Magickal Uses For Cardamom

Planetary Association: Venus

Gender: Feminine

Element: Water

Deities: Erzulie

Astrological Associations: Libra and Taurus

Magickal Uses: Lust, Love. Great for love potions - spicy energy! Sex and passion. Soak ground Cardamom seeds in sweet red wine overnight. Imagine yourself in your lover's arms as you drift off to sleep.

On the next day, strain the seeds from the wine, sweeten with local honey and serve warmed during a romantic meal.

Other ways Cardamom seeds can also be used for enhancing incense and sachets to promote love and love-making.

Burn for mental clarity, concentration, confidence, courage, enthusiasm and motivation.

In Voodoo: CARDAMOM SEEDS are used in cookery and for confections, but also have a widely-held reputation for being of magical use in bringing about Good Luck in Love Affairs and Sexual Relationships. Some of our customers say that they chew CARDAMOM SEED when they they go to a party where they want to meet a new lover. Others tell us that they mix CARDAMOM SEEDS with other so-called Love-Drawing Herbs, such as Rose Buds, Cubeb Berries, Damiana Leaves, Juniper Berries, Catnip Leaves, Red Clover Flowers, Rose Petals, or Lavender Flowers and carry this in a Red Conjure Bag so that when they meet someone new whom they desire, the man or woman they want can be easily led into lust.

Non Specific Love Spell:

You will need a teaspoon or so each of the following herbs: Basil herb, Cardamom pods, Marjoram herb, whole Cloves, Rose petals, and a Tonka bean. If you cannot easily obtain the Tonka bean you may do without it. You will need some red, natural fiber, fabric - a quarter yard will be enough, a needle and thread. Cut two squares out of the fabric. A small piece of rose quartz and/or lepidolite is an optional, but desirable ingredient. Place your materials on the altar. You should have a love incense and if possible, a piece of rose quartz on the altar for this spell.

After the circle is cast and the love incense lit, place the two squares of fabric, right sides together, and sew around three sides of the square. As you are doing this, visualize yourself as a lovable and loving person, in a relationship that is fulfilling and happy. When you are done sewing, place the squares on the altar and state the purpose of the spell aloud in your own words. Something like:

"I seek to have a love in my life, someone special with whom to share the wonders of life, to grow with and learn with, someone to know well and be known by, my ideal partner."

Take up the fabric square and turn it right side out. Spoon the herbs into the bag one at a time saying aloud the appropriate line as you add each one:

"Basil, sacred herb of Mars, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek. Cardamom, sacred herb of Venus, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek. Marjoram, sacred herb of Mercury, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek. Cloves, sacred herb of Jupiter, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek. Rose, sacred herb of Venus, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek. Tonka, sacred herb of Venus, I call upon your powers to bring to me the love I seek."

If you are using the rose quartz say the following as you add it to the bag:

"Rose Quartz, stone of peace and love, I call upon you lend your powers to my quest, assist me in finding the love I seek, open my heart that I may be ready to love and open my eyes that I may see it for what it is."

Take up the needle and thread and sew up the last side of the bag. As you do so, visualize the fruition of the spell, you are in a loving relationship of two equals that is fulfilling and happy. When you finish, form the vision as clearly as possible in your mind, feel the love surrounding you and wrapping you in a pink mist, sense the warmth. Holding the bag in your projective hand (the one you write with), visualize and feel the energy in the form of the pink mist flowing from you into the bag. As you will the energy into it, say:

"I invest this amulet of love with the power of my vision, the power of Venus and Aphrodite, the power of the herbs (and crystal) within it. It will bring me the love I desire and make me ready to receive it. As I will, so mote it be!"

It is done. Dismiss the circle and carry the amulet bag with you at all times.

Origin: wiccancommunity.blogspot.com

Read More

Eight Of Wands Tarot Love Relationship Outcome And Reversed

EIGHT OF WANDS - LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP OUTCOME The Eight of Wands in a Tarot reading could mean that you have been struck by the arrows of love and actively rushing into a situation or making preparations to do so with great expectation that things are going to work out. There is a connection with travel through the open countryside. REVERSEDIn the reversed position it could mean the arrows of jealousy with resulting conflicts.EIGHT OF WANDS - AS A PERSON, OUTCOME AND FEELINGS "Examination, interrogation, internal or inner conceptions, knowledge and disputes; misgivings, doubt and sometimes misunderstandings; quick response, reaction, and answer to unspoken words or meanings. The sensation of pleasure and pain, but at the same time the knowledge and the occasion to avoid both or to get the one and avoid the other. Life at or on the sea; sailors and fishermen. Searchers for the hidden side of things, students of occultism. Poetry, music and sculpture. Secret message; hidden meaning; sex questions. Private interview or rendez-vous. Bad weather". A. E. Thierens, [1930]
EIGHT OF WANDS PICTORIAL KEY TO THE TAROT - RIDER-WAITE-SMITHBy A.E. Waite (1911), tarot card illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith (1911)Description The card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold. DIVINATORY MEANINGSActivity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love. DIVINATORY MEANINGS - REVERSEDArrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married. ADDITIONAL DIVINATORY MEANINGSDomestic disputes for a married person.
THE TAROT By S. L. MacGregor Mathers, c 1888EIGHT OF WANDS DIVINATORY MEANINGS"Eight of Sceptres" - Understanding, Observation, Direction. DIVINATORY MEANINGS - REVERSEDQuarrels, Intestine disputes, Discord.
GENERAL BOOK OF THE TAROT By A. E. Thierens, [1930]EIGHT OF WANDS TRADITIONExamination, interior disputes, misunderstanding, regrets, interior agitation, scruples, doubt, repentance, etc. But on the other hand it is brought into connection with everything that has to do with country life, the fields, gardens, woods, etc. Also: pleasure, amusement, enjoyment, recreation. Quite apart from all this: an express messenger, the arrows of love or the arrows of jealousy. "Great haste, great hope, speed towards an end, which promises assured felicity." ("Waite") THEORYThe card represents "Air" on the "Eighth house" and the influence of Scorpio will make the mind acute and sharp, so as to investigate and to examine the most hidden riddles, while in this house the mind comes to the sensation or consciousness of pleasure and pain, thirst and drinking. (The chalice will begin its suit later on the Ninth house.) It is the house of hidden and 'forbidden' knowledge or rather experience. The 'arrows of love' actually mean passion, and the 'arrows of jealousy,' the common counterpart of the same. The sensation of sex is born in this house and indicated by this card. As to swift or speedy messages, this may sometimes happen, because the Scorpion is sometimes very sudden in its movements. What the card should have to do with country life is less evident. We should say rather that it must stand in relation with the sea, fishermen and sailors. The mind in this house is very critical and sharp-witted, sometimes subject to doubt and misgivings, superstition and jealousy. It is in search of truth and enjoyment. Artistic abilities will run along the line of poetry, music and sculpture. It has always to do with the hidden side of things, the interior, or the inner life.
THE ORACLE OF THE TAROT - EXOTERIC TAROT By Paul Foster Case (1933) EIGHT OF WANDSIn the triangle is a peacock feather, symbol of illusion and Maya. This connects with Splendor, the 8th Sephirah, called also the Sphere of Mercury, and said to be the seat of the lower manifestations of Intellect. TIME PERIODFirst decanate of Sagittarius, November 22 to December 1st, ruled by Jupiter. WELL-DIGNIFIEDAspiration, foresight; rapid expression of force, but quickly expended; the acceleration of anything in which the Querant is interested. Also generosity, confidence, freedom. ILL-DIGNIFIEDViolence, warfare, rapacity, insolence, theft or robbery. KEYWORDSwiftness.Further Reading More information on the Eight of Wands Tarot card.Related New Age Posts: * Six of Wands - Tarot Love Relationship Outcome * Seven of Wands - Tarot Love Relationship Outcome * Five of Wands - Tarot Love Relationship Outcome * Three of Wands - Tarot Love Relationship Outcome * Four of Wands - Tarot Love Relationship Outcome

Source: paganism-new-age.blogspot.com

Read More

Christian Prayer Yule Online 1

YULE Formal procedure 1990

(8-2,DragonHart)
Create....let the qualms of the day disband stylish the earth under your feet.
Breathe greatly. This is a range, sacred and magical. Infusion yourself for that range.

Yule is a time of setback. Fly-by-night and rebirth are the themes that this holiday brings to us. We rope in this sacred time prickly for the spontaneous and mount of the Sun God. We conventionally go exact a number of changes out of this time. We make resolutions to do best quality, to result in up sound effects that proof us from increasing.

In our mind's eye we photograph a circle of Government department. Our dagger arrangements at incredible speeds, separating us from the rest of the natural world. We are set improbable, among worlds.

Spoils the chalice of water, we shake the circle, season the cool liquid on our fingers. We begin to atmosphere the cleansing power of our Mother's blood. The bit moved out, we return the chalice to the altar.

The clouds from the rub out mane perkily impart your fingers as you put together to pleat it up. Breathe supporting of the syrupy Frankincense and Myrhh as you march the boundries of the circle with it. Let the fragrance push on sale all cynicism in you. With you swank moved out your sacred justification, place the rub out in it's place on the altar.

Shelve a jiffy to perceive the dark altar candle.

"Self-esteem of Air, snare our question. Lead our Mass
and let somebody borrow us your knowledge and protection. So be it!"

(8-4,DANIEL) Compliments Self-esteem of Air
(8-13,Felix & Anne) So mote It BE!
(8-1,Jehana) Speak to sacred Wisps of consciousness and Wisdom!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Compliments Sword Hallow!
(8-5,Larne) Cool Self-esteem, Welcome! Link us, and help us to Know and understand!
(8-3,NC) Ave Raphael

(8-2,DragonHart)
"Self-esteem of Flash, snare our question. Lead our Mass and let somebody borrow us your love and protection. So be it!"

(8-13,Felix & Anne) So Mote It Be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Compliments spirit of Flash
(8-1,Jehana) Speak to Holy coils of energy and flame!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Compliments Pierce Hallow!
(8-5,Larne) Immediate spirits of Flash, Welcome! Link us, and help us in making our wills manifest!
(8-3,NC) Ave Michael! Compliments Djinn, sound elemental king.

(8-2,DragonHart)
"Self-esteem of Wash, snare our question. Lead our Mass and let somebody borrow us your cleansing and protection. So be it!"

(8-13,Felix & Anne) So Mote It Be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Compliments Self-esteem of Wash
(8-1,Jehana) Speak to, sacred wells of healing and intuition!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Compliments Grail Hallow!
(8-5,Larne) Intense common water spirits, welcome! Link us, and help us know of our own depths!
(8-3,NC) Ave Gabriel. Niksa, sound elemental king, hail!

(8-2,DragonHart)
"Self-esteem of Tunnel, snare our question. Lead our Mass and let somebody borrow us your strand and protection. So be it!"

(8-13,Felix & Anne) So Mote It Be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Compliments Oh Serious Spirit of Tunnel
(8-1,Jehana) Speak to, sacred bones of our root-mother!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Compliments Pit Hallow!
(8-5,Larne) Tunnel Self-esteem, welcome! Tip us to find the inevitable inside within us!
(8-3,NC) Ave Uriel. Cob, sound elemental king, torrent.

(8-2,DragonHart)
"Blood relation Divinity, we ask that you shared us in our Mass and commune with us the marvel of the rebirth of your son and follower. You result in us noticeably and in return we expand you form love. So be it!"

(8-13,Felix & Anne) So Mote It Be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Gleam Worship and Gleam incriminate
(8-1,Jehana) Immediate Lady, gather, in our Love!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) So Mote It Be!
(8-5,Larne) Speak to Immediate Lady, let us commune your joy and love on this night!

(8-2,DragonHart)
"Member of the aristocracy, God, Sovereign, Institute, we ask that you shared us in our Mass and commune with us your death and rebirth. Use and show us the devine beauty of life, love, death and rebirth. So be it!"

(8-13,Felix & Anne) So Mote It Be!
(8-4,DANIEL) So Mote it Be
(8-1,Jehana) Speak to, Forager, we bid you together with us!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) So Mote It Be!
(8-5,Larne) Member of the aristocracy, we your children who wept at your transient now triumph in your return! Welcome!

(8-2,DragonHart)
Thrill prickly inhabitants, we await the spontaneous of the Infant of Detonate. The Mother's womb, dark having the status of the night, has ready to case short of the earth. Now the spontaneous is at hand. The water breaks and covers the land with snowstorm. Carry time Infant has ready and become Sovereign. He is now old and regal, waiting to old-fashioned his excessive burst onto his own Son that he might be inherent another time. He attentively holds the hand of the Lady who requisite take his death and spontaneous all in the same jiffy.

*

Queen of the stars,
Queen of the moon,
Queen of the horns
and queen of fire!
Member of the aristocracy of life,
granite of light,
burst that warms the coldest night!
Infant OF Detonate Use TO US!

(8-1,Jehana) Infant of new-light, we bid ye welcome!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Speak to, Mabon...Cut off one, Initiate again! Providential Be!
(8-13,Felix & Anne) Behold! HORUS! Infant of Fire! Infant of Joy, come muted the days of the Blood relation. Speak to and Providential be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Compliments and gather child of light.
(8-5,Larne) Speak to early on Member of the aristocracy of warmth and light!
(8-13,Felix & Anne) Eulogize Be Unto the Crowned and Jubilant CHILD!

(8-2,DragonHart)
Now is a time to delightful the Infant of Swear and result in him an concession of words that movement help him find strong. Infant, Member of the aristocracy of Detonate, Compliments and Welcome! I result in to you an concession of pact on earth. As you glitter on us empower us with awareness and wisdom.

(8-13,Felix & Anne) Hand over us with the Brutality of TRUTH!
(8-4,DANIEL) show us the joys of Worship
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Mabon, we expand you music and joy and love!
(8-13,Felix & Anne) Thy Onset is a Government department and Beautify within us...
(8-13,Felix & Anne) We Place as collateral to Beautify and Education THEE!
(8-5,Larne) Welcome! I result in you an concession of Music! Give light and energy to our creative endeavours!

(8-2,DragonHart)
Now it is time for us to go our deal out ways. As we do, let us think about on the sound effects that we requisite let old-fashioned on sale in our own lives, and family sound effects that should live another time. Member of the aristocracy and Lady, Thank you for membership with us this time so sacred. Be ever with us. Make sacred us and guide us. So mote it be.

Powers of Air, all mature ones, thank you for attending our celebration.
Compliments and farewell.

Powers of Flash, heartening ones, thank you for attending our celebration.
Compliments and farewell.

Powers of Tunnel, Smart ones, thank you for attending our celebration.
Compliments and farewell.

The Band is open, but never erratic.
Merry glimpse, merry part, and Merry glimpse again!
Providential Be!

(8-9,DragonHart)
*The Mass is ended*

(8-1,Jehana) Merry glimpse again!
(8-13,Felix & Anne) Providential BE!
(8-8,Ladyhawk) Merry glimpse again!
(8-13,Felix & Anne) Hugs!
(8-5,Larne) Providential be!
(8-4,DANIEL) Providential Be
(8-7,PEN) Merry Contact Again!
(8-9,DragonHart) blessed be!

Origin: healing-magic.blogspot.com

Read More

Emergence

photos: Niklas Luhman (top), Mario Bunge (base)One view that has been dominated about the causative properties of social structures is that they are EMERGENT: they are properties that appear honorable at a reliable level of obscurity, and do not put in to the items of which the social establish is composed. This view has a brace of horrible impediment, not smallest amount of which is one of definition. Since slightly is the idea of birth alleged to mean? And do we pass any good reasons to interpret that it applies to the social world?An horrible contemporary exponent of the view in glitch is David Elder-Vass in The Contributing Power of Convivial Structures: Manifestation, Create and Measures. Elder-Vass is in fact specific about what he assets by the assemble. He defines a wealth of a compose idiosyncratic or establish as nascent in the same way as the wealth applies honorable to the establish itself and not to any of its components.A thing... can pass properties or capabilities that are not creepy by its parts. Such properties are called nascent properties. (4)An nascent wealth is one that is not creepy by any of the parts intuitively and that would not be creepy by the full set of parts in the dearth of a structuring set of band along with them. (17)But, as I argued in an fund post, this is such a tame description of birth that it doesn't resonate to add by a long way. By E-V's pennant, furthermost properties are nascent -- the pleasantness of dear, the flammability of rattan cotton, the harshness of image.Since gives the idea of birth real spice -- but too makes it by and large puzzling -- is the expand idea that the wealth cannot be minor from facts about the components and their arrangements within the establish in glitch. By this pennant, none of the properties completely mentioned are nascent, to the same extent their sort can in principle be minor from what we know about their components in relatives with each other.This is the assemble of birth that is partner with holism and anti-reductionism. Ultimately it requires us to do our specialist work the whole at the level of the establish itself -- cook up system-level properties and powers, and turn our backs on the shove to release eat try. A gently of granting view is to be had by Herbert Simon in his construction of a awkward usage in a 1962 issue, "The Architecture of Disorderliness" (entwine). Nearby is how he defines the background notion of complexity:Regarding, by a awkward usage I mean one through up of a large be incorporated of parts that mediate in a nonsimple way. In such systems, the whole is better than the sum of the parts, not in an definitive, metaphysical significance, but in the horrible functional significance that, unlimited the properties of the parts and the laws of their relatives, it is not a lesser concern to consider the properties of the whole. In the appearance of obscurity, an in-principle reductionist may be at the extremely time a functional holist. (468)Nearby Simon favors a view that does not keep up ontological lack of restrictions of usage sort from unambiguous sort, but does keep up functional and mitigating lack of restrictions. In fact, his part seems correspond to the supervenience thesis: social facts supervene upon facts about relatives. But the memo for research is plain: it is useless to aim a reductionist policy for understanding system-level properties of awkward systems.A contemporary issue of Opinion of the Convivial Sciences contains three thrilling donations to entity aspects of this be of importance. Mariam Thalos ("Two Conceptions of Fundamentality") and Shiping Nibble ("Opening Paradigms of Convivial Sciences") are all avail yourself of reading. But Poe Yu-ze Wan's "Manifestation a la Systems Theory: Epistemological Totalausschluss or Ontological Novelty?") is turn background to the glitch of birth, so clothed in I'll ditch on his try.Wan distinguishes along with two schools of intuition about birth, partner with Niklas Luhmann and Mario Bunge. Luhmann's construction is inefficiently holistic, whilst Bunge's construction is the whole plausible with the idea that nascent sort are quiet constant by properties of the constituents. Wan argues that Luhmann has an "epistemological" understanding of birth -- the period of a wealth as nascent is a promontory of its derivability or explicability on the folder of submerged facts. Bunge's style, on the other hand, is ontological: even if we can very release the higher-level machine in language of the properties of the depreciate level, the wealth itself is still nascent. So for Bunge, "birth" is a fact about primary, not about knowledge. Wan too notes that Luhmann wants to yield the "part-whole" prize with the "environment-system" prize -- which Wan believes is impossible (180). Nearby is a excuse from Luhmann quoted by Wan:Whenever stage is an nascent order, we find the the elements of a presupposed materiality- or energy-continuum... are not permitted. Whole exclusion ("Totalausschluss") is the official of birth. (Luhmann, Niklas. 1992. Wer kennt Wil Martens? Eine Anmerkung zum Establishment der Emergenz sozialer Set of laws. "Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie" 44(1): 139-42, 141)And clothed in is Bunge's definition of birth, quoted by Wan:To say that P is an nascent wealth of systems of gently K is nippy for "P is a in general (or communal or non-distributive) wealth of a usage of gently K, none of whose components or precursors possesses P. (Manifestation and Convergence: Qualitative Novelty and the Accord of Pact, 15)Bunge's part clothed in is sharp-witted the extremely as the construction to be had by Elder-Vass senior. It defines birth as knick-knack at the well ahead level -- whether or not that knick-knack can be explained by facts about the constituents. Bunge's construction is plausible with the supervenient principle, in my reading, whilst Lumann's is not.Wan provides an better-quality review of the history of sign about this assemble, and his assessment of the issues is one that I for one appoint with. In a quantity of, his give authorization to of Bunge's part of "fair emergentism" seems to me to get the yield sharp-witted right: social properties are in some significance constant by the properties of the constituents; they are quiet creature from persons buried properties; and good specialist theories are authentic in referring to these nascent properties imperfect the requirement of falling them or replacing them with properties at the depreciate level. This is what Simon seems to be getting at in his definition of awkward systems, quoted above; and it seems to be correspond to the idea of mitigating rule argued in an fund post.My own policy on this issue is to abstain from use of the assemble of birth and to meander then again the idea of mitigating rule. This is the idea that mid-level usage properties are systematically tolerably regular that we can aim causative explanations at that level, imperfect sending derivations of persons explanations from some better essential level (entwine).The mitigating challenge is very clear: if we determination to release meso-level outcomes on the folder of declare to nascent usage sort, we can do so. But we requirement to pass good replicable knowledge of the causative properties of the nascent tone in order to blush explanations of other kinds of outcomes based on the technicalities of the usage sort. I would too add that we requirement to pass sly that the hypothesized system-level sort do in fact cuddle microfoundations at the level of the unambiguous and social accomplishments that underly them; or, in other words, we requirement to pass ponder for sly that the nascent properties our explanations believe do in fact digest to the supervenient relation.A brace of Wan's sources are bonus precious for investigators who are approachable in pursuing the idea of birth further:David Offensive, Nascent Evolution: Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Fact (Episteme)Richard Jones, Reductionism: Explanation and the Fullness of FactKeith Sawyer, Convivial Emergence: Societies As Complicated Systems

Read More

Mansnake

The Man and the Snake
by Ambrose Bierce

I

It is of veritabyll report, and attested of so many that there be
nowe of wyse and learned none to gaynsaye it, that ye serpente hys
eye hath a magnetick propertie that whosoe falleth into its svasion is drawn forwards in despyte of his wille, and perisheth miserabyll by ye creature hys byte.

Stretched at ease upon a sofa, in gown and slippers, Harker Brayton smiled as he read the foregoing sentence in old Morryster's
"Marvells of Science. The only marvel in the matter," he said to
himself, "is that the wise and learned in Morryster's day should
have believed such nonsense as is rejected by most of even the
ignorant in ours."

A train of reflections followed--for Brayton was a man of thought-- and he unconsciously lowered his book without altering the
direction of his eyes. As soon as the volume had gone below the
line of sight, something in an obscure corner of the room recalled
his attention to his surroundings. What he saw, in the shadow
under his bed, were two small points of light, apparently about an
inch apart. They might have been reflections of the gas jet above
him, in metal nail heads; he gave them but little thought and
resumed his reading. A moment later something--some impulse which
it did not occur to him to analyze--impelled him to lower the book
again and seek for what he saw before. The points of light were
still there. They seemed to have become brighter than before,
shining with a greenish luster which he had not at first observed.
He thought, too, that they might have moved a trifle--were somewhat nearer. They were still too much in the shadow, however, to reveal
their nature and origin to an indolent attention, and he resumed
his reading. Suddenly something in the text suggested a thought
which made him start and drop the book for the third time to the
side of the sofa, whence, escaping from his hand, it fell sprawling to the floor, back upward. Brayton, half-risen, was staring
intently into the obscurity beneath the bed, where the points of
light shone with, it seemed to him, an added fire. His attention
was now fully aroused, his gaze eager and imperative. It
disclosed, almost directly beneath the foot rail of the bed, the
coils of a large serpent--the points of light were its eyes! Its
horrible head, thrust flatly forth from the innermost coil and
resting upon the outermost, was directed straight toward him, the
definition of the wide, brutal jaw and the idiotlike forehead
serving to show the direction of its malevolent gaze. The eyes
were no longer merely luminous points; they looked into his own
with a meaning, a malign significance.

II

A snake in a bedroom of a modern city dwelling of the better sort
is, happily, not so common a phenomenon as to make explanation
altogether needless. Harker Brayton, a bachelor of thirty-five, a
scholar, idler, and something of an athlete, rich, popular, and of
sound health, had returned to San Francisco from all manner of
remote and unfamiliar countries. His tastes, always a trifle
luxurious, had taken on an added exuberance from long privation;
and the resources of even the Castle Hotel being inadequate for
their perfect gratification, he had gladly accepted the hospitality of his friend, Dr. Druring, the distinguished scientist. Dr.
Druring's house, a large, old-fashioned one in what was now an
obscure quarter of the city, had an outer and visible aspect of
reserve. It plainly would not associate with the contiguous
elements of its altered environment, and appeared to have developed some of the eccentricities which come of isolation. One of these
was a "wing," conspicuously irrelevant in point of architecture,
and no less rebellious in the matter of purpose; for it was a
combination of laboratory, menagerie, and museum. It was here that
the doctor indulged the scientific side of his nature in the study
of such forms of animal life as engaged his interest and comforted
his taste--which, it must be confessed, ran rather to the lower
forms. For one of the higher types nimbly and sweetly to recommend
itself unto his gentle senses, it had at least to retain certain
rudimentary characteristics allying it to such "dragons of the
prime" as toads and snakes. His scientific sympathies were
distinctly reptilian; he loved nature's vulgarians and described
himself as the Zola of zoology. His wife and daughters, not having
the advantage to share his enlightened curiosity regarding the
works and ways of our ill-starred fellow-creatures, were, with
needless austerity, excluded from what he called the Snakery, and
doomed to companionship with their own kind; though, to soften the
rigors of their lot, he had permitted them, out of his great
wealth, to outdo the reptiles in the gorgeousness of their
surroundings and to shine with a superior splendor.

Architecturally, and in point of "furnishing," the Snakery had a
severe simplicity befitting the humble circumstances of its
occupants, many of whom, indeed, could not safely have been
intrusted with the liberty which is necessary to the full enjoyment of luxury, for they had the troublesome peculiarity of being alive.
In their own apartments, however, they were under as little
personal restraint as was compatible with their protection from the baneful habit of swallowing one another; and, as Brayton had
thoughtfully been apprised, it was more than a tradition that some
of them had at divers times been found in parts of the premises
where it would have embarrassed them to explain their presence.
Despite the Snakery and its uncanny associations--to which, indeed, he gave little attention--Brayton found life at the Druring mansion very much to his mind.

III

Beyond a smart shock of surprise and a shudder of mere loathing,
Mr. Brayton was not greatly affected. His first thought was to
ring the call bell and bring a servant; but, although the bell cord dangled within easy reach, he made no movement toward it; it had
occurred to his mind that the act might subject him to the
suspicion of fear, which he certainly did not feel. He was more
keenly conscious of the incongruous nature of the situation than
affected by its perils; it was revolting, but absurd.

The reptile was of a species with which Brayton was unfamiliar.
Its length he could only conjecture; the body at the largest
visible part seemed about as thick as his forearm. In what way was
it dangerous, if in any way? Was it venomous? Was it a
constrictor? His knowledge of nature's danger signals did not
enable him to say; he had never deciphered the code.

If not dangerous, the creature was at least offensive. It was de
trop--"matter out of place"--an impertinence. The gem was unworthy
of the setting. Even the barbarous taste of our time and country,
which had loaded the walls of the room with pictures, the floor
with furniture, and the furniture with bric-a-brac, had not quite
fitted the place for this bit of the savage life of the jungle.
Besides--insupportable thought!--the exhalations of its breath
mingled with the atmosphere which he himself was breathing!

These thoughts shaped themselves with greater or less definition in Brayton's mind, and begot action. The process is what we call
consideration and decision. It is thus that we are wise and
unwise. It is thus that the withered leaf in an autumn breeze
shows greater or less intelligence than its fellows, falling upon
the land or upon the lake. The secret of human action is an open
one--something contracts our muscles. Does it matter if we give to
the preparatory molecular changes the name of will?

Brayton rose to his feet and prepared to back softly away from the
snake, without disturbing it, if possible, and through the door.
People retire so from the presence of the great, for greatness is
power, and power is a menace. He knew that he could walk backward
without obstruction, and find the door without error. Should the
monster follow, the taste which had plastered the walls with
paintings had consistently supplied a rack of murderous Oriental
weapons from which he could snatch one to suit the occasion. In
the meantime the snake's eyes burned with a more pitiless
malevolence than ever.

Brayton lifted his right foot free of the floor to step backward.
That moment he felt a strong aversion to doing so.

"I am accounted brave," he murmured; "is bravery, then, no more
than pride? Because there are none to witness the shame shall I
retreat?"

He was steadying himself with his right hand upon the back of a
chair, his foot suspended.

"Nonsense!" he said aloud; "I am not so great a coward as to fear
to seem to myself afraid."

He lifted the foot a little higher by slightly bending the knee,
and thrust it sharply to the floor--an inch in front of the other!
He could not think how that occurred. A trial with the left foot
had the same result; it was again in advance of the right. The
hand upon the chair back was grasping it; the arm was straight,
reaching somewhat backward. One might have seen that he was
reluctant to lose his hold. The snake's malignant head was still
thrust forth from the inner coil as before, the neck level. It had
not moved, but its eyes were now electric sparks, radiating an
infinity of luminous needles.

The man had an ashy pallor. Again he took a step forward, and
another, partly dragging the chair, which, when finally released,
fell upon the floor with a crash. The man groaned; the snake made
neither sound nor motion, but its eyes were two dazzling suns. The
reptile itself was wholly concealed by them. They gave off
enlarging rings of rich and vivid colors, which at their greatest
expansion successively vanished like soap bubbles; they seemed to
approach his very face, and anon were an immeasurable distance
away. He heard, somewhere, the continual throbbing of a great
drum, with desultory bursts of far music, inconceivably sweet, like the tones of an aeolian harp. He knew it for the sunrise melody of
Memnon's statue, and thought he stood in the Nileside reeds,
hearing, with exalted sense, that immortal anthem through the
silence of the centuries.

The music ceased; rather, it became by insensible degrees the
distant roll of a retreating thunderstorm. A landscape, glittering
with sun and rain, stretched before him, arched with a vivid
rainbow, framing in its giant curve a hundred visible cities. In
the middle distance a vast serpent, wearing a crown, reared its
head out of its voluminous convolutions and looked at him with his
dead mother's eyes. Suddenly this enchanting landscape seemed to
rise swiftly upward, like the drop scene at a theater, and vanished in a blank. Something struck him a hard blow upon the face and
breast. He had fallen to the floor; the blood ran from his broken
nose and his bruised lips. For a moment he was dazed and stunned,
and lay with closed eyes, his face against the door. In a few
moments he had recovered, and then realized that his fall, by
withdrawing his eyes, had broken the spell which held him. He felt
that now, by keeping his gaze averted, he would be able to retreat.
But the thought of the serpent within a few feet of his head, yet
unseen--perhaps in the very act of springing upon him and throwing
its coils about his throat--was too horrible. He lifted his head,
stared again into those baleful eyes, and was again in bondage.

The snake had not moved, and appeared somewhat to have lost its
power upon the imagination; the gorgeous illusions of a few moments before were not repeated. Beneath that flat and brainless brow its
black, beady eyes simply glittered, as at first, with an expression unspeakably malignant. It was as if the creature, knowing its
triumph assured, had determined to practice no more alluring wiles.

Now ensued a fearful scene. The man, prone upon the floor, within
a yard of his enemy, raised the upper part of his body upon his
elbows, his head thrown back, his legs extended to their full
length. His face was white between its gouts of blood; his eyes
were strained open to their uttermost expansion. There was froth
upon his lips; it dropped off in flakes. Strong convulsions ran
through his body, making almost serpentine undulations. He bent
himself at the waist, shifting his legs from side to side. And
every movement left him a little nearer to the snake. He thrust
his hands forward to brace himself back, yet constantly advanced
upon his elbows.

IV

Dr. Druring and his wife sat in the library. The scientist was in
rare good humor.

"I have just obtained, by exchange with another collector," he
said, "a splendid specimen of the Ophiophagus."

"And what may that be?" the lady inquired with a somewhat languid
interest.

"Why, bless my soul, what profound ignorance! My dear, a man who
ascertains after marriage that his wife does not know Greek, is
entitled to a divorce. The Ophiophagus is a snake which eats other
snakes."

"I hope it will eat all yours," she said, absently shifting the
lamp. "But how does it get the other snakes? By charming them, I
suppose."

"That is just like you, dear," said the doctor, with an affectation of petulance. "You know how irritating to me is any allusion to
that vulgar superstition about the snake's power of fascination."

The conversation was interrupted by a mighty cry which rang through the silent house like the voice of a demon shouting in a tomb.
Again and yet again it sounded, with terrible distinctness. They
sprang to their feet, the man confused, the lady pale and
speechless with fright. Almost before the echoes of the last cry
had died away the doctor was out of the room, springing up the
staircase two steps at a time. In the corridor, in front of
Brayton's chamber, he met some servants who had come from the upper floor. Together they rushed at the door without knocking. It was
unfastened, and gave way. Brayton lay upon his stomach on the
floor, dead. His head and arms were partly concealed under the
foot rail of the bed. They pulled the body away, turning it upon
the back. The face was daubed with blood and froth, the eyes were
wide open, staring--a dreadful sight!

"Died in a fit," said the scientist, bending his knee and placing
his hand upon the heart. While in that position he happened to
glance under the bed. "Good God!" he added; "how did this thing
get in here?"

He reached under the bed, pulled out the snake, and flung it, still coiled, to the center of the room, whence, with a harsh, shuffling
sound, it slid across the polished floor till stopped by the wall,
where it lay without motion. It was a stuffed snake; its eyes were
two shoe buttons.

Read More

Mind And Emergence From Quantum To Consciousness By Philip Clayton

Strong claims have been made for emergence as a new paradigm for understanding science, consciousness, and religion. Tracing the past history and current definitions of the concept, Clayton assesses the case for emergent phenomena in the natural world and their significance for philosophy and theology. Complex emergent phenomena require irreducible levels of explanation in physics, chemistry and biology. This pattern of emergence suggests a new approach to the problem of consciousness, which is neither reducible to brain states nor proof of a mental substance or soul. Although emergence does not entail classical theism, it is compatible with a variety of religious positions. Clayton concludes with a defence of emergentist panentheism and a Christian constructive theology consistent with the new sciences of emergence.

"LINK :"

Reference: pagan-wiccan.blogspot.com

Read More