According to author James Churchward, MU was about 5,000 miles long and 3,000 miles wide, a beautiful tropical paradise like the Garden of Eden. He claims there were 64 million people who died in the sinking, and that it dated back over 50,000 years. The Pacific Islands are the remaining mountain peaks of the lost continent. Precise detailed maps of the lost continent of Mu and Atlantis were found on stone tablets from Pre-Inca Ica, Peru, by Dr. Javier Cabrera, engraved in stone and photographed by Robbert Charroux.
United Nations diplomat Farida Iskoviet, assistant to United Nations President Adam Malik, came to Maui in 1972 and researched Lemurian ruins and history and concluded that they were real.
One of Hawaii's leading authorities on Lemurian research was Sgt. Williard Wannall from Army Intelligence in Oahu. He reported that ruins of a submerged Lemurian city was between Maui and Oahu. It was a Top Secret project in Naval Intelligence in 1972.
Nearly One Galactic Year ago, 26,000 years, was the Golden Age of the Empire of the Sun, when humanity lived in peace, love, harmony and prosperity beyond anything we can imagine in these 1990's. As our Sun Star orbits around the Central sun, we are now entering the first rays of the Aquarian force field, as we leave the rays of the Piscean force field. We are now on the Cusp, feeling both the vibrations of a dying age and the dawn of a new age. This Is the Cosmic Science of Mu based on the writings of James Churchward and Dr. George Hunt Williamson, who spent dozens of years studying ancient writings from Mu.
The sun of the Empire of the Sun was the cosmic symbol for the primary creative energies radiating from the central sun in the center of the universe, the beneficial energies of time and space from higher dimensions, the source of all life, matter. and energy. The sun further represented in microcosm the sun within every human being, the invisible eternal flame that united man with his cosmic creator. The Lemurian (Mu) people believed that the sun within man was located in the "third eye', the invisible eye within us that is tuned into our innermost visions.
According to Churchward, much of the Mu civilization lived in homes with transparent roofs. They were free from stress and disease lived to be hundreds of years old, developing their E.S.P. abilities through nearly 40,000 years of societal practice and experimentation. With that many centuries of evolution, the Mu gained their reputation or telepathy, astral travel and teleportation . . . making land vehicles unnecessary.
Most of those who have written about Lemuria claim they were primarily socially a vegetarian, agricultural, outdoor, organic culture that worked in harmony with nature and the land, having little use for scientific technology. Lemurians had concentrated on meditation and Extra sensory perception (ESP) development.
Lemuria had relatively little interest in Atlantean technology and preferred to experiment with psychic energies to move objects (proven by Uri Gellar during his research at Stanford University in the 1970's), although they did use ultra-high frequency sonic, solar energy, crystal energy, and teleportation to build and move objects as well.
One account describes 'pre-marital' tests in Lemuria.(written by a man named Cerve, a Rosucrucian historian) The elders required a man and woman to give all of their possessions to the priest so that they had absolutely none- no clothing, food, shelter, or any tools. The man and woman were then sent into the woods for one month (28 days) naked. During that time, they had to build their shelter, make their own clothing, gather their own food, make their own tools, and provide for each other without getting into any argument or projecting any negativity toward each other. If they passed that test, they were married and their possessions were returned. If they failed the test they could not be married!
OTHER RESEARCH
This was a culture that existed in the area that is now the Pacific Ocean. It was a tropical, femininely based, village society. It had central places where there were groups of clairvoyant seers, oracles and holy people did healing and sound work. This was a non-power oriented society.
Though it can not be proven that there was extraterrestrial contact at that time I have read the time lines and see interaction from other worlds. When Lemeuria starts to rise again many of her secrets will be revealed.
There are certain land masses on the planet that are the last remains of the great Lemurian Empire, such as the Fiji Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island, and some of the Los Angeles area. This would explain why many spiritual people are drawn there and why there has been such an influx of higher consciousness ideas that have come in from that part of the west coast. It is because the vibration of that ancient land which was more femininely based and creatively based is once again moving in the consciousness of our planet.
When Lemuria was destroyed its people became the Tibetans, the Eskimos, the Mayans and the Native Americans. They became the Sacred Record Keepers through oral tradition.
LEMURIA:
As Channeled by Gordon Michael Scallion
The Lemurians were like thought projections - not physically solid. It made them higher in frequency and closer to the Creator's energy vibration level. Their souls came to Earth to experience the physical vibration. They were large in stature, about nine feet tall. Their skin had an aqua cast changing from blue to green in conjunction with two seasonal cycles each year. Their faces were elongated, and oval. Their eyes were large with lids running vertically. The texture of their skin was slightly scaly. They breathed through their skin, not lungs. The temperature of the planet, the atmosphere, the light and the orbits of the other planets were much different then. The first Lemurians were androgynous - neither male nor female.
It began with the projection of 144 soul groups - representing the projection of 33 million souls. Some of the souls came from the 'Red Planet'. Some of the souls came from the stars - Pleiades and Sirius - and projected into physical form on Earth.
Some groups chose water, some the plant kingdom, the mineral kingdom, or the animal kingdom. The greater experiments were with the animal kingodm as this realm allowed for longer life spans and greater mobility. The Earth had ineresting species at that time which included giants and elves.
The souls from Lemuria eventually went on to become the Atlanteans.
source:http://www.crystalinks.com/lemeura.html
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Was The Wizard of Oz Allegory for the Radically New State of Affairs that Existed in America in the 1930s?
The Wizard of Oz was produced as a motion picture in 1939 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (Book by L. Frank Baum; Adaption by Noel Langley; Screenplay by Florence Ryerson, Noel Langley, and Edgar Allan Woolf; Lyrics by E. Y. Harburg; Produced by Mervyn LeRoy; Directed by Victor Fleming.)
Many people believe that The Wizard of Oz was (and is) an allegory for the radically new state of affairs that existed in America in the 1930s, following the stock market crash and the bankruptcy of the United States Government which occurred immediately thereafter. For all extents and purposes, it can still be viewed as the current state of affairs, inasmuch as the allegorical nature, the clues strewn throughout the story, are still relevant today. The authors of Redemption in Law, Theory and Practice [BBC of America, 2000] have, for example, provided an interesting interpretation of the story of The Wizard of Oz, one which bears a considerable amount of attention being paid. Much of what follows, comes from pages 180 to 185 of their book.
The initial setting of the story is, of course, Kansas, the geographical center of the USA, and the symbol for the heartland of America. The tornado (twister) that arrives is all about the whirling confusion that existed after the stock market crash, the theft of the country’s gold, the US Bankruptcy, and the Great Depression. The twister takes Dorothy and her dog, Toto, into a new, artificial dimension, above the solid ground of Kansas. Upon their arrival, Dorothy notes: “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Right on, Dorothy. After the bankruptcy, Kansas was no longer “Kansas”, but now “KS”, an artificial corporate venue of the bankrupt US, a newly established “federal territory”, and part of the “Federal Zone”. Dorothy and Toto were “in this state”, which according to Redemption in Law, implies they were for tax jurisdiction purposes in the “District of Columbia” (aka “United States”) -- whereas Kansas is not included in “this state”, “KS” is.
One of the first entities Dorothy met was the Scarecrow, who represented the legal Straw Man which had been created as an artificial aspect of the former American sovereigns. The legal term, Straw Man, describes a fictitious or artificial person created by law at one’s birth via the inscription in all-capital letters on the birth document/certificate -- the latter being document of title and a negotiable instrument. It is allegedly by way of the Straw Man that the creditors of the US Bankruptcy can so effectively (and legally?) take for their own use the benefits of individuals’ labor, creativity, talents, and productivity.
In the movie the Scarecrow, describes his straw-man persona by noting: “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking. Of course, I’m not bright about doing things.”
The Scarecrow then succinctly describes himself in the classic song, “If I Only Had a Brain.” The lyrics include: “I’d unravel every riddle, For every ‘individdle,’ In trouble or in pain.”
The translation is that for every individual, who discovers the existence of his or her legal Straw Man, all political and legal mysteries, complexities, and confusions begin to be resolved. And once that same individual takes legal title to his or her Straw Man, he or she can protect themselves from legal trouble or legal damage.
The Tin Man arrives next on the scene. I.e. the “T-I-N” (Taxpayer Identification Number) Man is a hollow man of metal, a “vessel” or “vehicle”, the newly created commercial code words for the Straw Man. Just as the Scarecrow/Straw Man has no brain, the Tin Man has no heart. Both are “artificial persons”. Natural person are created by nature or God, while artificial persons are created by human laws, for the purposes of society/government (“bodies politic” or “corporations”).
One of the definitions in Webster’s Dictionary is “counterfeit”. Thus the Tin Man might also represent the mechanical and heartless aspect of commerce and commercial law. As they are reputed to say in the Mafia: “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
The Tin Man also carries an ax. Did you ever wonder about that? The ax is a traditional symbol for that which is above a King. In this case, commercial law, i.e. Corporate Rule is above the sovereign! It’s not a nice connotation -- any more than the “Axis Powers” of World War II included Nazi Germany, Italy (a fascist state) and Japan; or the more recent “Axis of Evil”, coined by President George Bush in 2002, but curiously not yet applied to Cheney, Ashcroft and himself -- the ABC’s of such.
The Tin Man, expressing relief after Dorothy had oiled his arm, said: “I’ve held that ax up for ages.” And perhaps he is still having to do so. For the symbol for fascism is the “fasces”, a bundle of rods with an ax bound up in the middle, but with its blade projecting. This fasces may be found on the American Mercury-head Dime (the Roman deity Mercury was the God of Commerce), and on the wall behind, and on each side of, the speaker’s podium in the US Senate (each gold fasces being approximately six feet in height). At the base of the podium of the seal of the US Senate are two crossed fasces. Hmmmm...
Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Tin Man are soon joined by the Cowardly Lion. Known as the “king of the beasts”, it’s surprising to find one so cowardly. It appears to represent the once-fearless American people who had lost their courage, the courage to denounce the US Bankruptcy, and inform its creditors that they were not the chattel that could be used as collateral for the moneys allegedly owed. Of course, dealing with the IRS tends to leave most of us in the cowardly state; but that is due in large part to the heartless, brainless actions of an organization operating strictly under the laws of Commerce.
In order for Dorothy and the gang to find the Wizard (the supposed answer to their prayers), they had to “follow the yellow brick road.” In other words, follow the money -- the trail of the gold taken from America -- and find who had absconded with it.
It’s important to recall from the beginning of the movie, that the Wizard was represented by a traveling mystic, a “Professor Marvel,” whom Dorothy had first encountered when she ran away with Toto. The Professor’s shingle claimed that he was “Acclaimed by the Crowned Heads of Europe, Past, Present, and Future.”
That’s quite a claim -- to include the future -- but seems well justified in that the Wizard is still acclaimed by the “crowned heads of Europe.” Before the Banksters looted America, they had already disempowered the monarchies of Europe and looted their kingdoms. And with a human skull atop the perch above the door to his wagon, the Wizard began to lecture Dorothy about the priests of Isis and Osiris and the days of Egypt’s pharaohs.
Between 1916 and 1933, most of America’s gold was rounded up -- aided by President Franklin Roosevelt (whose physical problems may well have symbolized America’s “crippled state”). The gold went to The Federal Reserve private Bank, and was shipped off by the Fed owners to England and Germany. This was accomplished because of the fact Federal Reserve Notes could be redeemed in gold, and their use carried an interest penalty that could also only be paid in gold. The US traded its gold for paper, while its previous currency, United States Notes, carried no such interest requirement. When the US Bankruptcy was declared in 1993, there was the added caveat that all Americans were required to turn in all gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates by May 1 --
Our heroine was Dorothy Gale. Did you know her last name? Or that a gale, with the impact of water as well as wind, is considered potentially more powerful than a tornado? In any case, when she and her friends emerged from the forest, they were elated to see the Emerald City only a short distance away. The Wicked Witch of the West, desperate for the ruby slippers that Dorothy was wearing, knew she had to make her move before Dorothy and the others were inside the walls of Emerald City. But what was so special about Dorothy’s slippers? Was the Wicked Witch an earlier version of Emelda Marcus? Or something else?
Obviously, Dorothy’s red-colored, ruby slippers were the same color as blood, as in flesh and blood, thus symbolizing a living, breathing man or woman -- i.e. a non-corporation, a natural person. As such her slippers also symbolized “private” as opposed to “public”. (Even a Social InSecurity card uses a red serial number, signifying the private-side account and its attachment to the public-side.) It is likely the ruby slippers symbolized the blood in the veins of the American people -- as opposed to “citizens of the United States”, where the blue and black ink on a birth certificate is the “corporate blood”. The Wicked Witch wanted the life blood of the living human beings -- not just their Straw Men.
Her tactic was to cover the countryside with poppy flowers -- i.e. the source of heroin, opium, and morphine -- symbolically drugging Dorothy, et al into unconsciousness, and then just step in and snatch the slippers. I.e. dull the senses of the American people and then slip in and swipe the gold.
The drugging worked on Dorothy, the Lion and Toto, the flesh and blood friends, but did not effect the artificial persons of the Scarecrow and Tin Man. The latter two cried out for help, and the Good Witch of the North came to the rescue with a blanket of snow to nullify the narcotic effect of the poppies on Dorothy, the Lion and Toto. [So, who’s the “Good Witch of the North”? Perhaps, that remains to be seen.]
The identity of the Wicked Witch of the West is pretty clear. Recall that her counterpart in the first part of the film was “Almira Gulch”, who supposedly “owned half the county” (or perhaps half the country). Miss Gulch had arrived at Dorothy’s farm with an “Order from the Sheriff” (an Executive Order from President Roosevelt?) demanding that Toto be handed over, because allegedly he had bitten Miss Gulch.
Despite Aunt Em’s assertion about Toto (“He’s really gentle, with gentle people, that is.”) Miss Gulch pressed her case saying that to withhold Toto would be to “go against the law”. When Dorothy refused to surrender toto, Miss Gulch lashed out with, “If you don’t hand over that dog I’ll bring a damned suit that’ll take your whole farm!”
70% of the attorneys in the world reside in the West -- America. 95% of all lawsuits in the world are filed under US jurisdiction. The Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Gulch) was dressed in black, the choice of color for judges’ robes. Thus she represents judges and attorneys, essentially the American legal system (including the attorney-run US Congress). These are the executioners and primary henchmen for transferring the wealth of America from the people to the banksters.
The “Bar” has a curious history. It represents the body of attorneys, counselors, judges and the members of the legal profession. It has been alleged that Black’s Law Dictionary, for example, is copyrighted British law and that the so-called American Bar Association is a branch or subset of the Bar Council (the sole bar association in England and Wales). As the copyrighted property of a British company, all state Codes in the US are commercial, private British-owned law. Attorneys may be even worse, if possible, than we thought!
Apparently, the Wicked Witch of the West is nothing more than an operative of the “crowned heads of Europe” (who are owned by the Banksters), and desperately wanted not only the precious metals of America, but the life blood of America’s labor. Her counterpart, of course, wanted to take Toto. The word, Toto, comes from the phrase, “in toto”, which according to Black’s Law Dictionary (the British “rule book”) is: “in the whole, completely.” In other words, she wanted everything!
Once Dorothy and the gang had encountered the mighty Wizard of Oz, they initially fell for the illusion. But with Toto’s aid in pulling back the curtain, they quickly realized the Wizard was nothing more than a con man. Even when he supposedly helped Scarecrow about getting a “brain”, he cited “the land of ‘E Pluribus Unum,’”, which is Latin for “one out of many.” This phrase appears of the American One Dollar Bill, but might be thought of as “converting the many into one”, i.e. establishing a “New World Order”.
The Wizard was also supposedly amenable to taking Dorothy back in his balloon, but ended up leaving her behind. Fortunately, the Good Witch of the North (Santa Claus?), stepped in to tell Dorothy, “You don’t need to be helped. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.” All she had to do was to use her slippers!
The contention is that everyone has the right and power to reclaim their Sovereignty, but just forgot. The actual act of reclamation -- the Remedy and Recourse, is telling the Banksters that you are no longer collateral, i.e. filing with a Secretary of State. Because the IRS (Infernal Revenue Service) is an accountancy firm and collection agency for the private Federal Reserve Bank, having been constituted under the UCC at its inception in 1954 (and operating strictly in that realm ever since), filing or not filing income tax returns becomes an interesting study in itself. Just be sure to do your own research!
The title of the movie also carries a message. A “wizard”, of course, is “a very clever or skillful person.” “Oz” on the other hand is an abbreviation for “ounces”, which is always the unit of measurement for gold, silver, and other precious metals. Even for large quantities of gold, etceteras, the amount is expressed in million ounces of gold, and not tons or pounds.
In the end, Dorothy (i.e. the American people) and Toto made it home. There is, in fact, Remedy and Recourse in law. It’s there, disguised, camouflaged, encoded. (Why do you think States call their statutory laws, “codes” and not laws?) It’s a matter of learning the law. All of it. It’s the necessary condition for becoming sovereign once again.
Unless, of course, you’d prefer to continue to be conned by the Banksters.
The Wizard of Oz is really a delightful movie. The fact that it symbolizes one of the worst episodes in the world’s history of the denial of freedom or justice, should not be construed to imply that the movie and story are not entertaining. In fact, once the symbolic nature is seen and understood, it is a simple step to smile, take the next step to go beyond it, and go forth as if you knew where you were going. It’s all just part of The Fool’s Journey, and the strange path we have each chosen to fulfill our diverse and unique destinies.
We always have that choice! It’s called Free Will.
Meanwhile, it is worth while recalling the sage advice of Lao Tzu (c. 600 B.C.E.) and more recently and succinctly in our Oz analogy, Frank Zappa (May 1977):
"The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be."
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see a brick wall at the back of the theater."
Many people believe that The Wizard of Oz was (and is) an allegory for the radically new state of affairs that existed in America in the 1930s, following the stock market crash and the bankruptcy of the United States Government which occurred immediately thereafter. For all extents and purposes, it can still be viewed as the current state of affairs, inasmuch as the allegorical nature, the clues strewn throughout the story, are still relevant today. The authors of Redemption in Law, Theory and Practice [BBC of America, 2000] have, for example, provided an interesting interpretation of the story of The Wizard of Oz, one which bears a considerable amount of attention being paid. Much of what follows, comes from pages 180 to 185 of their book.
The initial setting of the story is, of course, Kansas, the geographical center of the USA, and the symbol for the heartland of America. The tornado (twister) that arrives is all about the whirling confusion that existed after the stock market crash, the theft of the country’s gold, the US Bankruptcy, and the Great Depression. The twister takes Dorothy and her dog, Toto, into a new, artificial dimension, above the solid ground of Kansas. Upon their arrival, Dorothy notes: “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
Right on, Dorothy. After the bankruptcy, Kansas was no longer “Kansas”, but now “KS”, an artificial corporate venue of the bankrupt US, a newly established “federal territory”, and part of the “Federal Zone”. Dorothy and Toto were “in this state”, which according to Redemption in Law, implies they were for tax jurisdiction purposes in the “District of Columbia” (aka “United States”) -- whereas Kansas is not included in “this state”, “KS” is.
One of the first entities Dorothy met was the Scarecrow, who represented the legal Straw Man which had been created as an artificial aspect of the former American sovereigns. The legal term, Straw Man, describes a fictitious or artificial person created by law at one’s birth via the inscription in all-capital letters on the birth document/certificate -- the latter being document of title and a negotiable instrument. It is allegedly by way of the Straw Man that the creditors of the US Bankruptcy can so effectively (and legally?) take for their own use the benefits of individuals’ labor, creativity, talents, and productivity.
In the movie the Scarecrow, describes his straw-man persona by noting: “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking. Of course, I’m not bright about doing things.”
The Scarecrow then succinctly describes himself in the classic song, “If I Only Had a Brain.” The lyrics include: “I’d unravel every riddle, For every ‘individdle,’ In trouble or in pain.”
The translation is that for every individual, who discovers the existence of his or her legal Straw Man, all political and legal mysteries, complexities, and confusions begin to be resolved. And once that same individual takes legal title to his or her Straw Man, he or she can protect themselves from legal trouble or legal damage.
The Tin Man arrives next on the scene. I.e. the “T-I-N” (Taxpayer Identification Number) Man is a hollow man of metal, a “vessel” or “vehicle”, the newly created commercial code words for the Straw Man. Just as the Scarecrow/Straw Man has no brain, the Tin Man has no heart. Both are “artificial persons”. Natural person are created by nature or God, while artificial persons are created by human laws, for the purposes of society/government (“bodies politic” or “corporations”).
One of the definitions in Webster’s Dictionary is “counterfeit”. Thus the Tin Man might also represent the mechanical and heartless aspect of commerce and commercial law. As they are reputed to say in the Mafia: “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
The Tin Man also carries an ax. Did you ever wonder about that? The ax is a traditional symbol for that which is above a King. In this case, commercial law, i.e. Corporate Rule is above the sovereign! It’s not a nice connotation -- any more than the “Axis Powers” of World War II included Nazi Germany, Italy (a fascist state) and Japan; or the more recent “Axis of Evil”, coined by President George Bush in 2002, but curiously not yet applied to Cheney, Ashcroft and himself -- the ABC’s of such.
The Tin Man, expressing relief after Dorothy had oiled his arm, said: “I’ve held that ax up for ages.” And perhaps he is still having to do so. For the symbol for fascism is the “fasces”, a bundle of rods with an ax bound up in the middle, but with its blade projecting. This fasces may be found on the American Mercury-head Dime (the Roman deity Mercury was the God of Commerce), and on the wall behind, and on each side of, the speaker’s podium in the US Senate (each gold fasces being approximately six feet in height). At the base of the podium of the seal of the US Senate are two crossed fasces. Hmmmm...
Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Tin Man are soon joined by the Cowardly Lion. Known as the “king of the beasts”, it’s surprising to find one so cowardly. It appears to represent the once-fearless American people who had lost their courage, the courage to denounce the US Bankruptcy, and inform its creditors that they were not the chattel that could be used as collateral for the moneys allegedly owed. Of course, dealing with the IRS tends to leave most of us in the cowardly state; but that is due in large part to the heartless, brainless actions of an organization operating strictly under the laws of Commerce.
In order for Dorothy and the gang to find the Wizard (the supposed answer to their prayers), they had to “follow the yellow brick road.” In other words, follow the money -- the trail of the gold taken from America -- and find who had absconded with it.
It’s important to recall from the beginning of the movie, that the Wizard was represented by a traveling mystic, a “Professor Marvel,” whom Dorothy had first encountered when she ran away with Toto. The Professor’s shingle claimed that he was “Acclaimed by the Crowned Heads of Europe, Past, Present, and Future.”
That’s quite a claim -- to include the future -- but seems well justified in that the Wizard is still acclaimed by the “crowned heads of Europe.” Before the Banksters looted America, they had already disempowered the monarchies of Europe and looted their kingdoms. And with a human skull atop the perch above the door to his wagon, the Wizard began to lecture Dorothy about the priests of Isis and Osiris and the days of Egypt’s pharaohs.
Between 1916 and 1933, most of America’s gold was rounded up -- aided by President Franklin Roosevelt (whose physical problems may well have symbolized America’s “crippled state”). The gold went to The Federal Reserve private Bank, and was shipped off by the Fed owners to England and Germany. This was accomplished because of the fact Federal Reserve Notes could be redeemed in gold, and their use carried an interest penalty that could also only be paid in gold. The US traded its gold for paper, while its previous currency, United States Notes, carried no such interest requirement. When the US Bankruptcy was declared in 1993, there was the added caveat that all Americans were required to turn in all gold coins, gold bullion, and gold certificates by May 1 --
Our heroine was Dorothy Gale. Did you know her last name? Or that a gale, with the impact of water as well as wind, is considered potentially more powerful than a tornado? In any case, when she and her friends emerged from the forest, they were elated to see the Emerald City only a short distance away. The Wicked Witch of the West, desperate for the ruby slippers that Dorothy was wearing, knew she had to make her move before Dorothy and the others were inside the walls of Emerald City. But what was so special about Dorothy’s slippers? Was the Wicked Witch an earlier version of Emelda Marcus? Or something else?
Obviously, Dorothy’s red-colored, ruby slippers were the same color as blood, as in flesh and blood, thus symbolizing a living, breathing man or woman -- i.e. a non-corporation, a natural person. As such her slippers also symbolized “private” as opposed to “public”. (Even a Social InSecurity card uses a red serial number, signifying the private-side account and its attachment to the public-side.) It is likely the ruby slippers symbolized the blood in the veins of the American people -- as opposed to “citizens of the United States”, where the blue and black ink on a birth certificate is the “corporate blood”. The Wicked Witch wanted the life blood of the living human beings -- not just their Straw Men.
Her tactic was to cover the countryside with poppy flowers -- i.e. the source of heroin, opium, and morphine -- symbolically drugging Dorothy, et al into unconsciousness, and then just step in and snatch the slippers. I.e. dull the senses of the American people and then slip in and swipe the gold.
The drugging worked on Dorothy, the Lion and Toto, the flesh and blood friends, but did not effect the artificial persons of the Scarecrow and Tin Man. The latter two cried out for help, and the Good Witch of the North came to the rescue with a blanket of snow to nullify the narcotic effect of the poppies on Dorothy, the Lion and Toto. [So, who’s the “Good Witch of the North”? Perhaps, that remains to be seen.]
The identity of the Wicked Witch of the West is pretty clear. Recall that her counterpart in the first part of the film was “Almira Gulch”, who supposedly “owned half the county” (or perhaps half the country). Miss Gulch had arrived at Dorothy’s farm with an “Order from the Sheriff” (an Executive Order from President Roosevelt?) demanding that Toto be handed over, because allegedly he had bitten Miss Gulch.
Despite Aunt Em’s assertion about Toto (“He’s really gentle, with gentle people, that is.”) Miss Gulch pressed her case saying that to withhold Toto would be to “go against the law”. When Dorothy refused to surrender toto, Miss Gulch lashed out with, “If you don’t hand over that dog I’ll bring a damned suit that’ll take your whole farm!”
70% of the attorneys in the world reside in the West -- America. 95% of all lawsuits in the world are filed under US jurisdiction. The Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Gulch) was dressed in black, the choice of color for judges’ robes. Thus she represents judges and attorneys, essentially the American legal system (including the attorney-run US Congress). These are the executioners and primary henchmen for transferring the wealth of America from the people to the banksters.
The “Bar” has a curious history. It represents the body of attorneys, counselors, judges and the members of the legal profession. It has been alleged that Black’s Law Dictionary, for example, is copyrighted British law and that the so-called American Bar Association is a branch or subset of the Bar Council (the sole bar association in England and Wales). As the copyrighted property of a British company, all state Codes in the US are commercial, private British-owned law. Attorneys may be even worse, if possible, than we thought!
Apparently, the Wicked Witch of the West is nothing more than an operative of the “crowned heads of Europe” (who are owned by the Banksters), and desperately wanted not only the precious metals of America, but the life blood of America’s labor. Her counterpart, of course, wanted to take Toto. The word, Toto, comes from the phrase, “in toto”, which according to Black’s Law Dictionary (the British “rule book”) is: “in the whole, completely.” In other words, she wanted everything!
Once Dorothy and the gang had encountered the mighty Wizard of Oz, they initially fell for the illusion. But with Toto’s aid in pulling back the curtain, they quickly realized the Wizard was nothing more than a con man. Even when he supposedly helped Scarecrow about getting a “brain”, he cited “the land of ‘E Pluribus Unum,’”, which is Latin for “one out of many.” This phrase appears of the American One Dollar Bill, but might be thought of as “converting the many into one”, i.e. establishing a “New World Order”.
The Wizard was also supposedly amenable to taking Dorothy back in his balloon, but ended up leaving her behind. Fortunately, the Good Witch of the North (Santa Claus?), stepped in to tell Dorothy, “You don’t need to be helped. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.” All she had to do was to use her slippers!
The contention is that everyone has the right and power to reclaim their Sovereignty, but just forgot. The actual act of reclamation -- the Remedy and Recourse, is telling the Banksters that you are no longer collateral, i.e. filing with a Secretary of State. Because the IRS (Infernal Revenue Service) is an accountancy firm and collection agency for the private Federal Reserve Bank, having been constituted under the UCC at its inception in 1954 (and operating strictly in that realm ever since), filing or not filing income tax returns becomes an interesting study in itself. Just be sure to do your own research!
The title of the movie also carries a message. A “wizard”, of course, is “a very clever or skillful person.” “Oz” on the other hand is an abbreviation for “ounces”, which is always the unit of measurement for gold, silver, and other precious metals. Even for large quantities of gold, etceteras, the amount is expressed in million ounces of gold, and not tons or pounds.
In the end, Dorothy (i.e. the American people) and Toto made it home. There is, in fact, Remedy and Recourse in law. It’s there, disguised, camouflaged, encoded. (Why do you think States call their statutory laws, “codes” and not laws?) It’s a matter of learning the law. All of it. It’s the necessary condition for becoming sovereign once again.
Unless, of course, you’d prefer to continue to be conned by the Banksters.
The Wizard of Oz is really a delightful movie. The fact that it symbolizes one of the worst episodes in the world’s history of the denial of freedom or justice, should not be construed to imply that the movie and story are not entertaining. In fact, once the symbolic nature is seen and understood, it is a simple step to smile, take the next step to go beyond it, and go forth as if you knew where you were going. It’s all just part of The Fool’s Journey, and the strange path we have each chosen to fulfill our diverse and unique destinies.
We always have that choice! It’s called Free Will.
Meanwhile, it is worth while recalling the sage advice of Lao Tzu (c. 600 B.C.E.) and more recently and succinctly in our Oz analogy, Frank Zappa (May 1977):
"The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people will be."
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see a brick wall at the back of the theater."
Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Law of Silence
By Constant Chevillon From 'Ie Vrai Visage de Ia Franc-Maconnerie'
Egyptian priests personified silence with the symbol of the god Harpocrates. He was all eyes and ears, but his mouth was closed. This attitude is evocative: it is necessary to see, to listen, to understand, but, among the truths discovered, nothing should be revealed thoughtlessly. Later, Apuleius would write in the Golden Ass: "No danger could ever force me reveal to the layman what has been confided to me under the seal of secrecy." And so it was with all esoteric teachings of the ancient mysteries - for those of Isis and the Pyramids, for those of Eleusis where were celebrated the mysteries of Demeter, Persephone and the divine Iacchus, for those of the Kabeiroi and of Mithras. It was even so for the mysteries of faith during the first centuries of the Common Era, divulged to the faithful in the silence of crypts and catacombs. The law of silence is at the origin of all real initiations. Its origins are, without a doubt, lost in the night of prehistory.
Why, then, does society use this like a machine of war against initiatic societies and in particular against Freemasonry? The reason is simple; they have lost the meaning of this law. Laymen and the enemies of this institution consider it, or at least feign to consider it, like a vow, mixed with hypocrisy, with a subversive goal and shameful mysteries attenuated by its auspicious shadow. Ignorance and a lack of faith explain this perception. All masons truly worthy of the name know that the law of silence hides nothing questionable, immoral or subversive; it is the legitimate extension, however necessary, of the injunctions given to the ancient adepts, an echo of the evangelical saying: "do not cast pearls before swine."
But if the law of silence is legitimate, if the masters of esoteric thought have laid it down in precise terms, how should it be interpreted? Many ignore it, both among its benevolent observers, and a fortiori among its detractors. Too often, these detractors look upon the Masonic vow as a childish bit of the arcane, like the need all superficial beings have to give themselves, in
their own eyes, a fundamental importance that veils their own emptiness. They know nothing of the Masonic doctrine. It is their only excuse, but their ignorance ought to incite them to probe the profound reasons such an interdiction imposed upon the recipient, before his admission into the antechamber of the temple.
So let us examine the problem in its entirety, without allowing stray thoughts not pertaining to the topic to distract us. Indeed, the simplest reflection will create them.
First of all, an affirmation must be brought to mind: all laws imply constraint, a clear obligation to submit to its content. But, here, a distinction must be made. Civil laws: political, economic or social, are the expression of a necessity, temporary or permanent, noted by the legislator and, most often, applicable to society without having previously consulted with her subjects. There is,
therefore, a real and absolute constraint, and this constraint includes submission to the letter of the law, rather than to their spirit, until the day when the law will be retracted either by the strength of things or the reaction of the worn out masses. The Masonic law of the silence offers nothing similar to these reflections. In the first place, as we shall see in a little while, it is imposed by reason and not by the will of a man or a collectivity. Then it is presented to each adept before his admission into the order and freely accepted. He submits willingly, in full knowledge of the reason and consequences of the law; what's more, he seals this acceptance with a vow thereby consciously aware of any ulterior motives of rupture or derogation. The constraint is, therefore, quite effective, but of another essence; it is transcendent to the individual and rests upon the initiate. Civil constitutions govern people, outside of their wishes and desires, they are, "perinde ac cadaver", in the hands of the state and judicial powers charged with applying the law. In Masonry there is, on the, other hand, will and the joy of self-discipline and the vow to , persist "sine die" in this freely agreed-upon discipline. So, the constraint of silence does not, engender a state of servitude vis-à-vis the law, it is an adherence for. which necessity, based on reason, leaves nothing to spontaneity. It is an initiatic norm without which no asceticism is possible; which we shall try to demonstrate.
The law of the silence, as we have said, proceeds from reason. Reason is a specifically human faculty, it coordinates applied or intuitive information, elaborated by understanding, into notions, concepts or ideas, and transposes them into judgments, affixing the repercussions of them onto our lives. And, in light of this reason, Masonry is the art of pursuit, the method of discovery, the science of integrating, in speculation and in practice, these laws of the essential relationships established between truth and human intelligence. Where is the truth? It is not in the fleeting expressions of language, a perishable peeling constantly modified by the vicissitudes of time ~d place. It resides within things, inside beings, in life. It is not in the tumult of discussions or in vain and pompous speech that one can penetrate the substance veiled by these concepts. The'
subtle voice of these essences only reaches us in the quieted mind, in the contemplation of meditation; it is intercepted by the clash of the profane world, constituted, too often, by unstable and useless noise. Thus, the law of the silence, far from being an arbitrary obligation, is a rational constraint, by which our body and soul are placed at the disposal of our spirit, allowing it to hear, in all quietude, the voices of beings, emanations and underlings of the great universal voice. The longer our meditations, the more complete our interior silence, and the better we will succeed in discerning this sublime harmony. These are the profound reasons for Masonic silence; we will see, farther on, how it should be organized. Let's hold on to the driving principle from now on: Initiatic instruction presents itself and is received in the silence all ,beings, ,establishes itself in meditation and bears its fruit in the most secret folds of the pacified mind. .
The law of the silence has yet another aspect, an entirely external aspect ,and not 'generally considered by the members of the institution and especially its enemies. When the Venerable closes the works of the lodge, he says: "Withdraw yourselves in peace, my Brothers, under the law of silence." This phrase of the ritual has two senses, the one studied above and in an exoteric sense, applicable to the layman. And, if the symbol of the god Harpocrates concerns the first, the evangelical speech and the text of Apuleius, mentioned at the beginning, apply incontestably to the second. Here again, reason dictates the law. In essence, any idea, divulged without discernment, is unprofitable for the blind masses that are unfit to receive it. For them, it becomes a prey that is completely exposed, a prey to ravage. They seize this idea with all their ignorance and disrespect, they grind it, torture it with fantastic interpretations and applications to make it into a misshapen, unaesthetic monster, according to the words of a Latin poet: "Monstrum horrendum informe; ingens, cui lumen ademptum" It is 'an immense, malformed and horrible monster from whom the light has been removed. ' Yes, Masonic speech thrown into the pastures of the masses becomes, passing through the brain cells of individuals without adequate culture, an illogical monster, an amalgam of rebel concepts against the fertilization of the living' light. The danger of some inopportune disclosure" then, appears fearsome. Because of them, Masonry, from all time, has been considered to be like an enterprise of death, like an "assembly of' destroyers or 'marked' men. Yet, only the opposite is true, because it endeavor, in its authentic tradition, to guide the individual and all of humanity toward the higher spheres of Wisdom and Spirituality. Hence, the' absolute moral necessity to conceal' from . the masses the Masonic symbols and ideas inaccessible to their intelligence, not only to avoid the profanation of them, but again to prevent the transformation of a life tool into a weapon of" death, of light into darkness, of truth into error. "Sancta sanctis," say the Scriptures; it is necessary to reserve the mysteries for the mystics, while trying to increase their number progressively raising all the elite' to the heights of the sacred science. Masonry has not been deemed the royal science in vain, it is this ,in essence and, as ,such, it is the subtle appendage of intelligence transplanted on. a will of bronze and consolidated by a big heart. The masses, in the present state of the human evolution, will never be able to assimilate the mysteries,' to 'carry them away from our institution; they would constitute a filter of madness, a star too luminous for sight accustomed to the darkness of the forest of prejudice.
Now let's get back on track and see how the silence prescribed by Masonic law needs to be organized. Being quiet amongst strangers, to veil one's thoughts if we judge them unworthy or indifferent, appears relatively easy. The vow of silence in spite of repeated violations can, from the rest, be in this 'case, an obstacle sufficient to all indiscretion. But there are circumstances where the difficulty is greater. Each of us has a family, dear friends, friends to whom we grant our confidence; in love or friendship, sympathy can incite' us to revelations which can jeopardize the tranquility or harm those near to us because of the ,incomprehension of our words, by our affections on one hand, and on the other by Brothers to whom we are linked by a solemn vow; this is why the law of external silence is absolute, the Mason must know how to be quiet, he must respect his vow without failure. He must be silent when not in the temple or in the presence of equals. Heed well these words: "We say, his equals and not his brothers" All Masons are, indeed, Brothers, between them solidarity, fraternity and love reign without any distinction Of age, they form a chain of union, unique and indissoluble, from the, youngest t0 the oldest, but they are not all equal in regards to the truth, they don't all see, it all from the same angle, they are , also not all capable of achieving a work conceived as part of the great work of the constructors. Also, as it would be inopportune and even dangerous to confide the sculpture of a capitol to 'an apprentice who has only just learned to rough down a quarry stone, it is necessary to avoid prematurely revealing to him the secrets of superior lodges' and the truths which they act to veil; his rudimentary science would not allow him to assimilate them entirely. He would not know how to use ~hem according to the norm, and confronted with the pointlessness of his efforts to understand and accomplish the work, discouragement and the disgust would invade his spirit. The Mason speaks therefore only amongst his equals, before workers capable of achieving their own work. This is the reason why masonry is ,a progressive institution; to its adepts it gives the truth in stages and not in one sole block. These are the arguments that back up the law Of silence, outside and inside the institution. .Here is the, way to understand it and to practice it; but the question is greater still, these are merely the superficial prolegomena, it is the letter of obligation. Indeed, we have to examine the organization of silence in the very heart Mason's conscience:' We said it a little while ago, the truth is not situated in the words that surround our concepts and ideas; it resides in the essence of things and beings. Only silence can permit us to hear the subtle voice of essences. How, then, can we achieve the law of silence within us and penetrate into the spirit of our vow? Let's examine the history of sages and philosophers.
Pythagoras, before creating his school in Croton, spent several years in absolute silence. Having become head of the school he imposed silence upon his pupils. This was the origin of the "Akoustikoi", the 'hearers' or 'listeners'; they had to listen and had to be quiet, they never questioned, they followed the master's lessons and meditated upon them in the secret of their intelligence.
The hidden life of Christ lasted 30 years, during which history reveals no perceptible fact, gesture or speech to put us on the track of his intellectual and spiritual formation. Before getting involved in public life, he retired for 40 days to the desert, in order to concentrate his thoughts and to nurture them in the absolute silence of the trans-Jordanian solitude. About this same time, Apollonius of Tyana denied himself any speech for five consecutive years, and he was hardly 20 years old. These masters had understood the value and the quasi-supernatural virtue of physical silence. Brilliant Intellects, they surpassed the masses as centenary oaks crush the modest bushes of the forest. This is why we can see them and imitate them form afar. From their example let's procure this first principle:
"A Mason speaks at the appropriate moment and watches his words, he only expresses his essential thought." Everything else is vain speech, murmured without consistency, the chatter of a parrot achieved with so much success by the tribunals of our political assemblies and literary societies. .
Here is how it is necessary to understand and to regulate physical silence, a primordial quality of Masons. There are too many, in the world, of speakers and not enough thinkers, too many ideologists and not enough directors to put these ideas into action, because man in his animal nature constantly externalizes himself by vain words and gestures instead of enclosing himself in the silence of meditation, the only source of great thoughts and equally great actions. But that's not all; it is still necessary to organize within oneself the psychic silence, the silence of the soul. It is necessary to impose control of reason and will upon the rush of instincts and passions; to force them to express themselves only in circumstances where to suppress them would be an unmistakable error, and a cause of dwindling one's vital force, an unjustified impoverishment of the instinct to conserve. It is, therefore, necessary here, as if it were about words, to supervise instincts and passions, to discern their movements and to give free course only to those manifestations compatible with the natural laws of human evolution. This restriction, this psychic silence is the very basis of the virtue of temperance, the opposite of the brutal impetus of animal incontinence.
On this platform of the organization of silence, the Mason, already, reveals himself extensively equipped for the struggle against profane easiness. We can finally see the scope of the asceticism required to reach relative perfection of the conscience. It is necessary, indeed, in a final stage, to achieve interior silence, the silence of the spirit, to more easily hear the speech of things and the Word of God.
This operation, difficult as it is, advertises a very long habit, it borrows two different attitudes: elimination and purification.
As the law of the silence urged us, just now, to supervise our trivial words and passionate overflow, it now invites us to watch our thoughts, to eliminate the dissonances capable of shrouding Truth, Beauty and Goodness, in the field of our conscience. Not happy with this negative operation, it is necessary to pass to a positive attitude, because purification is the refinement of thought. However this refinement operates through the contact of our mind with the essence of things. Silence is the crucible in which our reason and our will are subjected to the living fire of nature and her sublime creator (tr. Note: in the sense of 'one who emanated'). By this fife we cause in ourselves thoughts of justice, mercy and charity, thoughts susceptible of leading us to the confines of the spiritual world. Finally, of these various attitudes, it will be necessary as a last resort, to attain some sort of synthesis and to obtain the silence of our whole being. Our passions and our instincts reduced to the state of docile instruments will be used in view of both individual and general good. We will, then, progressively arrive at the canalization of all our feelings, all our notions, concepts and ideas in the path of serenity. Then, our life will appear like a synchronized vibration in the universal harmony of the cosmos, by the Virtue of the law of Silence, joyously accepted, and respected, painful certainly, but without fail.
And so we will definitely settle into this ultimate state, the obligatory outcome of all true Masonry: illumination.
Egyptian priests personified silence with the symbol of the god Harpocrates. He was all eyes and ears, but his mouth was closed. This attitude is evocative: it is necessary to see, to listen, to understand, but, among the truths discovered, nothing should be revealed thoughtlessly. Later, Apuleius would write in the Golden Ass: "No danger could ever force me reveal to the layman what has been confided to me under the seal of secrecy." And so it was with all esoteric teachings of the ancient mysteries - for those of Isis and the Pyramids, for those of Eleusis where were celebrated the mysteries of Demeter, Persephone and the divine Iacchus, for those of the Kabeiroi and of Mithras. It was even so for the mysteries of faith during the first centuries of the Common Era, divulged to the faithful in the silence of crypts and catacombs. The law of silence is at the origin of all real initiations. Its origins are, without a doubt, lost in the night of prehistory.
Why, then, does society use this like a machine of war against initiatic societies and in particular against Freemasonry? The reason is simple; they have lost the meaning of this law. Laymen and the enemies of this institution consider it, or at least feign to consider it, like a vow, mixed with hypocrisy, with a subversive goal and shameful mysteries attenuated by its auspicious shadow. Ignorance and a lack of faith explain this perception. All masons truly worthy of the name know that the law of silence hides nothing questionable, immoral or subversive; it is the legitimate extension, however necessary, of the injunctions given to the ancient adepts, an echo of the evangelical saying: "do not cast pearls before swine."
But if the law of silence is legitimate, if the masters of esoteric thought have laid it down in precise terms, how should it be interpreted? Many ignore it, both among its benevolent observers, and a fortiori among its detractors. Too often, these detractors look upon the Masonic vow as a childish bit of the arcane, like the need all superficial beings have to give themselves, in
their own eyes, a fundamental importance that veils their own emptiness. They know nothing of the Masonic doctrine. It is their only excuse, but their ignorance ought to incite them to probe the profound reasons such an interdiction imposed upon the recipient, before his admission into the antechamber of the temple.
So let us examine the problem in its entirety, without allowing stray thoughts not pertaining to the topic to distract us. Indeed, the simplest reflection will create them.
First of all, an affirmation must be brought to mind: all laws imply constraint, a clear obligation to submit to its content. But, here, a distinction must be made. Civil laws: political, economic or social, are the expression of a necessity, temporary or permanent, noted by the legislator and, most often, applicable to society without having previously consulted with her subjects. There is,
therefore, a real and absolute constraint, and this constraint includes submission to the letter of the law, rather than to their spirit, until the day when the law will be retracted either by the strength of things or the reaction of the worn out masses. The Masonic law of the silence offers nothing similar to these reflections. In the first place, as we shall see in a little while, it is imposed by reason and not by the will of a man or a collectivity. Then it is presented to each adept before his admission into the order and freely accepted. He submits willingly, in full knowledge of the reason and consequences of the law; what's more, he seals this acceptance with a vow thereby consciously aware of any ulterior motives of rupture or derogation. The constraint is, therefore, quite effective, but of another essence; it is transcendent to the individual and rests upon the initiate. Civil constitutions govern people, outside of their wishes and desires, they are, "perinde ac cadaver", in the hands of the state and judicial powers charged with applying the law. In Masonry there is, on the, other hand, will and the joy of self-discipline and the vow to , persist "sine die" in this freely agreed-upon discipline. So, the constraint of silence does not, engender a state of servitude vis-à-vis the law, it is an adherence for. which necessity, based on reason, leaves nothing to spontaneity. It is an initiatic norm without which no asceticism is possible; which we shall try to demonstrate.
The law of the silence, as we have said, proceeds from reason. Reason is a specifically human faculty, it coordinates applied or intuitive information, elaborated by understanding, into notions, concepts or ideas, and transposes them into judgments, affixing the repercussions of them onto our lives. And, in light of this reason, Masonry is the art of pursuit, the method of discovery, the science of integrating, in speculation and in practice, these laws of the essential relationships established between truth and human intelligence. Where is the truth? It is not in the fleeting expressions of language, a perishable peeling constantly modified by the vicissitudes of time ~d place. It resides within things, inside beings, in life. It is not in the tumult of discussions or in vain and pompous speech that one can penetrate the substance veiled by these concepts. The'
subtle voice of these essences only reaches us in the quieted mind, in the contemplation of meditation; it is intercepted by the clash of the profane world, constituted, too often, by unstable and useless noise. Thus, the law of the silence, far from being an arbitrary obligation, is a rational constraint, by which our body and soul are placed at the disposal of our spirit, allowing it to hear, in all quietude, the voices of beings, emanations and underlings of the great universal voice. The longer our meditations, the more complete our interior silence, and the better we will succeed in discerning this sublime harmony. These are the profound reasons for Masonic silence; we will see, farther on, how it should be organized. Let's hold on to the driving principle from now on: Initiatic instruction presents itself and is received in the silence all ,beings, ,establishes itself in meditation and bears its fruit in the most secret folds of the pacified mind. .
The law of the silence has yet another aspect, an entirely external aspect ,and not 'generally considered by the members of the institution and especially its enemies. When the Venerable closes the works of the lodge, he says: "Withdraw yourselves in peace, my Brothers, under the law of silence." This phrase of the ritual has two senses, the one studied above and in an exoteric sense, applicable to the layman. And, if the symbol of the god Harpocrates concerns the first, the evangelical speech and the text of Apuleius, mentioned at the beginning, apply incontestably to the second. Here again, reason dictates the law. In essence, any idea, divulged without discernment, is unprofitable for the blind masses that are unfit to receive it. For them, it becomes a prey that is completely exposed, a prey to ravage. They seize this idea with all their ignorance and disrespect, they grind it, torture it with fantastic interpretations and applications to make it into a misshapen, unaesthetic monster, according to the words of a Latin poet: "Monstrum horrendum informe; ingens, cui lumen ademptum" It is 'an immense, malformed and horrible monster from whom the light has been removed. ' Yes, Masonic speech thrown into the pastures of the masses becomes, passing through the brain cells of individuals without adequate culture, an illogical monster, an amalgam of rebel concepts against the fertilization of the living' light. The danger of some inopportune disclosure" then, appears fearsome. Because of them, Masonry, from all time, has been considered to be like an enterprise of death, like an "assembly of' destroyers or 'marked' men. Yet, only the opposite is true, because it endeavor, in its authentic tradition, to guide the individual and all of humanity toward the higher spheres of Wisdom and Spirituality. Hence, the' absolute moral necessity to conceal' from . the masses the Masonic symbols and ideas inaccessible to their intelligence, not only to avoid the profanation of them, but again to prevent the transformation of a life tool into a weapon of" death, of light into darkness, of truth into error. "Sancta sanctis," say the Scriptures; it is necessary to reserve the mysteries for the mystics, while trying to increase their number progressively raising all the elite' to the heights of the sacred science. Masonry has not been deemed the royal science in vain, it is this ,in essence and, as ,such, it is the subtle appendage of intelligence transplanted on. a will of bronze and consolidated by a big heart. The masses, in the present state of the human evolution, will never be able to assimilate the mysteries,' to 'carry them away from our institution; they would constitute a filter of madness, a star too luminous for sight accustomed to the darkness of the forest of prejudice.
Now let's get back on track and see how the silence prescribed by Masonic law needs to be organized. Being quiet amongst strangers, to veil one's thoughts if we judge them unworthy or indifferent, appears relatively easy. The vow of silence in spite of repeated violations can, from the rest, be in this 'case, an obstacle sufficient to all indiscretion. But there are circumstances where the difficulty is greater. Each of us has a family, dear friends, friends to whom we grant our confidence; in love or friendship, sympathy can incite' us to revelations which can jeopardize the tranquility or harm those near to us because of the ,incomprehension of our words, by our affections on one hand, and on the other by Brothers to whom we are linked by a solemn vow; this is why the law of external silence is absolute, the Mason must know how to be quiet, he must respect his vow without failure. He must be silent when not in the temple or in the presence of equals. Heed well these words: "We say, his equals and not his brothers" All Masons are, indeed, Brothers, between them solidarity, fraternity and love reign without any distinction Of age, they form a chain of union, unique and indissoluble, from the, youngest t0 the oldest, but they are not all equal in regards to the truth, they don't all see, it all from the same angle, they are , also not all capable of achieving a work conceived as part of the great work of the constructors. Also, as it would be inopportune and even dangerous to confide the sculpture of a capitol to 'an apprentice who has only just learned to rough down a quarry stone, it is necessary to avoid prematurely revealing to him the secrets of superior lodges' and the truths which they act to veil; his rudimentary science would not allow him to assimilate them entirely. He would not know how to use ~hem according to the norm, and confronted with the pointlessness of his efforts to understand and accomplish the work, discouragement and the disgust would invade his spirit. The Mason speaks therefore only amongst his equals, before workers capable of achieving their own work. This is the reason why masonry is ,a progressive institution; to its adepts it gives the truth in stages and not in one sole block. These are the arguments that back up the law Of silence, outside and inside the institution. .Here is the, way to understand it and to practice it; but the question is greater still, these are merely the superficial prolegomena, it is the letter of obligation. Indeed, we have to examine the organization of silence in the very heart Mason's conscience:' We said it a little while ago, the truth is not situated in the words that surround our concepts and ideas; it resides in the essence of things and beings. Only silence can permit us to hear the subtle voice of essences. How, then, can we achieve the law of silence within us and penetrate into the spirit of our vow? Let's examine the history of sages and philosophers.
Pythagoras, before creating his school in Croton, spent several years in absolute silence. Having become head of the school he imposed silence upon his pupils. This was the origin of the "Akoustikoi", the 'hearers' or 'listeners'; they had to listen and had to be quiet, they never questioned, they followed the master's lessons and meditated upon them in the secret of their intelligence.
The hidden life of Christ lasted 30 years, during which history reveals no perceptible fact, gesture or speech to put us on the track of his intellectual and spiritual formation. Before getting involved in public life, he retired for 40 days to the desert, in order to concentrate his thoughts and to nurture them in the absolute silence of the trans-Jordanian solitude. About this same time, Apollonius of Tyana denied himself any speech for five consecutive years, and he was hardly 20 years old. These masters had understood the value and the quasi-supernatural virtue of physical silence. Brilliant Intellects, they surpassed the masses as centenary oaks crush the modest bushes of the forest. This is why we can see them and imitate them form afar. From their example let's procure this first principle:
"A Mason speaks at the appropriate moment and watches his words, he only expresses his essential thought." Everything else is vain speech, murmured without consistency, the chatter of a parrot achieved with so much success by the tribunals of our political assemblies and literary societies. .
Here is how it is necessary to understand and to regulate physical silence, a primordial quality of Masons. There are too many, in the world, of speakers and not enough thinkers, too many ideologists and not enough directors to put these ideas into action, because man in his animal nature constantly externalizes himself by vain words and gestures instead of enclosing himself in the silence of meditation, the only source of great thoughts and equally great actions. But that's not all; it is still necessary to organize within oneself the psychic silence, the silence of the soul. It is necessary to impose control of reason and will upon the rush of instincts and passions; to force them to express themselves only in circumstances where to suppress them would be an unmistakable error, and a cause of dwindling one's vital force, an unjustified impoverishment of the instinct to conserve. It is, therefore, necessary here, as if it were about words, to supervise instincts and passions, to discern their movements and to give free course only to those manifestations compatible with the natural laws of human evolution. This restriction, this psychic silence is the very basis of the virtue of temperance, the opposite of the brutal impetus of animal incontinence.
On this platform of the organization of silence, the Mason, already, reveals himself extensively equipped for the struggle against profane easiness. We can finally see the scope of the asceticism required to reach relative perfection of the conscience. It is necessary, indeed, in a final stage, to achieve interior silence, the silence of the spirit, to more easily hear the speech of things and the Word of God.
This operation, difficult as it is, advertises a very long habit, it borrows two different attitudes: elimination and purification.
As the law of the silence urged us, just now, to supervise our trivial words and passionate overflow, it now invites us to watch our thoughts, to eliminate the dissonances capable of shrouding Truth, Beauty and Goodness, in the field of our conscience. Not happy with this negative operation, it is necessary to pass to a positive attitude, because purification is the refinement of thought. However this refinement operates through the contact of our mind with the essence of things. Silence is the crucible in which our reason and our will are subjected to the living fire of nature and her sublime creator (tr. Note: in the sense of 'one who emanated'). By this fife we cause in ourselves thoughts of justice, mercy and charity, thoughts susceptible of leading us to the confines of the spiritual world. Finally, of these various attitudes, it will be necessary as a last resort, to attain some sort of synthesis and to obtain the silence of our whole being. Our passions and our instincts reduced to the state of docile instruments will be used in view of both individual and general good. We will, then, progressively arrive at the canalization of all our feelings, all our notions, concepts and ideas in the path of serenity. Then, our life will appear like a synchronized vibration in the universal harmony of the cosmos, by the Virtue of the law of Silence, joyously accepted, and respected, painful certainly, but without fail.
And so we will definitely settle into this ultimate state, the obligatory outcome of all true Masonry: illumination.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Is Religion and the Worship of God Inconsistent with Truth and Justice?
It remains then unanswerable , that religion and the worship of God according to the promptings of natural light, is consistent with truth and justice; but if any one wishes to establish any new principles in religion, either new or displeasing, and that by the authority of invisible powers, it will evidently be necessary for him to show his power of reforming, unless he wishes to be considered by all an impostor. Since, not under the conclusions of natural religion, nor under the authority of special revelation, he offers opposition to the ideas of all. Moreover he should be so upright in life and character that the people may believe him worthy of being associated with so high and holy a power, who does not approve of anything impure. Nor can merely his own confession, nor the holiness of a past life, nor any miracles -- that is extraordinary deeds -- prove this; for this is common rather among the skillful and the deceivers of men, lying hypocrites who pursue their own advantage and glory in this way. For it is not worth considering that some reached such a degree of madness that they voluntarily sought death, in order that it might be supposed that they despised and conquered everything, like different ones among the ancient philosophers. Nor is it to be supposed that they were upheld by special divine powers in that which they did because of foolish fancies and fond hopes of mountains of gold, rising from a defective judgment. For they did not give the matter the proper consideration, nor did the real teachers, for in order that you may come to a fair decision about them, I have said not only is their own testimony not sufficient, but in order to reach the truth of the matter, they must be compared with one another; and other witnesses with them, and then their acquaintances and friends, and then strangers, then friends and enemies; and then after the testimony is all gathered in, that of each teacher concerning himself, and then that of others must be compared. And if we do not know the witnesses, we must consult the witnesses of the witnesses, and so on; besides instituting an investigation as to your powers of distinguishing from the true and the false involved in such or other circumstances. Especially in similar ones, inquiring, moreover, whence you desired data to learn the truth, for this purpose comparing the judgment of others, as to what they infer from such an investigation or from the testimony of witnesses. And from these data it will be permissible to infer whether he who makes this claim, is a true messenger of the revelation of divine will and whether his teachings should be gradually adopted. But at this point we must be very careful not to get into a circle. Whenever the nature of important religions may be such that one supplants another, as that of Moses, Paganism, that of Mahomet, Christianity, -- the later one may not always nor in every particular cast aside the earlier, but only in certain parts, to such an extent that the latter is founded on the former, it will be necessary to investigate carefully not only either the last, or the middle, or the first, but all, especially since the charge of imposture is brought by every sect. So the ancients were charged with it by Christ, because they corrupted the law; the Christians by Mahomet, because they corrupted the gospels, a fact not to be wondered at, inasmuch as one sect of Christians charges the other with corrupting texts of the New Testament, so that it can [not] be ascertained whether he who is offered as an example is a teacher of a true religion or how far those who claim to have been given authority, should be listened to. For in an investigation no sect must be overlooked, but each must be compared with the rest without any prejudice. For if one is overlooked, that perhaps, is the very one which is nearer the truth. Thus, those who followed Moses, have followed the truth according to the Christians also, but they ought not to have paused at that point, but should examine the truth of the Christian religion also.
Each sect maintains that its own teachers are the best and that it has had and is daily having proof of this, and that there are no better ones so that either every one must believe it, which would be absurd, or no one, which is the safer plan, until the true way is known, though no sect should be disregarded in a comparison.
There is no need of presenting the objection that it is known that all mathematicians agree that twice two is four. For it is not a similar case, since no one has been known to doubt whether twice two is four, while on the contrary religions agree neither in end, beginning nor middle. Suppose that I do not know the true way of salvation; I follow, however, the Brahmins or the Koran. Will not Moses and the rest say: What wrong have we done you that you thus reject us, though we are better and nearer the truth? What reply shall we make? I believed in Mahomet or the Gymnosophistes, [A sect of East Indian philosophers who went about almost naked, ate no flesh, renounced all bodily pleasures, and simply contemplated nature.
The "Pre-Adamite doctrine," similar to the above, was published by Isaac de Peyrere about 1655. These fanatics believed that mankind lost none of their innocence by the fall of Adam. Both men and women made their appearance in the streets of Monster, France, in puris naturalibus, as did our first parents in the Garden of Eden, before the fruit incident, which brought so much trouble into the world. The magistrates failed to put them down, and the military had some difficulty in abolishing this absurdity. -- A.N.] in whose teachings I was born and brought up, and from them I learned that your religion and that of the Christians which followed, have long since decayed and grown corrupt, and are still misleading. Will they not reply that they do not know anything about the others and that these do not know anything about the true guide to salvation, since they know that those who are corruptors of the people are impostors, feigning miracles, or by lies pulling the wool over the eyes of the people. Nor should faith be thus simply given to one man or one sect, rejecting all others without a complete and proper investigation. For with equal right the Ethiopian, who has not left his own land, says that there are no men under the sun except those of a black color.
Moreover, this precaution also should be taken in the investigation of other sects, that equal care should be used in an investigation of all, and while one is explained with great pains, the other should not be slighted, because one claim or another at first sight seems to be wrong, or because of the evil reports of gossip concerning the leader of that sect, while other reports are cast aside. For that should not be set down as doctrine or indubitable testimony, which the first vagabond that comes along asserts about a hostile religion. Indeed, with equal right on account of common gossip and the mere mention of a name, the Christian religion was to some an object of horror, and to others an object of scorn. With the latter because the Christians worshipped the head of an ass, and with the former because they ate and drank their God, so that at length the report became current that to be a Christian was to be a deadly enemy of God and men; when, nevertheless, such tales were either things which had been misunderstood or skillfully told lies, which were then confirmed, and having some foundation, spread abroad because an enemy of that religion had absolutely no intercourse, or no proper intercourse, with the Christians themselves, or the more learned among them, but believed the first ignorant person or deserter or enemy of that religion. Such a method of investigation being decided upon, it would always be a matter of great difficulty. What shall we say about women, what about children, what about the majority of the masses of the people? All children will be excluded from a feeling of security in regard to their religion, and the majority of women to whom even those matters which have been most clearly explained by the leaders of any religion, as far as can be done, are obscure: also from their manner of life you rightly perceive that with the exception of a very few superior ones, they have no accurate powers of comprehending mysteries of such a character, to say nothing of the countless numbers of insignificant persons and country people for whom the question of their own support is the most important subject for the exercise of their powers of reason, while other matters they accept or reject in good faith. Doubtless there is only a very small part of the world, who weigh all religions, compare their own carefully with others and correctly distinguish true reasons from false, in details in which deception may creep in; but the majority rather adopt the faith of others, of teachers of sacred matters especially, whose knowledge and powers of judgment in sacred matters are considered noteworthy.
And so in any religion this is done, especially by those who can not read and write or do not have anything to read. But it should have been observed that in this matter it is not sufficient that the teachers of any religion should have the power, because of very exact powers of judgment and avowed experience, of distinguishing the true from the false. Indeed it ought to be very certain to others, with powers of judgment no less exact, that those teachers have not only the ability to distinguish the true from the false, but the desire as well, and indeed we ought to be especially certain that he who professes such a knowledge and desire is neither deceived nor wishes to be.
And what choice shall we make here among so many teachers so much at variance in even one eminent sect? For when we look at our comrades and associates, who disagree on many subjects, although they are most friendly in other respects, one of the two disputants will maintain his opinion on account of some defect, either because he has not a correct understanding of the matter, and lacks the power of judgment, or because he does not wish to give up, and so does not desire to confess the truth. But although it might be matters of secondary importance in which this happened, nevertheless the result will be that they will be mistrusted in other matters also. Each doubtless is in possession of one truth, and he who gives this up in one place, either from a defect of judgment or a wrong desire is deservedly mistrusted of doing the same thing in other cases.
Therefore, that you may judge of the ability and honesty of any teacher in religion, first, it is necessary for you to be just as able as he; for otherwise he will be able to impose on you very easily, and, moreover, if he is unknown to you, he will need the testimony of others, and these again of others, and so on indefinitely; not only in regard to his truthfulness, that he really taught such doctrines, but in regard to his honesty, that he did this without deceit. And the same method must at once be employed in regard to the witnesses of his honesty and his teachings. But where will you place an end to this? It is not enough that such discussions have already taken place among others; you must consider how well this has been done. For the ordinary proofs which are set forth are neither conclusive nor manifest, and prove doubtful matters by others more doubtful, so that, like those who run in a circle, you return to the starting point.
In order that it may be manifest whether any one is a teacher of a true religion or an impostor, there is need either of personal knowledge, which we can not have in the case of the three great founders of the religions of Judaism, Christianity and Mahometanism, inasmuch as they lived in far distant places and died long before our time; or of the knowledge of others, which, if any one imparts it to you, we call testimony.
Between these, there is still another way of knowing any one, namely through his own writings, which may be called one's own testimony concerning himself. And concerning Christ, there is no such testimony; concerning Moses, it is doubtful whether there is; concerning Mahomet, there is the Koran. The testimony of others is of two classes -- that of friends and that of enemies. Between these extremes there is no third class, according to the saying, "who is not with me is against me." Mahomet in his writings assumes and attributes to himself the same divine qualities as did Moses and another. Moreover the friends of Mahomet and members of his sect wrote the same things concerning him as did the members of the sects of the others concerning their masters, and the enemies of the others wrote just as disparagingly of them as their friends did of Mahomet. As for the rest, the testimony of any one concerning himself is too unreliable to inspire implicit confidence, and is of no consequence except, perchance, to perplex a thoughtless hearer. The assertions of friends, who doubtless unanimously repeat the sayings of their masters, are of the same nature. Nor should the enemies of any one be heeded on account of their prejudices. But as it is, in spite of these facts, it is for such trivial reasons, which are confirmed only by the master's own boasts, the assertions of friends, or the calumnies of enemies, that every follower of any one of the three assumes that the claims of his enemy are based wholly on imposture, while the teachings of his master are founded wholly on truth. Nevertheless Mahomet is undoubtedly considered an impostor among us; but why? Not from his own testimony or that of his friends but from that of his enemies. Then, on the contrary, among the Mahometans he is considered a most holy prophet; but why? >From his own testimony, but especially from that of his friends. Whoever considers Moses an impostor or a holy teacher employs the same method of reasoning. And there is equal reason in the case of Mahomet as in the case of the others, either for charging him with imposture or for answering that charge, although, nevertheless, the former are considered holy, while he is considered a scoundrel, contrary to all the demands of justice. To put it in the scholastic manner, then, the following conclusions are most firmly established: Whenever there is the same reason as in the case of Mahomet for charging any person with imposture or for answering that charge, they should be placed in the same category. And for example, in the case of Moses, there is the same reason, therefore justice should be demanded just as in the case of Mahomet, nor should he be considered an impostor.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Free Masonry? How Free is it?
It is given to the world, neither with a view to advocate Skepticism, nor to spread Infidelity, but simply to vindicate the right of private judgment. No human being is in a position to look into the heart, or to decide correctly as to the creed or conduct of his fellow mortals ; and the attributes of the Deity are so far beyond the grasp of limited reason, that man must become a God himself before he can comprehend them. Such being the case, surely all harsh censure of each other's opinions and actions ought to be abandoned; and every one should so train himself as to be enabled to declare with the humane and manly philosopher
"Homo sum, nihil humania me alienum Puto."
"Happy the man who, studying Nature's laws,
Through known effects can trace the secret cause;
His mind possessing in a quiet state,Fearless of Fortune, and resigned to Fate."
Know you not yet, weak and superb man,
That the humble insect hidden beneath a leaf
And the imperious eagle who flies to heaven's dome,
Amount to nothing in the eyes of the Eternal.
All men are equal: not birth but virtue
Distinguishes them apart."
Monday, July 31, 2006
THE MASONIC LEGEND by Max Hiendel
Every mystic movement has its legend, which tells in symbolic language its status in the cosmic order and the ideal which it tries to realize. From the Old Testament, containing the Atlantean Mystery teaching, we learn that mankind was created male-female, bi-sexual, and that each one was capable of propagating his species without the co-operation of another as is the case with some plants today. Later on, we are informed, Jehovah removed one pole of the creative force from ADAM, the early humanity, and that there were henceforth two sexes. The esoteric teaching supplements this information by stating that the purpose of this change was to use one pole of the creative force for the building of a brain and larynx wherewith mankind might acquire knowledge and express itself in speech. The intimate connection between the organs, brain, larynx and genitals is evident to anyone upon the slightest examination of facts. The boy's voice changing at puberty, the mental deficiency resulting from over-indulgence of the passional nature, and the inarticulate speech of the mentally defective with many other facts which might be added prove this assertion.
According to the Bible, our earliest parents were forbidden to eat of THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, but Eve, seduced by the serpent, did eat and later induced the man to follow her example. Who the serpents are and what the Tree of Knowledge is may also be determined from certain passages in the Bible. We are told, for instance, that Christ exhorted his disciples to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." The so-called curse pronounced upon Eve after her confession declares that she must bear her children in sorrow and pain and that the race will die. It has always been a great stumbling block to Bible commentators as to what connection there could be between the eating of an apple, death, and painful parturition; but when we are acquainted with the chaste expressions of the Bible, which designates the creative act by such passages as "Adam KNEW Eve and she bore Abel," "How can I bear a child seeing I KNOW not a man?" et cetera, it is very evident that the Tree of Knowledge is a symbolical expression for the creative act. Then it is plain that the serpents taught Eve how to perform the creative act and that Eve instructed Adam. Therefore, Christ designated the serpents as harmful while admitting their wisdom. To get at the identity of the serpent it is necessary to invoke the esoteric teaching, which points them out as the martial Lucifer Spirits, rulers of the serpentine sign Scorpio. Their Initiates, even so late as the Egyptian Dynasty, wore the URAEUS or serpent symbol in the forehead as a sign of the source of their wisdom.
As a consequence of this unauthorized use of the creative force, humanity ceased to be ethereal and crystallized into the COATS OF SKIN or physical body which now hides from them the gods who dwell in the invisible realms; and great was their sorrow at this loss.
GENERATION had been originally established by the Angels under Jehovah. It was then performed in great temples under propitious planetary conditions and parturition was then painless, as it is today among wild animals where the creative function is not abused for the purpose of gratifying the senses.
DEGENERATION resulted from the ignorant and unauthorized abuse inaugurated by the Lucifer Spirits.
REGENERATION must be undertaken in order to restore man to his lost estate as a spiritual being and to free him from this body of death wherein he is now encrusted. Death must be swallowed up in Immortality.
To attain this object, a covenant was made with humanity when it was expelled from the garden of God to wander in the wilderness of the world. According to that plan, a Tabernacle was built after a pattern planned by God, Jehovah, and an ark symbolical of the human spirit was placed in it. Its staves were never taken out of their place, to show that man is a pilgrim on the earth and may never rest until he reaches the goal. There was within it a golden pot with "MANNA" (man) "FALLEN FROM HEAVEN," together with a statement of the divine laws which man must learn in his pilgrimage through the wilderness of matter. This symbolic ark contained also a magic wand, an emblem of the spiritual powers, called AARON'S ROD, which are now latent in everyone on his way to the haven of rest--the mystic temple of Solomon. The Old Testament also tells how humanity was miraculously led and provided for, how after the warfare with the world it was given peace and prosperity by the before mentioned King Solomon; in short, stripped of all embellishments the story relates the salient facts of man's descent from heaven, his principal metamorphoses, his transgression of the laws of the God Jehovah would wish to guide him in the future till he reaches the Kingdom of Heaven- -the land of peace--and again docilely follows the lead of the Divine Ruler.
THE MASONIC LEGEND has points of variance from as well as agreement with the Bible story. It states that Jehovah created EVE, that the Lucifer Spirit SAMAEL united with her but that he was ousted by Jehovah and forced to leave her before the birth of her son Cain, who was thus THE SON OF A WIDOW. Then Jehovah created ADAM, to be the husband of Eve, and from their union Abel was born. Thus from the beginning there have been two kinds of people in the world. One begotten by the Lucifer Spirit Samael and partaking of a semi-divine nature imbued with the dynamic martial energy inherited from this divine ancestry, is aggressive, progressive, and possessed of great initiative, but impatient of restraint or authority whether human or divine. This class is loath to take things on faith and prone to prove all things by the light of reason. These people BELIEVE IN WORKS rather than faith, and by their dauntless courage and inexhaustible energy they have transformed the trackless wilderness of the world to a garden full of life and beauty, so lovely in fact that THE SONS OF CAIN have forgotten the garden of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, whence they were expelled by the decree of the lunar God Jehovah. Against Him they are in constant rebellion because He has tied them by THE UMBILICAL "CABLE TOW." They have lost their spiritual sight and are imprisoned in the forehead of the body where it is said Cain was marked; they must wander as prodigal sons in the comparative darkness of the material world, oblivious to their high and noble estate until they find the door of the temple, and ask and receive LIGHT; then as "PHREE MESSEN" or children of light they are instructed in methods of building a new temple without sound of hammer, and when the spirit realizes that it is far from its heavenly home, a prodigal, feeding upon the unsatisfactory husks of the material world, that apart from the Father it is "POOR, NAKED AND BLIND," when it knocks at the door of a mystic temple like that of the Rosicrucians and asks for light, when it receives the desired instruction after due qualification by building and ethereal soul-body, a temple or house eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, and without sound of hammer, when its nakedness is clothed with that house (see Cor. 4.5,) then the neophyte receives "THE WORD," the open sesame to the inner worlds and learns to travel in foreign parts in the invisible worlds. There he takes soul-flights into heavenly regions and qualifies for higher degrees under more direct instruction from THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE, who fashioned both heaven and earth.
Such is the temperament of THE WIDOW'S SONS inherited from their divine progenitor Samael and given by him to their ancestor Cain. Their past history is a struggle with adverse conditions, their achievement is victory wrested from all opposing forces by indomitable courage and persistent effort, unchecked by temporary defeat.
On the other hand while Cain, governed by divine ambition, toiled and tilled the soil to make two blades of grass grow where there was only one, ABEL, THE HUMAN PROGENY OF HUMAN PARENTS, felt no urge or unrest, himself a creature of Jehovah through Adam and Eve; he was perfectly contented to tend the flocks also created by God and to accept a livelihood from their divinely begotten increase without labor or exercising initiative. This docile attitude was most pleasing to the God Jehovah, who was extremely jealous of His prerogative as Creator. Therefore He cordially accepted the offering of Abel obtained without effort or initiative, but scorned the offering of Cain because derived through his own divine creative instinct akin to that of Jehovah. Cain then slew Abel, but did not thereby exterminate the docile creatures of Jehovah, for we are told ADAM KNEW EVE AGAIN AND SHE BORE SETH. Seth had the same characteristics as Abel and transmitted them to his descendants, who to this day, continue to trust to the Lord for everything, and WHO LIVE BY FAITH AND NOT BY WORK. By arduous and energetic application to the world's work the Sons of Cain have acquired worldly wisdom and temporal power. They have been captains of industry and masters of STATECRAFT, while the Sons of Seth, looking to the Lord for guidance, have become the avenue for divine and spiritual wisdom. They constitute the PRIESTCRAFT. The animosity of Cain and Abel has been perpetuated from generation to generation among their respective descendants. Nor could it be otherwise, because one class as temporal rulers aim to lift humanity to physical well-being through conquest of the material world, while the Priesthood is their role as spiritual guides urge their followers to forsake the wicked world, the vale of tears, and look to God for comfort. One school aims to turn out MASTER workmen, skilled in the use of tools wherewith they may wrest a livelihood from the earth, which was cursed by their divine adversary Jehovah. The other produces MASTER MAGICIANS, skilled in the use of the tongue in invocation, and by the use of the tongue they gain support from the toilers here and pray themselves and their charges into heaven hereafter.
After the future in store for the Sons of Cain and their followers, the temple legend is also most eloquent. It states that from Cain descended Methuselah, who invented writing, Tubal Cain, a cunning worker in metals, and Jubal, who originated music. In short, THE SONS OF CAIN ARE THE ORIGINATORS OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS. Therefore when Jehovah chose Solomon, the scion of the race of Seth, to build a house for his name, the sublime spirituality of a long line of divinely guided ancestors flowered into the conception of the magnificent temple called Solomon's Temple, though Solomon has only the instrument to carry out the divine plan revealed by Jehovah to David. But Solomon was unable to execute the divine design in concrete form. Therefore it became necessary for him to apply to King Hiram of Tyre, the descendent of Cain, who selected HIRAM ABIFF, THE SON OF A WIDOW, (as all Free Masons are called because of the relation of their divine progenitor with Eve.) Hiram Abiff then became Grand Master of the army of construction. In him the arts and crafts of all the Sons of Cain who had gone before had flowered. He was skilled beyond all others in the work of the world, without which the plan of Jehovah must have remained forever a divine dream, and could never have become a concrete reality. The worldly acumen of the Sons of Cain was as necessary to the completion of this temple as the spiritual conception of the Sons of Seth, and, therefore, during the period of construction the two classes joined forces, the underlying enmity being hidden under a superficial show of amity. It was, indeed, the first attempt to unite them, and had that been accomplished the world history from then on would have been altered in a very material manner.
The Sons of Cain, descended from the fiery Lucifer Spirits, were naturally proficient in the use of FIRE. By it the metals hoarded by Solomon and his ancestors were melted into altars, lavers and vessels of various kinds. Pillars were fashioned by workmen under the direction of Hiram Abiff, and arches to rest upon them. The great edifice was nearing completion when he made ready to cast the "molten sea," which was to be the crowning effort, his masterpiece. It was in the construction of this great work that the treachery of the Sons of Seth became manifest and frustrated the divine plan of reconciliation. They tried to quench the fire used by Hiram Abiff with their natural weapon, WATER, and almost succeeded.
According to the Bible, our earliest parents were forbidden to eat of THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, but Eve, seduced by the serpent, did eat and later induced the man to follow her example. Who the serpents are and what the Tree of Knowledge is may also be determined from certain passages in the Bible. We are told, for instance, that Christ exhorted his disciples to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." The so-called curse pronounced upon Eve after her confession declares that she must bear her children in sorrow and pain and that the race will die. It has always been a great stumbling block to Bible commentators as to what connection there could be between the eating of an apple, death, and painful parturition; but when we are acquainted with the chaste expressions of the Bible, which designates the creative act by such passages as "Adam KNEW Eve and she bore Abel," "How can I bear a child seeing I KNOW not a man?" et cetera, it is very evident that the Tree of Knowledge is a symbolical expression for the creative act. Then it is plain that the serpents taught Eve how to perform the creative act and that Eve instructed Adam. Therefore, Christ designated the serpents as harmful while admitting their wisdom. To get at the identity of the serpent it is necessary to invoke the esoteric teaching, which points them out as the martial Lucifer Spirits, rulers of the serpentine sign Scorpio. Their Initiates, even so late as the Egyptian Dynasty, wore the URAEUS or serpent symbol in the forehead as a sign of the source of their wisdom.
As a consequence of this unauthorized use of the creative force, humanity ceased to be ethereal and crystallized into the COATS OF SKIN or physical body which now hides from them the gods who dwell in the invisible realms; and great was their sorrow at this loss.
GENERATION had been originally established by the Angels under Jehovah. It was then performed in great temples under propitious planetary conditions and parturition was then painless, as it is today among wild animals where the creative function is not abused for the purpose of gratifying the senses.
DEGENERATION resulted from the ignorant and unauthorized abuse inaugurated by the Lucifer Spirits.
REGENERATION must be undertaken in order to restore man to his lost estate as a spiritual being and to free him from this body of death wherein he is now encrusted. Death must be swallowed up in Immortality.
To attain this object, a covenant was made with humanity when it was expelled from the garden of God to wander in the wilderness of the world. According to that plan, a Tabernacle was built after a pattern planned by God, Jehovah, and an ark symbolical of the human spirit was placed in it. Its staves were never taken out of their place, to show that man is a pilgrim on the earth and may never rest until he reaches the goal. There was within it a golden pot with "MANNA" (man) "FALLEN FROM HEAVEN," together with a statement of the divine laws which man must learn in his pilgrimage through the wilderness of matter. This symbolic ark contained also a magic wand, an emblem of the spiritual powers, called AARON'S ROD, which are now latent in everyone on his way to the haven of rest--the mystic temple of Solomon. The Old Testament also tells how humanity was miraculously led and provided for, how after the warfare with the world it was given peace and prosperity by the before mentioned King Solomon; in short, stripped of all embellishments the story relates the salient facts of man's descent from heaven, his principal metamorphoses, his transgression of the laws of the God Jehovah would wish to guide him in the future till he reaches the Kingdom of Heaven- -the land of peace--and again docilely follows the lead of the Divine Ruler.
THE MASONIC LEGEND has points of variance from as well as agreement with the Bible story. It states that Jehovah created EVE, that the Lucifer Spirit SAMAEL united with her but that he was ousted by Jehovah and forced to leave her before the birth of her son Cain, who was thus THE SON OF A WIDOW. Then Jehovah created ADAM, to be the husband of Eve, and from their union Abel was born. Thus from the beginning there have been two kinds of people in the world. One begotten by the Lucifer Spirit Samael and partaking of a semi-divine nature imbued with the dynamic martial energy inherited from this divine ancestry, is aggressive, progressive, and possessed of great initiative, but impatient of restraint or authority whether human or divine. This class is loath to take things on faith and prone to prove all things by the light of reason. These people BELIEVE IN WORKS rather than faith, and by their dauntless courage and inexhaustible energy they have transformed the trackless wilderness of the world to a garden full of life and beauty, so lovely in fact that THE SONS OF CAIN have forgotten the garden of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, whence they were expelled by the decree of the lunar God Jehovah. Against Him they are in constant rebellion because He has tied them by THE UMBILICAL "CABLE TOW." They have lost their spiritual sight and are imprisoned in the forehead of the body where it is said Cain was marked; they must wander as prodigal sons in the comparative darkness of the material world, oblivious to their high and noble estate until they find the door of the temple, and ask and receive LIGHT; then as "PHREE MESSEN" or children of light they are instructed in methods of building a new temple without sound of hammer, and when the spirit realizes that it is far from its heavenly home, a prodigal, feeding upon the unsatisfactory husks of the material world, that apart from the Father it is "POOR, NAKED AND BLIND," when it knocks at the door of a mystic temple like that of the Rosicrucians and asks for light, when it receives the desired instruction after due qualification by building and ethereal soul-body, a temple or house eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, and without sound of hammer, when its nakedness is clothed with that house (see Cor. 4.5,) then the neophyte receives "THE WORD," the open sesame to the inner worlds and learns to travel in foreign parts in the invisible worlds. There he takes soul-flights into heavenly regions and qualifies for higher degrees under more direct instruction from THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE, who fashioned both heaven and earth.
Such is the temperament of THE WIDOW'S SONS inherited from their divine progenitor Samael and given by him to their ancestor Cain. Their past history is a struggle with adverse conditions, their achievement is victory wrested from all opposing forces by indomitable courage and persistent effort, unchecked by temporary defeat.
On the other hand while Cain, governed by divine ambition, toiled and tilled the soil to make two blades of grass grow where there was only one, ABEL, THE HUMAN PROGENY OF HUMAN PARENTS, felt no urge or unrest, himself a creature of Jehovah through Adam and Eve; he was perfectly contented to tend the flocks also created by God and to accept a livelihood from their divinely begotten increase without labor or exercising initiative. This docile attitude was most pleasing to the God Jehovah, who was extremely jealous of His prerogative as Creator. Therefore He cordially accepted the offering of Abel obtained without effort or initiative, but scorned the offering of Cain because derived through his own divine creative instinct akin to that of Jehovah. Cain then slew Abel, but did not thereby exterminate the docile creatures of Jehovah, for we are told ADAM KNEW EVE AGAIN AND SHE BORE SETH. Seth had the same characteristics as Abel and transmitted them to his descendants, who to this day, continue to trust to the Lord for everything, and WHO LIVE BY FAITH AND NOT BY WORK. By arduous and energetic application to the world's work the Sons of Cain have acquired worldly wisdom and temporal power. They have been captains of industry and masters of STATECRAFT, while the Sons of Seth, looking to the Lord for guidance, have become the avenue for divine and spiritual wisdom. They constitute the PRIESTCRAFT. The animosity of Cain and Abel has been perpetuated from generation to generation among their respective descendants. Nor could it be otherwise, because one class as temporal rulers aim to lift humanity to physical well-being through conquest of the material world, while the Priesthood is their role as spiritual guides urge their followers to forsake the wicked world, the vale of tears, and look to God for comfort. One school aims to turn out MASTER workmen, skilled in the use of tools wherewith they may wrest a livelihood from the earth, which was cursed by their divine adversary Jehovah. The other produces MASTER MAGICIANS, skilled in the use of the tongue in invocation, and by the use of the tongue they gain support from the toilers here and pray themselves and their charges into heaven hereafter.
After the future in store for the Sons of Cain and their followers, the temple legend is also most eloquent. It states that from Cain descended Methuselah, who invented writing, Tubal Cain, a cunning worker in metals, and Jubal, who originated music. In short, THE SONS OF CAIN ARE THE ORIGINATORS OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS. Therefore when Jehovah chose Solomon, the scion of the race of Seth, to build a house for his name, the sublime spirituality of a long line of divinely guided ancestors flowered into the conception of the magnificent temple called Solomon's Temple, though Solomon has only the instrument to carry out the divine plan revealed by Jehovah to David. But Solomon was unable to execute the divine design in concrete form. Therefore it became necessary for him to apply to King Hiram of Tyre, the descendent of Cain, who selected HIRAM ABIFF, THE SON OF A WIDOW, (as all Free Masons are called because of the relation of their divine progenitor with Eve.) Hiram Abiff then became Grand Master of the army of construction. In him the arts and crafts of all the Sons of Cain who had gone before had flowered. He was skilled beyond all others in the work of the world, without which the plan of Jehovah must have remained forever a divine dream, and could never have become a concrete reality. The worldly acumen of the Sons of Cain was as necessary to the completion of this temple as the spiritual conception of the Sons of Seth, and, therefore, during the period of construction the two classes joined forces, the underlying enmity being hidden under a superficial show of amity. It was, indeed, the first attempt to unite them, and had that been accomplished the world history from then on would have been altered in a very material manner.
The Sons of Cain, descended from the fiery Lucifer Spirits, were naturally proficient in the use of FIRE. By it the metals hoarded by Solomon and his ancestors were melted into altars, lavers and vessels of various kinds. Pillars were fashioned by workmen under the direction of Hiram Abiff, and arches to rest upon them. The great edifice was nearing completion when he made ready to cast the "molten sea," which was to be the crowning effort, his masterpiece. It was in the construction of this great work that the treachery of the Sons of Seth became manifest and frustrated the divine plan of reconciliation. They tried to quench the fire used by Hiram Abiff with their natural weapon, WATER, and almost succeeded.
THOUGHTLESSNESS
THOUGHTLESSNESS
The noblest tool of the Mason is his mind, but its value is measured by the use made of it. Thoughtful in all things, the aspiring candidate to divine wisdom attains reality in sincere desire, in meditation, and in silence. Let the keynote of the Craft, and of the Ritual, be written in blazing letters: THINK OF ME. What is the meaning of this mystic maze of symbols, rites and rituals? THINK! What does life mean, with the criss-crossings of human relationship, the endless pageantry of qualities masqueradin g in a carnival of fools? THINK! What is the plan behind it all, and who the planner? Where dwells the Great Architect, and what is the tracing board upon which he designs? THINK! What is the human soul, and why the endless yearning to ends unknown, along pathways where each must wander unaccompanied? Why mind, why soul, why spirit, and in truth, why anything? THINK! Is there an answer? If so, where will the truth be found? Think, Brothers o f the Craft, think deeply; for if truth exists, you have it, and if truth be within the reach of living creature, what other goal is worth the struggle?
The noblest tool of the Mason is his mind, but its value is measured by the use made of it. Thoughtful in all things, the aspiring candidate to divine wisdom attains reality in sincere desire, in meditation, and in silence. Let the keynote of the Craft, and of the Ritual, be written in blazing letters: THINK OF ME. What is the meaning of this mystic maze of symbols, rites and rituals? THINK! What does life mean, with the criss-crossings of human relationship, the endless pageantry of qualities masqueradin g in a carnival of fools? THINK! What is the plan behind it all, and who the planner? Where dwells the Great Architect, and what is the tracing board upon which he designs? THINK! What is the human soul, and why the endless yearning to ends unknown, along pathways where each must wander unaccompanied? Why mind, why soul, why spirit, and in truth, why anything? THINK! Is there an answer? If so, where will the truth be found? Think, Brothers o f the Craft, think deeply; for if truth exists, you have it, and if truth be within the reach of living creature, what other goal is worth the struggle?
Is this "link" to Albert Pike one reason Freemasonry gets a bad rap?
The creation of Israel was never an end in itself. It has always been a means to an end. All along, the plan has been to target the Islamic world to trigger a global war that would set the world ablaze and lead to the 'solution' of centralised control of the planet and all its peoples. To do that they needed to create a point of conflict, a power keg, among the Arab countries that could be exploded to start another global conflict. This is the real reason for the creation of Israel and the real reason why the United States has spent its billions building up Israel's might and military.
Albert Pike, a Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and Illuminati to the core, is alleged to have written a letter in 1871 to an infamous Illuminati operative, Guissepe Mazzini, in which he outlined the three world wars that would lead to global domination.
The first war, he is supposed to have written, would overthrow the Czars in Russia through a conflict between the British and Germanic Empires; and the second would lead to political Zionism being strong enough to install a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. Now there are many who say the letter never existed, but what is interesting, in the light of current events, is what he is supposed to have said about World War Three:
'The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of the Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile, the other nations, once more divided on this issue, will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion ...We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.
Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.'
Source: Cmdr.William Guy Carr, former Intelligence Officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, quoted in Satan: Prince of This World.
If Pike did not write that, then the faker was some prophet. The Illuminati agenda all along has been to create so much war, conflict and upheaval of every kind that the people agree to be ruled by a centralised global dictatorship to 'solve the problems' these perceived 'saviours' have actually created. It is the technique I have dubbed Problem-Reaction-Solution. You covertly create the problem and then overtly offer the solution ... the change you want to impose on the world.
David Icke
The spreading of this type of material can spurn much hatred towards the group he belonged to and fuel ignorant hatred towards all Freemasons.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Globe allegory
The Sun and Moon with all the firmament appeared first. They stood still, a colour indeed they had, but gave no light. Beneath them also there appeared the Globe of the Earth having a colour. In whose centre there was a little globe of most white and shining colour like snow. While I beheld all these, there was made a most horrible thunder with a great noise and fiery flash, which much affrightened me. A great cloud came also, which going away a start was seen above the Sun, Moon and firmament, whose shining was so bright, that I could not fix my eye upon it, with its redness it exceeded the redness of the Sun. As soon as ever this Star appeared the whole firmament with the Sun and Moon began to run their race and dance. In the meantime the said Star darted fiery rays from above, through the exterior firmament. Of which sometimes more, sometimes fewer, some also by halves were carried upon the Globe, but the little globe received the smallest part of these rays. Those rays whose halves only entered the Globe, moved the waters, that they might flow, and fish might be seen in them. The other rays made the great Globe begin to live, and bring forth all sorts of trees and fruits, and which also animals and men did walk. But the part of the rays which entered into the small globe, so moved it, that it began to boil like water in a pot, and dispersed out of itself a white clear and pure vapour in the form of a Star even unto the root of the trees and herbs. Then out of this globe or white shining star there began, but yet slowly enough to grow all sorts of trees and herbs, and tended towards the circumference of the globe, and when they almost attained to it; behold, two white stoney Mountains arose and were opened out of each end of the globe. In the meantime I saw the herbs and trees continually go forward in their growth that the Mountain at length bore flowers of all sorts and colours which again were shut and changed into red, yellow, green and white knots. The knots of the Mountain on the right hand were small and transparent, but those on the left greater, but not transparent. In the meantime the superior and greater Star sent continually out more Rays, by the benefit of which more herbs and trees always grew. At last a voice was heard crying out this clearly and aloud, "Blessed be God, who created this Star. This shall be called always the star of Wisdom and the eternal light".
[ End of first part - then follow a number of folios of questions and answers in interpreting this vision]
While I was running all this over in my mind, and have harkened to a chiding long enough, I seemed to stand on sharp thorns and stones, and while I contemplated this vision in a deep valley, I took notice of some noise behind me such a one as one clothed in a silken garment used to make by the rustling of his clothes, when I therefore looked about me, Behold, there appeared a certain grey-haired man, who had let his beard grow down as low as his girdle, arrayed in a long black garment, carrying in one hand a pair of compasses, and in the other a square or a rule, who passed silently by, and hastened to the Globe, whose tallness more and more increased, so that he by half the height of his body exceeded the Globe higher than a high house, and with his head reached even to the Sun.
This old man having set his compasses on the centre measured the globe about, that it might be made equally round, then having set his compass on the square, he said "Multiplication has been three times made in it". Afterwards he again placed the compasses on the height of the Globe, and took the measure of it even up to the firmanent, and from the firmament up to the highest Starr, and crying out with a great fearful outcry, he broke forth in these words "This is one of the four cut off by three". He afterwards drew two lines from the highest Star to the Globe, which another drawn a new Globe, white, transparent and resembling the greeness of an Emerald, with a Sun transparent and more clear than ordinary, and the whole firmament, but no burning about as yet being observed. Hence the old man crying out said "Praised be God, that at length malice is oppressed, and truth made manifest. Rejoice ye Sons of Light that an end of Darkness is made. The Sun shall set no more, but shine to you forever, nor shall it ever be obscured from you", who having so said disappeared.
To this revelation my principal adding a conclusion said "You must take great care of this figure, because in it the signification of your work is contained. In this figure I say there lies hid the secret of all secrets, as well concerning natural as supernatural things, which surpass mans understanding. Yet if you shall be honest and godly and place your confidence in God you shall get all these".
[ End of first part - then follow a number of folios of questions and answers in interpreting this vision]
While I was running all this over in my mind, and have harkened to a chiding long enough, I seemed to stand on sharp thorns and stones, and while I contemplated this vision in a deep valley, I took notice of some noise behind me such a one as one clothed in a silken garment used to make by the rustling of his clothes, when I therefore looked about me, Behold, there appeared a certain grey-haired man, who had let his beard grow down as low as his girdle, arrayed in a long black garment, carrying in one hand a pair of compasses, and in the other a square or a rule, who passed silently by, and hastened to the Globe, whose tallness more and more increased, so that he by half the height of his body exceeded the Globe higher than a high house, and with his head reached even to the Sun.
This old man having set his compasses on the centre measured the globe about, that it might be made equally round, then having set his compass on the square, he said "Multiplication has been three times made in it". Afterwards he again placed the compasses on the height of the Globe, and took the measure of it even up to the firmanent, and from the firmament up to the highest Starr, and crying out with a great fearful outcry, he broke forth in these words "This is one of the four cut off by three". He afterwards drew two lines from the highest Star to the Globe, which another drawn a new Globe, white, transparent and resembling the greeness of an Emerald, with a Sun transparent and more clear than ordinary, and the whole firmament, but no burning about as yet being observed. Hence the old man crying out said "Praised be God, that at length malice is oppressed, and truth made manifest. Rejoice ye Sons of Light that an end of Darkness is made. The Sun shall set no more, but shine to you forever, nor shall it ever be obscured from you", who having so said disappeared.
To this revelation my principal adding a conclusion said "You must take great care of this figure, because in it the signification of your work is contained. In this figure I say there lies hid the secret of all secrets, as well concerning natural as supernatural things, which surpass mans understanding. Yet if you shall be honest and godly and place your confidence in God you shall get all these".
Friday, July 28, 2006
The Goal of Philosophy
Today is the hope of the world. Here and now we are welding that great chain of Tomorrows which extends from the instant to infinity. We live not for ourselves alone but for all futurity. Our accomplishments survive us, for long after we have descended into the earth the orders which we have established shall dominate the activities of men. The world is an ancestral shrine filled with the mortuary tablets of the honored dead. We bow before our illustrious progenitors. We are the substance of their aspirations, the consummation of their dreams, for Today is the focal point of Time. We are all that has been about to be projected into all that shall be. Each human soul holds Eternity in suspension. Recognizing this truth, several modern scientists have formulated the theory that immortality is achieved through a succession of lives -- that the father achieves immortality in his son, the son in his progeny, and so on to the end of generation. The torch of life which each expiring personality hands on to another does not go out; it is immortal, but he who bears it must perish by the way. Men are but incidents in the flow of life, yet they have a strange power; for while they cannot cause the vital flame to blaze up from nothing-ness, they are empowered to snuff it out, and when generations cease the countless ages die together.
To be is to be immortal, for that which has been can never utterly cease. The past hovers like a mirage in the air. Men feel its presence; they breathe it in and, enveloped by it, live their little Now. Upon the surface of their polished mirrors, the ancient Magi caught faint visions of forgotten times. Within the next century we shall discover that history is written in the air; that so-called space itself is photographic, preserving, as on a sensitized place, the varied activities of created things. Egypt as a physical empire has long crumbled into dust, but upon each minute particle of the atmosphere the glory of ancient Egypt is preserved for all time to be. Men speak words and these words seemingly vanish into nothing-ness, but in the living substances of the
universe these selfsame words are traced in everlasting characters to be read in some distant time by men as yet unborn. Thoughts unuttered are not wholly lost nor do dreams perish because their dreamer dares not give them speech. Somewhere in the infinite vistas of space, impressed as it were upon the memory of the Infinite and sharing together a common immortality, all aspirations, all visions, and all deeds await the day when men with unfolding reason will bind all time into a common Now.
In his experiments with plants, the late Luther Burbank found substantiation for the scientific concept of immortality through progeny. The doctrine of natural salvation, as it is called, was demonstrated to Burbank through phenomena arising from the cross-pollination of plants. For example, Burbank pollenized a variety of plants bearing white flowers with another variety bearing colored flowers, and as a result secured plants some of which were wholly white, others wholly colored, and still others of mixed appearance. Taking a white plant from this cross-pollenization test, Burbank pollenized it with another white plant, the result being a number of new plants all white. Taking one of the latter, he again pollenized it with white and the result was again white. This experiment was repeated ten times. In every case the flowers were entirely white, but the eleventh time several blossoms reverted back to the original colored plant, thereby proving that, though latent for a considerable period, the elements of the first cross-pollination survived to reappear again. The original colored shrub had died long before its activities reappeared among the white blossoms, but Burbank recognized in this phenomena the immortality of the colored flower which was reborn again in its own progeny.
To Burbank, man was but a human plant, and the great horticulturist solved the philosophic problem of his life by observing the habits of the growing things in his garden. If after the lapse of ten pollenizations the identity of a distant progenitor was re-established, was it not reasonable to assume that men are born again to blossom forth in their descendants? Is not immortality the carrying forward of a primitive trace and is not the urge which we feel within ourselves the voice of some ancestral impulse? For the physical thinker, to whom the invisible universe is simply a vast mechanism and spirit an unnecessary hypothesis, there can be no immortality other than that which is carried in the seed. How small a germ man springs from, yet how much that germ contains; for in each wriggling sperm is the man with character, personality, and individuality. From so slight a beginning, what great issues come; for in the single tiny germ are contained not only the epitome of all the past but also all the greatness that is to follow.
The philosopher takes issue with the scientist not as to the accuracy of the conclusion but rather as to the field to which the conclusion is applied. A fact is a fact, but for lack of clarification may often seem half a lie. Recognizing only the physical universe, the savant limits all his premises to physical concerns, with the result that his discoveries are rendered of little value by false emphasis. If man were actually a body, then physical immortality would be his hope and he would indeed survive in his progeny. But since man is not a physical body, the laws controlling the body are powerless over the intangible essence which resides within its innermost parts. Indwelling spirit is not to be measured wholly by its outer form. Body has hands and feet but spirit has not need of such appendages except when functioning in the physical world. Body has parts and dimensions but spirit is impartible and dimensionless. Thus, while the laws of physical generation produce the actual phenomena so carefully classified by Burbank, it does not necessarily follow that spirit, which is not material, is dependent upon generation for its survival. It is obvious that spirit depends upon generation for its manifestation in form, but such manifestation is merely a phase in the condition of spirit.
Heredity is limited to the sphere of generation; it is of the accidents and not the essence in man. Thus, while men may inherit physical tendencies -- even physical attitudes and, under some conditions, physical thoughts -- this shell of personality is soulless until he animates it with his own immortal principle and gradually shapes it into an appropriate destiny. Heredity only controls such as are incapable of controlling themselves. Steeped in the vibration of its previous states, the stuff from which bodies are made comes to each incarnating soul. The life into whose vehicles it was formerly incorporated set the minute atoms whirling at a definite speed and imprinted upon each of them its own purposes and characteristics. The child coming into the world must, therefore, battle with these strange vibrations, reorganizing the substances of its bodies into individual vehicles by overcoming the motion of past agencies and revibrating the electrons according to its own needs. To a far greater extent than man is the plant a victim of circumstances. To escape its environment, the plant must either die or trust to the unlikelihood of some gardener transplanting it to a more ideal habitat. Man, however, if his surroundings be incongenial, may move at will to an environment more propitious to his destiny.
The analogy may be projected into the invisible structures of both plants and men. The evolving plant life is still working through a vehicle too low in its organic quality to respond to the impulses of the inner agent. While man is empowered to resist the impulses of heredity as these incline his physical body in one direction or another, the plant must abide by the dictates of its formal part. The fallibility of the law of heredity has already been proved and additional evidence of its inaccuracy will be accumulated as evolving man takes more of his destiny into his own hands and relies less upon the elements of chance and environment. As the stars impel yet do not compel, so man's hereditary impulses traced upon the fabric of his atomic nature urge him to follow in the old accustomed way. The self, however, declares otherwise and one by one the impediments of heredity are overcome by the onward march of consciousness towards perfection.
Whereas science fights to maintain the dignity of form and the supremacy of matter throughout the universe, philosophy would establish the excellence of life and the rulership of all creation by its rational part. If we come to worship matter and elevate the physical universe to first place among the spheres, we can never hope to establish well-being in the nature of men or fellowship among the nations of the earth. The premise of material supremacy is wholly destructive of the moral sense and reduces ethics to a superstition and aesthetics to an artist's vagaries. All that is beautiful is thus sacrificed in the defense of a premise and the sovereign good is martyr to a notion. More cruel than Moloch even is the God of the materialist, for man will feed whole nations into the maw of greed. To remedy a condition, we must discover its cause. Man's boast of a godless age is his undoing, for he who destroys the concept of Deity destroys with it the sufficiency of his own internal nature. In his pride that he is now able to govern the universe unaided, the twentieth-century thinker has given the divinities on high Olympus notice to gather up their belongings and depart. The gods have obliged him. Their thrones are empty; they have left for some other sphere where mortals are less vain. But man is still unhappy. His boasted knowledge has brought him doubt, doubt terror, and terror has sapped away his strength. Afraid that his worst conclusions may yet be true, the materialist clings to his little ball of dirt, shuddering in anticipation of that day when he will be hurled therefrom into the abyss he himself has postulated. The soulless universe that his mind has declared, the heart of the thinker cannot accept. How strangely fickle is the mind that first from pure imaginings fashions a universal order and then, dissatisfied with the fabric it has spun, convicts High Heaven of its manmade inconsistencies!
To be is to be immortal, for that which has been can never utterly cease. The past hovers like a mirage in the air. Men feel its presence; they breathe it in and, enveloped by it, live their little Now. Upon the surface of their polished mirrors, the ancient Magi caught faint visions of forgotten times. Within the next century we shall discover that history is written in the air; that so-called space itself is photographic, preserving, as on a sensitized place, the varied activities of created things. Egypt as a physical empire has long crumbled into dust, but upon each minute particle of the atmosphere the glory of ancient Egypt is preserved for all time to be. Men speak words and these words seemingly vanish into nothing-ness, but in the living substances of the
universe these selfsame words are traced in everlasting characters to be read in some distant time by men as yet unborn. Thoughts unuttered are not wholly lost nor do dreams perish because their dreamer dares not give them speech. Somewhere in the infinite vistas of space, impressed as it were upon the memory of the Infinite and sharing together a common immortality, all aspirations, all visions, and all deeds await the day when men with unfolding reason will bind all time into a common Now.
In his experiments with plants, the late Luther Burbank found substantiation for the scientific concept of immortality through progeny. The doctrine of natural salvation, as it is called, was demonstrated to Burbank through phenomena arising from the cross-pollination of plants. For example, Burbank pollenized a variety of plants bearing white flowers with another variety bearing colored flowers, and as a result secured plants some of which were wholly white, others wholly colored, and still others of mixed appearance. Taking a white plant from this cross-pollenization test, Burbank pollenized it with another white plant, the result being a number of new plants all white. Taking one of the latter, he again pollenized it with white and the result was again white. This experiment was repeated ten times. In every case the flowers were entirely white, but the eleventh time several blossoms reverted back to the original colored plant, thereby proving that, though latent for a considerable period, the elements of the first cross-pollination survived to reappear again. The original colored shrub had died long before its activities reappeared among the white blossoms, but Burbank recognized in this phenomena the immortality of the colored flower which was reborn again in its own progeny.
To Burbank, man was but a human plant, and the great horticulturist solved the philosophic problem of his life by observing the habits of the growing things in his garden. If after the lapse of ten pollenizations the identity of a distant progenitor was re-established, was it not reasonable to assume that men are born again to blossom forth in their descendants? Is not immortality the carrying forward of a primitive trace and is not the urge which we feel within ourselves the voice of some ancestral impulse? For the physical thinker, to whom the invisible universe is simply a vast mechanism and spirit an unnecessary hypothesis, there can be no immortality other than that which is carried in the seed. How small a germ man springs from, yet how much that germ contains; for in each wriggling sperm is the man with character, personality, and individuality. From so slight a beginning, what great issues come; for in the single tiny germ are contained not only the epitome of all the past but also all the greatness that is to follow.
The philosopher takes issue with the scientist not as to the accuracy of the conclusion but rather as to the field to which the conclusion is applied. A fact is a fact, but for lack of clarification may often seem half a lie. Recognizing only the physical universe, the savant limits all his premises to physical concerns, with the result that his discoveries are rendered of little value by false emphasis. If man were actually a body, then physical immortality would be his hope and he would indeed survive in his progeny. But since man is not a physical body, the laws controlling the body are powerless over the intangible essence which resides within its innermost parts. Indwelling spirit is not to be measured wholly by its outer form. Body has hands and feet but spirit has not need of such appendages except when functioning in the physical world. Body has parts and dimensions but spirit is impartible and dimensionless. Thus, while the laws of physical generation produce the actual phenomena so carefully classified by Burbank, it does not necessarily follow that spirit, which is not material, is dependent upon generation for its survival. It is obvious that spirit depends upon generation for its manifestation in form, but such manifestation is merely a phase in the condition of spirit.
Heredity is limited to the sphere of generation; it is of the accidents and not the essence in man. Thus, while men may inherit physical tendencies -- even physical attitudes and, under some conditions, physical thoughts -- this shell of personality is soulless until he animates it with his own immortal principle and gradually shapes it into an appropriate destiny. Heredity only controls such as are incapable of controlling themselves. Steeped in the vibration of its previous states, the stuff from which bodies are made comes to each incarnating soul. The life into whose vehicles it was formerly incorporated set the minute atoms whirling at a definite speed and imprinted upon each of them its own purposes and characteristics. The child coming into the world must, therefore, battle with these strange vibrations, reorganizing the substances of its bodies into individual vehicles by overcoming the motion of past agencies and revibrating the electrons according to its own needs. To a far greater extent than man is the plant a victim of circumstances. To escape its environment, the plant must either die or trust to the unlikelihood of some gardener transplanting it to a more ideal habitat. Man, however, if his surroundings be incongenial, may move at will to an environment more propitious to his destiny.
The analogy may be projected into the invisible structures of both plants and men. The evolving plant life is still working through a vehicle too low in its organic quality to respond to the impulses of the inner agent. While man is empowered to resist the impulses of heredity as these incline his physical body in one direction or another, the plant must abide by the dictates of its formal part. The fallibility of the law of heredity has already been proved and additional evidence of its inaccuracy will be accumulated as evolving man takes more of his destiny into his own hands and relies less upon the elements of chance and environment. As the stars impel yet do not compel, so man's hereditary impulses traced upon the fabric of his atomic nature urge him to follow in the old accustomed way. The self, however, declares otherwise and one by one the impediments of heredity are overcome by the onward march of consciousness towards perfection.
Whereas science fights to maintain the dignity of form and the supremacy of matter throughout the universe, philosophy would establish the excellence of life and the rulership of all creation by its rational part. If we come to worship matter and elevate the physical universe to first place among the spheres, we can never hope to establish well-being in the nature of men or fellowship among the nations of the earth. The premise of material supremacy is wholly destructive of the moral sense and reduces ethics to a superstition and aesthetics to an artist's vagaries. All that is beautiful is thus sacrificed in the defense of a premise and the sovereign good is martyr to a notion. More cruel than Moloch even is the God of the materialist, for man will feed whole nations into the maw of greed. To remedy a condition, we must discover its cause. Man's boast of a godless age is his undoing, for he who destroys the concept of Deity destroys with it the sufficiency of his own internal nature. In his pride that he is now able to govern the universe unaided, the twentieth-century thinker has given the divinities on high Olympus notice to gather up their belongings and depart. The gods have obliged him. Their thrones are empty; they have left for some other sphere where mortals are less vain. But man is still unhappy. His boasted knowledge has brought him doubt, doubt terror, and terror has sapped away his strength. Afraid that his worst conclusions may yet be true, the materialist clings to his little ball of dirt, shuddering in anticipation of that day when he will be hurled therefrom into the abyss he himself has postulated. The soulless universe that his mind has declared, the heart of the thinker cannot accept. How strangely fickle is the mind that first from pure imaginings fashions a universal order and then, dissatisfied with the fabric it has spun, convicts High Heaven of its manmade inconsistencies!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Prince Hall Fish Fry
I attended a Prince Hall Fish Fry put on by Eureka #52 on Saturday. It started around 11:00am and ran until 5:00pm. I showed up early and gave a hand any way they needed. I talked with new masons as well as old masons. We had discussions ranging from "Why one GL recognizes Prince Halls and another won't." The power structure and similarity between the The Church/Vatican and the Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite. Authority given to individuals over a vast majority. The unity between Lodges and the genuine care and love for the candidates of the other Lodges. The candidates come through as a class, and a degree team does the raising, so men from one Lodge will get to know incoming MM's from the other Lodges. If a candidate is not ready to progress, he will be held back. Also, if an officer is not ready to move forward, he will not progress and might even be dropped. In my Lodge, it is an express way to the east. We talked about how officers must do required tasks within the lesture. By the time a man goes to the east, he has already done both both the EA and FC from the east prior to being elected.
The fish fry brought in many members from the Blue Lodges as well as many OES. There was a good contingency of young women involved with the OES as well as many young MM's. I did not see any candidates there, and I was told they really do not get to participate in functions until fully vested in the fraternity. Could make one hungry to learn their stuff. One brother offered to come to our Lodge to do an educational piece on The Sprig of Accacia.
I was there until 5:00pm, had a few beers, some perch and learned howed to play competative dominoes. It was excellent to have fellowship with masons who have a different history and evolution of their craft. The manner in which the due guards and signs given are slightly different, but the same. Many brothers want to come to our lodge and show support and help out if needed. I hope we can have a regular masonic relationship with the four blue lodges whether travelling to their lodge or they travelling to ours.
I hope the wonderful bonds of masonry that is forming between my brothers and the Prince Halls will finally make its way to the 10 GL's that still refuse to recognize. I'm not totally sure as to how and why MM's can get away with what one would seem to be a direct violation of UGLE's code of recognition? I also thought masons did not discriminate by race or religion? How is it in the 21st century that grown, educated men still discriminate by color? The men who are supposed to lead the lesser informed down the path of enlightenment, can't see past the color of anothers skin? When, brothers will a stand be taken? When, brothers, will ALL GL's lead by example and honor their own tenets? When will ALL the GL's walk the walk instead of talking the talk?
The fish fry brought in many members from the Blue Lodges as well as many OES. There was a good contingency of young women involved with the OES as well as many young MM's. I did not see any candidates there, and I was told they really do not get to participate in functions until fully vested in the fraternity. Could make one hungry to learn their stuff. One brother offered to come to our Lodge to do an educational piece on The Sprig of Accacia.
I was there until 5:00pm, had a few beers, some perch and learned howed to play competative dominoes. It was excellent to have fellowship with masons who have a different history and evolution of their craft. The manner in which the due guards and signs given are slightly different, but the same. Many brothers want to come to our lodge and show support and help out if needed. I hope we can have a regular masonic relationship with the four blue lodges whether travelling to their lodge or they travelling to ours.
I hope the wonderful bonds of masonry that is forming between my brothers and the Prince Halls will finally make its way to the 10 GL's that still refuse to recognize. I'm not totally sure as to how and why MM's can get away with what one would seem to be a direct violation of UGLE's code of recognition? I also thought masons did not discriminate by race or religion? How is it in the 21st century that grown, educated men still discriminate by color? The men who are supposed to lead the lesser informed down the path of enlightenment, can't see past the color of anothers skin? When, brothers will a stand be taken? When, brothers, will ALL GL's lead by example and honor their own tenets? When will ALL the GL's walk the walk instead of talking the talk?
Friday, July 21, 2006
My Third Prince Hall Visitation For Degree's and Fellowship
Last night myself and two other brethren attended a Prince Hall FC Degree. The night was again a phenomenal masonic experience. The Brotherhood shown between all the Brothers of 4 different Prince Hall Lodges comming together to do ritual on multiple candidates representing the 4 lodges is beautiful. Seeing men from one Blue Lodge caring about the candidates masonic experience from other Blue Lodges was refreshing. In my GL system, majority of men are possesive and want to hord and train their candidates and keep them in a box.
My first two experiences were in MM degrees and it was the most exciting and meaningful MM degrees I have been apart of. I was lucky enough to be on the fellowcraft team one time and a steward another. Last night for the FC degree, I was able to sit back and watch. The ritual is almost letter for letter the same, except for a little more religious undertone to their in their opening and closing with song and prayer. No biggie to me. But the lecture had more in it, more explainations of symbols and I, a PM, was more educated in that lecture than in any regular Blue Lodge I have attended or been apart of. It was a beautiful nite with great fellowship and livations afterwards. We are striking up great bonds with these brethren, and letting them know we, as young progressive masons, will not tolerate racism from any GL system and feel our own GL should step up to the plate and put pressure on the backwards, 18th century, southern masons who discriminate by color?
I always thought recognition was structured by UGLE. Meaning, if UGLE recognizes a particular masonic body, then by code, we should recognize any body that UGLE recognizes, period. I do not understand how GL's can circumvent that code? I do not understand the lack of integrity by other GL's not to put pressure on the few rogue GL's who are in violation of UGLE's mandated codes?
One day my GL might man up and take a stand and make all the non racist young masons proud of their "leaders" and represent the true meaning of masonry and put a stop to INTOLERANCE!
Any Brothers out there who have not attended a prince hall ritual, I advise you to do so. Strike up relations with these gentlemen. The fraternity can only get better and stronger by spreading Universal Brotherhood under the All Seeing Eye of a Deity.
Bothers, please lets all move forward and wake up to the wrongness of racial segregation, and unite as One Brotherhood!
Plus you may learn a few things about masonry visiting a prince hall lodge!
My first two experiences were in MM degrees and it was the most exciting and meaningful MM degrees I have been apart of. I was lucky enough to be on the fellowcraft team one time and a steward another. Last night for the FC degree, I was able to sit back and watch. The ritual is almost letter for letter the same, except for a little more religious undertone to their in their opening and closing with song and prayer. No biggie to me. But the lecture had more in it, more explainations of symbols and I, a PM, was more educated in that lecture than in any regular Blue Lodge I have attended or been apart of. It was a beautiful nite with great fellowship and livations afterwards. We are striking up great bonds with these brethren, and letting them know we, as young progressive masons, will not tolerate racism from any GL system and feel our own GL should step up to the plate and put pressure on the backwards, 18th century, southern masons who discriminate by color?
I always thought recognition was structured by UGLE. Meaning, if UGLE recognizes a particular masonic body, then by code, we should recognize any body that UGLE recognizes, period. I do not understand how GL's can circumvent that code? I do not understand the lack of integrity by other GL's not to put pressure on the few rogue GL's who are in violation of UGLE's mandated codes?
One day my GL might man up and take a stand and make all the non racist young masons proud of their "leaders" and represent the true meaning of masonry and put a stop to INTOLERANCE!
Any Brothers out there who have not attended a prince hall ritual, I advise you to do so. Strike up relations with these gentlemen. The fraternity can only get better and stronger by spreading Universal Brotherhood under the All Seeing Eye of a Deity.
Bothers, please lets all move forward and wake up to the wrongness of racial segregation, and unite as One Brotherhood!
Plus you may learn a few things about masonry visiting a prince hall lodge!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Interview with Sol
[Copyright 1987 by Robert J. Nemiroff]
Interview with Sol
Mornings just wouldn't be the same without him. He really does light up our life. But did we ever thank him, even once? No, never. We should consider ourselves lucky that he doesn't get overheated. Astronomy Magazine thus decided to thank that wonderful star of ours, Sol, for all those billions of years of free sunlight; tax free sunlight. We also thanked him for that really great gravitational field of his that keeps us from cavorting around the galaxy. To our surprise he granted us an exclusive interview. We found out that being a star isn't always sunshine.
Astronomy Magazine: Mr. Sun, how did you become a star?
Sol, our Sun: Please, call me Sol. I answered an ad. "Galaxy Now Forming, Stars Needed." The ad made it look real easy. Just sit around, make hydrogen into helium. Have everyone look up to you. Have a career where you can really shine. And I always thought I had what it took to be a star, you know. I was young, I had great big clouds of hydrogen.
The actual triggering event was the tragic death of a star right in our own neighborhood. This shocked me and a lot of other large young gas regions into several new stages of development. It totally changed our future. Ironically, many of us eventually decided we wanted to become stars ourselves.
AM: Your future must be very bright.
Sol: Well it's not so easy being a star. First of all, you have to be made of the right stuff. And not only spunk and perseverance, also 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. But I have all that. It's the work schedule that's really impossible. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you really can't take a day off without people getting annoyed.
AM: Are there a special class you had to be part of?
Sol: Yes, luminosity class. I, of course, wanted to be in the first class, but it turned out that was only for the brightest super-stars: the industry giants. It turns out I was put at the bottom. Class five. The other classes all made fun of us. "Dwarf stars" they would call us.
AM: How did you do in your spectral studies?
Sol: Not very well. I wasn't in the hottest class there either. I thought I had "A" potential, but after a while I was afraid they would give me an "F". But it even got worse: "F" wasn't low enough for me. I got a "G". Oh, I felt bad for a while, I went through a real solar minimum. But soon I found out lots of stars get "G's"; or even lower. Turns out "G's" out-number "A's" 30 to 1.
AM: Are you happy with your home galaxy: the Milky Way?
Sol: Well, when I signed on, I though we were going places. I thought we would take on the universe, as a team. Adventure, action, 100 billion stars, all together in one galactic union. Now that, I thought, was power. But all we ever do is go in circles. I've been around the center 60 times or so, it's no big deal. Spiral arms - one millennium your in them - the next your out - they're fickle. The Andromeda galaxy is really no better; it's the same story there. Now the Virgo Cluster - that's where all the local action turned out to be.
I mean the Milky Way is OK and everything. It's a little dusty, I guess, but at least it's stable. We haven't been disrupted by any other galaxies or anything. We even have our little groupies: the Magellanic Clouds, galaxies like that. It's home.
AM: When did you decide to have planets?
Sol: Very early in life, although I'm not exactly sure when - that part of my life was very nebulous. I didn't really plan to have planets because I never had a steady companion. They just sort of spun off of my care-free early life style.
AM: Do you have trouble keeping the planets in line?
Sol: I'll say. I thought it would be easy - I'm hundreds of times bigger than they are. Have some planets, they said, they won't perturb you much. But they're running rings around me. Mercury won't keep to a Newtonian orbit - the darn things' precessing all over the place. Uranus fell over. Jupiter's getting all spotty. Saturn has ring-around-the-collar. And Earth: please turn down your radio; the emission is much too loud, the other planets are complaining.
AM: Do you have any complaints?
Sol: Well, there is one: privacy. I know that when you become a star you give up a lot of personal privacy. But what happened was ridiculous. There are people looking at me at all times of the day. And they're not just looking, they're using telescopes. Big telescopes. They look at my back, my front; no place is sacred. Privacy is really a problem.
And sometimes I break out in those unsightly sunspots. You know, those dark magnetic depressions. You would hope they would look the other way, save me some embarrassment. No way. They take pictures. It's incredible. I break out in sunspots and next thing I know I'm on the cover of Astronomy Magazine or something.
And you know what really gets me. Sometimes I can't help myself. Sometimes I accidentally let go of a little gas. It's natural, it happens to everybody. "Solar Flares" they call it. They make movies of it. They tell their friends. Soon everyone is watching. I'm so embarrassed.
AM: This bothers you?
Sol: Oh yeah. Sometimes I get little mad. I think of implementing a little photon tax. Not much, just a penny or two per photon, or something like that. Just to let you know I'm here. Get a little respect once in a while. I could go on strike, you know. A few months without sunshine and you people would ante-up.
AM: How do you get along with the other stars in the solar neighborhood?
Sol: Pretty well. I don't interact with them as much as I used to. Sometimes we joke around, throw some snowballs at each other. But I'll tell you though, they're not happy with the privacy situation either. They claim that when you guys aren't looking at me during the day, you're looking at them at night. And with even bigger telescopes. Don't you ever stop?
AM: What's in the future for you?
Sol: Well, I'm not really so unhappy with my present job. It's a steady gig. Maybe in a few billion years I'll apply for Red Giant status. I don't have the helium yet. That's the key to being a good Red Giant - helium. But I'm saving up what I have. I'll get there. After that I'll probably just retire. Fade away slowly. Nothing like Brutus - he was crazy.
AM: We would like to thank you for all those years of warmth and sunlight. I think I speak for the whole planet when I say we're really grateful. Is there anything you wish to request of the people of earth?
Sol: Yes. Batteries. This fusion stuff is not going to last forever. Please send me 200 billion batteries. Didn't you people read the instruction manual? Size "Double D". And not those cheapies you find on sale.
Also a neutrino generator. One of mine seems to be on the blink.
by Robert J. Nemiroff
Appeared in Astronomy Magazine, 1988, Volume 16, Section 2, Page 104
Interview with Sol
Mornings just wouldn't be the same without him. He really does light up our life. But did we ever thank him, even once? No, never. We should consider ourselves lucky that he doesn't get overheated. Astronomy Magazine thus decided to thank that wonderful star of ours, Sol, for all those billions of years of free sunlight; tax free sunlight. We also thanked him for that really great gravitational field of his that keeps us from cavorting around the galaxy. To our surprise he granted us an exclusive interview. We found out that being a star isn't always sunshine.
Astronomy Magazine: Mr. Sun, how did you become a star?
Sol, our Sun: Please, call me Sol. I answered an ad. "Galaxy Now Forming, Stars Needed." The ad made it look real easy. Just sit around, make hydrogen into helium. Have everyone look up to you. Have a career where you can really shine. And I always thought I had what it took to be a star, you know. I was young, I had great big clouds of hydrogen.
The actual triggering event was the tragic death of a star right in our own neighborhood. This shocked me and a lot of other large young gas regions into several new stages of development. It totally changed our future. Ironically, many of us eventually decided we wanted to become stars ourselves.
AM: Your future must be very bright.
Sol: Well it's not so easy being a star. First of all, you have to be made of the right stuff. And not only spunk and perseverance, also 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. But I have all that. It's the work schedule that's really impossible. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you really can't take a day off without people getting annoyed.
AM: Are there a special class you had to be part of?
Sol: Yes, luminosity class. I, of course, wanted to be in the first class, but it turned out that was only for the brightest super-stars: the industry giants. It turns out I was put at the bottom. Class five. The other classes all made fun of us. "Dwarf stars" they would call us.
AM: How did you do in your spectral studies?
Sol: Not very well. I wasn't in the hottest class there either. I thought I had "A" potential, but after a while I was afraid they would give me an "F". But it even got worse: "F" wasn't low enough for me. I got a "G". Oh, I felt bad for a while, I went through a real solar minimum. But soon I found out lots of stars get "G's"; or even lower. Turns out "G's" out-number "A's" 30 to 1.
AM: Are you happy with your home galaxy: the Milky Way?
Sol: Well, when I signed on, I though we were going places. I thought we would take on the universe, as a team. Adventure, action, 100 billion stars, all together in one galactic union. Now that, I thought, was power. But all we ever do is go in circles. I've been around the center 60 times or so, it's no big deal. Spiral arms - one millennium your in them - the next your out - they're fickle. The Andromeda galaxy is really no better; it's the same story there. Now the Virgo Cluster - that's where all the local action turned out to be.
I mean the Milky Way is OK and everything. It's a little dusty, I guess, but at least it's stable. We haven't been disrupted by any other galaxies or anything. We even have our little groupies: the Magellanic Clouds, galaxies like that. It's home.
AM: When did you decide to have planets?
Sol: Very early in life, although I'm not exactly sure when - that part of my life was very nebulous. I didn't really plan to have planets because I never had a steady companion. They just sort of spun off of my care-free early life style.
AM: Do you have trouble keeping the planets in line?
Sol: I'll say. I thought it would be easy - I'm hundreds of times bigger than they are. Have some planets, they said, they won't perturb you much. But they're running rings around me. Mercury won't keep to a Newtonian orbit - the darn things' precessing all over the place. Uranus fell over. Jupiter's getting all spotty. Saturn has ring-around-the-collar. And Earth: please turn down your radio; the emission is much too loud, the other planets are complaining.
AM: Do you have any complaints?
Sol: Well, there is one: privacy. I know that when you become a star you give up a lot of personal privacy. But what happened was ridiculous. There are people looking at me at all times of the day. And they're not just looking, they're using telescopes. Big telescopes. They look at my back, my front; no place is sacred. Privacy is really a problem.
And sometimes I break out in those unsightly sunspots. You know, those dark magnetic depressions. You would hope they would look the other way, save me some embarrassment. No way. They take pictures. It's incredible. I break out in sunspots and next thing I know I'm on the cover of Astronomy Magazine or something.
And you know what really gets me. Sometimes I can't help myself. Sometimes I accidentally let go of a little gas. It's natural, it happens to everybody. "Solar Flares" they call it. They make movies of it. They tell their friends. Soon everyone is watching. I'm so embarrassed.
AM: This bothers you?
Sol: Oh yeah. Sometimes I get little mad. I think of implementing a little photon tax. Not much, just a penny or two per photon, or something like that. Just to let you know I'm here. Get a little respect once in a while. I could go on strike, you know. A few months without sunshine and you people would ante-up.
AM: How do you get along with the other stars in the solar neighborhood?
Sol: Pretty well. I don't interact with them as much as I used to. Sometimes we joke around, throw some snowballs at each other. But I'll tell you though, they're not happy with the privacy situation either. They claim that when you guys aren't looking at me during the day, you're looking at them at night. And with even bigger telescopes. Don't you ever stop?
AM: What's in the future for you?
Sol: Well, I'm not really so unhappy with my present job. It's a steady gig. Maybe in a few billion years I'll apply for Red Giant status. I don't have the helium yet. That's the key to being a good Red Giant - helium. But I'm saving up what I have. I'll get there. After that I'll probably just retire. Fade away slowly. Nothing like Brutus - he was crazy.
AM: We would like to thank you for all those years of warmth and sunlight. I think I speak for the whole planet when I say we're really grateful. Is there anything you wish to request of the people of earth?
Sol: Yes. Batteries. This fusion stuff is not going to last forever. Please send me 200 billion batteries. Didn't you people read the instruction manual? Size "Double D". And not those cheapies you find on sale.
Also a neutrino generator. One of mine seems to be on the blink.
by Robert J. Nemiroff
Appeared in Astronomy Magazine, 1988, Volume 16, Section 2, Page 104
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)