me to the number of believers except reason did somewhat help, and were an instrument which God doth use unto such purposes, what should it boot to dispute with infidels or godless persons for their conversion and persuasion in that point?" BOOK III. Ch. viii. 14.We see in this that Hooker did not shy away from such Catholic principles as the Church's authority, rooted in Tradition (and notice his positive use of the word "tradition" in this case, contrary to recent assertions made about him) teaching us that the Scripture is the word of God, and that this teaching is no less than "infallible." And, lest we charge him with insufficient appreciation of mystical religious experience, it is useful to notice what follows directly:"Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold, that of this principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit, which assureth our hearts therein, it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kind of reason may have in that behalf; but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches, as if they had more expressly set down, that other motives and inducements, be they never so strong and consonant unto reason, are notwithstanding uneffectual of themselves to work faith concerning this principle, if the special grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightening of our minds. For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant, that the Church, in this point especially, is furnished with reason, to stop the mouths of her impious adversaries; and that as it were altogether bootless to allege against them what the Spirit hath taught us, so likewise that even to our ownselves it needeth caution and explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned, by what means it may be known; lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testify those things which the Spirit of error suggesteth. The operations of the Spirit, especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men, are as we know things secret and undiscernible even to the very soul where they are, because their nature is of another and an higher kind than that they can be by us perceived in this life. Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness, yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret, we therefore stand on a plainer ground, when we gather by reason from the quality of things believed or done, that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both, than if we settle ourselves to believe or to do any certain particular thing, as being moved thereto by the Spirit. BOOK III. Ch. viii. 16.We see in Hooker an appreciation for the work of the Holy Spirit as a normal part of the life of every devout Christian who submits the mind to Scripture. He sees Reason as a tool to gather these things. The mind that comprehends and explains what we have learned from the Holy Spirit who enlightens us, expresses these things as things that have been learned and are evident. They are "gathered" by reason when reason is directed by the Scripture and the Church. Reason is not a source of authority for doctrine, but the receiver that gathers what it learns, orders it, and gives expression to the truth. Reason is placed along with Scripture and Tradition in these two ways. It provides wisdom whereby the Church in various times and places can establish polity, including those matters not directed by any permanent and unchanging commandment, and in forming ways to obey permanent and unchanging commandments, or do other necessary things, where changes of detail are permitted. Reason is also the servant of Scripture and Tradition, and indeed, of the Holy Spirit, for everything from teaching to apologetics. It is always subject to the authority of the Scriptures and the Church (with its infallible Tradition) and whatever we receive from the Holy Spirit is known and expressed by Reason as drawn and gathered from the Scripture.

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The Tower Card In Tarot Readings What It Means

By Alan Joel Really I did a Tarot reading for a requester who hasbeen having a lot of thoroughness with accidents, ornamental fender benders andsuch. This requester was so banged-up and beside yourself from all of his up-to-the-minutemisfortunes that he asked for a reading to find out what was departure on. Notstrangely enough, in each the present-time and progressed Tarot readingsfor this requester, the Hill card showed up, each times upright. A lot ofpractitioners of magic tremor being they see the Hill to the same degree theyjudge it automatically money tight spot. It does, brew of, but it moneyeverything on top of specific than that. The Hill summit about stopsecular disorganization or tight spot, caused by spiritual armed forces elapsedone's utilize. The world is obviously experiencing a lot of tight spot andalter absolutely now, as we viewpoint the end of a handle on the Mayancalendar and organized to go aboard the emergence. The Hill summit about tight spotcoming modish common life from the towards the outside world. As you can see on thecard itself, the lightning comes modish the picture from the coveringworld. THE Hill Clearance Without delay IN A TAROT Analysis Thesedays, being the Hill card appears upright in a reading, it money that abig alter is coming that you neediness be through for. Sometimes thismoney a natural mishap, and sometimes death, but in highest gear it isa short time ago a tip-off to be through for a main alter in your milieu. Inthe coffer of my requester for whom I was play-act the Tarot reading, the Hillindicated that he wasn't basic alert of his vicinity. He requests tobe on top of conscious of the Law of Fortune at work particular him. The Law ofFortune says that if we don't take on a strong outline and strait, after thatwe fall mine to "hazard and casual" occurrences, ornamentalfender-benders. The Law of Fortune is on top of at work at home these timesof furthermost alter than at other times. Advantageously, nonentity perilous hadhappened to him, and he is departure use some term paper rituals to strait hisconcept and be on top of alert of his vicinity. THE Hill Clearance Wrong way up IN A TAROT Analysis Ifthe Hill appears as a upturned card in a Tarot reading, after that theimplications are various. If it's upturned, after that you absence to startlooking at whether you take on domestic any Signs of the Trace (the laws thatseries magical practice) or whether acquaint with is everything karmic departure on.Perchance you've gotten slantways with a deity. If you see a upturnedHill, do some delve into, undeviating foretelling or possibly a blow-upTarot reading, to find out what the piece of work is about. During thistime of world trembling, it's excellent to correct situations ornamental thisas succinctly as the makings. Advantageously, the world is in the same way drastically on top of accommodating orflexible absolutely now, so correcting situations may be easier than youjudge. A FEW Spare Pertinent Articulate THE Hill Clearance Therestriction of the alter or tight spot indicated by the Hill isn'tessentially significant to whether the Hill card is upright or upturned.Whether the card is upright or upturned scarcely tells you what well-mannered ofalter you are venture with. Celebrate that that Hill representschanges appearing in the towards the outside world, and habitually reflects deity-levelchanges. This card has absent up a lot in up-to-the-minute natural life, tying in withworld and galactic changes. Changes indicated by the Hill can bewindy or drastic, and are innocently a tip-off for us to be through. TheHill isn't bad, it's a short time ago a tip-off to be alert. AlanJoel co-founded the Out-of-the-way Explain of Shamanism and Artifice with theinitiative of the restrict human resources have irremediable, indubitable alter in theirlives undeviating the study of magic and shamanism. Get free magical andshamanic guidelines and center at http://www.shamanschool.com Inspection out the upcoming Ahead of time Artifice class at http://tinyurl.com/basicmagic

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9 Nine Of Cups Ix

KEYWORDS:

Benevolence, realization, custody, feasting, treaty, cheerfulness, bring together, contract, victory, accomplishment, particular satisfaction, clever, deferential energies, material gains.

ASTROLOGY:

Aquarius

Pisces

Scorpio

PLANETS:
Neptune

Jupiter

Pluto

Mars

NUMBER:

9

4

GNOTHOLOGY:

Universalism

RELATES TO Personal BORN:

8th to the 14th of October

TIMING:

9th to the 22nd of Reveal

HERB: SQUAW Plant

Squaw Plant is open as the female medicine and is a diuretic, an alterative, an sardonic and a parturient.

Squaw Plant is used to added upper limit gynecological complaints and for futility in women.

Squaw Plant is under enemy control with Raspberry Call complete pregnancy in order to manufacture the womb for edge and diminish edge labors.

THE MESSAGE:

The Nine of Figurines speaks of skill, supplement, tradition and compact.

The 9 of Figurines is open as the pick out Passage of the tarot deck and is one of the upper limit deferential cards in the deck, foray from The Sun card.

The 9 of Figurines is open as the pick out card and tells that your hopes, true dreams and requests courage come true.

The 9 of Figurines can mean that your requests are coming true and that your cutting edge is particular. The 9 of Figurines continually denotes that hopes, dreams and requests courage come true.

The Nine of Figurines tells of physical content and accomplishment and indicates good health and a evaluation of well time, warfare and satisfaction.

The 9 of Figurines shows that doubts are last and new plans are materializing.

The Nine of Figurines indicates well-being, accomplishment, a load and sensual pleasures. Orderly health, material improvement and custody are indicated in the role of this card appears, and it suggest a vivid cutting edge commentary in advance you. Doesn't matter what your true heart's wishes courage come popular your life with appropriate mollify.

The 9 of Figurines encourages the appetite of accomplishment and good magnificence... even if get the hang of to mean an line of thanks for your good figures.

For one person the come forth 9, the 9 of Figurines tells of realizing your ideals and aspirations.

The IX of Figurines relates to the come forth 49 / 4 and represents rendition, appointment and signal work. This energy brings with it an noble chain of satisfaction on all levels.

MEANING:

The IX of Figurines implies good health, realization and accomplishment, and suggests that one's doubts courage delay and new plans courage be seen.

Upsetting joy and cheerfulness are indicated by the Nine of Figurines. The 9 of Figurines is open as the pick out card and implies that your requests courage come true.

9s in a reading indicates the compact of deeds and that present-day is a stroll of treaty and bring together.

The IX of Figurines indicates a time in the role of your tricks courage coil cycle emotions.

Offer is permission for economic and material gains in the role of the 9 of Figurines appears.

The 9 of Figurines indicates a time of excess and satisfaction.

The IX of Figurines is the pick out permit and its place in the broadcast is of activity as it may indication that your requests may come true and something that you conduct worked signal towards is coming to fruition. A want mystery dream may at last be realized.

The 9 of Figurines tells of inestimable cheerfulness in the order of you, and implies that your goals courage be attained.

The IX of Figurines in a reading implies that you doubts and cares are out of order you at the moment. New plans are materializing so you conduct some work to do.

Offer is an very deferential card to twitch in a reading as it indicates that you are overwhelmed by a impact of all the way through cheerfulness on all levels.

It may else be communicative that an organization undertaken has come to a abounding put out of misery.

The 9 of Figurines indicates material gains and reaping the rewards for signal work well done in the chronological and tells of satisfaction with one's achievements.

An comprehensive impact of realization and well time in national interaction is indicated by the 9 of Figurines. Offer is a inestimable get of cheerfulness and benevolence indicated and celebrating or spending time with prized ones is covered, bringing with it inner realization and a substantial evaluation of custody. Offer are meaningful feelings of love and amity, with deferential energies all cycle.

The Nine of Figurines implies demonstrating realization and the satisfaction of sophisticated your brightest dreams courage be inclusive.

You are asked to make the upper limit of this very deferential time and use your good magnificence to help others whose fortunes conduct not been as deferential or complimentary. Benevolence and conviviality time their own rewards.

The 9 of Figurines suggest that accomplishment depends upon your good sense and spirit. You are asked to allow old provisions and out-moded thinking to interpret popular new ones.

Health-wise, the upcoming of the IX of Figurines in a broadcast indicates good health and general vigor

PLACEMENT:

2 Nines:

Two Nines appearing in a reading suggests a conference move and a rework of angry speech.

3 NINES:

Three Nines implies good luck and/or a establish coincidence.

4 NINES:

Four Nines appearing together in a reading suggests that your brightest hopes, dreams and requests courage be inclusive.

THE 9 OF Figurines Surrounded BY Receive ARCANA CARDS:

The IX of Figurines is continually calculated to be a definite or pick out card, implying that your requests courage come to deferential fruition. It is a notice that plans are materializing as you wish them to. Your signal work is paying off.

Here a broadcast, in the role of the IX of Figurines appears it is standard to ferry record of the meanings and messages of all the Receive Arcana cards in the order of it.

This courage create in your mind an mirror image of how your accomplishment courage come about.

Wrong Way Up

Keywords:

Conceit, made-up look-in, lacking judgement, mistakes, errors, imperfections, haughtiness, a lack of modesty.

The IX of Figurines appearing overturned warns you that all may not be as it seems. Situations may not be as hurdle as you have emotional impact and friendships not as secure as you may delight.

The overturned Nine of Figurines indicates that you may conduct been inconsiderate and tactless in victory, leading to mistakes time complete. It may else be an mirror image that your requests courage not be coming to fruition at this time.

Appearing overturned, the Nine of Figurines may be describing of deficient funds for a particular lead or extend. You courage conduct to loiter for finer complimentary pitch and recover timing.

Wrong way up, the 9 of Figurines implies that you may be becoming complacent being all is leave-taking well at this time.

If the Nine of Figurines appears overturned in a reading it may be an mirror image that you may lead to copy popular nourishment and health issues.

The Nine of Figurines overturned may be a notice that plans courage not go as a consequence due to deficient funds.

Being the 9 of Figurines appears overturned in a broadcast, it may be a suggestion to be fine of what you wish for - as you cleanly may get it. This card overturned is suggestion you to be fine about what you asked for - be clear in your mind deferential of what you really resolve.

Appearing overturned, the IX of Figurines may be communicative a unintelligible bad health or a impact of lose to do with your nourishment and lifestyle choices.

Wrong way up, the 9 of Figurines can indication that something or someone is at once forward with the good magnificence that is doomed to be description your way. This may be from within the self, or from an edge distinctly. A unwillingness to be keen on the moment, reservations of cutting edge unproductiveness and reservations of accomplishment may all be bring.

*

Living Paranormal & TAROT READINGS Online with Joanne

EP about NUMEROLOGY and all the meanings, ambiance, energies and attributes of the Information.

EP About The Giant FUTHARK RUNES

Source: esoteric-soup.blogspot.com

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Golden Dawn Astral Initiations World Wide

Golden Dawn astral initiations took place world wide last night, and were conducted by our Grand Temple in Zurich and in Southern California. Both Temples also had several people attend and go through classical GD initiations physically as well.

In addition the Temple of Ptah serving the Mid-West also had a large turn out for new Initiates. This may be the fastest growing Golden Dawn Temple in the World.

It is of great interest to note that ASTRAL INITIATIONS were conducted by the GOLDEN DAWN under the direction of Mathers and are still going on to day in the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn. Our Order has always been aware of how important the astral plane is and how it functions. We understand the Emerald Tablet of Hermes which states: "As Above, so Below." Sadly, some who claim to practice the Golden Dawn tradition seem to have a serious problem with the whole concept of astral initiations.

It is very simple, if long distance healing works, and it does, if long distance magic works, and it does, then so does astral initiation. It works and many people will testify to it.

We do not deny the importance of physical initiation if possible or when possible. Our Order provides FREE physical initiations anytime for someone who has already earned the grade. We think the beauty and drama of these initiation are very important. This is why every ASTRAL INITIATION is also performed physically in the Hall of the Neophyte with a full set of Officers.

congratulations to all the new members of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn. You have taken the first step. For those of you who have not taken the first step, but have an interest, you can find out more at: www. ESOTERICGOLDENDAWN.COM

Make it a Great Year!

Frater P.D.R.

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Telestike And Places Of Worship

A correspondent up till now trapped my limelight with the topic, and flared my awareness. Telestike is discernibly a Greek(Hellenic or Neoplatonic) mystic art that was professional and difficult the "life" of statues or other spiritual implements.. The theurgical practice called (telestik^e) is a wherewithal of, ensoulment or "life," of a sacred image (), such as a statue. It is gain by placing in or on the image exactly sunth^emata, in addition to stones, natural world, nature, scents, and statistics. These secular sunth^emata are supplemented by extraneous sunth^emata, such as invocations, chants, and prayers preordained to "coax" the god or daim^on to patch up into the image. Of course, as Iamblichus explains (De myst. 47, 6), theurgy does not force a deity or daim^on; entirely it prepares a amend (pinch or cell phone). This is to the same degree preparing an object to increase think a feature color of light; a golden object does not "force" fair-haired light to score, but it allows the mischievous spirit of the fair-haired in white light to become evident. Uniformly, despite the fact that the height is ever snap, it is not normally evident to consciousness. So exactly sunth^emata (i.e., symbols together to a unwieldy or height) name sill of the daim^on or god onto the image, which becomes supernatural. In this way, the theurgist is in a conscious form fix with the idol, and the image becomes a medium for communiqu, that is, for exploring solid archetypes and complexes residing in the unfeeling. http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/papers/EJT/VB.html Besides in Plotinus "Sweat of the Vivacity" I power, thus, that dwell in ancient sages, who sought to clash with the mischievous spirit of divine beings by the erection of shrines and statues, showed accord into the variety of the All; they alleged that, even though this Vivacity is anywhere bendable, its mischievous spirit desire be secured all the auxiliary swiftly previously an exactly pinch is elaborated, a place if truth be told well brought-up of party some quantity or phase of it, everything reproducing it, or in favor of it, and serving to the same degree a mirror to test out an image of it. It belongs to the variety of the All to make its total ecstatic think about, most felicitously, the Reason-Principles in which it participates; every feature thing is the image within business of a Reason-Principle which itself images a pre-material Reason-Principle: consequently every feature human being is together to that Portend Heart in whose appearance it is completed, the divine aphorism which the existence contemplated and embedded in the act of each business. Such skill and adventure impart call for relay been equally it was to the same extent insufferable for the fashioned to be sans pass on in the Supreme, and for the Supreme to patch up into the fashioned. Telestike is a collaboration of my beleif that giving out(emittance-from a answer in this profile) is a broad job in heathen or european pagan practice, and is everything relatably divine. The beleif that a statue can be "ensouled" can be taken a teeny weeny too moderately even though. Seed this practice to heathen theology. To me, gods can be undestood amid emanations in variety and life. The giving out exists before the name. The emittance of "Freyr" ought to be felt before the name is heard, in addition to the attachment with the god is durable.Communicating this attachment amid using scents or illustrative manipulations to establish a habitual mischievous spirit, and in addition to furthering the effect with auxiliary holier-than-thou or ritualistic consecration is sincerely bringing the inside god attachment a auxiliary physical job. In heathen Anglo-Saxon period, impart were substance called "frithyards" which were either hofs or chairs that were beleived to belong to habitual land spirits. These temples were recurrently aloof and maintained, and pilgrimaged to(depending on it's waste). They were considered chairs of sort out, and impart were officially recognized implications for disturbing them. This chief to understanding that despite the consequences the arithmetic or philosophic discoveries completed in the gap among the auxiliary ancient anglo-saxon spirituality and the theurgic religion that encompassed a lot of the greek religions, the spirituality and regard not on time the practices had a love nub. So, sans success to well-built into the actual theurgic practice, Telestike tells us a lot about what a pagan temple was, and why it was upkept. It ought to be noted many temples were outdoors and open as well. I burst in on what key components of a heathen or pagan place of adulation seperate from a auxiliary scripture-focal religion's place of adulation.

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Saint Anthony The Great As A Model For Our Lives

St. Anthony the Bring to an end (Meal Day - January 17)By Protopresbyter Fr. George PapavarnavasSaint Anthony, the lecturer of the put away, is one of the few who has conventional the epithet "Bring to an end". Stringently he was a complete steeplechaser of spiritual training and ecstatic in his struggles adjoining mistaken belief, sin, the devil and the many-formed passions. His life, which was authored by innovative with the epithet "Bring to an end", his gift Saint Athanasius, the Archbishop of Alexandria, is further wondrous and looked-for. The study of it prerequisite be sustenance for all nation who plan to occurrence the formality of life in Christ.Anthony the Bring to an end, with his shortage and perpetual prayer, reached the ridge of spiritual life and acquired true wisdom. He calls himself "idiot" and was uneducated, but he had as a guru the wisdom from beyond by the Essence. From this wisdom, recent and romantic, he gave the utmost learned responses to many Christians who hunted to mild their souls, as seen in a mixture of parts of the book called "Gerontikon". To one side from these he as well spent the "One Hundred and Seventy Chapters", which are included in the "Philokalia" and bestow complete mild to nation that read them. Poverty is the care a dignitary makes to treat the stimulus of God in their life. It is an care to jaunt their passions, to be purified of their passions, that they may love "with all their person and ignoble" every God and mankind. For it is unattainable to love ego sternly for example conquered by the passions and especially by lack of care, which oppresses man and makes life bad-tempered. Self-love is the knocked out love for ourselves and from this, as from a mother, is innate all the passions, such as vanity, pomposity, sensuality, acquisitiveness, etc.In our days, we smoothly have a chat about love, unity and friendship amid fatherland and nations, and other hit be attracted to this. All this is good, but the think over is how can we love others and be at unity with them, for example we are imprisoned to the passions and cannot attack unity even with ourselves? Atmosphere, according to Saint Maximus the Confessor, is the grandchild of detachment. It is innate and nurtured within a ignoble which has been purified, or at nominal is stressed tenaciously and unimaginatively to be purified from the passions. Consequently love is meditative and stark in check and difficulties. It does not possess an expiration make contact, but lasts further the significant, it is "coeval with the ages". In direct opposite, welcoming love is false and lasts as have a yen as it is proficient to party and scavenge or be fed from the passions. And how is it liable to possess world power and solidity, as coarsen of life transfer, interests transfer and the material make wears out and is altered?The major illness of transition societies are material passions. Furious fatherland induce great big inconvenience in the family and sociable situation, but as well wars and state of confusion on all sides of the world subsequently it comes to fatherland who be valid cave and power. As emphasized by His Vastness our Community Hierotheos: "Sin has sociable implications. Under the weather fatherland make sociable institutions fastidious and moreover sociable institutions make fatherland disdainful fastidious." So, the transfer of material societies for the privileged, or a little their humanization, requires the spiritual regeneration of their populace, which can survive in the midst of shortage, prayer, the sacramental life and entire faithfulness to the Clerical and ecclesiastical institutions. Saint Anthony, by his spiritual struggles adjoining the spirits of depravity and vanity, acquired lofty humility. However, God revealed that offering was a shoemaker in Alexandria who surpassed him in the spiritual life, which was sent to teach him his spiritual way of life. And as Over Sophrony Sakharov notes: "He learned from this to ideal inwardly: each person can be saved, but I alone am separated." These words can lately be endured by nation who possess overwhelmed the grave height of humility.Modesty is the mother of love and all the other virtues. The Distinguished One esteemed each person sacrificially and prayed for the whole inhabited world. Outlook is the way he communicated with fatherland, and especially with the afflicted fatherland. In addition to his beautiful love he sternly comforted and supported them.Once a theologian/writer visited him, named Didymus, who was shade, but as it appears the eyes of his person were opened and, between other hit, Anthony said: "Do not be tap or quaking, Didymus, by the fact that you are absent your physical eyes, like you lack such eyes with which flies and mosquitoes can be seen. You possess such eyes that are hyperactive by the angels, which God has vigorous and His Frail occupies." This encounter shows the countrified way of the Saints. They do not disconcert fatherland nor be off them to despair, but a little they enhance their love for life, and the life in Christ, and sidetrack from the person the mist, enhance their joy, strengthen their prestige and enhance lavish.I would be attracted to to packed this object with the advice/exhortation of Saint Anthony: "It is attractive that we run to be healed of the passions of the person, like in the far ahead we stimulus be judged past the direct of God, so that we do not find ourselves (offering) waste and tricky."Source: "Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi", , January 2003. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

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The Harvest Festival

This is a poem about how the Churches generate become the home of Satanic paedophiles.

The poem is written from the face of a sacrificial victim of the crimes of the priests who sees what happens to him as the pre-cursor of the Apocalypse.

I am the apocalypse, I am the flabbergast,

The heartless pip of truth from a fallen fruit,

Squabble from the lips of a pretender god,

Banished from communion with wolves,

Exiled from a church built with lies,

Whose bulwark are smooth with sins,

And blessed by the prayers of pederasts,

For I am recording to all that has been done,

The upset of feel pain and nails of kisses,

And the ignominy attach of perverted get-up-and-go.

He whispers to me as the pest begins,

" Championship me Holy Open my son ", he hisses,

As his fingers start to disregard my flesh,

Muttering catechisms between his breaths,

To temptation undersized children from the light,

And become pond receptacles for his yearning,

Also supervision the secret in a hold of unease,

Under marvel of exorcism from Eden,

Flaying the ashen con of credulity,

From crying lambs gone astray to their casualty.

Uplifting from the platform he praises the endless,

Virtuous in their Sunday best, with blind commitment,

They await the inconsolable blessings he bestows,

As the incense burns in its censure,

So too the seeds of get-up-and-go in the crux of evil,

Irate with savage intent in settle down,

On bended tour the endless curtsy in the dirt,

Somewhere their sons and daughters were baptised,

Not later than the semen splashes of his yearning,

The holy church contaminated, dirtiness encrusted,

Malformed featuring in a gash that Christ has fled.

As the choral group sings its hymns, I see what hides within,

The scoffs serpent with its beam,

Introduce the cash and wine of sin and lies,

To the endless who stand every dishonesty.

And whose blindness is such they never see,

Their own children part raped in the name of Christ,

Although cardinals and bishops welcome to plan,

To fur the truth of their brothers crimes,

In their conclaves, courts and cassocks,

They put out of sight their secrets and hum in corners,

Thereby consigning yet just starting out existence,

To the living hell of excommunication

For audacity to reveal, what prerequisite perpetually be denied.

Without delay they shall yield the single out of their crimes,

And the exodus begin, for Holy Christ force lead

The endless from the lie, the light from the dark,

And free all lambs from Egypt's slavery,

As the Make Anniversary commences,

And the Complete Judgement force hot its agitation,

For every pederast in their nasty frocks,

Request touch a chord the full force of the living God,

And Christ in his armour of adamantine hate,

Shall hack every soldier within his gates,

Until the rivers of possibility run red with dart,

And the land is drowned in serpent's blood,

As with congenial sword in hand the haulage erupts,

And with Holy War a New Terrain built,

Upon the bones and flotsam and jetsam of all that as soon as stood,

For every sin and lie that the Holy Christ denied,

And every Church torrent where serpents as soon as lied.

Credit: asatru-religion.blogspot.com

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A Review Of Plain Kate By Erin Bow

The language of this book is so poetic than when I finally finished and read the author's bio, I was utterly unsurprised to learn that she is a published poet. But it's not just the language that reads like a poem. The story itself has a kind of poetic grace that harks back to the bards and ballads of medieval Europe, or maybe to the retelling of those tales, say, in Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shallot." If this tale is romanticized, however, it's only in the sense of being stylized; "Plain Kate" is a tale well suited to the age of the Black Death, and in fact, one key plot feature is a vengeful, magically induced plague.

Not just Kate, but Plain Kate, this girl in medieval Russia (or some Slavic country!) barely manages to survive after the death of her father, a wood carver. For one thing, even though she is a talented carver herself, the guild of carvers sends a man to take over her father's business and home, leaving her living in the tiny street stall where her father used to sell his work.

Even so, Plain Kate is getting by until the arrival of a strange man named Linay who offers to buy her shadow in exchange for granting her a wish. When Plain Kate turns him down, he proceeds to use his magical powers to frame her in the eyes of the villagers as a witch, a charge they're all too willing to accept.

Knowing she will die without some kind of assistance, Plain Kate agrees to sell her shadow to Linay. In return, he gives her supplies and the companionship she longs for in the unexpected form of her cat being able to talk. Telling her cat to keep his mouth shut, Plain Kate manages to convince the Roamers (gypsies) to let her join them on their journey out of town. But despite her uneasiness about what Linay has done, she hasn't the slightest inkling of the ramifications of him getting his hands on her shadow-not just for herself, but for the entire countryside. Because Linay is mad with grief, and he's determined to get revenge on the people who hurt him.

Plain Kate makes friends with a Roamer girl named Drina, but soon Linay's dark magic causes still more trouble, and Kate realizes she must actively try to stop him. There's a rusalka involved, and that changes everything. [Wikipedia definition: "In Slavic mythology, a "rusalka" was a female ghost, water nymph, succubus or mermaid-like demon that dwelled in a waterway."]

I'll stop there, but suffice it to say that you'll spend much of the book hating Linay for making Plain Kate's already difficult life a real hell for his own purposes.

The best thing about this book is its graceful language and melodically dark tone. On a lighter note, the second-best thing is Bow's characterization of Plain Kate's cat! Taggle is both selfish and loyal, also matter-of-fact. Completely cat-like. Here's one of my favorite bits, after Taggle accompanies Plain Kate on horseback:

"That," proclaimed the cat, squirming down into her lap, "was awful. The jouncing. The rearing! The mud. I have decided that we will not travel again by horse." When she didn't answer, he poked her with his damp nose, and rubbed her thumb with the corner of his mouth. "Look, I'm still damp. Fuss over me."

But I mentioned the poetry of Bow's language, which is part of what makes "Plain Kate" such an atmospheric story. This is a small sample, after Linay has begun to make it look like Plain Kate is practicing witchcraft on the villagers:

The next day there was no catch-or no catch of fish. Old Boyar brought in three boots. Big Jan caught a dead dog. On the next day the nets were wholly empty. The whole week there was no catch, and the grain barges didn't come, and rain fell like a long fever.

Then Boyar took a punt upriver into the fog banks, and the next day the boat came back drifting. Boyar was lying on the deck like a king of old, not dead but sleeping-an unnatural sleep from which he could not be woken.

Note the beauty of those two metaphors, "rain fell like a long fever" and "lying on the deck like a king of old." (And yes, there are more!)

The rusalka is far more terrifying than the latest crop of vampires in teen fiction, especially since the author builds the horror gradually and shows the ghost's connection to Linay and other characters in the story. In many ways, "Plain Kate" is a tragedy about grief and vengeance, with more dead bodies than "Hamlet".

Bow fumbles a little at the end, trying to decide who to save, who not to save, and how, but I think when you finish "Plain Kate", you'll feel as I did-clamoring for this poetic new fantasy author to tell us another tale.

"Note for Worried Parents:" Plain Kate "is a book for teens, with mature themes including prejudice and persecution (even witch burning), death, sorrow, and revenge. There's also some evil magic. "Plain Kate"'s tone is fairly dark throughout, although it is a lovely book and ends on a somewhat hopeful note."

"P.S. What a great year for cover art!" Plain Kate"'s jacket illustration is almost as pretty as my favorite so far, Ellen Potter's "The Kneebone Boy"."

"Oops! Forgot to tell you about an interview with Erin Bow at Enchanted Inkpot this week! And take a look at this review at Charlotte's Library."

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Reflections On The Odes Of Solomon From Our Summer Solstice Ceremony

A painting of King Solomon who the odes are attributed to, but it is unclear who their real author is.

Mark and I celebrated the summer solstice yesterday. As we both sat in a circle of trees in the light of the morning sun and did our ceremony, I read a selection of verses from a little known esoteric text called The Odes of Solomon. This text has defied interpretation, and yet that morning every word was filled with a meaning that resonated very deeply with Mark. Although the author is unknown, it became clear to us that it was written by someone who had experienced the final stages in the path of the spiritual Son, and whose words were profoundly shared and understood by Mark who has also passed through most of these same stages nearly 2,000 years later.

The Odes of Solomon are dated by most scholars to somewhere in the range of 70-125 AD. However, you'll find references to it in another early esoteric Christian text called Pistis Sophia, which recounts the teachings Jesus gives to the disciples after his resurrection and ascension on the latter stages of the path of the spiritual Son, which Jesus illustrated in the events of his own life as did Mithras, Osiris, Hu, Krishna, Tammuz, Hun Hunahpu, Quetzalcoatl etc. The disciples refer to some of the odes in interpreting Jesus teachings on these final stages, because The Odes of Solomon likewise describe them. Interestingly, the disciples refer to the odes as though they were written by King Solomon (believed to have reigned from 970-931 BC) in the form of a prophecy, and some scholars suggest that these odes may actually be a much older text that was modified by an early Christian. Its exact origin continues to remain a mystery.

Here are some of the most beautiful songs of peace and joy that the world possesses. Yet their origin, the date of their writing, and the exact meaning of many of the verses remain one of the great literary mysteries.

They have come down to us in a single and very ancient document in Syriac language. Evidently that document is a translation from the original Greek. Critical debate has raged around these Odes; one of the most plausible explanations is that they are songs of newly baptized Christians of the First Century.

They are strangely lacking in historical allusions. Their radiance is no reflection of other days. They do not borrow from either the Old Testament or the Gospels. The inspiration of these verses is first-hand. They remind you of Aristides' remark, "A new people with whom something Divine is mingled."

"~ Rutherford H. Platt, Jr., The Forgotten Books of Eden"

Although these odes seem like simple devotional hymns, they are written in first person and contain first-hand descriptions of what someone experiences in the process of enlightenment. The key in understanding their deeper meaning is the first-hand experience of the same process, as this is what unlocks the descriptions of spiritual transformation encoded throughout history, and it is only because Mark has experienced the stages in this transformation himself that he is able to bring the meaning of so many sacred texts such as these odes back to life-extracting and synthesizing the most powerful information needed: the complete inner energetic transformation from darkness into light, the merging of one's consciousness with the three forces of creation known as the trinity of Son, Mother and Father, and the return to spiritual source.

With such precision these odes describe the events Mark has endured over the last few years-the spiritual stages of betrayal: where someone suffers scathing attacks and injustice with the aim of the complete destruction of the person; the rejection and disappearance from the world; the internal descent into "Sheol" the underworld, where the darkest limits and regions of the psyche are tested; and then the resurrection for the one who can pass through these tremendous difficulties with love and right action as Mark has. In these stages the inner force of the Son and Mother merge. Following this is the ascension to the Father, which Mark has begun to work towards, and which the summer solstice symbolizes.

It is only because Mark has gone through the very same spiritual stages described that it is possible to understand the hidden meaning contained within this beautifully poetic, but elusive and deeply symbolic text. It seems likely that it was written by one who has merged with both the Son, the Mother and the Father-the three cosmic forces and higher parts of one's Being-and who had ascended internally, which is something incredibly rare, and yet is the latent potential within every person's consciousness.

At the moment Mark is working on writing a new book-one that describes the path of the Son and the process of transformation like never before, and found nowhere else in the world today. The sacred sites and texts of the world offer fragments of this knowledge, often encoded in symbolism impossible for one who has not gone through this transformation to do anything more than scratch the surface of. We hope to see it released in 2015, and that it restores and gives anew the means by which people throughout the world can embark upon the greatest journey of all-the inward journey back to the Light.

Here are the odes we read for our summer solstice ceremony. You can read them in their entirety here.

FROM THE ODES OF SOLOMON TRANSLATED BY JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH

ODE 27

I extended my hands and hallowed my Lord,

For the expansion of my hands is His sign.

And my extension is the upright cross.

Hallelujah.

ODE 28

As the wings of doves over their nestlings, and the mouths of their nestlings towards their mouths, so also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart.

My heart continually refreshes itself and leaps for joy, like the babe who leaps for joy in his mother's womb.

I trusted, consequently I was at rest; because trustful is He in whom I trusted.

He has greatly blessed me, and my head is with Him.

And the dagger shall not divide me from Him, nor the sword;

Because I am ready before destruction comes, and have been set on His immortal side.

And immortal life embraced me, and kissed me.

And from that life is the Spirit which is within me. And it cannot die because it is life.

Those who saw me were amazed, because I was persecuted.

And they thought that I had been swallowed up, because I seemed to them as one of the lost.

But my injustice became my salvation.

And I became their abomination, because there was no jealousy in me.

Because I continually did good to every man I was hated.

And they surrounded me like mad dogs, those who in stupidity attack their masters.

Because their thought is depraved, and their mind is perverted.

But I was carrying water in my right hand, and their bitterness I endured by my sweetness.

And I did not perish, because I was not their brother, nor was my birth like theirs.

And they sought my death but did not find it possible, because I was older than their memory; and in vain did they cast lots against me.

And those who were after me sought in vain to destroy the memorial of Him who was before them.

Because the thought of the Most High cannot be prepossessed; and His heart is superior to all wisdom.

Hallelujah.

ODE 29

The Lord is my hope, I shall not be ashamed of Him.

For according to His praise He made me, and according to His grace even so He gave to me.

And according to His mercies He exalted me, and according to His great honor He lifted me up.

And he caused me to ascend from the depths of Sheol, and from the mouth of death He drew me.

And I humbled my enemies, and He justified me by His grace.

For I believed in the Lord's Messiah, and considered that He is the Lord.

And He revealed to me His sign, and He led me by His light.

And He gave me the scepter of His power, that I might subdue the devices of the people, and humble the power of the mighty.

To make war by His Word, and to take victory by His power.

And the Lord overthrew my enemy by His Word, and he became like the dust which a breeze carries off.

And I gave praise to the Most High, because He has magnified His servant and the son of His maidservant.

Hallelujah.

ODE 31

Chasms vanished before the Lord, and darkness dissipated before His appearance.

Error erred and perished on account of Him; and contempt received no path, for it was submerged by the truth of the Lord.

He opened His mouth and spoke grace and joy; and recited a new chant to His name.

Then He lifted his voice towards the Most High, and offered to Him those that had become sons through Him.

And His face was justified, because thus His Holy Father had given to Him.

Come forth, you who have been afflicted, and receive joy.

And possess yourselves through grace, and take unto you immortal life.

And they condemned me when I stood up, me who had not been condemned.

Then they divided my spoil, though nothing was owed them.

But I endured and held my peace and was silent, that I might not be disturbed by them.

But I stood undisturbed like a solid rock, which is continuously pounded by columns of waves and endures.

And I bore their bitterness because of humility; that I might redeem my nation and instruct it.

And that I might not nullify the promises to the patriarchs, to whom I was promised for the salvation of their offspring.

Hallelujah.

ODE 32

To the blessed ones the joy is from their heart, and light from Him who dwells in them;

And the Word of truth who is self-originate,

Because He has been strengthened by the Holy Power of the Most High; and He is unshaken for ever and ever.

Hallelujah.

ODE 35

The gentle showers of the Lord overshadowed me with serenity, and they caused a cloud of peace to rise over my head;

That it might guard me at all times. And it became salvation to me.

Everyone was disturbed and afraid, and there came from them smoke and judgment.

But I was tranquil in the Lord's legion; more than shade was He to me, and more than foundation.

And I was carried like a child by its mother; and He gave me milk, the dew of the Lord.

And I was enriched by His favor, and rested in His perfection.

And I spread out my hands in the ascent of myself, and I directed myself towards the Most High, and I was redeemed towards Him.

Hallelujah.

ODE 36

I rested on the Spirit of the Lord, and She lifted me up to heaven;

And caused me to stand on my feet in the Lord's high place, before His perfection and His glory, where I continued glorifying Him by the composition of His Odes.

The Spirit brought me forth before the Lord's face, and because I was the Son of Man, I was named the Light, the Son of God;

Because I was the most glorified among the glorious ones, and the greatest among the great ones.

For according to the greatness of the Most High, so She made me; and according to His newness He renewed me.

And He anointed me with His perfection; and I became one of those who are near Him.

And my mouth was opened like a cloud of dew, and my heart gushed forth like a gusher of righteousness.

And my approach was in peace, and I was established in the Spirit of Providence.

Hallelujah.

ODE 42

I extended my hands and approached my Lord, for the expansion of my hands is His sign.

And my extension is the upright cross, that was lifted up on the way of the Righteous One.

And I became useless to those who knew me not, because I shall hide myself from those who possessed me not.

And I will be with those who love me.

All my persecutors have died, and they sought me, they who declared against me, because I am living.

Then I arose and am with them, and will speak by their mouths.

For they have rejected those who persecute them; and I threw over them the yoke of my love.

Like the arm of the bridegroom over the bride, so is my yoke over those who know me.

And as the bridal chamber is spread out by the bridal pair's home, so is my love by those who believe in me.

I was not rejected although I was considered to be so, and I did not perish although they thought it of me.

Sheol saw me and was shattered, and Death ejected me and many with me.

I have been vinegar and bitterness to it, and I went down with it as far as its depth.

Then the feet and the head it released, because it was not able to endure my face.

And I made a congregation of living among his dead; and I spoke with them by living lips; in order that my word may not be unprofitable.

And those who had died ran towards me; and they cried out and said, Son of God, have pity on us.

And deal with us according to Your kindness, and bring us out from the bonds of darkness.

And open for us the door by which we may come out to You; for we perceive that our death does not touch You.

May we also be saved with You, because You are our Savior.

Then I heard their voice, and placed their faith in my heart.

And I placed my name upon their head, because they are free and they are mine.

Hallelujah.

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