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 Happy Solstice, Everyone! Glory to the Unconquered Sun! Lawless Saturnalia! Glad Yule! Herald the Universal Birth of True Will! Meher-y Krsnamas! Merry Christmas! “As for any spirit who knows the name of the Shining Sun,
he knows his own name.”
-- Egyptian Coffin Texts 760-- I will write more soon about the why and how, but I have changed my name. After twelve years with the initiatory name "Copper," I have received a new name from my Godz and Allies: America Divine Stewart. Don't worry--it doesn't mean that I've joined the Peace Mission ;-). 
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In 2009,  copperstewart resolves to... Give up horus.
Apply for a new chocolate.
Cut down on my reclaiming.
Get back in contact with some old cats.
Go gardening three times a week.
Cut down to ten isis a day. | | |
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Mother Ann Lee words and music by JP Houston (SOCAN)
Stowing alone in a hole on the row up in Gary I was the lowest and owingest soul of the wary The son of a motherless child, oh so weary Woe did my weep water a seed sewing in my sleep a dream Mother Ann Lee sang a stream Oh holy glossolalia sa-sa-la-do on Zion we roll singing sa-la-sa-ree in her arms Wallowing low when I woke on the road in the morning Following only the notes left to float in the pouring the load of a childhoodless life I've been towing So did my stride usher a tide and rising in it's wake a sign Mother Ann Lee sang a stream Oh holy glossolalia sa-sa-la-do on Zion we roll singing sa-la-sa-ree in her arms
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From I Saw You Disappear with My Own Eyes: Hidden Transcripts of New York Black Israelite Bricolage (page 72-75). Diagram below. Matthew's personal papers in the Schomburg Library in New York include two amulets of geometric designs and Hebrew words borrowed in part from The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses [version published by De Laurence]. These amulets offer an unparalleled view into the hidden transcript and the private settings where Rabbi Matthew performed the most secret transformative rituals at the hidden heart of Black Israelism. The square amulet in Matthew's personal papers (Figure 2) was modified from "The Second Table of the Spirits of Fire," found on page 16 of The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses (Figure 4). What makes the derivation of Matthew's diagram from de Laurence's diagram indisputable is the fact that de Laurence has reproduced a calligraphic error in the Hebrew that Matthew has repeated. The word at the bottom, Ha-ko-ach, meaning "The Power," has been miswritten. An errant vertical line closes the gap of the middle letter, kaph, making it look like an uppercase "D." In fact, there is no Hebrew letter with that shape, but in Matthew's diagram [it] is in the exact same place, underneath the intersection of the diagonals, and Matthew has repeated the same mistake in the letter kaph, demonstrating that he used de Laurence's text as a source for his "cabalistic science."
The two amulets shed light on Matthew's esoteric theology, part of the secret knowledge at the heart of his Black Israelite belief. Matthew wrote several phrases in fractured Hebrew on the diagram, the top one of which can be translated: "Rise and give me good luck." Just below the median line the Hebrew can be translated: "Within the eighth fire you should give me life," and the bottom line may read either: "The eighth God should be my father," or "The eighth God, my God, my father." At the simplest level, this diagram appears to be a good luck charm. But at a higher level, this amulet amplifies and expands on Matthew's theology. In later decades Matthew taught that there were seven "spirits" or elements of God, and twelve heavens, which his daughter explicated in the congregational newspaper in 1965:
Do you know how few of us, the Black fews, know that G-d is Wind, Water, Fire, Life, Light, Power, and Mind? This is G-d—the seven elements. Each one of these elements are all gods among themselves, but the creator of these—the one ruler of these, is the one and only. He is G-d. He is in us, out of us, and is all about us; and without Him we wouldn't exist. Without any one of these gods we would not exist.
Given that Matthew believed in seven elements of God, this diagram appears to have been used to worship and invoke the power and presence of the supreme Creator God, an eighth god who appears through the medium of fire. The repetition of the number eight, the image of fire, and a personal filial relationship with God are noteworthy. Again, the amulet can be translated: "Rise and give me good luck/Within the eighth fire you should give me life/the eighth God, my God, my father." Remembering that Matthew began in the sanctified church, he may have borrowed this fiery conception of God from the common "fire-baptized" Holiness-Pentecostal conception of God. The multiple "god-elements" in his theology, however, is what makes Matthew's creed most like the religions of the Black Atlantic.
Moreover, the ritual use of these diagrams seems to have allowed Matthew to be filled with the presence of God, and to relate to the Creator God as a son relates to a father. The second round amulet (Figure 3) repeats and amplifies this sense of God's immanence and Matthew's own power. The diagram consists of several Hebrew sentences printed over a Mögen David, literally a "Shield of David" or six-pointed star, which is a common kabbalistic referent. After some undecipherable words at the beginning of the prayer, the sentence continues: ". . . Eighth God .. . come God, come to me in the flood." The words overlaid on top of the Mögen David itself can be translated: "The Name of God is in me, the Lord my God Exalted Lord God is in me, my God will see me, my father God." In this second amulet Matthew emphasizes and underlines the immanence of God. After asking God to enter him "in a flood," he triumphantly proclaims, "the name of God is in me!" What is especially notable here is not just the idea that God is inside Matthew, but his almost messianic connection with God. It is even possible that through the ritual use of these amulets and incantations, Matthew believed himself able to unify the triune parts of the Pentecostal Godhead: God is the Father, he is the Son, and they meet via the medium of "the eighth fire," or the Holy Spirit.
The kabbalistic diagrams that Matthew based in part on the publications of de Laurence seem to have provided a ritual blueprint for the embodiment of divine power in a manner consistent with the "reputedly Jewish" New Thought-based practices of Bishop Hickerson and some of the other religious bricoleurs of the interwar era. The "cabbalistic science" that could make one disappear or make God appear inside oneself was a form of both spiritual and temporal power, power that was particularly attractive to Matthew and the mainly poor black people who followed him and his peers. In sum, Matthew's religious practice was far more complex, and far more interesting, than the picture of Orthodox Jewish conformity that he presented to the world in the later years of his life. Rather, hidden transcripts demonstrate that Matthew used personal networks and print culture to invent a polycultural religion, drawing on such elements as New Thought, Pentecostalism, Caribbean pageantry, and Kabbala.  (click through to a bigger version) | | |
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"G-d is Wind, Water, Fire, Life, Light, Power, and Mind. This is G-d--the seven elements. Each one of these elements are all gods among themselves, but the creator of these--the one ruler of these, is the one and only. He is G-d. He is in us, out of us, and is all about us; and without Him we wouldn't exist. Without any one of these gods we would not exist." "Black Judaism successfully hid both its origins in Pentecostal churches and its secret knowledge drawn from Freemasonry, Jewish Kabbala, and African American conjuring...
When one combines the study of Rabbi Matthew's Black Israelism with similar studies of Black Israelism, Black Islam, Rastafarianism, Father Divine's Peace Mission movement, and various New Thought-based black religions operative in the 1920s, it is possible to appreciate a remarkable wave of overlapping esoteric religious creativity that accompanied the much more famous artistic creativity of the Harlem Renaissance. These were religions of 'subversive bricolage,' the creations of remarkably sophisticated, not 'savage,' minds."
--Dorman, Jacob S. "I saw you disappear with my own eyes: Hidden Transcripts of New York Black Israelite Bricolage." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 11:1 (2007). pages 62-63. | | |
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I have read and re-read most of the books by Father Divine's contemporaries, the ones that are usually labeled as detractors. When they are not rival clerics, I am of the opinion that most of the people motivated to write book-length pieces about him were often discernibly conflicted in their response to his charisma and work. Writers like Sara Harris and John Hoshor, while lapsing into long passages with the worst sorts of racism (I should need only indicate phrases like "young buck" and "nutbrown mammie" to illustrate the particular flavor of racism), cannot help themselves and often find themselves asserting 1) no one can figure out where the money comes from and everyone has tried, hard; or 2) when all is said and done, it looks like he is indeed celibate and practices what he enjoins on others*, 3) he is indeed feeding and rehabilitating tens of thousands of outcast people, and/or 4) painting pictures like this one:IF Jesus Christ, Himself, returned to earth tomorrow it is doubtful if He could find a church wherein He would feel at home or even one where He would be welcomed.
The Baltimore Sun proved rather conclusively some years ago that there were none in Baltimore. A dozen reporters were called in and ordered not to shave for a week. Saturday night they were told to report early Sunday morning in the oldest and raggiest clothes they could find. Sunday morning they were each given a specific church and instructed to attend the church's services, incognito of course. After doing so they were to write a truthful account of the reception received. No important denominations were overlooked. One who reads their stories will almost agree with Nietzsche's statement that "The last Christian was crucified."
As far as this observer knows no such tests have been made elsewhere, but it seems safe to assume that the results would be much the same as they were in Baltimore. The reactions would probably range all the way from 'a sneer at' His clothes or person to threats to call the cops unless He cleared out.
Upon entering Father Divine's Peace Mission at 20 West 115th Street, now his official headquarters, one cannot help but feel that, regardless of the purpose of the visit, one is more than welcome. The building, a four-story red brick structure, formerly used for Harlem weddings, stag parties, lodge meetings and tap dancing rehearsals, is rented by Father Divine's cult. It has been their official headquarters since December 19, 1933.
Prominently displayed on the front of the building is a large sign stating that "all people, languages and races, all are welcome."
Throughout the block, as elsewhere in Harlem, are numerous signs in store and apartment house windows, "Peace," "Thank you, Father," "Peace, Shirts made to order," "Peace, three rooms to rent-hot water." Disciples, unmistakably recognized by their radiance and their unworried, happy countenance are coming and going on both sides of the street.
Only a few months before the emerald doors of Father Divine's heaven were thrown open on this street, it was, according to a Harlem police captain, almost unsafe for the prosperous appearing person to walk late at night unprotected through that block. While now, the chances are that should you drop a bill fold, well stuffed with Uncle Sam's currency, in that street or neighborhood, it would be promptly returned with a note: "Peace. Father Divine is God."
As one enters the Mission and climbs four steps to the first floor, greetings from every side are offered through the welcome smiles of the disciples and their watchword-salutation, "Peace." If it is any reasonable hour of the day and night the mission will be crowded.
Continuing through the first floor vestibule one enters a large hall, where the devotees of this faith are seated compactly on wooden benches, while others sit on boxes and crates in the aisles. In the rear of the hall the last eight or ten rows of benches are raised in a grandstand effect. At the front, from wall to wall, a waist high platform extends, at the center of which a twenty-two piece orchestra is playing in hot, swing time, "I've got rhythm, Divine rhythm." The platform, like the main floor, is filled with a swinging, pulsing, motley mass of men and women whose respective "complexions" range through every degree from pitch black to albinism.
Out of their torrid throats arises a throbbing, deeply sonorous, mountain of song:
"I've got rhythm, Divine rhythm
I'm running for eternal life
I've got rhythm, Divine rhythm
Father Divine has freed me from all strife."
The floodgates of their emotions are open. They sing as if to some electrical compulsion. Every one keeps time, some with their hands, some with their feet, many with their whole bodies. They wear their hearts upon their sleeves. The gusto for life, the spirit of love and goodwill, and the fervent enthusiasm of those present warms the listener like a miraculous bonfire. One can almost catch the flame. It is, indeed, a house of happiness.
Here and there in different parts of the audience some are standing, clapping their hands and swaying their shoulders to the rhythm of the song. Others with slightly more space at their disposal loosely fling themselves about like whirling dervishes and prance, reel and writhe ecstatically in their own original manner. The spirit catches one after another, advertising its presence by long deep moans, shrill shouts or intensive floor stamping. One brother is releasing the unseen caller through the medium of a mouth harp, from which comes swinging measures in time with the orchestra. There are no rules of formalism here.
Father Divine has made his followers one great friendly and loving family. No jealousies, no animosities, no class prejudice and no quarrels. It is actually, Peace Brother, Peace Sister. They seem to literally merge themselves into one golden-hearted living creature, mellow with happiness, in an immense state of love.
Hoshor, John. God in a Rolls Royce. New York: Hillman, 1936. 125-128.* a ready example: " Certain non-believers among the colored race have privately claimed that they had unmistakable evidence of successful sexual advances by Father Divine toward some of his more attractive female devotees; and one white woman who resided at the Sayville heaven insisted that the Negro leader crawled in her bed at night, and that to get away from him she ran out into Macon Street in her night dress. It is extremely doubtful, however, that such assertions are true as the authorities tried diligently for many months, through unusually capable operatives, to secure evidence of such nature without a semblance of success, and it is also questionable if even the most loyal and submissive feminine follower, so glorified, could long refrain from advertising or boasting of her conquest." (Hoshor 101-102) | | |
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A white caller sitting nearby listens with an unbelieving look on her face. This is the twentieth consecutive day that she has been here to see Father Divine. She wants to sell him penny banks. Yesterday when she was here she suddenly got up and rushed out with a great idea. Today she has returned with a gift bank, on which is inscribed the name of Father Divine. She asks the secretary to please deliver it to him. Surely that will get her the long-awaited interview.
It does.
Father Divine calls her in as soon as the little bank is handed to him.
"Peace, Sister. What do you mean by putting my name on this physical thing, this token of Mammon, without my personal permission, without even asking me about it or discussing it with me?"
The lady is flustered, but now that she's in, she intends to get her sales-talk across.
"I thought how nice it would be for you to have hundreds of these banks and place one on the table of each of your missions, so that every one of your disciples could slip a penny into a bank each time they ate. In that way they could help you feed the poor."
"I don't need any help to feed the poor. I feed thousands, millions every day. I have all the money I need."
Father Divine's emphatic tone of voice created belief in the woman's mind.
"Well, I don't understand it. I have a dependent husband, three children and a sister living with me, and I can't even make enough to feed them," the woman offered. Perhaps, she thought, Father Divine would give her the secret of his financial success.
"Why don't you do what you are trying to get me to do? Put one of these little affairs on your table and let each of them donate a penny when they eat? If you think it will work for me, why won't it work for you?"
That ended the interview. She didn't sell any banks.
from Hoshor, John. God in a Rolls Royce. New York: Hillman-Curl, 1936. 25-26.
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 I did not know that was also called an "abacus"
Abacus"In architecture the slab or plinth which forms the upper member of the capital of a column or pillar, and upon which rests, in classic styles, the lower surface of the achitrave."
Impost Block or Abacus
The impost block, also referred to as the abacus, is the slab that is found between the capital and the architectural element above it, such as the entablature. | | |
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I've got nothing against principled outbursts. Indeed, I encourage them and wish our US Congress looked a bit more like PM's question-an-answer period in the British Parliament. But "Joe" Wilson is a racist with a long history and questionable involvements, and it looks to me like the Obama + immigration context was just too much for an old cracker to bear. 14 Things You Need to Know About Obama Heckler, Rep. Joe Wilson | | |
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Today's my birthday and the birthday of ally Marie Laveau. It's also the 44th anniversary of the date ally Father Divine put aside the body. I regard Father Divine as an extraordinary Hermetic exemplum and a true hypostasis of God Himself. He is a bodhisattva in the sense of one who has nothing to learn, but who chooses to teach, and as far as I'm concerned, he was the greatest Divine Agent to appear in form in the history of the United States. I am a mystic and Witch, so I don't understand him as Peace Mission followers do, though their ways are among the most inspiring and consistently ethical I've encountered. I believe that Father's teachings are among the clearest expositons of what might be called "Hermetic Supermentalism" that have been uttered. Perhaps only Sri Aurobindo, his divine contemporary, is as clear or workable. I regard him as energetically much clearer and cleaner than other exemplums I admire, like Aleister Crowley or Meher Baba. Here are two videos--the first is a fuller version of a newsreel I've posted before. The second is one I've only just seen for the first time. It's amazing to me how favorable they are, on the whole, considering the extreme racism the Peace Mission often encountered and Mr. Hearst's life-long vendetta against Father Divine (Hearst remains the source of most misinformation on Father Divine--if you want to know historical truths about him, stick to academics like Robert Weisbrot and Jill Watts). And here is a poem or declamation written by a Peace Mission follower on the dedication of the "Shrine to Life" that houses Father Divine's Wholly Form:
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- Callwords:allies, animism, astrology, cosmology, gods, hinduism, india, interfaith, magic, mystery, mythos, video
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Neat--"Rubric" has the same root as "Rudra," the pre-Puranic God who became Shiva.
rubric c.1375, "directions in religious services" (often in red writing), from O.Fr. rubrique, from L. rubrica "red ochre, red coloring matter," from ruber, from PIE base *rudhro- (see red).
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This seems like a potentially important development: BLACKWATER FOUNDER ERIK PRINCE IMPLICATED IN MURDER
The Nation, Aug. 4 A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill
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- Callwords:allies, appalachia, coal, ecology, economics, link, nature, news, resistance, url, video, west virginia, wv
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orphan c.1300, from L.L. orphanus "parentless child" (cf. O.Fr. orfeno, It. orfano), from Gk. orphanos "orphaned," lit. "deprived," from orphos "bereft," from PIE *orbho- "bereft of father," also "deprived of free status," from base *orbh- "to change allegiance, to pass from one status to another" (cf. Hittite harb- "change allegiance," L. orbus "bereft," Skt. arbhah "weak, child," Arm. orb "orphan," O.Ir. orbe "heir," O.C.S. rabu "slave," rabota "servitude" (cf. robot), Goth. arbja, Ger. erbe, O.E. ierfa "heir," O.H.G. arabeit, Ger. Arbeit "work," O.Fris. arbed, O.E. earfoð "hardship, suffering, trouble"). The verb is attested from 1814. Orphanage "institute or home for orphans" is first attested 1865.
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More about Blair Mountain, one of the most important labor history sites in the country, which has recently been removed from the National Register of Historic Places and may soon be utterly destroyed.
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There is a great deal about Sri Upasni Maharaj that parallels shamanic practice. For example, he once described a vision that occurred prior to his enlightenment, when two giants came to crack his head open and let the light out. This "discourse" is from 1924 and explains access to the "Temple of Vishnu" on the bi-monthly Vaishnava fast days called Ekadashi.
This is a Dattatreya lineage and has always been syncretic and extra-Vedic, though Upasni was himself a brahmin ayurvedist from a Vaishnava family. Upasni Maharaj was the student of Shirdi Sai and the primary guru of Meher Baba.
Access to the Moving Temple of Vishnu on Ekadashi katha with Sri Upasni Maharaj (1924) It is customary to visit a temple to have the Darshana of God on an Ekadashi day, as the portals of Vaikuntha are supposed to be open particularly on that day. (Ekadashi means observing fast on the eleventh day from the full and new moon days, i.e., twice a month. Vaikuntha is the abode of Vishnu meaning the Infinite Bliss.) Darshana of God on this particular day means one's entry into Vaikuntha. It should be well-borne in mind that to go for the darshana of a saint is virtually going to Vaikuntha for the darshana of God. Today is the Ekadashi day meant for a visit to Vaikuntha, Sometime ago I have spoken about the story of a moving temple, Anybody who is qualified to enter that temple can do so any time at his will. But on Ekadashi day anybody could get into it. This temple is peculiar in that it consists of halls within halls, which are moving in opposite· directions, the doors of which are located in opposite directions, and whose domes are also situated opposed to each other. If the outer hall has its door towards east, it is moving in a clockwise manner--has its dome in the normal position that is directed above, then the next hall within has its door towards the west, it moves in anti-clockwise direction and its dome is kept in a reversed position - i.e., upside down. The third hall is opposed to the second in every way. The God is sitting in the innermost hall of this temple. It is thus impossible for a commoner to enter this temple and have the darshana. A man who is, however, qualified can enter the temple and pass through the different halls and have his darshana. Just as a guard or a person, who knows how to do it, can alone enter a running train and nobody else, in the same way a man, who is qualified and knows exactly how to go about, can enter this peculiar temple any day he likes, even though it happens to be moving at a high speed. Just as for a commoner there are stations instituted for getting into a train, similarly for a commoner to get into this temple the Ekadashi day is instituted. It is on this particular day that all its doors' come in one straight line, one behind the other, and the temple becomes stationary; anybody can get in on this day. Just as even in a stationary train standing at a station one can get in only when armed with a ticket, in the same way, anybody who knows and observes the cogent regulations can alone have an entry into it on the Ekadashi day. Just as a man without a ticket is not permitted to enter a train, in the same way, a man who has not observed the cogent regulations cannot get into it even on this day. Just as a train always stops at a station at the appointed time whether there is a passenger or not, in the same way, that temple becomes stationary on the Ekadashi day. Just as a person who wants to travel has his food, luggage, a ticket, etc., and is ready to enter the train, in the same way, if a man has been following the various regulations and thus qualified himself, he can have the darshana on that day. A man who is not desirous of having the darshana does not naturally worry about any rules or regulations. The temple becomes stationary at the appointed time and a qualified man can enter it. A person, who knows how to get in and all that, can of course enter the temple at any time he likes; it is for the commoner that the regulations are there; he has to observe a fast on that day; the eleventh day [after full and new moons] is reserved for that purpose for certain reasons. Observe the regulations on that day and qualify yourself to enter the temple.  Now the moving temple is this body. The halls arranged in opposite direction are the three - Sthula, Sukshma and Karana bodies (the gross, the subtle and th causal). The Vaikuntha is the Brahmanda situated in the head. The fasting on Ekadashi day means to starve - to stop the ten senses and the mind' from undertaking any action; to stop the activities of these eleven like that is observing the fast correctly. A man, who observes a fast like that, i.e., observes the Ekadashi, becomes qualified to have' the darshana of Vishnu situated in the Brahmanda located in himself. One can also have similar darshana of Vishnu in Brahmanda by associating with [someone] who has experienced it and who is ever in it, i.e., a Sat-purusha. (scanned from an ancient, battered 6 vol. set of Upasni's Talks I purchased in Shirdi). | | |
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- Callwords:appalachia, coal, cultural studies, culture change, ecology, economics, news, resistance, video, west virginia, wv
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Forget Shorter Showers | Derrick Jensen | Orion MagazinePosted using ShareThisEdit: Hmm, the share thing doesn't give much info about this article from today's release of ORION. Here are a couple paragraphs: Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide. Or let’s talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. See the disconnect? Because I take showers, I’m responsible for drawing down aquifers? Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fish people) aren’t dying because the world is running out of water. They’re dying because the water is being stolen. | | |
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Here's an oldie but a goodie... an expose of Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. This is the sort of corporate leadership behind the thugs in the earlier video posted today (and the mastermind who "keeps America's lights on").
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 (Relatively speaking, of course.) Giant Naked Goddess to be Carved into Hillside
A 400-yard naked "Green Goddess" is to be carved into the Northumberland landscape, under a new plan revealed by a mining company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5715111/Giant-naked-goddess-to-be-carved-into-hillside.html
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Proclamation We hold these Truths to be absolute, though not self-evident, that all Men are created in the same image, and are endowed by their Creator with one and only one unalienable Right, the Right to Choose one’s responses and actions in any given situation and at any given moment. We believe that the universe operates based on certain timeless, absolute, and immutable spiritual Laws, among these are the Laws of Truth, Love, and Justice. We believe that though not self-evident, the lie will ultimately self-destruct and Truth shall prevail. We believe that Love will transmute all things into goodness, and that Justice is the order of the Universe in which we live. We believe that we are also endowed with certain privileges that are the byproducts and indirect outcomes of the way we live. Among these are the privileges of Life, Liberty and the Ensuing Happiness. We believe that Life is not a Right, but an outcome of the choices that we make. The privilege of being alive and being permeated with vitality is one that we need to consciously express in every choice that we make. That Liberty is not a Right bestowed upon us by our Creator, but a way of approaching our choices. We believe that we are endowed with the privilege of choosing freely, in spite of our external circumstances or outer pressures. And we believe that Happiness is what ensues as a result of the type of choices that we make, that when we choose to align ourselves with the Universal Laws and pursue the right and the good, then happiness will automatically be bestowed upon us. We believe that no government and no individual has the Right, nor the Ability to determine what we believe and what we think. That no entity can limit or suppress our Divine Right to Choose. We believe that although our privileges are temporal and may change by circumstances outside of our own control, our one and only Right and Power cannot be revoked. That at any given moment we have the Right to express who we are, think what we will, and choose what we wish. It is self-evident that our choices have consequences, and that we may revoke one privilege for attaining another. But which to forego and which to express is entirely our choice. We believe that at all times we have the right to believe what we will, including believing in this document, and at all times we have the right to choose to change our opinions, thoughts, and beliefs, without any prior notice or warning. Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver Canada
February 9, 1998 http://www.zarathushtra.com/z/article/american.htm - Callwords:allies, cosmology, ethics, history, india, interfaith, iran, liberty, pavo, praxis, theodicy, work
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By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Washington Post, Friday, July 3, 2009 Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse? If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day -- the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly -- to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains -- encompassing about a million acres -- buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia's rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not -- obliterating the hemisphere's oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas -- while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry's promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry's fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains -- with their impoverished and alienated population -- are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens. Obama promised science-based policies that would save what remains of Appalachia, but last month senior administration officials finally weighed in with a mixture of strong words and weak action that broke hearts across the region. The modest measures federal bureaucrats promised amount to little more than a tepid pledge of better enforcement of existing laws. And government claims of doing everything possible to halt the holocaust are simply not true. George Bush gutted Clean Water Act protections. Obama must restore them. First, the White House should fix the "fill" rule the Bush administration adopted in 2002 to allow coal companies to use streams as waste dumps. Under this perverse interpretation of the Clean Water Act, 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been interred under mining waste. Obama could reverse the "fill" rule to reflect its original meaning, which forbids waste matter from being dumped into waterways. Second, the Interior Department should strictly enforce the widely ignored "buffer zone" rule that forbids dumping waste within 100 feet of intermittent or perennial streams. Third, our laws require companies to restore mined areas to their original condition. The administration should end the absurd fiction that extraction pits filled with unconsolidated rocks and rubble where trees will never grow and streams will never flow are "reclaimed." Fourth, current law forbids the issuance of "fill" permits that will cause "significant degradation" to waterways. It is absurd for the Army Corps of Engineers to endorse the canard that filling miles of streams is not causing significant degradation. The president should require the Corps to deny and rescind permits where operations will cause downstream damage. Fifth, the Clean Water Act requires mining operators to prove that they can restore the "function and structure" of affected streams. Operators have never been compelled to make the functional or structural analyses of the aquatic ecosystem required by the act. Obama should order his officials to stop ignoring this requirement. Sixth, the administration should enforce the law requiring an environmental impact study for each permit when a mine "may have significant environmental impacts," individually or cumulatively. The Corps of Engineers routinely allows coal operators to escape this mandate -- an illegal practice that should stop. Instead of acting to enforce these laws, administration officials indicated last month that they will allow more than 100 permits to go forward while they carefully review their regulatory options. If they act accordingly, the ruined landscapes of Appalachia will be Obama's legacy. President Obama should go to Appalachia and see mountaintop removal. My father visited Appalachia in 1966 and was so horrified by strip mining -- then in its infancy -- that he made it a key priority of his political agenda. He complained that Appalachia, with our nation's richest natural resources, was home to America's poorest populations, its worst education system, and its highest illiteracy and unemployment rates. These statistics are even grimmer today as mining saps state wealth. In 1966, 46,000 West Virginia miners were collecting salaries and pensions and reinvesting in their communities. Mechanization has shrunk that number to fewer than 11,000. They extract more coal annually, but virtually all the profits leave the state for Wall Street. The coal industry provides only 2 percent of the jobs in Central Appalachia. Wal-Mart employs more people than the coal companies in West Virginia. Last week a major study documented how coal imposes a net cost to Kentucky of more than $100 million per year. Coal is not an economic engine in the coalfields. It is an extraction engine. Obama has the authority to end mountaintop removal, without further action from Congress and without formal rulemaking. He just needs to make the coal barons obey the law. The writer is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. - Callwords:appalachia, coal, culture change, ecology, economics, links, news, politics, resistance, url, west virginia, wv
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- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, calendar, culture change, economics, freedom, history, holiday, ideation, liberty, politics, resistance
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- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, calendar, culture change, economics, freedom, history, holiday, ideation, liberty, politics, resistance
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"Much against the wishes of the elite..." (8/20/1939, International News Wire)   | | |
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 Parshuram Mantra
CHATURDHA PARSHURAMAM CH RAJYAPUJYA SUSHANTIDHA ATSI PUSHPSANKASHO DURVA DALNIBH | | |
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Ayatollah: Green Twitter Avatars 'Number One Threat' to Regime
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, convened an emergency meeting in Tehran today to discuss what he called "number one threat to this regime": green Twitter avatars. Khamenei told associates at the meeting that Iran's government had stared down many challenges to its authority since the 1979 revolution, but none have been as "terrifying and intimidating" as the ubiquitous green avatars. "The green Avatars must be stopped!" he roared, pounding his fist on the table. According to sources close to the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah is considering a number of measures to combat the avatars, including banning the color green and distributing free smiley-face emoticons across Iran. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/ayatollah-green-twitter-a_b_219517.html | | |
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- Callwords:allies, art, folkart, history, india, interfaith, iran, magic, meher baba, mystery, pavo, pictures, politics, prayer, resistance, spell
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"Maybe I am Avatar of God or the Devil. So, once and for all, see within and find out if you are confused or fused." -- Meher Baba Amusingly and in light of the Irani political events that are capturing the attention of many Baba folk, the one occurence of the word "twitter" in the 20+ volume biography of Meher Baba called "Lord Meher" occurs immediately after an unusual reference to the alphabet board Meher Baba (who observed silence after 1925) used to communicate:Before entering seclusion, Baba instructed Padri to cut a small piece of bamboo from the partition in the cage-room built originally for the mast Karim Baba, so that he could communicate on the alphabet board without being seen. His seclusion this time was to be much stricter than before. Baba entered seclusion in the cage-room on Meherabad Hill on Friday, August 1st, 1941, exactly a year to the day after his previous seclusion. At the time, no other mast except Chatti Baba was in Meherabad, and Baba continued working energetically with him, seeing no one else. It was absolutely still. Pendu, Padri, Kalemama, Masaji, Chhagan, Vishnu and Baidul, while on watch, were most cautious and saw to it Baba was not in the least disturbed. They prevented the dogs from barking and would not even permit a bird to twitter. The women mandali on Meherabad Hill would also tread lightly and not let the slightest sound escape their lips. The graveyard silence led one to believe that the Hill was now uninhabited. SOURCE
Before his enlightenment experience, in childhood, Meher Baba (Merwan Sheriar Irani) seems to have had a spiritualized connection to Iran:
"IN HIS YOUTH, Merwan was in the habit of gazing at the stars and moon – sometimes for hours late into the night. At times his friends would join him, but he would become so absorbed that he would seemingly lose himself – neither replying to their questions nor sharing in their conversation.
Late night and early morning were the best opportunities for Baily to be with Merwan since, as mentioned previously, Shireen did not like him. Baily would sit outside with Merwan and ask him what he saw in the sky. Merwan would sometimes reply, "I saw the court of Emperor Jamshed." Other times he answered, "I saw the peacock throne." Once he said, "I saw the formlessness of God in form!" After these comments he would laugh and Baily would be annoyed with his replies, thinking Merwan was not being entirely candid." SOURCE Meher Baba's June 1931 trip to Persia was also interesting, including unusual access to the shrine of Imam Reza (one of the most culturally significant sites in Iran--certainly unprecedented access for a Parsi!).
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Here is part two of the "Mounds and Deo Pavo Work" ( Read more and see pictures beneath the cut... )
Part one is linked here.... Part three coming soon). - Callwords:alexander, altars, ancestors, animism, appalachia, art, culture change, ecology, feri, folkart, gods, magic, meher baba, pavo, peacocks, resistance, spell, theurgy, work
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This is the first of three posts about a recent spirit working. Much of my magic nowadays is very intuitive and is prompted by the relationships I have with Ancestors, Allies and Gods. My methods use the rational mind, but the work itself is something different. I feel that such work works on me and on the world. Altars are immanent, resonant, willful prayers and draw Spirit into our ken and into expression. This prayer/spell started with a request for an all-white altar with an offering of flour and egg, worked its way into the building of a small outdoor mound intended to be a first step in the mysteries of practical earthworks as well as a spell/prayer for the protection of the Appalachian mountains and the restoration of the American Chestnut tree. There were also some vague dreams about Mounds and about my past visits--they were more promptings than sources of information. Deo Pavo/Peacock Angel took over, weaving in my Wyrd allies, especially Meher Baba, and fire worship, and reached a stage of completion concurrent with Iranian elections and subsequent unrest (a surprise resonance that didn't factor into my timing, but which probably isn't utterly irrelevant given the political foci and the Irani connections in my background). So the energies that emerged in this working started with a Damballah/Paga Legba flavor, threaded through contemplation of the ancient Appalachian mounds I've made pilgrimage to in the past (including two in West Virginia and the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio) and moved into the court of Deo Pavo, who manifested with a very Irani/Zoroastrian flavor and brought Meher Baba and other Allies along with Him (adding some clarity to that nexus of spirit energies and refining my sense of what's going on with them). So the effect is to honor and grow closer to Spirits, though the intention remains connected to the spirit of place and the need to protect our mountains and restore the nearly extinct Chestnut. After some interest in mounds and making a mound emerged in discussion on Facebook, I also started a group there called "Appalachian Earthworks". Below are some links to historic mounds in the Appalachian region; on the Facebook page, I'm also posting links to folks using earthwork sculpture as art or ritual. I am partly exploring it as a parallel to the "Dragon's Nest" (a ring of organic material) as an organic ritual form, one perhaps well suited to work with spirits of place, the ancestors, and spells to stop mountain top removal. Here are pictures of outdoor phase 1, begun last Dark Moon. ( Ritual Description, Photos and Mound Links )
Part Two coming soon.- Callwords:altars, ancestors, animism, appalachia, art, culture change, ecology, folkart, gods, magic, resistance, spell, theurgy
- Locus:Temple of Great Good Fortune
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 From Koyambedu Sri Vaikundavaasa Perumaal Temple (Chennai)There are 3 trees uniquely grown very close to each other. There is one Vilvam tree between 2 neem trees on both of its sides. It is said that Vilvam signifies Lord Shiva and one of the Neem tree represents Sri Parvathi and another Neem tree signifies Her brother Lord Vishnu. It is believed that it is like the wedding scene of Lord Shiva where Lord Vishnu presides over their marriage by joining their hands together. A Vilvam and Neem tree inside a Vaishnavite temple is a very rare sight.
- Callwords:animism, culture change, gods, hinduism, immanence, india, interfaith, magic, manifestation, signs and wonders, temple
- Locus:Temple of Great Good Fortune
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