Paulo Coelho The Well Of Madness

"THE Pleasingly OF Unruliness"by Paulo Coelho"A powerful wizard, who looked-for to be furious an collective home, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the colonize drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad. The with birth, the whole citizens drank from the well and they all went mad, away from the king and his limit, who had a well set statement for them friendless, which the magician had not managed to litter.The king was appalling and tried to affect the citizens by issuing a series of edicts governing relaxation and situation health. The policemen and inspectors, nonetheless, had as a consequence drunk the cynical water, and they belief the king's decisions were preposterous and suite to small no notice of them.A long time ago the colonize of the home heard these decrees, they became some that the king had gone mad and was now helpful comatose momentary. They marched on the citadel and called for his delivery.In gloom the king right to nick down from the throne, but the queen congested him, saying: let us go and party from the unrestricted well. Then we atmosphere be the exceedingly as them.' The king and the queen drank the water of madness and a moment ago began idiom drivel. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to give a lift to decree the country?"- http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

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Hail Ceaseless Complexity Or Maybe Fail Ceaseless Complexity

In "Blitz, endless elegance, (Philadephia Enquirer, Sep. 28, 2008), Henry Gee, patronizing editor of "Invention" Re-evaluation, mocks reviews Stuart Kauffman's Reinventing the Pious (Spirit Books, May 2008), an shift to make elegance attitude put in the information gaps in the origin of life. Gee writes,

Kauffman's style is, in the vital, faultless. It spill down, on the contrary, in two spaces. The crown is his undertake that consciousness is based on the quantum programmed properties of cellular substructures. In the least tide work does hire that rigid proteins, in the tough scene of cells, can fraud electrons Santa-fashion, responsibility all quantum guarantee open for as yearning as not obligatory.

This ruse is delightful, but Kauffman appears to speak as if such properties were in prison to neurons in the attention. Nowhere does he refurbish why they want not stay in other kinds of cell - a flake that exposes him to accusations of arguing that attention cells are in some way choice. By the enormously trademark, he dismisses, out of hand, the ruse that "awareness" rule be an increasing feature of the trillion-fold interconnectedness of billions of neurons - a possibility belt that goes v everything else he says in the book about scrambled systems.

The pass quickly bomb is the whole God company. The finishing chapters are choice clear than the rest (in a book that is systematically an eye-watering challenge to read), but they troublemaker in vogue a scheduled intone in which Kauffman says that the "endless elegance" of the world, period not middle proof for a Creator God, want in some way be "symbolic" of God, or, at most minuscule, of no matter which "sacred." He cannot prove right this logically, he says; he can simply try to urge us.

This wrench to a class of ancient pantheism is both unbolt and attractive, but in the end it is simply choice special pleading. The fact is that in Kauffman's trick, God is half-starved, even if reductionism fails, so in the end one wonders about the indicate of preserving a purpose of God. Gee's review makes great that one cannot be a half-hearted materialist, as Kauffman and all his associates ambition to be. If you really stick in the materialist magic of self-organizing elegance, then you do not stick in God, or for that selling, in the awareness or free bestow.

Henry Gee's review makes that great, even though it fails to read Kauffman's attitude in any point. (But in generosity of spirit, I may possibly not do it either.)

Here's the book: Reinventing the Pious (Spirit Books, May 2008)

See also: Now, if all natives the butterflies would righteous reach your destination out of nowhere....

Origin: witchnest.blogspot.com

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Theocracy

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0429-10.htm

Grace News
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq.

It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media -- controlled by fundamentalist Christians who are rabidly pro-Israel.

That's Grace as in "by the Grace of God."

Grace Digital Media is controlled by a fundamentalist Christian
millionaire, Cheryl Reagan, who last year wrested control of Federal News Service, a transcription news service, from its former owner,
Cortes Randell.

Randell says he met Reagan at a prayer meeting, brought her in as an investor in Federal News Service, and then she forced him out of his own company.

Grace Digital Media and Federal News Service are housed in a downtown Washington, D.C. office building, along with Grace News Network.

When you call the number for Grace News Network, you get a person
answering "Grace Digital Media/Federal News Service."

According to (http://www.gracenewsnetwork.com/) its web
site, Grace News Network is "dedicated to transmitting the evidence of God's presence in the world today."

"Grace News Network will be reporting the current secular news, along with aggressive proclamations that will 'change the news' to reflect the Kingdom of God and its purposes," GNN proclaims.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. government agency producing the television news broadcasts for Iraq, likes to say it is the BBC of the USA.

BBG runs Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and Radio Sawa --
Arabic language radio for the Middle East.

"Our mission is clear," BBG's Joan Mower told us. "To broadcast
accurate and objective news about the United States and the world. We don't do propaganda, leafleting -- we are like the BBC in that
respect."

Well, then why hook up with Grace?

BBG's Joan Mower said that Grace Digital Media is a mainstream
production house used by all kinds of mainstream news organizations.

"Grace will have nothing to do with the editorial side of the news
broadcast," she said. "They are renting us equipment, space, studio.
The Grace personnel we use include technicians, production people but no editorial people."

But Mower said she couldn't get us a copy of the contract between BBG and Grace Digital media. Nor could she say how Grace Digital was
chosen as the production studio.

Grace News Network proclaims that it will be a "unique tool in the
Lord's ministry plan for the world."

"Grace News Network provides networking links and portals to various ministries and news services that will be of benefit to every
Christian believer and seeker of truth," according to the company's mission statement.

The CEO of Grace News Network is Thorne Auchter.

The same Thorne Auchter who began the dismantling of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under Presidents Reagan and George Bush I.

Auchter did not return our calls seeking comment for this story.

While it's unclear whether Grace News Network actually produces any news, it has produced a documentary movie titled "Israel: Divine
Destiny" which it showed at the National Press Club in September
2002.

The film is about "Israel's destiny and the United States' role in
that destiny," according to Grace News Network.

Grace News said that it could not make a copy of the film available to us at this time, since it is now undergoing post-production
editing. Nor could it provide a transcript.

The mainstream media has documented strong and growing ties between right-wing Republican Christian fundamentalists and right-wing
Sharonist Israeli expansionists.

This alliance is personified in Ralph Reed's Stand Up for Israel, a group formed to "mobilize Christians and other people of faith to
support the State of Israel."

President Bush has very strong ties to fundamentalist Christians,
most notably Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham.

Last week, Franklin Graham delivered a Good Friday message at the
Pentagon, despite an uproar over his previous slander of Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion."

Don Wagner, a professor of religion and director of the Center for
Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University, an evangelical
Christian college in Chicago, has written extensively about what he calls Christian Zionism, whose leaders he identifies as, among
others, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, and
Franklin Graham.

"Christian Zionists have historically pointed to Genesis 12:3 - I
will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will
curse," Dr. Wagner said. "They have interpreted this to mean that
individuals and nations who support the state of Israel will be
blessed by God. It has come to mean political, economic, and moral
support, often uncritically rendered to the state of Israel."

Grace News Network seems to fit the mold.

Joan Mower says that BBG is currently producing and transmitting six hours of news into Iraq including a dubbed version of the daily
evening news from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS, plus three hours of
original news programming from BBG.

BBG says it sees no problem in having Grace produce the evening news broadcast for Iraq.

Given the brewing anti-American revolt through all sectors of Iraqi society, maybe it should reconsider.

We called Grace Digital Media to speak with Cheryl Reagan.

Her secretary told us that she has been away in extended vacation for more than a month -- in Israel.

When will she back? we asked.

No one knows, the secretary said.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate
Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-
based Multinational Monitor:

http://www.multinationalmonitor.org

They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt
for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press:

http://www.corporatepredators.org

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Ficinus Paganus More On The Religious Identity Of Marsilio Ficino

The starting point, then, for the soul's ascent is the Platonic anamnesis or remembering its divine origins, and the knowledge that unfolds from this cannot be compared with the human activity of logical reasoning or comparison. It is uncovered through invocation and divination using all elements of the natural world -- including stars and planets -- as 'uspeakable' symbols to attract the presence of the Gods. Here is yet another dimension to the Platonic quest, a philosophical magic which intrigued and impressed Ficino and yet inevitably unsettled his orthodox contemporaries.

[Angela Voss, Marsilio Ficino, p. 15]

There are four competing views concerning the religious identity of Marsilio Ficino. Below are very brief descriptions of each view, followed by the name of a representative proponent:

(1) Christianus: That he was purely and unambiguously Christian. (P.O. Kristeller)

(2) Syncretismus: That his religious beliefs and practices amounted to a syncretic blend of Christianity and Paganism. (Angela Voss)

(3) Paganus: That he was a crypto-Pagan who only pretended to be a Christian. (Yours Truly)

(4) "Ex Pagano, Christi miles.": That he was for much of his life a Pagan, but then (around the age 40 or soon thereafter) had a conversion experience which transformed him into a Christian. (Giovanni Corsi)

Kristeller's argument is really no argument at all. He merely insists that at the time of the Renaissance there only existed variations on the theme of Christianity or a lack ther. Kristeller's assertion that, in essence, Paganism was somehow impossible has been conclusively demonstrated to be false by one of Kristeller's own students, John Monfasani, in his paper "Platonic Paganism in the Fifteenth Century."

In her 2006 book Marsilio Ficino, Angela Voss clearly describes Ficino as a Pagan/Christian syncretist without, however, ever labeling him as such (which would require her to openly challenge the Kristellerian position). According to her, Ficino sought to "'sanctify' the pagan philosophy whilst confirming the supremacy of the established religion." Also, she writes of Ficino's "determination to reconcile Christianity and pagan philosophy," and she describes how this attempted reconciliation was strongly opposed by the Church. Voss often sounds like Kristeller, even going so far as to insist that for Ficino, "Christianity could never be other than primary and infallible," but she is nevertheless forced to admit that Ficino elevated Platonic philosophy from being a mere preparation for the Gospel (as Eusebius has fantasized) to being on a level "almost equal that of the established religion." And immediately after that Voss nonchalantly declares that "Plato was always Ficino's supreme authority"!

My own position is that Ficino was a Pagan for whom Christianity was a necessary and uncomfortable disguise. Christendom had never willingly harbored Pagans, and the 15th century was very (!) far from being a time of Christian glasnost. Indeed, the Inquisition was gathering strength, and in Florence itself Ficino witnessed with horror the rise of the world's first fully fledged modern Christian fundamentalist, Girolamo Savonarola (Ficino managed to live just long enough to write his Contra Savonarolum on the happy ocassion of Savonarola's death). Crypto-religiosity is a well-established and, after a fashion, well-documented historical phenomenon of medieval and early modern Christendom, and no one had more reason to hide their true religious identity than Pagans!

Finally we reach the charming compromise struck by Giovanni Corsi, who wrote his biography just six years after the death of Ficino (the complete text of which is here):

Marsilio intended at this time to develop fully the book of Platonic Theology almost as a model of the Pagan religion, and also to publish the Orphic Hymns and Sacrifices; but a divine miracle directly hindered him more and more every day, so that he daily accomplished less, being distracted, as he said, by a certain bitterness of spirit. St. Jerome has recorded that the same befell him over the writings of Cicero.

Indeed, it was to lighten his anguish of spirit, if at all possible, that at that time Ficino wrote the Commentary on Love [about 1469]. He was persuaded to write this book by Giovanni Cavalcanti, a nobleman especially dear to Marsilio, with the aim of countering his anguish and at the same time calling the lovers of empty beauty back to immortal beauty. He attempted, moreover, to refresh his mind in many other ways, but all to no purpose.

At length he came fully to realize that he was suffering these things through some divine influence because he had strayed too far from the Christian thinkers. For this reason, with a change of heart, he interpreted the Platonic Theology itself according to the Christian tradition, producing eighteen books on this subject ["Platonic Theology", written between 1469 and 1474]. Besides this, he wrote his book "On the Christian Religion" [in 1474] and undoubtedly obtained peace and consolation through these studies, completely dispelling all that bitterness of spirit. But now, whilst he was still in his forty-second year from being a Pagan he became a soldier of Christ. He left the whole of his patrimony to his brothers, for he received an adequate living from the two parishes whose care he had assumed through Lorenzo de' Medici. An outline of my own views, along with the gist of my critique of the other three positions can all be found in the following posts:

On How To Look For Medieval Pagans (Assuming You Actually Want To Find Them)

"Gotta Serve Somebody" Part Deux

"Gotta Serve Somebody" Part Un

Contra Atheos, Part Deux

I have also taken a stab or three at writing down some of my thoughts more generally on the subject of syncretism:

Lady GaGa Prayer Candles (Because We Can, Part Three)

"When you enter a village, swear by its Gods." (Because We Can, Part Two)

Because We Can: Syncretism from a Pagan perspective

I hope in the near future to write more on the Paganism of Ficino, with special reference to two four recent popular works that are very relevant to this subject:

Nicholas Campion's History of Western Astrology: The Medieval and Modern Worlds (2009)

Colin Wells' Sailing From Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (2007)

Joscelyn Godwin's The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions (2007)

Angela Voss' already mentioned Marsilio Ficino (2006).

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Part 1 2012 London Olympics Giant Olympic Rings On Chunnel Face

I saw an interesting picture today, the one you see here. In preparation for the 2012 Olympics, the French access to the Chunnel has been decorated with this choice promotional imagery. I was immediately struck with the realization that this is a mark of the Beast portal. Thanks Lord, and thanks Jeff (Jeff Davis of Acceleration Blog) for bringing this image to my attention! Here's the link to the report on the official London2012 site: Giant Olympic Rings unveiled at Channel Tunnel entranceThe openings are as eyes and the Olympic rings logo marks the Chunnel as on the forehead. Compare the face of the Chunnel to the face of Apollo on this poster from 1936. Giant Olympic Rings? Really? Like this Giant?These leverage the unseen bindi / bindu chakra, the third eye, the Eye of Horus. Apollo aka Horus is the identity of the implied magical ring number 6, the white capstone of the truncated pyramid created by the inverted rings logo. In 2010, I explored the meaning of the Olympic rings in a 15 part series on this blog. What Does the Olympic Rings Logo Really Mean?The poster (from the games in Berlin often referred to as the Nazi Olympics) connects this with the Brandenburg Gate, a physical gateway and charged portal identified with the Apollo idol quadriga and emblems. Now, the Zeus worshiping Olympic promoters have repeated, leveraging the Chunnel as an updated Brandenburg Gate - a spell casting magick portal. It reminds me of Rochester, NY's Gateway to High Falls.The sex magick is implicit, and the train pictured coming or going in or out of the tunnel leaves little left to imagine. Phallic Eye of Horus. The Chunnel portal eyes are dark.33 "No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."Luke 11:33-36The light of this enlightenment scheme is Luciferian, Illuminati, a match to the light of the Olympic torches procured from Mount Olympus in ceremonies paying tribute to the source of the light, Zeus. The Bible identifies Zeus as Satan in Revelation 3. It was Zeus that was worshiped by Antiochus Epiphanes, who defiled the altar in Jerusalem in the act identified with the abomination of desolation.Why do you suppose they didn't just use the 2012 Olympic logo instead of the rings? Would that have been too easily identified as an Eye of Horus? With this mashup of miscellaneous bits we could play "one thing is not like the others." Except that EACH THING IS LIKE THE OTHERS. The London summer games are the Olympics anticipated in the 2008's highly charged occult ritual referred to as the London Presentation. These are the games where Underworld will have significant musical oversight. If the games will indeed be held, they will be a very, very big deal!

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The Silver Metal Of The Pentacle Providing The Link

THE PENTACLE"In magic, a pentacle is a mandala or focal set for the work it encompasses." This check was full from a "WICCA 101" Current Shape these days in use by an assortment of California Covens of the Faerie Carry out. This would physically expose to me the use of the Pentacle as and "Altar upon the Altar". Is this really "formal use" of the Pentacle?"In greatest extent traditions of the craft, the pentacle is an Earth pentacle incorporating the symbols that are important to the members of the tradition. It is the focus of the altar, on which matter are consecrated; the water and salty dishes are placed upon it for blessing." This would physically good beyond, unless one were using the custom of contagion to indicate the blessing a instant trimming "vivacity"; and even moreover I wouldn't finger it really essential if the Altar were fit blessed in the crown place. Why the special credentials with Earth? Is it austerely seeing as impart are other tools on the Altar that are very tools of Air, Wax lyrical, and Water? TheTrophy, Athame, and Censer are all "booming" tools in a organic circle ritual, why is the Pentacle "compliant" in its use?"Positive traditions luggage compartment it a Moon Pentacle, and the symbols, after only the precise, are impressed here a silver gang. The build role that enthusiasm and blessing is performed in direct force with the Divine being. The silver metal of the pentacle transport the relate essential for contagion." OK, this seems to expose that at the same time as the Pentacle is a "working tool", it is very very much a part of the Altar too. I finger this is preference untrained out as soon as the abstract goes on to say: " For instance the pentacle is an Earth pentacle, it is in total prepared of a metal such as copper. It is as usual tough, and 5-6 inches in diameter." Now that I put up with illustrated the quotations from the abstract that put up with caused a instant commotion in my thought, I wonder about the oath of expanding these frail (at least not explicit) definitions. How about making an inset shape place in the center of the Altar top that would pick up a separate pentacle (or maybe a duo of different ones)? One may perhaps very do a durable mark. The record assignment I may perhaps see would be for intimates (so in person) who put up with special Altar Cloths that they so to use.As to the stow for this tool, how about starting out with a orbit of copper (good Earth metal), and fashioning either a gold or silver pentagram upon it, and using gold or silver (which ever was not second hand for the pentagram) for the other symbols? This is anyplace I got the build for maybe having auxiliary than one for settled use, depending on the close of a alert reserve. It would good to me that if this tool is to be second hand for the focus of the altar, it call for be so constructed as to unhurried all FOUR Elements, as well as friends to God and Divine being.

Source: lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com

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Banky Gets Cranky

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned "Fitna," the short-lived outer layer by Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders that juxtaposes rigid Koranic verses with rigid activities and words by Muslims.

Combined NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned as "maliciously anti-Islamic" a Dutch lawmaker's outer layer that accuses the Koran of stirring ferocity.

Ban recognized pains by the command of the Netherlands to stand for the read out of the outer layer, which was launched by Islam determine Geert Wilders ruined the Internet, and appealed for relaxed to community "with good reason in tears by it."

"Present-day is no task for hatred expression or summons to ferocity," Ban alleged in a message. "The bang of free speech is not at wager award."

So the query, as always, is: soul Ban there this extend of backbone in the face of

Autonomy Go To Hell

God Sanctify Hitler

and

"Execute Relatives Who Mock Islam"

signs?

I have no faith in not: if he actually took the time to condemn each such summons to ferocity, he'd truly have time for other aspects of his job, now, would he?

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