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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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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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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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- 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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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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- brass
- O.E. bræs, originally an alloy of copper and tin (now bronze), in modern use an alloy of two parts copper, one part zinc. A mystery word, with no known cognates beyond Eng. Perhaps akin to Fr. brasser "to brew," since it is an alloy. It also has been compared to O.Swed. brasa "fire," but no sure connection can be made. The meaning "effrontery, impudence" is from 1624. Slang sense of "high officials" is first recorded 1899. Brassy "debased yet pretentious" is from 1586; in the sense of "strident and artificial" it is from 1865. The brass tacks that you get down to (1897) are probably the ones used to measure cloth on the counter of a dry goods store, suggesting precision.
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The Zoroastrian concept of Asha is probably very useful in reconstructing concepts of Ma'at. | | |
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Obama and his team are word and media savvy, but conservatives who criticize the "empathy" buzzword around Sotomayor should perhaps be met with the 18th century concept of "sympathy" that was a key concept shaping the culture and debate of the US founding generation. The backdrop of that 18th century debate throws the simplicity and banality of the current level of criticism into high relief. These links would be rich places to start understanding that context: From Irresistible Compassion To Conditional Sympathy: Investigations into the 18th Century Formulations of Humanitarianism as an Emotional Reaction of Compassion
One way to approach humanitarianism is to define it in terms of emotionality. In this sense, humanitarian action can be understood to be motivated by the emotion of compassion at the sight of suffering and pain. This definition as its starting point, the paper aims to investigate the ‘roots’ of modern humanitarianism in the 18th century Europe. In this historical task few relevant themes of the 18th century humanitarian discourse will be discussed. The first part of the paper discusses the visual aspect of 18th century humanitarianism that was based on the emergence of the spectatorial perspective. The following two parts of the paper will discuss two 18th century formulations of compassion related to the emerging emphasis of visuality. The first kind of compassion could be called the ‘irresistible compassion’, and it represented the idea that compassion was a natural, reflex-like primary passion of the soul. The second formulation took the form of ‘conditional compassion’, and emphasized the role of imagination as a constitutive element of the emotion. The last part of the paper discusses some of the highlighted themes of the 18th century humanitarian discourse in contemporary context, and offers few preliminary remarks about the ways in which emotions, including compassion, could be understood and studied today.
The Limits of Sympathy: Rorty, Hume, and the Politics of Sentiment
In this paper I consider Richard Rorty that a politics of sentiment which places our ability to imaginatively identify with others as "one of us" should be at the center of the pursuit of social justice. Such ideas about sentiment and sympathy derive from mid-18th century thinkers like Hume, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. I argue that a politics rooted in our capacity for sympathetic identification, though not without certain merits, ultimately fails to provide the crucial impetus for action. The cultivation of fellow-feeling as a political program continually runs the risk of becoming a blueprint for imagining ourselves in the place of others and sharing their feelings of pain in lieu of actually doing something about it. Hume's conception of sympathy, achieved through an operation of the imagination, proves too partial to those close at hand to meet the requirements of Rorty's sense of a "larger loyalty," and the reflective process Hume proposed to "correct" this bias and to give sympathy a universal relevance can only be achieved at the cost of dulling its capacity to move us to action. Moreover, Hume, like Rousseau and Smith, fully understood that sympathy was not enough; at crucial moments they fall back on an appeal to "nature," often quite explicitly, to pick up the slack. Rather than sympathetic imagining, or putting ourselves in the place of another, I argue the ability to grant full reality to another's suffering is the operative element in acting on behalf of others. Given Rorty's anti-realism, however, the notion of "reality" as such has at best an uncertain status in his thought, raising serious doubts about the efficacy of his approach. Secondly, I underscore Rorty's neglect of the pragmatist idea that any species of concern for others must be linked to "habits of action."
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Aesop on "The Man and the Wooden God"
In the old days men used to worship stocks and stones and idols, and prayed to them to give them luck. It happened that a Man had often prayed to a wooden idol he had received from his father, but his luck never seemed to change. He prayed and he prayed, but still he remained as unlucky as ever. One day in the greatest rage he went to the Wooden God, and with one blow swept it down from its pedestal. The idol broke in two, and what did he see? An immense number of coins flying all over the place. Osho on Ramakrishna's EnlightenmentSo Totapuri said, Try this: when the image of Kali is before you pick up a sword and cut her in two. Ramakrishna said, Where will I find a sword? What Totapuri said is the same as what is said in Ashtavakra’s sutra. Totapuri said, From where did you bring this Kali image? bring a sword from the same place. She too is imaginary. She too is an embellishment of your imagination. Through nurturing it for your whole life, through continuously projecting it for your whole life, it has become crystalized. It is just imagination. Not everyone sees Kali when they close their eyes. [...] Ramakrishna found courage. He raised the sword and cut Kali in two pieces. When Kali fell apart he became nondual: the wave dissolved in the ocean, the river fell into the ocean. It is said that he stayed immersed for six days in this ultimate silence. He was neither hungry nor thirsty – there was no consciousness of the outside, no awareness. All was forgotten. And when he opened his eyes six days later, the first thing he said was, ”The last barrier has fallen! | | |
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Dea Fortuna seems to like Aesop a lot (makes sense as she's partial to former slaves). Here are four interesting ones that seem to be working on me today: The Swallow, the Serpent, and the Court of Justice
A SWALLOW, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men, built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented greatly and exclaimed: "Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all others' rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong."
The Traveller and Fortuna
A Traveller, exhausted with fatigue after a long journey, sank down at the very brink of a deep well and presently fell asleep. He was within an ace of falling in, when Dame Fortune appeared to him and touched him on the shoulder, cautioning him to move further away. "Wake up, good sir, I pray you," she said; "had you fallen into the well, the blame would have been thrown not on your own folly but on me, Fortune."
The Boy Hunting Locusts
A BOY was hunting for locusts. He had caught a goodly number, when he saw a Scorpion, and mistaking him for a locust, reached out his hand to take him. The Scorpion, showing his sting, said: If you had but touched me, my friend, you would have lost me, and all your locusts too!"
The Old Man and Death
AN OLD MAN was employed in cutting wood in the forest, and, in carrying the faggots to the city for sale one day, became very wearied with his long journey. He sat down by the wayside, and throwing down his load, besought "Death" to come. "Death" immediately appeared in answer to his summons and asked for what reason he had called him. The Old Man hurriedly replied, "That, lifting up the load, you may place it again upon my shoulders."
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... and we who [seek to?] honor the ancestors should remember this part and learn the fuller story and keep the genius alive in many locales! '34 General Strike Laid Base for Counterculture
These days, when San Franciscans of a certain age respond to the visitors' (or their grandchildren's) query, "What made San Francisco different?" they tend to think culture. Beat poets, flower power and Castro Street are instantly recognizable tropes reflecting the city's historically tolerant attitudes and liberal politics.
But these iconic San Francisco moments and movements are actually more the lucky heirs, rather than ancestors, of what is uniquely San Franciscan. Although one might argue that the city's identification with things progressive arrived with the Gold Rush, its modern incarnation took form 75 years ago in an event now fading from living memory: the great San Francisco General Strike.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/28/EDUO170IKA.DTL
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The picture to the right is Allen Ginsberg on May 1, 1965 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He's in front of the Hotel Merkur, assuming the throne of the May King at a celebration organized by the people in defiance of the communist state, which had forbidden (!) May Day celebrations for the previous 20 years.
Here's the poem that day inspired... you can hear him reading it here.
Kral Majales (I am the King of May)
Allen Ginsberg May 7, 1965
And the Communists have nothing to offer but fat cheeks and eyeglasses and
lying policemen
and the Capitalists proffer Napalm and money in green suitcases to the
Naked,
and the Communists create heavy industry but the heart is also heavy
and the beautiful engineers are all dead, the secret technicians conspire for
their own glamour
in the Future, in the Future,but now drink vodka and lament the Security Forces,
and the Capitalists drink gin and whiskey on airplanes but let the Indian brown
millions starve
and when Communist and Capitalist assholes tangle the Just man is arrested
or robbed or had his head cut off,
but noit like Kabir, and the cigarette cough of the Just man above the clouds in the bright sunshine is a salute to the health of the blue sky.
For I was arrested thrice in Prague, once for singing drunk on Narodni
street
once knocked down on the midnight pavement by a mustached agent who
screamed out BOUZERANT,
once for losing my notebooks of unusual sex politics dream opinions,
and I was sent from Havana by plane by detectives in green uniform,
and I was sent from Prague by plane by detectives in Czechoslovakian
business suits,
Cardplayers out of Cezanne, the two strange dolls that entered Joseph K's
room at more
also entered mine, and ate at my table, and examined my scribbles,
and followed me night and morn from the houses of lovers to the cafes of
Centrum--
And I am the King of May, which is the power of sexual youth,
and I am the King of May, which is industry in eloquence and action in amour,
and I am the King of May, which is long hair of Adam and the Beard of my own body
and I am the King of May, which is Kral Majales in the Czechoslovakian tongue,
and I am the King of May, which is old Human poesy, and 100,000 people chose my name,
and I am the King of May, and in a few minutes I will land at London Airport,
and I am the King of May, naturally, for I am of Slavic parentage and a Buddhist Jew
who worships the Sacred Heart of Christ the blue body of Krishna the straight back of ram
the beads of Chango the Nigerian singing Shiva Shiva in a manner which I have invented,
and the King of May is a middleeuropean honor,mine in the XX century despite space ships and the Time Machine, because I heard the voice of Blake
in a vision,
and repeat that voice. And I am the King of May that sleeps with teenagers laughing.
And I am the King of May, that I may be expelled from my
Kingdom with Honor, as of old,
To show the difference between Caesar's Kingdom and the Kingdom of the May of Man-
and I am the King of May, tho' paranoid, for the Kingdom of May is too
beautiful to last for more than a month-
and I am the King of May because I touched my finger to my forhead
saluting
a luminous heavy girl trembling hands who said "one moment Mr. Ginsberg"
before a fat young Plainclothesman stepped between our bodies-I was
going to England-
and I am the King of May, returning to see Bunhill Fields and walk on
Hampstead Heath,
and I am the King of May, in a giant jetplane touching Albion's airfield
trembling in fear
as the plane roars to a landing on the grey concrete, shakes & expels air, and rolls slowly to a stop under the clouds with part of blue heaven still
visible.
And tho' I am the King of May, the Marxists have beat me upon the street, kept me up all night in Police Station, followed me thru Springtime Prague, detained me in secret and deported me from our kingdom by airplane.
Thus I have written this poem on a jet seat in mid Heaven.
On Manifold Oneness, I've posted Ginsberg's "Independence Day Manifesto," a 1959 rallying cry for a culture of spirit. It ends with:
"When will we discover an America that will not deny its own God? Who takes up arms, money, police, and a million hands to murder the consciousness of God? Who spits in the beautiful face of poetry which sings of the glory of God and weeps in the dust of the world?"
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Not sure how to praise this; it is a lovely remembrance of a contemporary Prophet by a spiritually gifted artist, escaping through devotion the embarrassment that hounds most posthumous "collaborations" on the market. And/or, it is a beautiful expression of the spiritual relationship named "Ally."
- Callwords:allies, ancestors, art, devotion, folkart, link, music, new weird america, prophet, url, video, work
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April 6, 2009 Governor Manchin moves to delist Blair Mountain from historic register Landowners' objections may have been ignored
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Manchin administration officials moved this week to have Blair Mountain - site of the landmark 1921 coalfield labor battle - removed from the National Register of Historic Places. Randall Reid-Smith, director of the Division of Culture and History, wrote to the National Park Service to ask federal officials to take Blair Mountain off the register. The move comes a week after "the Keeper," the Park Service official who oversees the historic register, made the listing. Labor advocates, historians and environmental activists had been promoting the listing for years. Jacqueline Proctor, a spokeswoman for the Division of Culture and History, which oversees the state Historic Preservation Office, said the agency acted after a coal company lawyer raised questions about whether objections from area property owners were properly counted. "There were some that were sent directly to the Keeper, and we may not have counted them," Proctor said. Under federal rules, if a majority of property owners in an area proposed for the historic register object, that area cannot be listed. Originally, state officials counted 22 objections out of the 50 landowners in the Blair Mountain district. But after reviewing the matter, the state discovered there were actually 30 objections out of those 50 landowners, Proctor said Monday afternoon. Proctor would not immediately provide a list of the 50 landowners or of the 30 who objected. She said the state would not release them without a formal Freedom of Information Act request, which the Gazette forwarded to her Monday afternoon. Blair Gardner, a lawyer for three coal companies - Massey Energy, Arch Coal and Natural Resource Partners - raised questions about the count of landowner objections. Gardner's clients had previously objected to the historic listing, and raised questions about the way the state had drawn the map and whether the map allowed all proper parcels inside the historic district to be properly identified. Efforts to preserve Blair Mountain date back to the early 1990s, when UMW officials and environmentalists teamed up to fight strip-mining proposed by non-union Massey Energy. More recently, Massey and several land companies filed suit to stop the state historic preservation office's support for the national site designation. In 1921, armed union coal miners marched from Marmet toward Logan to confront Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin, whose deputies and specialty commissioner guards were defending non-union coal mines from UMW organizers. Federal troops and airplanes eventually stopped the march. Many of the miners and their leaders were then prosecuted for treason. The battle that developed along Spruce Fork Ridge on Blair Mountain was the largest armed labor conflict in U.S. history, a pivotal event often forgotten today. A 1991 study had identified six critical historic sites covering about 30 acres, but preservation advocates expanded their nomination to include a much larger area. Three years ago, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Blair Mountain as one of America's 11 most endangered historic sites. The most recent nomination for Blair Mountain was presented by Barbara Rassmussen, a West Virginia University historian, and Harvard Ayers, an anthropologist at Appalachian State University. Ayers discovered 10 major battle sites along the 10-mile stretch covered by the designation, including hundreds of artifacts, especially along Crooked Creek near the crest of Blair Mountain. | | |
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The full text is on the YouTube page.
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Yay! Maybe now this little bit of EVERYONE's suppressed history can be better known, as well as the reason some of us consider "Redneck" a name to bear proudly. (Please watch the video!)
Published on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Huffington Post Big Coal Defeat! Rednecks and Greens Announce Victory at Blair Mountain After 500 mountains in Appalachia have been blown to bits by mountaintop removal, one peak was most likely saved today: Blair Mountain in West Virginia, the site of the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War, was officially approved by the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places to be placed on the National Register. This is a huge victory, as the tide continues to turn in the movement to stop mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Some consider it the Bunker Hill of the labor movement. But the great battle in 1921, when thousands of union coal miners and World War I veterans donned their uniforms and took up arms to liberate and unionize the last coal camps in southwestern West Virginia held hostage to ruthless outside coal companies, has emerged as one of the great symbols of Appalachia's fate today. Over the past several years, the Friends of Blair Mountain--an organization of community and labor activists, historians and environmentalists--have led an even more epic battle to save the sacred mountain site from a plan by coal companies to strip mine and destroy Blair Mountain through mountaintop removal operations. The mountaintop removal war might soon be over. The Rednecks won. According to the National Registry Federal Program regulations: "If a property contains surface coal resources and is listed in the National Register, certain provisions of the Surface Mining and Control Act of 1977 require consideration of a property's historic values in the determination on issuance of a surface coal mining permit." "Redneck" was the name given to the progressive miners, as William Blizzard recalled in his wonderful memoir, When Miners March, as they wore red bandannas around their necks to distinguish themselves from others. As the battle raged, and even bombs dropped, President Warren Harding was forced to intervene with military troops. President Barack Obama needs to intervene against mountaintop removal today. As three million pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil are detonated daily in an assault on Appalachia today, raining toxic dust on the inhabitants and devastating watersheds as part of the brutal mountaintop removal operations, it's time for the federal government to stop this egregious violation of human rights in the mountains. Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, and a great West Virginia coal mining native, should take note of the haunting parallels in history: While over 500 mountains have been destroyed, the once strong union movement has been gutted by highly mechanized strip mining operations, and now only 500-700 United Mine Worker members are employed on mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia. Let's repeat that: There are roughly 700 UMWA members employed at mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia today. It's time for Cecil Roberts and the United Mine Workers to stand up for the mountains, the historic Appalachian communities, and the economy, and demand an end to mountaintop removal, and a return to more responsible mining. Ken Ward at the Coal Tattoo blog recently looked at Roberts and mountaintop removal: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/03/25/umwa-to-epa-lets-talk/ To learn about other endangered American mountains, see: http://www.ilovemountains.org/endangered/
Denise Giardina, the nationally acclaimed novelist from the coalfields of West Virginia, and author of the epic novel, Storming Heaven, once wrote: "In the hundred odd years since the coal industry came to this part of West Virginia, land has been taken, miners have been worked to death, streams have been polluted, piles of waste have accumulated, children have grown up in poverty. But throughout all the hardships, the hunger, the black lung disease and other illness, and the scarring of the land, the mountains have essentially remained. They were symbols of permanence, strength, hope. No more. Nothing worse can be taken from mountain people than mountains. The resulting loss is destroying the soul of the people. "The destruction of the central Appalachian Mountains robs the region of topsoil, timber, of indigenous plants, of streams, and leaves behind floods, toxic brews of sludge laced with mercury, and flattened plains of inedible grass. But worst of all is the loss of the mountain landscape, those rugged crags that lift the spirits and touch the sky. "If one mountain were to be spared, one peak to bear mute witness to the devastation that has gone on all around, it might be thought that Blair Mountain would be such a summit. Blair Mountain, after all, has been the most dramatic witness to the struggle of legions of coal miners to be free." If only William Blizzard, the author of When Miners March, were alive today to take part in this celebration. His father, Bill Blizzard, the hero of Blair Mountain, was tried and acquitted for treason. For more information, see: http://www.whenminersmarch.com/reviews.htm Filmmaker Sasha Waters did a great documentary on the importance of Blair Mountain in her film, Razing Appalachia: | | |
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 I love this image of a youthful Dea Fortuna upon a beautiful throne. Here are the details from Wikimedia Commons: English: This bronze statue of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune and luck, is believed to have been used for worship in a private home in Pompeii. The statue was on display with the A Day In Pompeii exhibit at the Discovery Place science museum.
Photo taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 in Charlotte, NC, USA.
Cropping and post-processing performed with The GIMP. | | |
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This is way back before there were nearly a billion Pentecostals in the world.
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- Callwords:ancestors, appalachia, coal, culture change, ecology, economics, links, news, politics, resistance, url, west virginia, wv
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From New York Times, Sep 23, 1939 Note how novel the tactic of sit-in is to this reporter! "Sit down" is in quotation marks in the header, then contextually defined. Note too that Father Divine was able to host an extraordinarily large interracial banquet at the same time, staffed by cooperativists whose lifestyle far surpassed that of the typical tenement dwellers. By this time, the Peace Mission was also managing its own restaurants, farms and supply chain, providing hearty and inexpensive meals and more than enough income for the cooperative to thrive. Take that, racist restauranteurs! Maybe 100 years after, it'll all sink in. - Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, economics, father divine, history, news, politics, praxis, resistance, spell, theurgy
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It pisses me off that many people I know care so much about fair-trade coffee, but brew it with electricity that comes from Appalachia's toxic coalfields. They don't seem to care much that those mines, in their own back yards, take billions every year from the earth, but leave the workers and the communities sick, impoverished and desertified. The same folks will have caniption fits if the bones of indigenous people are disturbed. Trouble is, in the circles I move in backyard causes just aren't fashionable. God and the immediate community own natural resources. No one else--the other claimants are thieves. As far as I'm concerned, the "people" who invest in, order or perform this work should be shot on sight.
Seeking protection for coalfield cemeteries
By Dianne Bady, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition co-director DELBARTON, W.Va. -- Cemeteries are yet another casualty of "cheap" coal -- another heartbreaking loss that accompanies mountaintop removal and the overture of global warming.
A committee of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition members and members of the Sierra Club are working toward the passage of a state law that will protect family cemeteries in the coalfields. Written before this legislative began, we welcome your suggestions, questions, information and involvement.
Why are we working on the issue of family cemeteries? Because as a consequence of the mad rush to blow up mountains and dump them into valleys to get the coal out as quickly as possible, family cemeteries all over the coalfields are disappearing -- and many more are now being threatened. We've heard numerous stories about people being unable to visit their family cemeteries that are now surrounded by desecrated mountains. State law requires coal companies to allow people to visit cemeteries, but mining companies are refusing to grant access. Our committee took a copy of the law to Department of Environmental Protection and State Historical Preservation Office officials. The officials say that the law does not give any state agency the authority to enforce it. Worse yet are the stories of cemeteries that no longer exist. The stories of people's pain upon finding out that their loved ones' and ancestors' bones now apparently lie at the bottom of a valley fill or are part of the "overburden" used to shore up highwalls from old mining sites. Are family remains literally part of the "reclamation" that we hear so much about? Walter Young of Mingo County tells of his vanished family cemetery: "So the coal waste impoundment up above me is being constructed each and every day now, ever since 2001, I guess. It's being built in little stages, but upon completion and when full it will be 56 acres big, and could be allowed to expand. My ancestors were buried right at the toe of (what is now) that impoundment, in a little cemetery that I thought was safe. But it wasn't. When they built the coal waste impoundment, they ran an ad in the paper and then removed the cemetery. "I called up one Memorial Day -- my great-grandmother was buried there. And I asked the coal company because the cemetery is surrounded by mining, 'What's your rules or policy on me coming up to visit that cemetery?' "And they said, 'That cemetery is no longer there.'
"I said, 'Where is it at? My ancestors were buried there.' "The boy on the phone at the mining company says, 'Well, I'll find out for you and let you know.' "So he calls back a couple days later and says, 'I'm returning your call about the cemetery.' Yeah? Right. Where's my family at? 'I'm sorry, that's the reason I called. We don't know.' "They didn't know where they moved the cemetery to! Or the people that's in the cemetery." Another Mingo County resident says, "I went to Kayford Mountain and looked at Mr. Gibson's plight. I watched them set a drill right in the middle of a family cemetery that had been there over a hundred years. I watched them drill a borehole right in the middle of it." Stories like these will continue to multiply, and more and more pieces of our Appalachian past will disappear forever, unless we do something about it. If you'd like to get involved or have information or suggestions, please call Dianne Bady at 304-360-2072. Bady is co-director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and this article first appeared in OVEC's newsletter.
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/mountainmemories/200902170759 | | |
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Several worthwhile insights in this engaging 20 minute presentation--applicable to creative artists and priest/ess(e)s... a bit near the end that's especially appropriate for aspectors!
Eat, Pray, Love" Author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius.
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...Is a pair of Lares for a new shrine set-up to Isis-Fortuna and Sky Father. I've wanted these for a while... Sacred Source used to carry them and then stopped listing them... now they're back again. For some reason I never made my own. This will also diversify ancestral representation... if you looked at my ancestor shrine, you'd think there was nothing between Britain and Africa. And I like that they're androgynous twins. And I love this lararium from Pompei. Would be nice to approximate that someday. (They also echo the forms of Gaura-Nitai and probably satisfy some deep Krishna imprint) | | |
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- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, art, crafts, culture change, folkart, music, poetry, politics, resistance
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The inestimable Odetta has flown the form.
- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, art, crafts, culture change, folkart, music, poetry, politics, resistance
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I've started a new thematic blog called " American Journey," where I'll write about American cultural studies from a free Pagan and folk history vantage. My subtitle on the banner is "a continuing journey, an ongoing revolution, a culture in the making." One of the things that I hope to sketch over time is an alternative outline of American spiritual history, and I'll rely a lot on literature and religion and folkways, and I'll feature a lot of the odder, touched folk who have moved the world. I'm sort of going to follow the syllabi I used as a college instructor, but with all the freedom and wildness I would like to have taught from. I like my banner! I'm sure I'll also be making more aesthetic adjustments at American Journey, but it's there now with a first entry on the primacy of the land. American Journey will replace Goddess of Liberty. (I haven't been especially happy with that one and haven't written there in a long time). I'll put the historical stuff on American Journey, and will continue to post any contemporary political stuff on Livejournal (though hopefully a little less than lately... though the next six weeks promise a bit ;-) I still have Manifold Oneness, which is dedicated to monist-polytheist mysticism and where I'll very soon begin a series of commentaries on the Isian Hermetic scripture, Kore Kosmou. I will be working from a polished book-length draft that still needs some more polishing, so blog-publishing them sequentially will force me to do that... American Journey is at: http://viaameruca.blogspot.com/- Callwords:allies, america, ancestors, culture change, history, links, literature, philosophy, url, words, writing
- Affect:pleased
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What a wonderful group of voices! And Rufus was so comely. I imagine Stephen Foster, the Queer "father of American songwriters," might have taken a shine to him.
- Callwords:america, ancestors, economics, history, liberty, links, music, prayer, spell, url, video, words
- Affect:prayerful
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- Callwords:allies, ancestors, egypt, hermeticism, history, interfaith, links, mythos, sufi, url, video
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General Ludd's Triumph [to the tune, "Poor Jack"]
Chant no more your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood,
His feats I but little admire
I will sing the Atchievements of General Ludd
Now the Hero of Nottinghamshire
Brave Ludd was to measures of violence unused
Till his sufferings became so severe
That at last to defend his own Interest he rous'd
And for the great work did prepare
Now by force unsubdued, and by threats undismay'd
Death itself can't his ardour repress
The presence of Armies can't make him afraid
Nor impede his career of success
Whilst the news of his conquests is spread far and near
How his Enemies take the alarm
His courage, his fortitude, strikes them with fear
For they dread his Omnipotent Arm!
The guilty may fear, but no vengeance he aims
At [the] honest man's life or Estate
His wrath is entirely confined to wide frames
And to those that old prices abate
These Engines of mischief were sentenced to die
By unanimous vote of the Trade
And Ludd who can all opposition defy
Was the grand Executioner made
And when in the work of destruction employed
He himself to no method confines
By fire and by water he gets them destroyed
For the Elements aid his designs
Whether guarded by Soldiers along the Highway
Or closely secured in the room
He shivers them up both by night and by day
And nothing can soften their doom
He may censure great Ludd's disrespect for the Laws
Who ne'er for a moment reflects
That foul Imposition alone was the cause
Which produced these unhappy effects
Let the haughty no longer the humble oppress
Then shall Ludd sheath his conquering Sword
His grievances instantly meet with redress
Then peace will be quickly restored
Let the wise and the great lend their aid and advice
Nor e'er their assistance withdraw
Till full fashioned work at the old fashioned price
Is established by Custom and Law
Then the Trade when this arduous contest is o'er
Shall raise in full splendour its head
And colting and cutting and squaring no more
Shall deprive honest workmen of bread.
But then on the other hand, I also just ordered The Cloud Walker by Edmund Cooper
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Some of the more anarchic founders of the United States thought highly of Druids (or at least of what they imagined Druids to be). Add this essay to the 18th century concept of the "never ending gospel" (from Protestantism) and then a healthy dose of the Bruno-inspired Renaissance spiritual humanism (that became Deism among Anglos) and you'll have a nice window on on the foundations of 18th century counter-cultural spiritual humanism).
Complete Religious Writings of Thomas Paine DOWNLOADABLE HERE
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Even mentions geomancy! Video and some text here: African Fractals: Ron Eglash on TED.com
"I am a mathematician, and I would like to stand on your roof." This is how Ron Eglash greeted many African families while researching the intriguing fractal patterns he noticed in villages across the continent. He talks about his work exploring the rigorous fractal math underpinning African architecture, art and even hair braiding -- and his cool math tools for students. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 16:51.) | | |
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Italy declares emergency for crumbling Pompeii site By Silvia Aloisi
Reuters Friday, July 4, 2008
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=14245755 ROME: The Italian government declared a state of emergency at the Pompeii archaeological site on Friday to try to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures from decades of neglect. A cabinet statement said it would appoint a special commissioner for Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by an eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in AD 79 and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. "To call the situation intolerable doesn't go far enough," said Culture Minister Sandro Bondi, who took office in Silvio Berlusconi's new conservative government in May. Archaeologists and art historians have long complained about the poor upkeep of Pompeii, dogged by lack of investment, mismanagement, litter and looting. Bogus tour guides, illegal parking attendants and stray dogs also plague visitors. Some 2.5 million tourists visit Pompeii each year, making it one of Italy's most popular attractions, and many have expressed shock at the site's decay. A report in daily Corriere della Sera this week said most of the 1,500 houses at the site are closed to the public, its frescoes have faded to become almost invisible and restoration work that began in 1978 has yet to be completed. The "state of emergency", which the government said would last for a year, allows for extra funds and special measures to be taken to protect the site. "Every year at least 150 square metres of fresco and plaster work are lost for lack of maintenance," Antonio Irlando, a regional councillor responsible for artistic heritage, told the newspaper. "The same goes for stones: at least 3,000 pieces every year end up disintegrating," he said. A long-running dispute between local authorities over how to look after Pompeii has only made things worse. Pompeii's superintendent Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, who will now be flanked by the government's commissioner, said he had long denounced problems at the site -- from retired guards who have not been replaced to the lack of a sewage system and poor "veterinary surveillance". Two-thirds of the 66 hectare (165 acre) town, home to some 13,000 people in the Roman era, have been uncovered since serious excavations began 260 years ago. The remaining third is still buried, but Corriere said the ground above it is being used as an illegal rubbish dump -- a result of the trash crisis in the nearby city of Naples -- and is scattered with tyres, fridges and mattresses.
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Another neglected ancestor
Whatever else he was, Emanuel Swedenborg was a Hermetic master. He's definitely a cultural ancestor of many magicians, though he's seldom looked at or mined because of his heavily Christian imagery. He also casts it in revelatory terms, though it's clear that his work included a healthy dose of shamanic phenomena and sustained between-the-worlds questing. Post-Christians like Emerson and Whitman accorded him the highest significance. Whitman thought that Swedenborg's awakening marked the emergence of individual consciousness in modern religious culture. One of the things he did was coin the term "correspondence," and his teachings on the human body mirror Hermetic, Egyptian and Vedic notions of the individual and cosmic bodies. As with Aurobindo, their theology is grounded in a sort of "great rite" and the notion that the second coming has or is transpiring as a metaphysical phenomenon. His veracity is attested, in part, by his contributions to science (as with Newton, scientific investigation led him to experience of interdimensional phenomena). Unfortunately, as with qabalistic tzimtzum, they also posit an irreparable distinction between Deity and Kosmos. There would have been no spiritualist movement in the 19th century without the prior influence of Swedenborg, and it's unlikely that things like Theosophy would have developed as they did.
Here's an interesting essay by a Swedenborgian on correspondence. It's heavily laden with mystical Christianity, but it's got a lot of insights tucked away in it and also prompts some productive oppositional trains of thought. Here are a few excerpts (the last one being an inspirational complement to the "one degree of freedom per independent mode of motion" I found as a kledon in an essay about color the other day:
The teachings of the Second Coming tell us that allegory and symbolism are nothing less than the basis of the Word of God and creation itself. The spiritual relationship between a symbol and its meaning or source is called “correspondence.” Correspondences were well-known to the people of the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches at the beginning of history, but full knowledge of them was lost after the “fall” of the Ancient Church. All that remained were distorted fragments of knowledge, in the form of idolatry, which began at that time, and in mythology, and such idioms of speech as “I see,” meaning I understand, or “Do you hear me?” meaning, are you going to obey? Or having “high” ideals or “low” motives. Now, however, the full concept of correspondences is revealed once again at the Second Coming.
[...]
There is an old philosophical puzzle: Where did God get the material from which the universe was built? Did He create the universe “ex nihilo,” “from nothing?” If so, He violated His own physical laws, such as the conservation of energy. This problem is solved, however, if God created the universe out of His own substance, making some of His infinity into finite matter, which is just what happened, according to the teachings of the Second Coming. But, if that is so, it raises a new question: If the universe originated from Divine substance, are we in some way part of God? Some religions believe that we all have a Divine “spark” in us.
[...]
There are two kinds of spiritual change: continuous degree change and discrete degree change. Changing along a continuous degree works like moving away from a light - the light appears steadily dimmer but is still the same light. In contrast, a change in discrete degree is a change to a completely separate level of existence, like a change from physical awareness to spiritual awareness. The different levels of creation are separated by discrete degree differences. Those discrete levels range from the highest, that of God Himself, down through the spiritual universe level to the physical universe level at the bottom. Each step, each degree, coming down is more finite and limited than the one above it. For instance, your body can travel through space, but not back or forward in time. Your mind, however, exists on a higher discrete degree level. It can “travel” forward in time in imagination or back into the past in memory. It can also travel in imagination to places where your body can’t go, such as a planet on the other side of the universe or to a completely imaginary place. And here's another one influenced by Swedenborg that has some interesting ideas about the human body, which also find parallel in Hermetic tradition. | | |
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I just noticed this, discretely tucked into the Online Etymology Dictionary I cite here all the time as the "voice of the ancestors":
This work is dedicated to all those who seek the old paths,
the well-worn, unpaved hill-ways;
and especially to those who honor the elder teachers;
and in particular to one priestess.
Beannachtaí Dé Brighid oraibh agus orainn
Isn't that interesting? Especially for the introduction to a mainstream reference work? Of course it works in a spiritual way for me--it's consecrated!
Perhaps amusingly, I found this poking around for a way to correct a possibly erroneous entry... I noticed that they give a 1921/Fanny Brice source for the phrase ish kabibble, when it was part of a 1913 song by Sam Lewis... (still within her time, though... Gods forbid someone should be misinformed about ish kabbible, or that I should never know the truth ;-).
BTW, the singer Merwyn Bogue, later called Ish Kabibble, was a graduate of WVU. I'm starting to think nothing's done unless you find the full-circle part...
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copperstewart's journal
