Why the Grail?

It’s a Wednesday another day of working from home. Covid has forced many such as myself to become POD people. I have barely left my house in nearly 3 years now. Like many my work place has become toxic. I am just a number to my employer and really have little value. Currently I am refusing to participate in corporate nonsense designed to make me feel happy, while I am literally bullied by management.

Given this I am still actively doing or more accurately attempting magic. Currently I am working the directions in an advanced form. Family life is as usual dreadful, largely ‘because of me.’ So there… merry xmas lmao.

So why the Grail? What is the Grail? It is a a container a VESSEL. The Idea of a Sacred Vessel of curse is very familiar. We find the BECOMING of a sacred vessel a central theme. WHO does the GREAL serve?

So, it is with much Irony I write this but there

We seek the Grail to find the Holy prize. The interior self.

To become a vessel to receive.

TO RECEIVE.

This of course then begs the question what DO WE RECEIVE?

To answer this we must first ask what we seek?

This acceptance then, makes the entire Magic of the Grail one of GIVE and RECEIVE.

This is ALL there is. This deceptively simple teaching is of course for the beginner and the advanced, as all good teachings should be.

https://sangrealttla.webador.com/

 

Reflection for March 30, 2017: The Saunders Primer for ETs, EDCs, and Climate Change

An Apocalypse is like a revalation, but it can also refer to social or natural disaster from the view that the destruction is Apoclyptic. The End of Days or End Times is generally considered an Apocalyptic event.

I have worked on the following primer for the past couple of weeks, but I have been collecting the research since 2012. My aim was to write a document that could put people on the same page as to the real dangers of Climate Change. It’s Apocalyptic….

The Saunders Primer for ET’s, EDC’s, and Climate Change

By

Tom Saunders B.A. /B.S. Certified Linguist, Activist

Climate Change as a term tends to confuse people as to what it means and entails. Some people mean Climate Change as referring to anthropogenic (man-made) climate disruption. In fact Climate Change means more than that.

To be more precise and holistic as a field of study Climate Change should be thought of as having core branches. This is like philosophy having the basic core branches of epistemology, metaphysics, and natural law. Climate change relates to the branches of change in the environments of the macro world, change in the micro world, and change in the climate of the social world.

1. Climate Changes in the Macro Environment:

The Macro world is where the sun shines, the wind blows, and the rain falls, or doesn’t in the case of drought. It is also inclusive what man has added to the natural world in terms of economic systems, logistics, and infrastructure. The macro world is where we can see and experience the wind, water, earthquakes, and weather extremes. The Macro environment is where greenhouse gases change the reflection of light on the earth and causes Global Warming.

2. Climate Changes in the Micro Environment:

The Micro environment exists in our blood streams and biology. The micro world is where microscopic changes happen to all living things. The micro world is where things like the acidity of water, radioactivity and the quality of air become what they are. We live in an environment where the same Environmental Toxins are causing the damage in all three environments. The Micro environment is where cellular and genetic damage happens.

3. Climate Changes in the Social Environment:

The social climate in populations changes much like the weather. What happens in the micro and macro environment creates a long and short term effect on what happens in a social fabric. What happens in the Micro and Macro environments have a direct influence on what disasters happen in a social field.

The Natural 50 Year Timeline for Climate Change:

The changes in all three types of climate environments of this model are on a natural fifty year timeline. This means that it takes fifty years to go from start to finish in completing the cause and effect of a natural Climate Change cycle. This means what we do in the macro or micro environments today, takes a fifty year span to complete its cause and effect in the timeline cycle.

The effects of the micro and macro climate relate to the social climate in that the social climate reacts in the timeline.  In this cycle, the macro and micro changes act like a feedback loop in tune with the social fabric. (See Feedback Loops below)

Environmental Toxins:

Environmental Toxins are man-made poisons from biological, chemical, or radioactive sources. These same poisons are responsible for both macro and micro environmental disruptions.

Endocrine Disruption Chemicals, EDC’s are a class of some of the most dangerous environmental poisons. The most dangerous of the EDC’s are dioxin compounds. Poisoning from them or radioactive poisoning, share the effect of being carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. This means these poisons reach deep into the human gene pool.

E.D.C.’s are known to cause breast and prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, thyroid diseases, and diabetes. E.DC.’s are a direct cause of chromosomal damage, infertility, (Mekong Syndrome), asthma, obesity, strokes, heart disease, chloracne, peripheral neuropathy, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, Autism, and Parkinson’s diseases., There are other less commonly known conditions from critical contamination from endocrine disruptors.

The birth defects from critical EDC contamination include missing organs, missing bones, extra limbs, enlarged hearts, and various forms of mental retardation. The most dangerous EDC’s like dioxin compounds are teratogenic, meaning monster makers. This refers to the severe birth defects these toxins are known to cause. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1306722/#tab1

One of the most common sources of EDC pollution besides from gas fracking is from most furniture containing flame retardants. Flame retardants contain the necessary ingredients to create deadly compounds in fires. This was proven by the San Francisco Fire Dept. investigation that showed fire retardants, when burned, produced dioxin and other teratogenic toxins in the gases emitted. The victims’ experience from this kind of contamination speaks to the fact that small dosages of EDC’s can create the deadly effects of critical contamination. (Source: “The Toxic Hot Seat”)

Critical Contamination from Environmental Toxins:

Critical contamination is that point when exposure to a biological, chemical, or radioactive Environmental Toxin causes definable medical damage.

I use the term because measurements for radioactivity and EDC contamination are complex and different. This is in spite of the fact that they both cause very similar destructive medical and genetic scenarios. They cause all the maladies I have mentioned above. They can be classified in three categories as carcinogens, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Radioactivity and the worst EDC’s are all three at once.

1. Carcinogenic: Likely to cause one or more types of cancer.

2. Mutagenic: Likely to cause a mutation in your DNA

3. Teratogenic: Likely to pass on mutation and defects to a fetus. These defects are known to increase in severity from one generation to another.

Greenhouse Gases, Air Pollution, and Global Warming:

Greenhouse Gases are Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, and Particulates. As the man-made production of these gases increase or decrease in the atmosphere, the reflection of the sun on the earth alters the surface temperature. Global warming is caused by the increase of gas, thus causing the increase in heat.

All four types of greenhouse gases are emitted from gas fracking wells. A recent medical study shows closer proximity to fracking cites are thought to intensify critical contamination.

Dr. Panettieri, R.A. quoted from his medical study: “People who live near fracking sites suffer higher rates of heart conditions and a neurological illness says research.” The Independent (UK).” http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/people-who-live-near-fracking-sites-suffer-higher-rates-of-heart-conditions-and-neurological-illnesses-says-research-10391339.html

The emission of high pressure gases from fracking wells carry particles of various materials to the surface and into the air. These particles fall to earth at some point when the greenhouse gases rise up into the atmosphere. It makes sense that the highest concentration of these particles would be closer to the discharge sites.

I would suggest that Dr. Panettieri’s study shows living in proximity well sites are likely to cause critical contamination. This is due to higher concentration of toxins in the air, on the ground and in the water.  I recall reading an estimation that one in twenty people now live near fracking operations.  Fracking went global in 2006.

Recent Studies Showing Environmental Toxin and EDC Contamination:

A study headed by Dr. Susan Nagel of the University of Missouri confirms the presence of EDC’s at well cites and even EDC pollution from these wells in the Colorado River. The study tested for Estrogen and Androgen receptor levels. Her work confirms EDC pollution from fracking and supports a lot of the information available from TEDX. Her study was before the Animas river spill that turned the waters orange. http://endo.endojournals.org/content/early/2013/12/16/en.2013-1697.abstract

Dr. Zak Hildenbrand of the University of Texas with his team of scientists recently tested 550 drinking water wells in the same area as the 20,000 fracking wells over the North Texas Barnett Shale Region. The U.T. study revealed high pollution levels of benzenes, hydrochlorides, and other Environmental Toxins. This 5000 sq. mile area covers 17 counties from below Dallas up to the Red River. https://www.earthworksaction.org/files/pubsothers/ACSA_Comprehensive_Analysis_of_Groundwater_Quality_in_the_Barnett_Shale_Region.pdf

A Pennsylvania state DEP investigation of the Clyde Mine in Pennsylvania, at 10 Mile Creek revealed serious pollution from radioactive materials including the EDC’s known to be in fracking wastewater.

Tests of the mine’s water samples being polluted by the illegal dumping of Fracking waste, showed contamination from radium 226 and 228. The results showed 65 times the radium levels that the EPA considers safe for drinking water. Fracking EDC’s are bad, but radioactive EDC’s have to be considered even much worse dangers.

An Estimation of EDC Pollution from Fracking in Denton Texas:

The Hildenbrand study in North Texas provides some perimeters for figuring out the amount of pollution the 20,000 wells might produce. In a previous model I called the “Dallas Model” I used 14,500 wells against the 2006 population of Dallas County. This was to provide the figures needed to determine how much of the Environmental Toxins were being emitted into the environment per person…

The outcome of my first estimation was around 75 lbs. per person. This was based upon a figure of 60,000 lbs. of fracking compound per well. The compounds are mixed with as much as 7 million gallons of water per well. Less than half of that mixture is recovered, the amount of water per well can vary.

The 20,000 wells in the North Texas study used an estimated 60,000 lbs. of fracking compound per well which equals, 1,200,000,000 lbs. If we estimate that an average of 5 million gallons of water was used per well, the fracking compounds were mixed with an estimated 100,000,000,000 gallons of water. We can assume around half of this mixture was recovered from the 5000 square/cubic miles, and this leaves the other half of this dangerous mixture still in the environment.

Using the above model we can determine that 240,000 lbs. of fracking compound has been used for every square mile of the 17 counties of the Barnett Shale Region. Some areas are more productive than others and this means some areas are more polluted than others. Population levels in the region vary.

For this example of Denton as a contaminated population I am using 60,000 lbs. of compounds per well. I am using an average of 5 million gallons of water per well. Denton Texas claims a population of 113,383, and on record, 280 wells from gas inspection records. The actual number of wells may vary due to non-regulated cites. So, 280 wells x 60,000 lbs. per well, equals 16,800,000 lbs. of fracking compounds, the total of which is dumped into the Denton environment with approximately 1,400,000,000 gallons of water. 16,800,000 divided by 113,383 people equals over 148 lbs. of fracking compounds per person.

A Department of Defense study suggested that during the Viet Nam era we dumped 15 lbs. of Agent Orange per person. People in Viet Nam are still being poisoned from this original contamination during the war. The teratogenic effect of this poisoning has become apparent in the number of deformities seen in the population.

A Nationwide Water Analysis of Environmental Toxins:

 A study just completed by the U.S. Geological Survey found that insecticides known as neonicotinoids contaminated almost half of the samples taken in the nationwide study. Among the chemicals found in water contaminated by pesticides indicated the following:  Imidicloprid was found in 37 percent of the samples in the national study, clothianidin in 24 percent, thiamethoxam in 21 percent, dinotefuran in 13 percent. Neonocptomoids are mild neurotoxins.

Other commonly found insecticides polluting the environment are Acephate, Chlorpyrifos, Carbaryl, Metam Sodium, Malathion, and Trichlorfon. All of these insecticides are all teratogenic EDC’s.  http://www.ktvz.com/news/Insecticide-found-in-half-of-sampled-U-S-streams/34779418

There are as many herbicides just as dangerous. Glyphosate (Roundup), Atrazine, Dicamba, Motolachlor, Pendimethalin and Trifluralin are among the most common teratogenic herbicide polluters. http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn/factsheets/30health.pdf

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate, and other perfluoroalkyl acids have been detected in drinking water in 94 public water systems in 27 states, effecting over 6.5 million people in regard to immunotoxicity. These chemicals are phased out of use in the U.S. but persist in the environment. They have been linked to thyroid conditions. They were once used for fire retardants and to make Teflon. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/32090-65-million-americans-drink-water-contaminated-with-the-chemical-used-to-make-non-stick-pans

Environmental Toxins from Fracking Compounds:

One air quality study in Pennsylvania measured emissions of BTEX coming from a test of a well and reported…

“The tests detected chemicals that, according to Bamberger, “[read] like an environmentalist’s worst nightmare: BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, m-xylene, p-xylene, and o-xylene); carbon tetrachloride; chloromethane; methylene chloride; tetrachloroethylene; trichlorofluromethane; I, I, 2-trichloro-I, 2, 2-trifluoroethane; and I,2,4-trimethylbenzene.” These chemicals, the authors observe, impact the neurological and respiratory systems and can be toxic to blood cells. http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/26414-living-death-the-real-costs-of-fracking

“Among the cancer-causing and environmental toxins mixed into fracking fluid are acrylamide, benzene, naphthalene, ethyl-benzene, toluene, and xylene. In addition, the deep-earth contaminants brought to the surface in wastewater include arsenic, lead, chromium, barium, and strontium (plus radium-226 and other radioactive materials). A 2011 scientific analysis of 632 chemicals used in natural gas operations found that 25 percent can cause cancer; 37 percent can disrupt the endocrine system; more than 40 percent can affect the brain (as well as nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems); and more than 75 percent can impair the eyes, intestines, and respiratory system.”

http://www.cqs.com/epa/exposure/part1_v1.htm

Climate Change and Feedback Loops:

Feedback Loops are part of the observable science in the cause and effect of disruptive Climate Change. A feedback loop occurs when the outputs of a system are re-routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop.

Most people have heard electric feedback from speakers and microphones, and this is what is meant as a type of feedback event seen in all three types of Climate Change. In fact the micro and macro world are in a direct behavioral feedback loop with what happens to the Social Climate.

The teratogenic effects of EDC contamination of mass populations like Denton are in a feedback loop to the genetic population at large, and this has the potential to critically contaminate the entire human gene pool.

Feedback Loops being studied in the macro world speak to the cause and effects of weather disruption, and observable events like severe drought, storms, floods, and ice-caps melting. Understanding feedback loops can help explain how micro and macro environmental changes escalate.

An example of a positive feedback loop is when fire can escalate until it produces its own wind. At some point the masses will reach a degree of critical contamination in the human gene pool to create feedback loops and this may be deadly to the preservation of humanity.

Mass Contamination and Overpopulation:

Predictions are that the human population of the earth could grow from seven plus billion in 2000 A.D. to as high as eleven billion during the next three 50 year Climate Change cycles.

Overpopulation remains one of the most critical contributors to Climate Change.  The more people there are, the higher the degree of man-made pollution there is. The world’s social climate on keeping fossil fuels as an energy source does not appear to be dissipating.

Sometime in the current Climate Change timeline, probably sooner than later, the effect of Environmental Toxins and critical contamination on the human gene pool will become more obvious. This is when mass critical contamination comes from not only direct exposure to toxins, but from genetic transmission from parents. There are reasons to believe this is already happening and increasing.

Autism rates have increased at an alarming rate worldwide. Autism rates in Europe have remained virtually the same for the last decade, but in the U.S. they have risen from 1:10,000 in 1981 to 1:88 in 2012, to 1:68 in 2014. “Many studies point to the prevalence of toxins in our environment as the culprit.” (Dr Brian Moench) http://truth-out.org/news/item/23267-autism-nation-americas-chemical-brain-drain

Thyroid diseases and cancers are also on the rise, as are other maladies associated with the seven glands of the endocrine system. Every medical condition described above associated with Agent Orange and Gas Fracking operations are due to EDC and/or other Environmental Toxic exposure.

Some people like in Denton Texas mentioned above have been heavily exposed to fracking toxins for over fifteen years in the first Climate Change cycle. (2000-2050) I think the critical contamination of the entire population of Denton is likely. It is possible to find out.

“During 1986, CDC’s Division of Environmental Health Laboratory Sciences, Center for Environmental Health, developed a method for measuring TCDD (dioxin) in human serum. The measurement, which is based on lipid weight, is highly correlated with paired measurements of TCDD in adipose (fat) tissue.” (CDC)

This test shows elevated TCDD levels and could be used to survey a population like Denton. However, if the environmental toxic levels are high enough to cause critical contamination from exposure, symptoms are going to show up and increase in the population. This is when Critical Contamination really becomes obvious.

I am an Agent Orange victim with multiple medical symptoms. I was exposed to Agent Orange and critically contaminated in 1969. I have both heart disease, neurological damage, and others. There is little doubt that I have the teratogenic chromosomal damage associated with EDC contamination. If I am correct about Denton, they too must take social responsibility for being contaminated.

I know the social pressure and social responsibility of having to practice birth control, rather than pass on a teratogenic condition. Those critically exposed to EDC’s should consider they have sexual responsibility, a condition like an STD. It is a condition that ruins the normal chance for a person’s genetic legacy.

Summary:

Most Climate Change writers and researchers concentrate on the possible social consequences of the disruptions mostly in the macro and social world. They do not include the consequences from the destruction of the micro world. This has to change for the understanding of Climate Change to be a holistic field of study.

………….

Climate Change Update: 7/6/2015

By

Tom Saunders

In prior posts I have written about the Pope’s excellent understanding of Climate Change reflected in his recent Encyclical. I have also mentioned that there is a fine point in understanding disruptions in both the environments of the macro and micro world. Climate Change is also about what happens in our micro ecosystems and biology and not just about extreme weather.

In our micro environment, our gene pool, a certain doomsday scenario looms affecting man’s genetic makeup. This is due to mass contaminations, particularly in areas were gas fracking and other exposure has critically contaminated populations with Endocrine Disruption Chemicals, EDC’s.

In a joint project several Universities in Texas undertook a comprehensive study of ground water in the North Texas area of the Barnett Shale region. The study was led by Dr. Zak Hildenbrand of the University of Texas, and others from Tarleton and Houston. http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/pubs-others/ACSA_Comprehensive_Analysis_of_Groundwater_Quality_in_the_Barnett_Shale_Region.pdf

The analysis makes it clear that BTEX compounds and hydrochlorides are present in the 550 North Texas groundwater samples collected by the group composed of sixteen Texas University scientists.

BTEX is an acronym that stands for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes. A report from a recent Univ. of Texas comprehensive groundwater analysis of the Dallas area makes it clear that benzenes and hydrochlorides are being used in the fracking process. These chemicals can mix to form Agent Orange or dioxin compounds as bi-products. This dangerous contamination is something I have warned about to every major politician in Oklahoma, and the Mayor of Dallas.

I spoke with Dr. Hildenbrand on July 3rd, and we discussed his findings and he later read some of my work. He wrote it was “compelling and well written.” I was grateful for the compliment, and I hope to acquire more information for future articles.

Dr. Hildenbrand mentioned his study did not specifically test for dioxin compounds. According to what Dr. Hildenbrand said, there were unknown chemicals detected by his research team that were not targeted by the study. He also explained to me how waste water and materials can be radioactive when retrieved. I mentioned that EDC’s are bad enough, but radioactive EDC’s are even worse.

I mentioned to Dr. Hildenbrand that a Dr. Nagle of the University of Missouri recently did a study that showed EDC contamination at well cites and even the Colorado River. The heat and the pressure of the fracking process seems a scientifically perfect environment to form dioxin compounds from the benzenes and hydrochlorides used in the injection process.

Exact information is difficult to get as the fracking companies are not regulated, and not required to disclose all of the ingredients used in mixing fracking compounds. It will take more formal studies to calculate how many people are being affected by EDC contamination. I suspect it is massive. http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/31130-secrecy-over-fracking-chemicals-clouds-environmental-risks-advocates-say

Dioxin compounds are the most dangerous of the EDC’s and like radioactive poisoning it causes mutagenic damage to human and animal DNA. This effects the victim in other ways but the chromosomal damage is teratogenic, which means a mother’s defects are passed on to the fetus. Other EDC’s like benzenes are known carcinogens but may not be teratogenic, unless the fracking waste mixture you are exposed to happens to be radioactive.

The cause and effects of EDC’s on a population has been done to some extent in Viet Nam, and by the Agent Orange Registry, who track Veterans exposed in the Viet Nam era to EDC’s. I myself am one of these veterans, with multiple symptoms from exposure. The two types of exposed American Veteran, and the Mekong population shows a picture of what mass critical exposure does to a population.

It does not take much exposure to these poisons to be critically contaminated by EDC’s. Some people get sick right away, others have symptoms show up later, up to twenty years. People who are critically exposed should not have children as it is almost certain any fetus would have, sometimes multiple birth defects. The defects are known to get worse from one generation to the next. This genetic flaw has been shown in Viet Nam where it is called Mekong Syndrome.

A Department of Defense study calculated that during the Viet Nam War, we dumped around 15 lbs. per person into the environment. People in the Mekong region of Viet Nam are still being contaminated. My estimation showed that in the Dallas area, the poundage for EDC’s was around 75, per person. I am hoping further studies will show more accurate figures.

My estimation is based upon a 2006 population, and 14,500 wells from an estimation I used from the documentary, “Gasland.” Dr. Hildenbrand mentioned 20,000 wells in the Barnett Shale Region. the amount of water used in the fracking process varies but it can take up to 7 million gallons. Around 60,000 pounds of fracking compounds are used for each well. There are over a thousand possible ingredients for fracking compounds according to a recent EPA study, and many are known carcinogens. (TEDX The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc.)

I live a few miles north of the Barnett region in Oklahoma, known as “Texoma.” The northern border of the 5000 square mile Barnett Shale Region stops at the Red River, and extends above Dallas. Both Texas and Oklahoma have multiple wells in the area and have similar problems. The Texas and Oklahoma state governments have tried to prevent people from taking action against fracking.

The Oklahoma Supreme court has recently ruled that those citizens hurt by earthquakes can litigate against the energy or drilling companies. Otherwise, the state Corporation Commissioner is responsible for the safety and operation of wells. People have been hurt…

“Homes have been rattled and damaged to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, and worrying regulators is the stark fact that some of last month’s earthquakes stretched beyond rural oilfield areas and into Oklahoma City.” (Urry, Environews)

Relative to Climate Change the North Texas and Oklahoma border has just endured its worst flash flooding in the history of the region. This is after a long drought. These are some of the macro effects in the environment related to Climate Change. There is more to worry about concerning the micro environment and EDC’s because the use of chemicals that can produce dioxin compounds are massive and found almost anywhere in this environment. Any padding or material in our furniture is likely treated with benzenes and hydrochloride compounds being used as fire retardant.

The documentary “The Toxic Hot Seat” reveals the high level of exposure to dioxin compounds by firemen when these treated materials burn. Firemen were being critically contaminated from just smoke. This information was revealed when San Francisco firemen had an unusually high amount of sick people, critically contaminated by EDC’s. Their symptoms were the same as other Agent Orange victims.

EDC’s are known to cause breast and prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diabetes, and other cancers and destructive medical conditions. EDC critical exposure causes chromosomal damage and infertility, as well as birth defects like Autism. Exposure causes conditions of, asthma, obesity, strokes, heart disease, chloracne, peripheral neuropathy, Alzheimer’s, “Mekong Syndrome,” and Parkinson’s diseases. Birth defects include missing organs, missing bones, enlarged hearts, deformities of all sorts, including various forms of mental retardation.

EDC’s do not act like other poisons in regard to being lethal. They kill some quickly after exposure, or it can take a long time for any symptoms to show up. Critical contamination is when exposure to EDC’s causes any or several symptoms mentioned above. More or higher exposure to EDC’s may not effect the victim like a higher dosages of arsenic.

The science of micro and macro effects of Climate Change are on a fifty year timeline. This timeline shows the effects of what was done since 2000 and according to this natural law timeline, will not be fully realized until around 2050. But then another 50 year cycle will begin. Things will not get better unless drastic changes are done today.

The effects of EDC’s on the world population will become more apparent when the maladies mentioned above increase and escalate on a more massive scale than they have. This is likely to lower the world populations. This damage to the human gene pool should become apparent, if not now, it will be when nobody can have a normal child. I base this prediction just on the serious increase of autistic children born since 1980.

Autism rates in the United States have risen from 1 in 10,000 in 1981, to 1 in 68 in 2014. In 2012, the rate was 1 in 88. This means Autism is in an escalation phase in the gene pool and is headed to being likely in any pregnancy. Autism is only one malady known to be related in Mekong Syndrome, and it is not the only ECD related symptom to be on the rise. Critical contamination can show up as multiple maladies. People react differently to critical exposure, and that time of proof for most victims of critical contamination is usually when the symptoms start to show up.

Because Climate Change is logged unto a 50 year cycle, what we do now as precautions has to be carried out through the next cycles. It is too late to reverse the damage done since 2000, all we can do is record what happens now and in the future cycles. I myself am 67, and in poor health, so I am not anticipating seeing the 2050 start to the next cycle. Most of the people responsible for the mass contamination of EDC’s are around my age. We will likely be dead before it is known the scale of damage from Environmental Toxins by the end of the 2000-2050 cycle.

Climate Change has an aspect or branch, as a field of study, that relates to the stress of man’s social environments and economies. One of the realities of mass population contamination in the ecosystems from EDC’s will be shifts in the availability of food, fuel, and safe water supplies. The question of overpopulation is cause for concern in regard to man’s future survival.

The more people in the world means more use of Environmental Toxins, and more pollution, as well as more stress on the socio-economic networks to provide essential needs. To survive some populations will have to make critical social changes.

Mass EDC contamination is going to change the way people need to look at family planning and contraception by the end of the 2000-2050 cycle. By then people may see the effects of EDC poisoning in Dallas and other heavily contaminated areas to an extent seen in Viet Nam along the Mekong River.

I have to speak from my own experience as an Agent Orange victim as to the dangers of being exposed to dioxin and other dangerous Environmental Toxins. I have had neurological and muscle damage, five heart attacks, two quadruple surgeries, and a stent inserted into vessels above my heart. These are long growing conditions since I first knew I was contaminated in the 80’s.

“Where there is smoke there is fire,” and where there are benzenes and hydrochlorides being used in a process like fracking there is likely to be dioxin compounds. Formal studies like those done by Dr. Hildenbrand need to be done to test the Dallas model for specific EDC’s.

 

Reflection for March 29, 2017: The Instructor Gospel

The Instructor Gospel

By

Tom Saunders

The “Instructor Gospel” is a set of sayings from the “Gospel of Thomas” that combine to form what Jesus said in terms of what we should do. There is a divide in religion over the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The Christian movement sought…“a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” (II Corinthians 3:6.)

Jesus said to Mariamne, “Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.” (“Gospel of Mary”)

The specific criteria of the sayings below is that each contains at least one specific instruction from Jesus to do something…

Gospel of Instruction

1. (L-2.) Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.”

2. (L-5) Jesus said, “Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.”

3. (L-6) His disciples questioned him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?”

Jesus said, “Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered.”

4. (L-12) The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?”

Jesus said to them, “Wherever you are, you are to go to James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”

5. (L-14) Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth – it is that which will defile you.”

6. (L-15) Jesus said, “When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. That one is your father.”

7. (L-22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.”

They said to him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?”

Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.”

8. (L-24) His disciples said to him, “Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.” He said to them, “Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.”

9. (L-25) Jesus said, “Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye.”

10. (L-27) <Jesus said,> “If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the father.”

11. (L-33) Jesus said, “Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light.”

12. (L-36) Jesus said, “Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear.”

13. (L-37) His disciples said, “When will you become revealed to us and when shall we see you?”

Jesus said, “When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments and place them under your feet like little children and tread on them, then will you see the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid”

14. (L-42) Jesus said, “Become passers-by.”

15. (L-50) Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’, say to them, ‘We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.’ If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’, say, ‘We are its children, we are the elect of the living father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your father in you?’, say to them, ‘It is movement and repose.'”

16. (L-59) Jesus said, “Take heed of the living one while you are alive, lest you die and seek to see him and be unable to do so.”

17. (L-60) <They saw> a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples, “That man is round about the lamb.”

They said to him, “So that he may kill it and eat it.”

He said to them, “While it is alive, he will not eat it, but only when he has killed it and it has become a corpse.”

They said to him, “He cannot do so otherwise.”

He said to them, “You too, look for a place for yourself within repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten.”

18. (L-62) Jesus said, “It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries. Do not let your left (hand) know what your right (hand) is doing.”

19. (L-63) Jesus said, “There was a rich man who had much money. He said, ‘I shall put my money to use so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouse with produce, with the result that I shall lack nothing.’ Such were his intentions, but that same night he died. Let him who has ears hear.”

20. (L-65) He said, “There was a good man who owned a vineyard. He leased it to tenant farmers so that they might work it and he might collect the produce from them. He sent his servant so that the tenants might give him the produce of the vineyard. They seized his servant and beat him, all but killing him. The servant went back and told his master. The master said, ‘Perhaps he did not recognize them.’ He sent another servant. The tenants beat this one as well. Then the owner sent his son and said, ‘Perhaps they will show respect to my son.’ Because the tenants knew that it was he who was the heir to the vineyard, they seized him and killed him. Let him who has ears hear.”

21. (L-66) Jesus said, “Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone.”

22. (L-73) Jesus said, “The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Beseech the Lord, therefore, to send out laborers to the harvest.”

23. (L-77) Jesus said, “It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”

24. (L-81) Jesus said, “Let him who has grown rich be king, and let him who possesses power renounce it.”

25. (L-88) Jesus said, “The angels and the prophets will come to you and give to you those things you (already) have. And you too, give them those things which you have, and say to yourselves, ‘When will they come and take what is theirs?'”

26. (L-90) Jesus said, “Come unto me, for my yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find repose for yourselves.”

27. (L-92) Jesus said, “Seek and you will find. Yet, what you asked me about in former times and which I did not tell you then, now I do desire to tell, but you do not inquire after it.”

28. (L-93) <Jesus said,> “Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they […] it […].”

29. (L-95) Jesus said, “If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to one from whom you will not get it back.”

30.(L-100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.”

He said to them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine.”

31. (L-106) Jesus said, “When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away.”

32. (L-110) Jesus said, “Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world.”

 

Day 212

The spiritual vacuuming that is my life, currently unborn children, helping young people on their late 20s… a place of worship is always difficult. Other people around me of course are aware of my spirituality, some approve, others don’t, others just find it weird.

As I become and am a Unitarian Universalist, I find hard to balance a head in the clouds versus the reality of UU ism. While my very thoughts and maps of belief and reality are fully colored by spiritual walking, this is difficult for others. At our church we have a discussion groups. I realize, I do find it difficult to not sound patronizing or to simply utter something that blows everyone’s minds (if I say anything at all…..which is more often the case, that I remain silent). This group has been going on decades before I joined, yet in that time, mysticism or more accurately, direct spiritual insight has not been discussed, or barely….

I remember my days as a depressed agnostic teen, overcome with the loss of my mother, I fell into the pit of Nihilism. This bleak self defeating world view and others similar to it…absurdism and other existentialist nightmarish world views. I remember years later, wanting, tasting, to cross the veil. To experience the inner planes. I did so, eventually in downtown Manhattan, NY.

Though as I have to remind myself

GNOSIS is for everyone, when they are ready, everyone is where they are meant to be…..

I guess this is one reason why I never really joined a church before, my interests were different to feeding the poor, protesting local government about bad public transport or any other social action activities; none of which are wrong…. just not my main focus… and I think that’s the problem…..when I perceive social action etc. being the main focus over actual mystical experience…….I guess, I imagined UUism would give me both. So far, it hasn’t.

I must get over myself… stop being a bung hole, realize that spirituality is, a lonely pursuit. Get a grip, work on myself, my failings…. help me to not see others as stupid, which is difficult as I do NOT view myself as advanced or anything approaching that term. I wonder how many struggle with this?

Though, I don’t see this as ever being resolved in our UU church, people are either atheists, humanists, damaged from fundamentalism or……. Having spoken to a church regulars husband at a dinner party, I am kind of coming to the sad conclusion he made in his refusal to attend reguarly because “not enough people were on a quest.”

Of course it doesn’t help that i’m an introvert and like to sound a person out before I share….. I mean, for inner walkers, how would conveying spiritual experiences go, to non walkers? Like discussing sex with a virgin?

Well that’s more rant, had to say it…. meaningless drivel. I wonder what if anyone else reading this attends a church which makes you smile……but leaves you wanting? Why is belief so scary? Why is praxis so scary? Who knows……probably it’s just me and no one could give a monkeys about discussing various cosmological variations…. why do UUs find beliefs so scary?

……..

Thou hast sworn unto Thy servants, for Thou alone

art He who changest not, Thou alone art the Infinite

and Boundless One. Thou only art unengendered,

born of Thyself, Self-Father, Thou only art immaterial

and hast no stain, ineffable in Thy generation and

inconceivable in Thy manifestation. Hear us, then,

O Father Incorruptible, Father Immortal, God of

Hidden Beings, sole Light and Life, Alone beyond

Vision, only Unspeakable, only Unstainable, only

[Foundation] stone of Adamant, sole Primal Being,

for before Thee was nothing.

–Bruce Codex

The Gnosis Of The Light: A Translation Of The Untitled Apocalypse Contained In Codex Brucianus (Ibis Western Mystery Tradition)

Deep: (Bythos) The term ‘deep,’ refers to the concept of parent or parents. The term is used in the ”Untitled Text of the Bruce Codex.” This is from Irenaeus, ”Adversus Heraeses 1.8.5.” ” Ptolemy interpreted the prologue of John’s gospel (Jn 1:1-14) “Parent” is usually called “Father” or “the Deep.” “Loveliness” is usually called “Silence.” Tertullian, uses the term ‘depth.’ The term can refer to the levels of the abyss….”let the deep open and swallow these men: yea, Sabaoth.” (Acts of Philip.)

Garment: (Vesture) Meaning clothing, but in Gnostic terms can mean the flesh covering the body. Sometimes used in various references to wearing the soul or the idea of social position as a philosophical covering. From the Un-named text in the Bruce Codex: “This is Man, begotten of mind (nous) ‘, to whom thought gave form. It is thou who hast given all things to Man. And he has worn them like garment.”

”Chelkeach, who is my garment, who has come from the Astonishment, who was in the cloud of the Hymen which appeared, as a trimorphic cloud. Ane Chelkea is my garment which has two forms, he who was in the cloud of Silence. And Chelke is my garment which was given him from every region; it was given him in a single form from the greatness, he who was in the cloud of the middle region and the star of the Light which surpassed the thought and teh tetimony of those who bear witness.” (”The Paraphrase of Shem.”)

 

DAY 215

In alchemic and Hermetic traditions, suns () are employed to symbolize a variety of concepts, much like the sun in astrology. Suns can correspond to gold, citrinitas, generative masculine principles, imagery of ‘the king’ or Apollo, the fiery spirit or sulfur,^[1] the divine spark in man,^[2] nobility, or incorruptibility. Recurring images of specific solar motifs can be found in the form of a “Dark” or “Black Sun”, or a green lion devouring a sun.

Sol niger

The black sun as pictured in the Putrifaction emblem of Philosophia Reformata (Johann Daniel Mylius).

Sol niger (black sun) can refer to the first stage of the alchemical magnum opus, the nigredo (blackening). In a text ascribed to Marsilio Ficino three suns are described: black, white, and red, corresponding to the three most used alchemical color stages. Of the sol niger he writes:

The body must be dissolved in the subtlest middle air: The body is also dissolved by its own heat and humidity; where the soul, the middle nature holds the principality in the colour of blackness all in the glass: which blackness of Nature the ancient Philosophers called the crows head, or the black sun.^[3]

The black sun is used to illuminate the dissolution of the body, a blackening of matter, or putrefaction in Splendor Solis,^[4] and Johann Daniel Mylius’s Philosophia Reformata.^[5]

At the core of this was a vision of an alchemical process occurring through a cycle of colour changes, from an initial blackness to the perfection of the quintessence.
The alchemist envisaged each stage of the process being heralded by a colour change and a meeting with certain animals.

Blackening – Black Crow, Raven, Toad, Massa Confusa.
Whitening – White Swan, White Eagle, skeleton.
Greening – Green Lion.
Rapid cycling through iridescent colours – Peacock’s Tail.
White Stone – Unicorn.
Reddening – Pelican feeding young with its own blood, cockerel.
Final transmutation – Phoenix reborn from the fire.

The phase of Blackening which usually marked the beginning of the work, was brought about either by heating the prima materia in the process of Calcination (the ‘dry way’ of the alchemists), or by the process of Putrefaction, a slow rotting or digestion over a period of weeks or months (the so-called ‘wet way’). The Black Crow or Raven was often associated with this Calcination, for on vigorous heating the calcined material would usually carbonise and layers would flake off and move like a crow’s wings in the flask. The Toad was a better symbol of the Putrefaction, the decaying mass slowly pulsating and shifting as gasses were given off, while the substance rotted down to a black mass. Another symbol of this stage was the dragon, a familiar inhabitant of the alchemists flasks. The dragon is however a more complex symbol and is also used when winged as a symbol for the spiritualising of the earthly substance. Thus to the alchemists the dragon appeared at the beginning and at the end of the work.

The alchemists paralleled these experiences in their souls as a withdrawal into the darkness of their interior space, a darkness pregnant with possibility. We have to a great extent lost the sense that still lived in the medieval and renaissance alchemists, that this darkness contained all potentialities. Like children we fear the dark, and for twentieth century humanity darkness often holds only an existential dread – philosophers of science have in the last decade brought us this terrible image of the ‘Black Hole’ which swallows up and annihilates everything that comes into its orbit. Perhaps we do not gaze enough at the blackness of the heavens. For if we look deep into the blackness of space on a clear night, we will sense more stars hidden between the known visible stars, especially in the vast star fields of the Milky Way. Cosmic space is pregnant with the possibility of other worlds as yet unseen. It is this image of blackness we must try to recover if we are to become alchemists. An echo of this perhaps remains in the often used phrase “a profound darkness”. In alchemy, to meet with the black crow is a good omen. Thus in the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, as our hero sets out on his journey of transformation, he meets with a Crow which by a turn of fate decides which among the various paths open to him is the one that will lead him to the Castle of the King.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html

The three Suns. That above, most familiar. That within, seen in an instant, in a fleeting moment that may take a moment or a life time to see. Below the Sun at midnight. The interior Sun or Star, deep within the Earth itself.

Perhaps a supreme expression of the maxim As Above so Below. The interior pereption and exierience there in of. A hidden secret.

………..

THIS I BELIEVE

This I Believe:
There is a light in all of us, and the more we search out ways to express ourselves, the brighter that light shines. Whether your passion be baseball, or computers, or painting, or eating, laughing, hiking, biking, films, teaching, listening, or cooking, whenever you engage yourself in doing something that you love you make the world a little bit brighter. Through finding your own source of enthusiasm and love, you invite others to do the same in their own way, and you spread the joy that comes with truly living.
While it can be all too easy to just sit back and watch life go by, don’t forget about the things that make a difference in your life, the people that inspire you, and the dreams that help nudge you out of bed in the morning.

I believe that we all want to become a better version of ourselves, and that we are continually given chances to step up and challenge ourselves to be better. We just have to be willing to welcome those challenges, and see them as gifts rather than curses. It all depends on the perspective you choose to take. What will you choose today? Will you simply sit back, and let others take the lead, or will you step up and conquer your fear and indifference, break out of your shell, and take actions that better yourself and the world? I believe that what you focus on grows: the more you complain, the more reasons to complain will appear; the more you see life as a blessing, the more blessings will pour out into your waiting arms. Rejoice in what life has to offer, and help to open others’ eyes the the beauty and opportunity that surrounds us at every moment. We are given a great power: free will. Because of this power we are always given a choice. We may not be able to change our outer circumstances (at least not in the short run), but we can always change the way we think about something. The power of the mind is incredible! It can drag us down into the depths, or it can liberate us! Find the joy in your life today–take a chance, challenge yourself and see the resulting growth, dare to become more alive! And best of all, as you become a brighter light, so will those around you catch your reflection, and the world will be filled with suns, moons and stars…

http://redwood.colorado.edu/hutchicr/digitalmedia/hutchicr_believe2.html

http://redwood.colorado.edu/hutchicr/index.html

The formula of spagyrics is similar to that of Solve et Coagula – to separate and recombine. This is the backbone of alchemy. In slightly less basic alchemical procedures, distillation is used to separate organic matter into these three principles using distillation – yielding unpurified salt in the form of black ash, essential oil, and the spirit of the plant. These are each purified after separation, and recombined, creating a purified instance of the original subject which is then consumed.

http://enteralchemy.com/

http://mickevery.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/origin-of-alchemical-formulae/

http://newtopiamagazine.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/cosmos-science-surrealism-and-the-hermetic-imaginary-an-interview-with-leon-marvell/

 

Day 220

Freedom is not achieved by turning our backs upon the heritage of the land, nor is it won by force of arms. The restricting vessels of a true tradition are the way to freedom, but only if they are correctly understood and utilized. If this operation is successful, the restricting power itself is not only transcend, but transformed.

–The UnderWorld Initiation

Re-reading the underworld initiation. Just finished the hidden adept which was a fun book. Debating whether to read some Gersholm Sholem, Ibn Arabi and/or fiction about cats…..

The liberation mentioned above is a spiritual union if all opposites and transcended. The UnderWorld tradition is a universal one found world wide. The Orphic mysteries, sleeping beauty, the Cult of Venus and the Goddess in her tomb. Transformation within the very depths of the earth, within and without…

As we know in Hermeticism, “As above so below” The macro and microcosm. Transformation in the depths of the earth then is seen on a stellar, solar, lunar scale.. within this lunar scale is ourselves.  Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum lapidem. Visit the interior of the Earth through purification you will find the hidden stone.

I realised, it is this aspect that I must initially explore in the home I live in. Misplaced from England and New york city, now in this spiritually, botanically unfamiliar land. To truly work here, I must work here. Therefore I must pass through the inverted tree, downwards into wonderland… to the realms below.

They summoned Eurydice and gave her to him, but upon one condition: that he would not look back at her as she followed him, until they had reached the upper world. So the two passed through the great doors of Hades to the path which would take them out of the darkness, climbing up and up. He knew that she must be just behind him, but he longed unutterably to give one glance to make sure. But now they were almost there, the blackness was turning gray; now he had stepped out joyfully into the daylight. Then he turned to her. It was too soon; she was still in the cavern. He saw her in the dim light, and he held out his arms to clasp her; but on the instant she was gone. She had slipped back into the darkness. All he heard was one faint word, “Farewell.”

 

I must embrace the Rose, meet the natives of the land….

 

From this it is plain that the Earth is like the bass above which the rest of the harmony of the universe progresses. If it were removed, the other voices would remain in an unpleasant and imperfect harmony of many dissonances. Believing sufficient to have been said on the universal symphony of the planets, we will now turn to the particulars of their symphony.

—Athanasius Kircher

 

Reflection for Jan 22nd 2014: Many manifest vessels can hold Grail power

While romanticized literature describes the Grail as a chalice, this is a much later derivation, extrapolating from Celtic tradition in which the Grail is described as a platter. Many vessels would have passed through the hands of Jesus in his short lifetime…probably humble clay and wooden bowls such as the famous Nanteos Bowl. This medieval relic, long kept sequested in Wales, is thought to be made of olive wood, and was originally revered in Glastonbury Abbey. According to tradition it was secretly carried away to avoid plundering by agents of Henry VIII. The Nanteos relic is a fragment of wooden bowl credited with miraculous healing powers, with well-attested healing effected as recently as the 1950’s. This also is not the Grail, such a humble vessel with proven powers would perhaps be a stronger candidate for having been used by Jesus. Many manifest vessels can hold Grail power, according to human intention, attunement, and practice, but no single one is the Grail itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanteos_Cup

The Hidden Adept & The Inner Vision

Lyrics

A  Parable of the Spirit

http://www.chalicecentre.net/light-of-the-west.html

St Joseph of Arimathea

 

 

 

Reflection for August 7th, 2013: The greater must reveal itself to the lesser

If this metaphysical space is to be known,

such knowledge can be attained only by faith and grace,

not by ‘entering’ but by ‘being entered’

-this is so because the greater must reveal itself to the lesser.

Put differently, that which is immanently ‘Spirit’ can only be known receptively,

through its own intellective vision, and not any derivative faculty such as reason,

feeling or sensation. Reason can only discern conceptually,

at best reducing reality to a dualism of subject and object

(as in the case of Descartes) or catagorical postulate

(as in the case of Kant) or dialectic process

(as in the case of Hegel) – its ‘telos’ will tend to be utopian(as in the case of Marx),

fundamentalist( as in the cases of religious, political or secular dogmatism)

or anthropocentrically consencual (as in the case of Rousseau’s social contract);

while sensation or feeling even where elevated to

the level of empirical ‘science,’ can only discern reality as matter or as psyche,

quantitatively, thereby cutting it off from its transcendent

and qualitative roots, leading to an emphasis on hypertrophic subjectivism

(as in the case of Nietzsche), Psychologism(as in the case of Freud),

or reductive positivism(as in the cases of philosophical positivism and of scientism).

That which transcends us cannot be known reductively

but only by that transcendent faculty which is immanent in us-which in

Tradition is termed the ‘Intellect’

or the Self-knowing Spirit. To know is to discern BEING.

We must empty ourselves or our ‘self’ in order to know who we ARE.

We must return to the sacred emptiness of the space that is our

ontological core in order to know that which truly IS.

–M Ali Lakhani (the Distance between us, found in Sacred Web issue 31)

 

Reflection for August 5, 2013: Credo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewton_Mendip
Church of St Mary Magdalene, Chewton Mendip

In the Western world, a strong belief in the objective truths of religion, which are viewed as incontrovertible, demonstrable facts, is regarded as essential to the life of faith. When asking if somebody is religious, peo- ple often inquire: “Does he or she believe?” as though accepting certain credal propositions was the prime religious activity. Indeed, faith is equated with belief, but this equation is of recent provenance. Origi- nally the meaning of the word faith was akin to trust, as when we say that we have faith in a friend or an ideal. Faith was not an intellectual position but a virtue: it was the careful cultivation, by means of the ritu- als and myths of religion, of the conviction that, despite all the dispirit- ing evidence to the contrary, life had some ultimate meaning and value. The Latin word credo (translated now as “I believe”) seems to have de- rived from the phrase cor dare: to give one’s heart. The Middle English word beleven meant to love. When Christians proclaimed: credo in unum Deum , they were not so much affirming their belief in the existence of a single deity as committing their lives to God. When St. Anselm of Can- terbury prayed in the eleventh century: credo ut intellagam (“I have faith in order that I may understand”), he was not blindly submitting to the doctrines of religion in the hope that one day these incredible asser- tions would make sense today, if he abdicated his critical intelligence. His prayer should really be translated: “I commit myself in order that I may understand.” The meaning of dogma would only be revealed when he lived a fully Christian life, embracing its mythology and rituals whole- heartedly. This attitude is foreign to modernity. Today people feel that before they live a religious life, they must first satisfy themselves intel- lectually of its metaphysical claims. This is sound scientific practice: first you must establish a principle before you can apply it. But it is not the way that religion has traditionally worked.

http://www.sacredweb.com/online_articles/sw4_armstrong.pdf
Karen ARmstrong (Faith an Modernity)

 

Reflection for June 16, 2013: The tree surrounded by four rivers

 

 

 

Soaring upwards
Can be like reaching down

Pushing forward

Can be like pushing back

Going right

Can be like Going left

Within is within

All things begin

And end at the cross roads

–GraalBaum 2013

 

 

This world-mountain was Nizir to the Chaldeans, Olympus to the Greeks, Hara Berezaiti to the Persians of the Avesta, the later Alborz and Elburz; a transfer, as says Mme. Ragozin, of ‘mythical heavenly geography to the earth.’ This mountain—the solar hill of the Egyptians—we shall again refer to in the next two or three chapters. At its apex springs, the heaven tree on which the solar bird is perched. From its roots spring the waters of life—the celestial sea, which, rushing adown the firmament, supplies the ocean which circumscribes the earth or falls directly in rain. At their fountain these springs are guarded by a goddess. In Egypt Nut, the goddess of the oversea, leans from the branches of the heavenly persea and pours forth the celestial water. In the Vedas, Yama, lord of the waters, sits in the highest heaven in the midst of the heavenly ocean under the tree of life, which drops the nectar Soma, and here, on the ‘navel of the waters,’ matter first took form. In the Norse, the central tree Yggdrasil has at its roots the spring of knowledge guarded by the Norns, the northern Fates; two swans the parents of all those of earth, float there. In Chaldea the mighty tree of Eridu, centre of the world, springs by the waters. The Avesta gives a very complete picture—Iran is at the centre of the seven countries of the world; it was the first created, and so beautiful, that were it not that God has implanted in all men a love for their own land, all nations would crowd into this the loveliest land. To the east somewhere, but still at the centre of the world, rises the ‘Lofty Mountain,’ from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, ‘High Haraiti;’ at its

summit is the gathering place of waters, out of which spring the two trees, the heavenly Haoma (Soma), and another tree which bears all the seeds that germinate on earth. This heavenly mountain is called ‘Navel of Waters,’ for the fountain of all waters springs there, guarded by a majestic and beneficent goddess. In Buddhist accounts, the waters issue in four streams like the

Eden from this reservoir, and flow to the cardinal points, each making one complete circuit in its descent. In the Persian Bundahish there are two of these heavenly rivers flowing east and west. To the Hindus the Ganges is such a heavenly stream. ‘The stream of heaven was called by the Greeks Achelous.’ The Nile in Egypt, the Hoang-Ho in China, and the Jordan to the Jews, seem to have been celestial rivers. This mountain of heaven is often figured in Christian art with the four rivers issuing from under the Throne of God.

Sir John Maundeville gives an account of the earthly Paradise quite perfect in its detailed scheme. It is the highest place on earth, nearly reaching to the circle of the moon (as in Dante), and the flood did not reach it. ‘And in the highest place, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams’—Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. ‘And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world above and beneath take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of that well all water come and go.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm07.htm

 

http://chasinghermes.com/2009/04/24/08-axis-mundi.aspx