#Joshua David Stone

[nununiverse]

Joshua David Stone 

[shamballalin]

The god of War is NOT The Father of Jesus Christ

Most religions do not go back far enough to include DNA within humanity from its very conception. The Seven Root Races of humanity trace back from eighteen and a half million years ago to today. Well-meaning people including clergy of every denomination limit their understanding to that with which they have been indoctrinated and continue to this day to indoctrinate their sheep. Radical…

[thaoworra]

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association recently released the poems that made it to the finalist stage for consideration for the 2024 Rhysling Awards for Short and Long Speculative Poems of the year. Congratulations to all of the nominees! This will be the 46th year these awards have been conferred!

Short Poems (50 finalists)

Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity!, Emily Ruth Verona, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II

The Beauty of Monsters, Angela Liu, Small Wonders 1

The Blight of Kezia, Patricia Gomes, HWA Poetry Showcase X

The Day We All Died, A Little, Lisa Timpf, Radon 5

Deadweight, Jack Cooper, Propel 7

Dear Mars, Susan L. Lin, The Sprawl Mag 1.2

Dispatches from the Dragon's Den, Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line 46.2

Dr. Jekyll, West Ambrose, Thin Veil Press December

First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare, Emily Jiang, Uncanny 53

Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness, Ali Trotta, The Deadlands 31

Gods of the Garden, Steven Withrow, Spectral Realms 19

The Goth Girls' Gun Gang, Marisca Pichette, The Dread Machine 3.2

Guiding Star, Tim Jones, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)

Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke, Morgan L. Ventura, Banshee 15

hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice, Ennis Rook Bashe, Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice

Hi! I am your Cortical Update!, Mahaila Smith, Star*Line 46.3

How to Make the Animal Perfect?, Linda D. Addison, Weird Tales 100

I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon, Jennessa Hester, HAD October

Invasive, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Polar Starlight 9

kan-da-ka, Nadaa Hussein, Apparition Lit 23

Language as a Form of Breath, Angel Leal, Apparition Lit October

The Lantern of September, Scott Couturier, Spectral Realms 19

Let Us Dream, Myna Chang, Small Wonders 3

The Magician's Foundling, Angel Leal, Heartlines Spec 2

The Man with the Stone Flute, Joshua St. Claire, Abyss & Apex 87

Mass-Market Affair, Casey Aimer, Star*Line 46.4

Mom's Surprise, Francis W. Alexander, Tales from the Moonlit Path June

A Murder of Crows, Alicia Hilton, Ice Queen 11

No One Now Remembers, Geoffrey Landis, Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.

orion conquers the sky, Maria Zoccula, On Spec 33.2

Pines in the Wind, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)

The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon, T.D. Walker, Radon Journal 5

A Prayer for the Surviving, Marisca Pichette, Haven Speculative 9

Pre-Nuptial, F. J. Bergmann, The Vampiricon (Mind's Eye Publications)

The Problem of Pain, Anna Cates, Eye on the Telescope 49

The Return of the Sauceress, F. J. Bergmann, The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February

Sea Change, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader, Scifaikuest May

Seed of Power, Linda D. Addison, The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)

Sleeping Beauties, Carina Bissett, HWA Poetry Showcase X

Solar Punks, J. D. Harlock, The Dread Machine 3.1

Song of the Last Hour, Samuel A. Betiku, The Deadlands 22

Sphinx, Mary Soon Lee, Asimov's September/October

Storm Watchers (a drabbun), Terrie Leigh Relf, Space & Time

Sunflower Astronaut, Charlie Espinosa, Strange Horizons July

Three Hearts as One, G. O. Clark, Asimov's May/June

Troy, Carolyn Clink, Polar Starlight 12

Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary, John Grey, Medusa's Kitchen September

Under World, Jacqueline West, Carmina Magazine September

Walking in the Starry World, John Philip Johnson, Orion's Belt May

Whispers in Ink, Angela Yuriko Smith, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Long Poems (25 finalists)

Archivist of a Lost World, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 4

As the witch burns, Marisca Pichette, Fantasy 87

Brigid the Poet, Adele Gardner, Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice

Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure), Armoni “Monihymn” Boone, Fiyah 26

Cradling Fish, Laura Ma, Strange Horizons May

Dream Visions, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eccentric Orbits 4

Eight Dwarfs on Planet X, Avra Margariti, Radon Journal 3

The Giants of Kandahar, Anna Cates, Abyss & Apex 88

How to Haunt a Northern Lake, Lora Gray, Uncanny 55

Impostor Syndrome, Robert Borski, Dreams and Nightmares 124

The Incessant Rain, Rhiannon Owens, Evermore 3

Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis, Angela Liu, Strange Horizons November

Little Brown Changeling, Lauren Scharhag, Aphelion 283

A Mere Million Miles from Earth, John C. Mannone, Altered Reality April

Pilot, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)

Protocol, Jamie Simpher, Small Wonders 5

Sleep Dragon, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

Slow Dreaming, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

St. Sebastian Goes To Confession, West Ambrose, Mouthfeel 1

Value Measure, Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish, Dreams and Nightmares 125

A Weather of My Own Making, Nnadi Samuel, Silver Blade 56

Welcoming the New Girl, Beth Cato, Penumbric October

What You Find at the Center, Elizabeth R McClellan, Haven Spec Magazine 12

The Witch Makes Her To-Do List, Theodora Goss, Uncanny 50

The Year It Changed, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Star*Line 46.4

Voting for the Rhysling Award begins July 1; a link to the ballot will be sent with the Rhysling Anthology, as well as with the July issue of Star*Line. More information on the Rhysling Award can be found here.

[trendfilmsetter]

Apple Music’s ‘100 Best Albums of All Time’ list:

#1. Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

#2. Michael Jackson — Thriller

#3. The Beatles — Abbey Road

#4. Prince & The Revolution — Purple Rain

#5. Frank Ocean — Blonde

#6. Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life

#7. Kendrick Lamar — good kid, m.A.A.d city

#8. Amy Winehouse — Back to Black

#9. Nirvana — Nevermind

#10. Beyoncé — Lemonade

#11. Fleetwood Mac — Rumours

#12. Radiohead — OK Computer

#13. Jay-Z — The Blueprint

#14. Bob Dylan — Highway 61 Revisited

#15. Adele — 21

#16. Joni Mitchell — Blue

#17. Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On

#18. Taylor Swift — 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

#19. Dr. Dre — The Chronic

#20. The Beach Boys — Pet Sounds

#21. The Beatles — Revolver

#22. Bruce Springsteen — Born to Run

#23. Daft Punk — Discovery

#24. David Bowie — The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

#25. Miles Davis — Kind of Blue

#26. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

#27. Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin II

#28. Pink Floyd — The Dark Side of the Moon

#29. A Tribe Called Quest — The Low End Theory

#30. Billie Eilish — WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

#31. Alanis Morissette — Jagged Little Pill

#32. The Notorious B.I.G. — Ready to Die

#33. Radiohead — Kid A

#34. Public Enemy — It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

#35. The Clash — London Calling

#36. Beyoncé — BEYONCÉ

#37. Wu-Tang Clan — Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

#38. Carole King — Tapestry

#39. Nas — Illmatic

#40. Aretha Franklin — I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

#41. OutKast — Aquemini

#42. Janet Jackson — Control

#43. Talking Heads — Remain in Light

#44. Stevie Wonder — Innervisions

#45. Björk — Homogenic

#46. Bob Marley & The Wailers — Exodus

#47. Drake — Take Care

#48. Beastie Boys — Paul’s Boutique

#49. U2 — The Joshua Tree

#50. Kate Bush — Hounds of Love

#51. Prince — Sign O’ the Times

#52. Guns N' Roses — Appetite for Destruction

#53. The Rolling Stones — Exile on Main St.

#54. John Coltrane — A Love Supreme

#55. Rihanna — ANTI

#56. The Cure — Disintegration

#57. D’Angelo — Voodoo

#58. Oasis — (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

#59. Arctic Monkeys — AM

#60. The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground and Nico

#61. Sade — Love Deluxe

#62. 2Pac — All Eyez on Me

#63. The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Are You Experienced?

#64. Erykah Badu — Baduizm

#65. De La Soul — 3 Feet High and Rising

#66. The Smiths — The Queen Is Dead

#67. Portishead — Dummy

#68. The Strokes — Is This It

#69. Metallica — Master of Puppets

#70. N.W.A — Straight Outta Compton

#71. Kraftwerk — Trans-Europe Express

#72. SZA — SOS

#73. Steely Dan — Aja

#74. Nine Inch Nails — The Downward Spiral

#75. Missy Elliott — Supa Dupa Fly

#76. Bad Bunny — Un Verano Sin Ti

#77. Madonna — Like a Prayer

#78. Elton John — Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

#79. Lana Del Rey — Norman F*****g Rockwell!

#80. Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP

#81. Neil Young — After the Gold Rush

#82. 50 Cent — Get Rich or Die Tryin'

#83. Patti Smith — Horses

#84. Snoop Dogg — Doggystyle

#85. Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour

#86. Mary J. Blige — My Life

#87. Massive Attack — Blue Lines

#88. Nina Simone — I Put a Spell on You

#89. Lady Gaga — The Fame Monster

#90. AC/DC — Back in Black

#91. George Michael — Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1

#92. Tyler, The Creator — Flower Boy

#93. Solange — A Seat at the Table

#94. Burial — Untrue

#95. Usher — Confessions

#96. Lorde — Pure Heroine

#97. Rage Against the Machine — Rage Against the Machine

#98. Travis Scott — ASTROWORLD

#99. Eagles — Hotel California

#100. Robyn — Body Talk

[xtruss]

At Long Last, Mathematicians Have Found a Shape With a Pattern That Never Repeats

Experts have Searched for Decades for a Polygon that only makes Non-Repeating Patterns. But No One Knew It was Possible Until Now

— Will Sullivan | March 29, 2023 | Smithsonian

Infinitely many copies of a 13-sided shape can be arranged with no overlaps or gaps in a pattern that never repeats. David Smith, Joseph Samuel Myers, Craig S. Kaplan and Chaim Goodman-Strauss (CC BY 4.0)

From bathroom floors to honeycombs or even groups of cells, tilings surround us. These patterns cover a space without overlapping or leaving any gaps. Like a rug filled with diamond shapes, where each section looks the same as the one next to it, every tiling ever recorded has eventually repeated itself—until now.

After decades of searching for what mathematicians call an “einstein tile”—an elusive shape that would never repeat—researchers say they have finally identified one. The 13-sided figure is the first that can fill an infinite surface with a pattern that is always original.

Repeating patterns have translational symmetry, meaning you can shift one part of the pattern and it will overlap perfectly with another part, without being rotated or reflected. The shape described in a new paper does not have translational symmetry—each section of its tiling looks different from every part that comes before it.

The designs on these rugs have translational symmetry—the patterns on the rugs repeat themselves. Juli Kosolapova via Unsplash

Sarah Hart, a mathematician at Birkbeck, University of London, who didn’t contribute to the finding, tells New Scientist’s Matthew Sparkes that she had thought finding an “einstein” (named for the German words for “one stone,” or one tile) could not be done. “There are infinitely many possible candidate tiles, and even the existence of a solution feels quite counterintuitive,” she says to the publication.

“Everybody is astonished and is delighted, both,” Marjorie Senechal, a mathematician at Smith College who did not participate in the research, tells Science News’ Emily Conover. “It wasn’t even clear that such a thing could exist.”

David Smith, a retired printing technician and nonprofessional mathematician, was the first to come up with the shape that could be a solution to the long-standing “einstein problem.” He shared his ideas with scientists who took on the challenge of trying to mathematically prove his conjecture, per the New York Times’ Siobhan Roberts.

The team published a preprint paper detailing the findings on the site arXiv last week, and it has not been peer-reviewed yet. But experts say the work is expected to be supported with further investigation, per Science News.

“This appears to be a remarkable discovery,” Joshua Socolar, a physicist at Duke University who did not contribute to the finding, tells the Times. “The most significant aspect for me is that the tiling does not clearly fall into any of the familiar classes of structures that we understand.”

Each "einstein" tile has eight kite shapes inside of it. David Smith, Joseph Samuel Myers, Craig S. Kaplan and Chaim Goodman-Strauss (CC BY 4.0)

The “Einstein” tile is made up of eight kites, or four-sided polygons with two pairs of adjacent, equal-length sides. Researchers call it “the hat” because of its resemblance to a fedora.

The shape is simpler than some experts expected it to be. Chaim Goodman-Strauss, a mathematician at the University of Arkansas and one of the authors of the paper, tells Science News that if he’d been asked to guess what the shape might look like before the finding, “I would’ve drawn some crazy, squiggly, nasty thing.”

In the 1970s, mathematician Roger Penrose discovered that two shapes could form a non-repeating tiling pattern together, prompting hopes that a single shape may be found to do this one day. Researchers have been able to make other non-repeating patterns in the past, but the challenge has been finding a shape that can only make a non-repeating pattern, Goodman-Strauss tells the Times.

The shape of “the hat” can also be morphed to form additional tile shapes that make non-repeating patterns, as shown in the video above.

This new finding could lead to materials science investigations—for example, shapes that form non-repeating tilings could help design stronger materials, Hart tells New Scientist. The elusive shape might also spark creative inspiration for new decorative designs or art.

[hollywoodfamerp]

Hollywood Fame is heading to the most magical place on earth!

Pack your bags for Walt Disney World, a place where dreams come true and a little pixie dust goes a long way! We will be staying at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, which features exotic animals, dazzling pools, award-winning dining, and more. Who knows? You may even meet a new friend right outside your window! Under the cut, you will find the roommates list for the trip. The roommates were arranged by a RANDOM generator. Unless we got a message from you telling us you wanted to be with a specific person or your FC was listed on the ships list, you were included in the generator.  As we get more people into the roleplay, we will update the list. If you do not see your characters name on this list, please message us POLITELY and let us know! Mistakes happen, and the generator isn't perfect. Hopefully, everyone is accounted for - if not, we’ll fix it! As stated before, as we accept new apps before AND during the event, this list will be updated. This is also applicable if FCs are unfollowed/leave the group, so please understand that this list is subject to change. So, that being said - please LIKE THIS POST so you can not only keep track of this list but also so we know you saw this notice.

Akanishi Jin and Lee Sunmi

Ana de Armas and Louis Tomlinson

Andrew Garfield and Lily James

Anne Hathaway and Jade Thirlwall

Ariana DeBose and Ariana Grande

Awsten Knight and Miley Cyrus

Bella Hadid and Thomas Doherty

Billie Lourd and Dylan O'Brien

Cari Fletcher and Victoria de Angelis

Cha Eunwoo and Choi Soobin

Chloe Bailey and Gareth Southgate

Choi Minho and Kim Ahyoung (Yura)

Chris Evans and Naomi Scott

Colby Lopez (Seth Rollins) and Rebecca Quin (Becky Lynch)

Dakota Johnson and Sam Heughan

Danielle Campbell and Joe Burrow

Danny Amendola and Olivia Culpo

David Tennant and Harry Kane

Demi Bennett (Rhea Ripley) and Ashley Fliehr (Charlotte Flair)

Dove Cameron and Aaron Tveit

Dua Lipa and Joseph Quinn

Emilia Clarke and Park Seonghwa

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski

Emma D’Arcy and Hailee Steinfeld

Erin Moriarty and Fryea Allan

Ethan Torchio and Damiano David

Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy

Georgia Tennant and Jason Sudeikis

Glen Powell and Meryl Streep

Hailey Baldwin and Luke Hemmings

Harry Styles and Ashton Irwin

Hwang Hyunjin and Bang Chan

Jackson Wang and Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul (Ten)

Jamie Campbell Bower and Tate McRae

Jenna Ortega and Halle Bailey

Jeon Jungkook and Choi San

Jessica Chastain and Claudia Jessie

Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley

Jordyn Woods and Bae Joohyun (Irene)

Josephine Skriver and Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Josh O'Connor and Troye Sivan

Joshua Hong (Hong Jisoo) and Olivia O'Brien

Jung Wooyoung and Brittany Baker (Britt Baker)

Jung Yoonoh (Jaehyun) and Lee Taeyong

Kang Seulgi and Byn Baekhyun

Kelsea Ballerini and Joe Keery

Kim Hongjoong and Diamanté Quiava Valentin Harper (Saweetie)

Kim Jisoo and Christian Yu

Kim Mingyu and Sana Minatozaki

Kim Taehyung and Chou Tzuyu

Kit Connor and Michael Evans Behling

Kylie Jenner and Billie Eilish

Lauren Jauregui and Bill Skarsgard

Lee Jeno and Na Jaemin

Lee Know (Minho) and Lee Felix

Lee Taemin and Kim Jongin

Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Emma Stone

Lucas Wong and Kim Jungwoo

Lupita Nyong'o and Tessa Thompson

Madelyn Cline and Anya Taylor-Joy

Maia Mitchell and Alycia Debnam-Carey

Maika Monroe and Sydney Sweeney

Mark Lee and Lee Donghyuck (Haechan)

Matt Smith and Jonathan Good (Jon Moxley)

Maxence Danet-Fauvel and Hunter Schafer

Mazz Murray and Jang Gyuri

Min Yoongi and Kim Namjoon

Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez

Nick Robinson and Jake Gyllenhaal

Nicola Coughlan and Liam Hemsworth

Olivia Cooke and Austin Butler

Olivia Rodrigo and Isabela Merced

Pamela Martinez (Bayley) and Mercedes Justine Varnado (Sasha

Banks)

Pedro Pascal and Kendall Jenner

Renee Paquette (Renee Young) and Niall Horan

Renee Rapp and Barbara Palvin

Robyn (Rihanna) Fenty and Drew Starkey

Romee Strijd and Elizabeth Lail

Ryan Gosling and Gigi Hadid

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively

Sabrina Carpenter and Hannah Waddingham

Sam Claflin and Chris Pine

Samantha Gibb and Megan Jovon Ruth Pete (Megan Thee Stallion)

Saoirse Ronan and Jack Lowden

Sebastian Stan and Margot Robbie

Selena Gomez and Nick Jonas

Shawn Mendes and Jeon Wonwoo

Sophie Turner and Logan Lerman

Taylor York and Hayley Williams

Tom Hardy and Perrie Edwards

Tom Holland and Natalia Dyer

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift

Troian Bellisario and Lucy Hale

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron

Vanessa Merrell and Solana Rowe (SZA)

Veronica Merrell and Rylee Arnold

Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell

Wong Kunhang and Mason Mount

Xiao Dejun (Xiaojun) and Yoo Jimin (Karina)

Xu Minghao and Jennie Kim

Yoo Siah (Yooa) and Kim Minjeong (Winter)

Zendaya Coleman and Paul Mescal

Zoë Kravitz and Lili Reinhart

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Wrestling with the Bible's war stories

Spend any solid amount of time with scripture and you'll run into something that perplexes, disturbs, or downright horrifies you. Many of us have walked away from the Bible or from Christianity in general, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently, after encountering these stories. So how do we face them, wrestle them, and seek God's presence in (or in spite of) them?

In her book Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again, the late Rachel Held Evans spends a whole chapter on the "war stories" of Joshua, Judges, and the books of Samuel and Kings. She starts with how most teachers in her conservative Christian upbringing shut her down every time she tried to name the horror she felt reading of violence, rape, and ethnic cleansing; I share an excerpt from that part of the chapter over in this post.

That excerpt ends with Evans deciding that she needed to grapple with these stories, or lose her faith entirely.

...But then I ended the excerpt, with the hope that folks would go read all of Inspired for themselves — and I still very much recommend doing so! The whole book is incredibly helpful for relearning how to read scripture in a way that honors its historical context and divine inspiration, and takes seriously how misreadings bring harm to individuals and whole people groups.

But I know not everyone will read the book, for a variety of reasons, and that's okay. So I want to include a long excerpt from the rest of the chapter, where Evans provides cultural context and history that helps us understand why those war stories are in there; and then seeks to find where God's inspiration is among those "human fingerprints."

I know how important it was to Rachel Held Evans that all of us experience healing and liberation, so it is my hope that she'd be okay with me pasting such a huge chunk of the book for reading here. If you find what's in this post meaningful, please do check out the rest of her book! A lot of libraries have it in print, ebook, and/or audiobook form.

[One last comment: the following excerpt focuses on these war stories from the Hebrew scriptures ("Old Testament"), but there are violent and otherwise disturbing stories in the "New Testament" too, from Herod killing babies to all the wild things going on in Revelation. Don't fall for the antisemitic claim that "The Old Testament is violent while the New Testament is all about peace!" All parts of scripture include violent passages, and maintain an overarching theme of justice and love.]

Here's the excerpt showing Rachel's long wrestling with the Bible's war stories, starting with an explanation for why they're in there in the first place:

“By the time many of the Bible’s war stories were written down, several generations had passed, and Israel had evolved from a scrappy band of nomads living in the shadows of Babylon, Egypt, and Assyria to a nation that could hold its own, complete with a monarchy. Scripture embraces that underdog status in order to credit God with Israel’s success and to remind a new generation that “some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). The story of David and Goliath, in which a shepherd boy takes down one of those legendary Canaanite giants with just a slingshot and two stones, epitomizes Israel’s self-understanding as a humble people improbably beloved, victorious only by the grace and favor of a God who rescued them from Egypt, walked with them through the desert, brought the walls of Jericho down, and made that shepherd boy a king. To reinforce the miraculous nature of Israel’s victories, the writers of Joshua and Judges describe forces of hundreds defeating armies of thousands with epic totality. These numbers are likely exaggerated and, in keeping literary conventions of the day, rely more on drama and bravado than the straightforward recitation of fact. Those of us troubled by language about the “extermination” of Canaanite populations may find some comfort in the fact that scholars and archaeologists doubt the early skirmishes of Israel’s history actually resulted in genocide.

It was common for warring tribes in ancient Mesopotamia to refer to decisive victories as “complete annihilation” or “total destruction,” even when their enemies lived to fight another day. (The Moabites, for example, claimed in an extrabiblical text that after their victory in a battle against an Israelite army, the nation of Israel “utterly perished for always,” which obviously isn’t the case. And even in Scripture itself, stories of conflicts with Canaanite tribes persist through the book of Judges and into Israel’s monarchy, which would suggest Joshua’s armies did not in fact wipe them from the face of the earth, at least not in a literal sense.)

Theologian Paul Copan called it “the language of conventional warfare rhetoric,” which “the knowing ancient Near Eastern reader recognized as hyperbole.” Pastor and author of The Skeletons in God’s Closet, Joshua Ryan Butler, dubbed it “ancient trash talk.”

Even Jericho, which twenty-first-century readers like to imagine as a colorful, bustling city with walls that reached the sky, was in actuality a small, six-acre military outpost, unlikely to support many civilians but, as was common, included a prostitute and her family. Most of the “cities” described in the book of Joshua were likely the same. So, like every culture before and after, Israel told its war stories with flourish, using the language and literary conventions that best advanced the agendas of storytellers.

As Peter Enns explained, for the biblical writers, “Writing about the past was never simply about understanding the past for its own sake, but about shaping, molding and creating the past to speak to the present.”

“The Bible looks the way it does,” he concluded, “because God lets his children tell the story.”

You see the children’s fingerprints all over the pages of Scripture, from its origin stories to its deliverance narratives to its tales of land, war, and monarchy.

For example, as the Bible moves from conquest to settlement, we encounter two markedly different accounts of the lives of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon and the friends and enemies who shaped their reigns. The first appears in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. These books include all the unflattering details of kingdom politics, including the account of how King David had a man killed so he could take the man’s wife, Bathsheba, for himself.

On the other hand, 1 and 2 Chronicles omit the story of David and Bathsheba altogether, along with much of the unseemly violence and drama around the transition of power between David and Solomon.

This is because Samuel and Kings were likely written during the Babylonian exile, when the people of Israel were struggling to understand what they had done wrong for God to allow their enemies to overtake them, and 1 and 2 Chronicles were composed much later, after the Jews had returned to the land, eager to pick up the pieces.

While the authors of Samuel and Kings viewed the monarchy as a morality tale to help them understand their present circumstances, the authors of the Chronicles recalled the monarchy with nostalgia, a reminder of their connection to God’s anointed as they sought healing and unity. As a result, you get two noticeably different takes on the very same historic events.

In other words, the authors of Scripture, like the authors of any other work (including this one!), wrote with agendas. They wrote for a specific audience from a specific religious, social, and political context, and thus made creative decisions based on that audience and context.

Of course, this raises some important questions, like: Can war stories be inspired? Can political propaganda be God-breathed? To what degree did the Spirit guide the preservation of these narratives, and is there something sacred to be uncovered beneath all these human fingerprints?

I don’t know the answers to all these questions, but I do know a few things.

The first is that not every character in these violent stories stuck with the script. After Jephthah sacrificed his daughter as a burnt offering in exchange for God’s aid in battle, the young women of Israel engaged in a public act of grief marking the injustice. The text reports, “From this comes the Israelite tradition that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah” (Judges 11:39–40).

While the men moved on to fight another battle, the women stopped to acknowledge that something terrible had happened here, and with what little social and political power they had, they protested—every year for four days. They refused to let the nation forget what it had done in God’s name.

In another story, a woman named Rizpah, one of King Saul’s concubines, suffered the full force of the monarchy’s cruelty when King David agreed to hand over two of her sons to be hanged by the Gibeonites in an effort to settle a long, bloody dispute between the factions believed to be the cause of widespread famine across the land. A sort of biblical Antigone, Rizpah guarded her sons’ bodies from birds and wild beasts for weeks, until at last the rain came and they could be buried. Word of her tragic stand spread across the kingdom and inspired David to pause to grieve the violence his house had wrought (2 Samuel 21).” ...

The point is, if you pay attention to the women, a more complex history of Israel’s conquests emerges. Their stories invite the reader to consider the human cost of violence and patriarchy, and in that sense prove instructive to all who wish to work for a better world. ...

It’s not always clear what we are meant to learn from the Bible’s most troubling stories, but if we simply look away, we learn nothing.

In one of the most moving spiritual exercises of my adult faith, an artist friend and I created a liturgy of lament honoring the victims of the texts of terror. On a chilly December evening, we sat around the coffee table in my living room and lit candles in memory of Hagar, Jephthah’s daughter, the concubine from Judges 19, and Tamar, the daughter of King David who was raped by her half brother. We read their stories, along with poetry and reflections composed by modern-day women who have survived gender-based violence. ...

If the Bible’s texts of terror compel us to face with fresh horror and resolve the ongoing oppression and exploitation of women, then perhaps these stories do not trouble us in vain. Perhaps we can use them for some good.

The second thing I know is that we are not as different from the ancient Israelites as we would like to believe.

“It was a violent and tribal culture,” people like to say of ancient Israel to explain away its actions in Canaan. But, as Joshua Ryan Butler astutely observed, when it comes to civilian casualties, “we tend to hold the ancients to a much higher standard than we hold ourselves.” In the time it took me to write this chapter, nearly one thousand civilians were killed in airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, many of them women and children. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took hundreds of thousands of lives in World War II, and far more civilians died in the Korean War and Vietnam War than American soldiers. Even though America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it takes in less than half of 1 percent of the world’s refugees, and drone warfare has left many thousands of families across the Middle East terrorized.

This is not to excuse Israel’s violence, because modern-day violence is also bad, nor is it to trivialize debates over just war theory and US involvement in various historical conflicts, which are complex issues far beyond the scope of this book. Rather, it ought to challenge us to engage the Bible’s war stories with a bit more humility and introspection, willing to channel some of our horror over atrocities past into questioning elements of the war machines that still roll on today.

Finally, the last thing I know is this: If the God of the Bible is true, and if God became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, and if Jesus Christ is—as theologian Greg Boyd put it—“the revelation that culminates and supersedes all others,” then God would rather die by violence than commit it.

The cross makes this plain. On the cross, Christ not only bore the brunt of human cruelty and bloodlust and fear, he remained faithful to the nonviolence he taught and modeled throughout his ministry. Boyd called it “the Crucifixion of the Warrior God,” and in a two-volume work by that name asserted that “on the cross, the diabolic violent warrior god we have all-too-frequently pledged allegiance to has been forever repudiated.” On the cross, Jesus chose to align himself with victims of suffering rather than the inflictors of it.

At the heart of the doctrine of the incarnation is the stunning claim that Jesus is what God is like. “No one has ever seen God,” declared John in his gospel, “but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18, emphasis added). ...So to whatever extent God owes us an explanation for the Bible’s war stories, Jesus is that explanation. And Christ the King won his kingdom without war.

Jesus turned the war story on its head. Instead of being born to nobility, he was born in a manger, to an oppressed people in occupied territory. Instead of charging into Jerusalem on a warhorse, he arrived on a lumbering donkey. Instead of rallying troops for battle, he washed his disciples’ feet. According to the apostle Paul, these are the tales followers of Jesus should be telling—with our words, with our art, and with our lives.

Of course, this still leaves us to grapple with the competing biblical portraits of God as the instigator of violence and God as the repudiator of violence.

Boyd argued that God serves as a sort of “heavenly missionary” who temporarily accommodates the brutal practices and beliefs of various cultures without condoning them in order to gradually influence God’s people toward justice. Insofar as any divine portrait reflects a character at odds with the cross, he said, it must be considered accommodation. It’s an interesting theory, though I confess I’m only halfway through Boyd’s 1,492 pages, so I’ve yet to fully consider it. (I know I can’t read my way out of this dilemma, but that won’t keep me from trying.)

The truth is, I’ve yet to find an explanation for the Bible’s war stories that I find completely satisfying. If we view this through Occam’s razor and choose the simplest solution to the problem, we might conclude that the ancient Israelites invented a deity to justify their conquests and keep their people in line. As such, then, the Bible isn’t a holy book with human fingerprints; it’s an entirely human construction, responsible for more vice than virtue.

There are days when that’s what I believe, days when I mumble through the hymns and creeds at church because I’m not convinced they say anything true. And then there are days when the Bible pulls me back with a numinous force I can only regard as divine, days when Hagar and Deborah and Rahab reach out from the page, grab me by the face, and say, “Pay attention. This is for you.”

I’m in no rush to patch up these questions. God save me from the day when stories of violence, rape, and ethnic cleansing inspire within me anything other than revulsion. I don’t want to become a person who is unbothered by these texts, and if Jesus is who he says he is, then I don’t think he wants me to be either.

There are parts of the Bible that inspire, parts that perplex, and parts that leave you with an open wound. I’m still wrestling, and like Jacob, I will wrestle until I am blessed. God hasn’t let go of me yet.

War is a dreadful and storied part of the human experience, and Scripture captures many shades of it—from the chest-thumping of the victors to the anguished cries of victims. There is ammunition there for those seeking religious justification for violence, and solidarity for all the mothers like Rizpah who just want an end to it.

For those of us who prefer to keep the realities of war at a safe, sanitized distance, and who enjoy the luxury of that choice, the Bible’s war stories force a confrontation with the darkness.

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

[leonsliga]

At the request of the wonderful @realmadrider, here’s some of my comfort footy vids 😁 happy watching!

All things DFB and Bundesliga:

Bayern Summer Games 2022 (especially the Guess the Song challenge)

Agility Challenge • Kimmich vs. Goretzka (AKA Kimetzka being an old married couple for nearly 7 minutes)

Wer kennt mehr? Leon Goretzka & Joshua Kimmich

Stadt, Land, Fußball - Thomas Müller and Leon Goretzka

Thomats Challenge: Bundesliga Edition

The big FC Bayern quiz with Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich

Google Autocomplete Challenge with Serge Gnabry and Leon Goretzka

Servus, Leon Goretzka!

Leon Goretzka vs. Julian Brandt: Buzzwire Challenge

Bundesliga Stars Try to Draw Their Team Logos - Witsel, Goretzka, and Co.

Mats Hummels vs. Thomas Müller: Me or Him Challenge

Pro vs. Pro:Direct with Thomas Müller

Read My Lips: 🇩🇪 vs. 🇫🇷

Close-Up with Leon Goretzka

60 Seconds Challenge: 🇩🇪🆚🇫🇷

Neuer, Müller, and Lahm making fun of Kramer’s memory loss during the 2014 World Cup final

One gotta go with Marco Reus and Julian Brandt

Manuel Neuer and Bastian Schweinsteiger dancing on the beach

Don’t get distracted! With Julian Brandt and Marco Reus

Müller & Co. Decorating the Christmas Tree

Hummels & Brandt: Which of You…

FC Bayern Teammate Insights

Neuer, Martínez, and Hernández Carpool Q&A

EURO Taxi with Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels

Manuel Neuer vs. Thomas Müller

New Season, New Berni ft. Müller, Neuer, Sané, and Davies

So feiern die Bayern das Triple

Neuer, Piszczek & Co. Try to Draw - Who is the Best Artist

Take it easy | BVB-Challenge with Marco Reus and Julian Brandt

Kimmich vs. Gnabry | Copy the Penalty Challenge

Chunkz vs. Neuer | YouTuber vs. Pro Keeper Penalty Shoot Out Challenge

Manuel Neuer im Interview

Who am I? BVB-Challenge with Mats Hummels and Marcel Schmelzer

Manu lifting up a jar of Nutella like it’s Simba

DFB Nutella Commercial

Will Grigg’s on fire! Is Mats Hummels terrified?

Bayern Summer Games 2021

Thomats Christmas Challenge

Serge Gnabry: Unlocked feat. Yung Filly

Who knows more? Marco Reus vs. Mario Götze - 2018 edition

Who knows more? Marco Reus vs. Mario Götze - 2019 revenge

Netradio Newcomer with Marco Reus and Julian Brandt

Best of Radio Müller

Thomats dieses Mal olympisch - eng subs

Don’t get distracted! With Mats Hummels and Marcel Schmelzer

Cow-Milking and Welly-Throwing | Team-Building Fun at FC Bayern

Shell Game w/ Manuel Neuer

Pantomime w/ Manuel Neuer

Drawing w/ Manuel Neuer

Marco Reus vs. Mats Hummels - Buzz Wire Challenge

Manuel Neuer reveals the results of his doping test (spoiler alert: it was urine)

Thomats Basketball Challenge

Thomas Müller “JAAA” compilation

A Spanish Lesson for Neuer with Thiago - Repeat after Me Challenge

Fußball-Dart: Goretzka gegen Burgstaller

You Have to Answer - Marco Reus

Bayern Team Photo Vlog

Who knows more 2.0: Brandt vs. Hummels

Thomats Tangram Challenge

FC Bayern wish you a Merry Christmas

Mario Götze’s Most Famous Picture

Mats Hummels pranks Gio Reyna

DFB Water Polo Teambuilding

Erling Haaland being a funny guy for 3 minutes straight

Bromance: Manuel Neuer & Leon Goretzka

Manuel Neuer, Per Mertesacke, & Arne Friedrich - Sky ad

Neustädter vs. Reus

Literally anything else:

50 most shocking moments of the 2010 World Cup

Jose Mourinho explains football to a baffled Ted Lasso

Timo Werner being the funniest German for 2 minutes (because he’s an adorable bean)

Lingard and Rashford | Roommates

Ney…freezin innit

Wingmen: Bruno Fernandes and Jesse Lingard

Manchester United x Stone Roses

I am Jose Mourinho 😎

Sergio Ramos drops the Supercopa under the bus

Marcelo, Bale, Ramos, & Co. joking around on a plane because why not

Lies | Toni Kroos & David Alaba

Kroos & Modrić | Teammates

Toni Kroos’s fantastic interview after RMA beat Liverpool in the UCL final

Luka Modrić taunting Gerard Piqué like the girlboss he is

Real Madrid x NFL with a heavy dose of Modramos

Roy Keane’s angriest moments discussing Manchester United - very validating as a United fan in the modern era tbh 😭

THE Kunessi stream - eng subs (55 minutes in all its glory)

When Kun met Leo

Kun calling Leo on stream

Sergio Agüero interviews Lionel Messi

Honestly every episode of the Champions

[princess-polls]

1C

Sanji (One Piece) VS Turnip Head/Prince Justin (Howl's Moving Castle)

Prince Edward (Enchanted) VS Shrek (Shrek)

Prince Friedrich (Bridgerton) VS Lone Starr (Spaceballs)

The Nutcracker (Barbie in the Nutcracker) VS Merlin (Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs)

Sky (Winx Club) VS Prince Eadric (Tales of the Frog Princess)

Shining Armor (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) VS Prince Phobos Escanor (W.I.T.C.H.)

Dexterous "Dexter" Charming (Ever After High) VS Prince Bo (Hamtaro Rainbow Rescue)

Shade (Fushigiboshi no Futagohime) VS Prince Sorara (Onegai My Melody: Kirara)

2C

Royce (Love Nikki) VS Rhys (Phantasy Star III)

Pierre (THE iDOLM@STER: SideM) VS Damien LaVey (Monster Prom)

Joshua (Fire Emblem Sacred Stones) VS Luminary (Dragon Quest XI)

Zenos yae Galvus (Final Fantasy XIV) VS Freyjadour Falenas (Suikoden V)

Dimitri (Anastasia) VS Chrom (Fire Emblem Awakening)

Naveen (The Princess and the Frog) VS Prince Achmed (Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizir)

Prince Wilhelm (Young Royals) VS Prince Li Che (Fake Princess)

Lee Chang (Kingdom) VS Sho (Ultraman Ginga S)

1D

Aladdin (Aladdin) VS Prince Proteus (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas)

Prince Stefan (Barbie as Rapunzel) VS Ling Yao (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Prince James (Sofia the First) VS Ezran (The Dragon Prince)

Prince Charming/David Nolan (Once Upon A Time) VS Claude von Riegan (Fire Emblem Three Houses)

Simba (The Lion King) VS Winter (Wings of Fire)

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd (Fire Emblem Three Houses) VS The Prince of All Cosmos (Katamari Damacy)

Alucard/Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes (Castlevania) VS Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV)

Fukaboshi (One Piece) VS Alan Stuart (My Next Life as a Villainess)

2D

Karma/Klaude Aidric Renaldi Mattheus Almonte (Cinderella Phenomenon) VS Victor (Romancing SaGa 2)

Amiti (Golden Sun Dark Dawn) VS Garr Kelvin (Tales of Destiny)

Jamie (Cursed Princess Club) VS Kai von Granzreich (Oushitsu Kyoushi Heine)

Karurusu de Yutari Honyalala (Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss!) VS Hikari Ku (Octopath Traveler II)

August (High Class Homos) VS Sebastian (The Prince and the Dressmaker)

Rei (Kilala Princess) VS Prince Arrow (Petite Princess Yucie)

Frederick (Cursed Princess Club) VS Eolio Ezrest (Witch Hat Atelier)

Leif Faris Claus (Fire Emblem Thracia 776) VS Lune (The Cat Returns)

[lilyvalerieorchard]

Sorry but I ,along with other certain leftist content creators, just can't go after Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Michael Bay, Brian Taylor, Mark Neveldine, Todd Philips, the Postal devs, the Hatred devs or any other cishet white male reactionary creators. We're just too scared of getting attacked by their channer-board fanboys.

That's why we ONLY ever stick to attacking marginalized creators like Rebecca Sugar, ND Stevenson, Dana Terrace, G. Willow Wilson, Jeremy Whitley, Sina Grace, Vira Ayala, David Gaider, Tini Howard, Leah Williams, James Tynion IV, Grant Morrison, ect. Or (if we're extra charitable) innocent, non-bigoted, non-marginalized creators just doing their jobs like Jason Aaron, Dan Slott, Donny Cates, Tom Taylor, Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Greg Weisman, Bryke, Jonathan Hickman, Brian Michael Bendis, Tom King, Neil Druckmann, Rian Johnson and others. It helps us earn more woke brownie points!

[gender-envy-tournament]

Gender Bracket #1

All were chosen randomly from submissions (With the exception of two of my personal favorites)

Pairs under cut

Reki Kyan (Sk8 the Infinity) vs. Hiyori Tomoe (Ensemble Stars!)

Kate Bush vs. Rantaro Amami (Danganronpa)

Papyrus (Undertale) vs. Gen Asagiri (Dr. Stone)

Rich Goranski (Be More Chill) vs. Danny Phantom (Danny Phantom)

Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII) vs. Fujimoto (Ponyo)

Dick Grayson (DC Comics) vs. Red Son (Lego Monkie Kid)

Danny Tanner (Full House) vs. Conner Kent (DC Comics)

Goro Majima (Yakuza) vs. Jacob Andrews

The Nameless Ghouls vs. Frank Iero

Joker (Persona 5) vs. Charlotte Wiltshire (Hello Charlotte)

Sal Fisher (Sally Face) vs. Howl Pendragon (Howl's Moving Castle)

Archibald Craven (The Secret Garden) vs. Bo Burnham

Lady Loki (Marvel Comics) vs. Joshua Kiryu (The World Ends with You)

James Kirk (Star Trek) vs. Eda Clawthorne (The Owl House)

Lee Felix vs. Donatello (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Shikanoin Heizou (Genshin Impact) vs. Beelzebub (Good Omens)

Moira (Overwatch) vs. Samantha Jones (Sex and the City)

Klavier Gavin (Ace Attorney) vs. Quark (Star Trek)

James (Pokemon) vs. Paris the Puppet (The Dummy's Dummy)

Venti (Genshin Impact) vs. René Gallimard (M. Butterfly)

Camilo Madrigal (Encanto) vs. Edward Nygma (Gotham)

Edward Teach (Our Flag Means Death) vs. Bowser (Super Mario Brothers)

Crowley (Supernatural) vs. Delirium of the Endless (The Sandman)

Princess Ozma (Oz) vs. Vanitas (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Kris (Deltarune) vs. Lily Houghton (Jungle Cruise)

Natsume Sakasaki (Ensemble Stars!) vs. Ranboo (@ranboolivesaysstuff)

Envy (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs. Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club)

Dan Heng (Honkai: Star Rail) vs. Jeff Satur

David Tennant vs. Harry du Bois (Disco Elysium)

Dr. Frank-N-Furter (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) vs. Link (The Legend of Zelda)

Tianyou Zhao (Yakuza) vs. @gender-envy-tournament (I got 10 separate submissions again)

The Spine (Steam Powered Giraffe) vs. Raine Whispers (The Owl House)

[pinkfloydfan4578]

What are your favorite songs and albums?

Oh my gosh thank you so much!

Every Pink Floyd song and album, although I must admit I’m basic and love the big 4, meddle, and… Atom Heart Mother (finally something unexpected ig?) the most!

Soycd might be my favorite song of all time

Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight and Firth of Fifth by Genesis, Selling England is definitely my fav album of theirs

Love prog but am actually an alternative girl at heart

Nevermind and In Utero by Nirvana, specifically lice Drain You, Territorial Pissings, Lounge Act, Heart Shaped Box, and Frances Farmer

Jar of Flies and Dirt by Alice In Chains, so so good. Especially love Rooster, Dirt, Would?, Them Bones, Nutshell

Superunknown and Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden, both of those albums are unskippable for me, though I especially love The Day I Tried To Live

Pearl Jam’s Ten is a 10/10 masterpiece

Core and Purple by Stone Temple Pilots

Live Through This by Hole

The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows

Also obsessed with Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke rn

Tragic Kingdom and Return of Saturn by No Doubt

Green Day!!! Kerplunk, Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning, and American Idiot is an incredible 5 album run, especially love “Panic song”

Blink-182’s Enema of the State

The Stranger by Billy Joel

Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie

Document by REM

Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins

The blue album by Weezer

The Joshua Tree by U2

My Love is Cool - Wolf Alice

Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s, Abbey Road by the Beatles

More songs I love!

• Road to Nowhere and Naive Melody (this must be the place) by the Talking Heads

• In the Meantime by Spacehog

• The Bleeding Heart Show by the New Pornographers

• Rosyln by Bon Iver and St Vincent

• Back in the Day - Local H

There are more ofc but I’ll stop here! Thank you sm for the ask!!

[mogwai-movie-house]

The Best Album Per Year for Sixty Years

No-one asked for it, of course, but I do like making lists, so here's me pondering what have been the best Long Players in the album artform the past 60 years. I originally tried to keep it to just one per year, but many years that proved impossible: when listing multiple albums I have tried ranking them with the one I feel narrowly edges out the others first, and I use lower case to indicate an album that is not at the same level as others on the list but was the best I've heard from that time.

Feel free to have fun with the list and make up your own.

----------------

1962 Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan 1963 The Freewheelin' - Bob Dylan 1964 another side of - bob dylan 1965 Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan 1966 Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys / Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan / Revolver - The Beatles 1967 Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles / The Velvet Underground & Nico / Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - Simon & Garfunkel / Safe As Milk - Captain Beefheart 1968 Astral Weeks - Van Morrison / The White Album - The Beatles / Bookends - Simon & Garfunkel / We're Only In It For The Money/Lumpy Gravy - Frank Zappa 1969 Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones / Abbey Road - The Beatles / In A Silent Way - Miles Davis 1970 Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel / Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon 1971 Imagine - John Lennon / Blue - Joni Mitchell / What's Goin' On - Marvin Gaye/ 2 - Moondog 1972 Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones / Discover America - Van Dyke Parks / Clear Spot - Captain Beefheart / Ege Bam Yasi - Can 1973 Raw Power - Iggy And The Stooges 1974 Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan 1975 Horses - Patti Smith / Discreet Music - Brian Eno / Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd / Velvet Donkey - Ivor Cutler 1976 The Ramones - The Ramones 1977 Low - David Bowie / New Boots & Panties - Ian Dury / Marquee Moon - Television / 77 - Talking Heads 1978 Music For Airports - Brian Eno / This Year's Model - Elvis Costello / Third (Sister Lovers) - Big Star / More Songs About Music & Food - Talking Heads 1979 Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division/ Fear of Music - Talking Heads / Into The Music - Van Morrison / Sheik Yerbouti - Frank Zappa / Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young 1980 Remain In Light - Talking Heads / Closer - Joy Division / One Trick Pony - Paul Simon / Common One - Van Morrison 1981 Faith - The Cure 1982 Thriller - Michael Jackson / 1999 - Prince / 4 - Peter Gabriel / Too Rye Ay - Dexys Midnight Runners / Big Science - Laurie Anderson / Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen 1983 Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits / Murmur - R.E.M. / Hearts & Bones - Paul Simon / Off The Bone - The Cramps 1984 Purple Rain - Prince & The Revolution / Hatful Of Hollow - The Smiths / Various Positions - Leonard Cohen / Reckoning - R.E.M. / The Unforgettable Fire - U2 1985 Don't Stand Me Down - Dexys Midnight Runners / Rain Dogs - Tom Waits / Around The World In A Day - Prince & The Revolution / Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega / Hounds of Love - Kate Bush / Hunting High & Low - A-ha 1986 Parade - Prince & The Revolution / So - Peter Gabriel / The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths / Graceland - Paul Simon / Steve McQueen - Prefab Sprout / Blood & Chocolate/King of America - Elvis Costello 1987 Sign O The Times - Prince / The Joshua Tree - U2 / Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths / Actually - Pet Shop Boys / Tango In The Night - Fleetwood Mac 1988 Irish Heartbeat - Van Morrison & The Chieftains / Green - R.E.M. / Viva Hate - Morrissey / The Serpent's Egg - Dead Can Dance / Surfer Rosa - Pixies / Naked - Talking Heads / Introspective - Pet Shop Boys / I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen / Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins 1989 Disintegration - The Cure / Technique - New Order / Doolittle - The Pixies / Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan / Avalon Sunset - Van Morrison / Rei Momo - David Byrne / Behaviour - Pet Shop Boys / Candleland - Ian McCulloch 1990 Extricate - The Fall / The Good Son - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Songs For Drella - Lou Reed & John Cale / Jonathan Goes Country - Jonathan Richman 1991 Screamadelica - Primal Scream / Achtung Baby - U2 / The Bootleg Boxset - Bob Dylan 1992 It's A Shame About Ray - The Lemonheads / Henry's Dream - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Automatic For The People - R.E.M. / Good As I Been To You - Bob Dylan / The Future - Leonard Cohen 1993 Debut - Bjork / Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld / Exile In Guyville - Liz Phair / Neroli - Brian Eno / Come On Feel - The Lemonheads / Zooropa - U2 / Vena Cava - Diamanda Galas

1994 Selected Ambient Works Vol. II - Aphex Twin / Toward The Within - Dead Can Dance / Let Love In - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Dummy - Portishead / Autogeddon - Julian Cope / Vauxhall & I - Morrissey 1995 Anthology - The Beatles / The Ugly One With The Jewels - Laurie Anderson 1996 Boys For Pele - Tori Amos 1997 Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized / The Boatman's Call - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Time Out Of Mind - Bob Dylan / Vanishing Point - Primal Scream 1998 Up - R.E.M. / I'm So Confused - Jonathan Richman 1999 Play - Moby / I See A Darkness - Bonnie Prince Billy 2000 XTRMNTR - Primal Scream / All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2 / The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem / Kid A - Radiohead / KY - Lemon Jelly 2001 Vespertine - Bjork / Love & Theft - Bob Dylan / No More Shall We Part - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 2002 The Eminem Show - Eminem 2003 Room On Fire - The Strokes / The Man Comes Around/Unearthed - Johnny Cash / The Wind - Warren Zevon 2004 Has Been - William Shatner / How To Dismantle An Atom Bomb - U2 / You Are The Quarry - Morrissey / The Milk-Eyed Mender - Joanna Newsom / Smile - Brian Wilson 2005 Another Day On Earth - Brian Eno / Le Fil - Camille 2006 Modern Times - Bob Dylan / Surprise - Paul Simon / Love - The Beatles 2007 for emma, forever ago - bon iver 2008 vampire weekend - vampire weekend 2009 No Line On The Horizon - U2 / The XX - The XX 2010 show me the face - michelle gurevich 2011 Angles - The Strokes / So Beautiful or So What - Paul Simon 2012 Life Is People - Bill Fay / Old Ideas - Leonard Cohen 2013 Comedown Machine - The Strokes / Crimson Red - Prefab Sprout 2014 Ghost Stories - Coldplay / 1989 - Taylor Swift 2015 ★ - David Bowie 2016 Lover, Beloved - Suzanne Vega / Stranger To Stranger - Paul Simon 2017 American Dream - LCD Soundsystem / antisocialites - alvvays 2018 music for installations - brian eno 2019 weezer (teal album) - weezer 2020 rough & rowdy ways - bob dylan 2021 happier than ever - billie eilish 2022 dragon new warm mountain i believe in you - big thief

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Daily Light on the Daily Path

by Samuel Bagster

Daily Reading for April 24th

Genesis 21:1 Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised.

Psalm 62:8 Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

1 Samuel 30:6 Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

Genesis 50:24 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob."

Acts 7:34,36 'I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE IN EGYPT AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANS, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; COME NOW, AND I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.' • "This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

Joshua 21:45 Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

[jurassicworldtieindrpepper]

Reading List

to be updated constantly

Articles:

"Why Women Online Can’t Stop Reading Fairy Porn" by C.T. Jones for Rolling Stone

"They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars." by Brett Murphy for ProPublica

"‘I Think My Husband Is Trashing My Novel on Goodreads!’" by Emily Gould for The Cut

"Woman in Retrograde" by Isabel Cristo for The Cut

"The unwanted Spanish soccer kiss is textbook male chauvinism. Don’t excuse it" by Moira Donegan for the Guardian

"I Started the Media Men List" by Moira Donegan for The Cut

"What Moira Donegan Did for Young Women Writers" by Jordana Rosenfeld for The Nation

"The Key Detail Missing From the Narrative About O.J. and Race" by Joel Anderson for Slate

"The Coiled Ferocity of Zendaya" by Matt Zoller Seitz for Vulture

"OJ Simpson died the comfortable death in old age that Nicole Brown should have had" by Moira Donegan for The Guardian

"Norm Macdonald Was the Hater O.J. Simpson Could Never Outrun" by Miles Klee for Rolling Stone

"Trans Stylists and Makeup Artists Are Reshaping Red Carpet Looks. Will They Get the Credit They’re Due?" by James Factora

"The ‘perfect Aryan’ child used in Nazi propaganda was actually Jewish" by Terrence McCoy for The Washington Post

"There Are Too Many Books; Or, Publishing Shouldn’t Be All About Quantity" by Maris Kreizman for Literary Hub

"An O.J. Juror on What The People v. O.J. Simpson Got Right and Wrong" by Ashley Reese for Vulture

"Super Cute Please Like" by Nicole Lipman for N + 1 Magazine

Essays:

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxanne Gay

Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba

"On Chappell Roan and Gen Z Pop" by Miranda Reinert

"In Memory of Nicole Brown Simpson" by Andrea Dworkin

"My Gender Is Dyke" by Alexandria Juarez for Autostraddle

"Columnists and Their Lives of Quiet Desperation" by Hamilton Nolan

Nonfiction:

Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women by Lyz Lenz

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life by Lyz Lenz

The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination by Sarah Schulman

Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe

The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams

Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson

Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs by David Bellos & Alexandre Montagu

The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society by Eleanor Janega

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton

University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education by Joshua Hunt

What it Feels Like for a Girl by Paris Lees

Female Masculinity by J. Jack Halberstam

The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage Into the World of the Weird by Dan Schreiber

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration by Alejandra Oliva

Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate by Anna Bogutskaya

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Eyeliner: A Cultural History by Zahra Hankir

Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Fiction:

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Just as You Are by Camille Kellogg

Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia

The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist by Ceinwen Langley

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

Blackouts by Justin Torres

We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

The Faithless by C.L. Clark

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

The Institute by Stephen King

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix by Aminah Mae Safi

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len

[elcitigre2021]

AUTODEFESA PSÍQUICA NOS PLANOS MENTAL, EMOCIONAL E ESPIRITUAL - Joshua David Stone

Uma das melhores maneiras de manter afastada as forças das trevas é evitar pensar nelas. Quanto mais você pensa nelas, mas as atrai. É só manter a vibração física, mental, emocional e espiritual num plano elevado para que elas jamais entrem na sua existência.

Jamais consinta em submeter-se a uma anestesia sem antes fazer muitas orações pedindo proteção. Se alguém tocar suas joias, use a invocação da Luz de Deal Walker, o cristaleiro:

Invoco a Luz do Cristo.

Sou um canal claro e perfeito.

A Luz é o meu guia.

Segure suas joias, diga esse mantra três vezes em voz alta e canalize a vibração da Luz Crística às joias para purificá-las e espiritualizá-las. O mantra da alma também é eficiente nisso. O recurso de proteção mais comum é a simples invocação da Luz Branca. Basta fazer o pedido à sua alma, que imediatamente ela jorrará dentro de você.

A lei da mente é a seguinte: a pessoa vive no plano onde concentra a sua atenção. A ideia é manter a atenção fixa na Luz. A maioria das pessoas não tem controle suficiente sobre o ponto onde se concentra a sua atenção.

Outra qualidade psicológica necessária à proteção é o discernimento espiritual. Quando você começa a viver novamente no piloto automático, torna-se bastante impressionável e hiper sugestionável. Num plano psicológico e espiritual, é bem importante não conceder seu poder assim tão fácil.

Por exemplo, não dê seu poder ao corpo físico quando ele se cansa. Não dê seu poder a previsões astrológicas. Não dê seu poder aos sonhos; conheço gente que deixou um sonho mau arruinar todo o seu dia.

Em essência, o que eu quero dizer é que não se deve dar o poder pessoal a ninguém ou nada, incluindo aqui o próprio Deus. Não se trata de blasfêmia. Deus não quer o seu poder. Deus quer que você assuma o seu próprio poder, ao mesmo tempo rendendo-se à Ele e à Sua vontade, e não à vontade do ego. Deus ajuda os que ajudam a si mesmos.

Não dê seu poder aos pensamentos, sentimentos, corpo físico, ego negativo, mente subconsciente, outras pessoas, clima, astrologia, biorritmos, vidas passadas, criança interior, subpersonalidades, energia externa, mestres ascensionados, espíritos-guias ou gurus. Qualquer mestre espiritual de algum valor irá encorajá-lo a assumir o seu próprio poder e a reconhecer a sua igualdade.

Se você aprende a permanecer no seu poder, todas essas ferramentas se tornam desnecessárias, pois jamais irá precisar delas. Você só se torna vítima quando perde o seu poder.

Raptos ou implantes ocorrem em função de uma abertura na aura que permite essas coisas. Feche-a, então. Retorne seu poder pessoal e também aquilo que Edgar Cayce chama de raiva positiva, então essas coisas deixarão de ser apenas possibilidade.

Uma das confusões de muitas pessoas espiritualizadas é pensar que devem permanecer abertas em todos os momentos. Nada pode estar mais longe da verdade. Tudo na vida deve ser equilibrado. Há o yin e o yang, o feminino e o masculino; há o momento de estar aberto e o momento de permanecer fechado. Você precisa aprender a abrir e fechar o seu campo energético quando quiser.

Quando há por perto alguma energia negativa, é preciso ser capaz de fechar e proteger o espaço psicológico e espiritual. Você pode permanecer amoroso, ainda que se feche às energias negativas. Permanecer receptivo o tempo todo é querer tornar-se vítima das energias dos outros.

Os chakras são como as lentes de uma máquina fotográfica, que podem ser abertas e fechadas por um comando do operador. Se você decide que neste Universo de Deus não existe meio de os extraterrestres negativos o raptarem, então certamente eles não o farão.

Tranquilize-se e saiba que você é Deus. E pode o próprio Deus, o Pai, ser vítima de algo? Pois você foi criado à imagem e semelhança d’Ele, e portanto você também não pode ser vítima de nada – a menos que queira sê-lo, ao não assumir a plenitude do seu poder.

Com respeito a doenças físicas e emocionais, se você pensa que é vulnerável, provavelmente está certo.Se usa seus poderes criadores para programar os corpos físico e emocional para que não adoeçam, certamente não adoecerão. Se você pensa que é o Cristo e um só com Deus, então é isso o que você é.

É de novo a lição de saber onde concentrar a própria atenção. Você precisa aprender a concentrar sua atenção onde Deus quer que você concentre. Muitas vezes você é fraco demais nesse particular.

É por isso que Dwhal Khul reafirma seguidamente a importância de manter a mente “firme na Luz”. Quando você entra num estado diferente da perfeição, então a lição é imediatamente fazer uma afirmação ou oração que o leve de volta àquele estado perfeito que Deus vê em você.

Caso esteja lidando com um sentimento negativo, visualize-se vomitando-o e depois matando-o com uma lança ou espada. Depois coloque um belo anjo ou seu mestre espiritual dentro de si mesmo, para substituir aquilo que antes ocupava esse lugar.

Uma boa prece para exorcizar entidades possessoras é encontrada no livro “It´s All Right”, de Isabelle Hickey:

“Pelo nome e poder de Jesus Cristo, deixe o meu campo magnético e volte à Fonte, para ser elevado novamente à Luz.”

Uma oração que ela recomenda para quem busca proteção é a seguinte: “Permaneço no centro de toda a Luz. Aqui nada pode me tocar.”

Max Freedom Long – que recuperou para o mundo ocidental os ensinamentos hunas do Havaí, há muito tempo perdidos – criou um mantra para os pesquisadores da cultura huna que temiam forças negativas:

“Recuso-me a aceitar qualquer sugestão de qualquer fonte negativa; mereço somente o bem e só a boa vontade chega até mim. Tenho comigo a proteção do meu Eu Superior em todos os momentos, e ela me envolve com um manto de Luz. Não temo mal nenhum. Nada que não seja bom pode tocar minha vida de modo algum. Permaneço sereno, seguro e tranquilo no pleno conhecimento de que sou protegido em todos os momentos, dia e noite.”

Outro mantra protetor, que Edgar Cayce recomenda salmodiar antes da meditação, é o seguinte: “Envolvo-me na proteção encontrada no pensamento de Cristo.” Uma oração protetora muito poderosa encontra-se no livro Psychic Self-Defense:

“Visualize-se segurando na mão direita a espada flamejante do Senhor Miguel, e diga – ´Em nome de Deus, tomo a espada do poder para me defender contra o mal e a agressão´. Imagine-se crescendo em altura até o dobro ou triplo do seu tamanho normal. Agora, com a ponta da espada, trace no chão um círculo mágico que o envolva. Veja um rastro de chama seguindo a ponta da espada.

“Depois de terminar, junte as mãos em oração, erga-as sobre a cabeça e, olhando para o Leste, diga numa prece – ´Que o poderoso Arcanjo Rafael me proteja de todo o mal que se aproxima do Leste´. Voltando-se para o Sul, diga a mesma coisa invocando o Arcanjo Miguel. Voltando-se para o Oeste, invoque o Arcanjo Gabriel. Depois, olhando para o Norte, invoque o Arcanjo Uriel. Depois volte-se novamente para o Leste.”

Essa fórmula é especialmente eficaz para proteger seu espaço durante o sono. A ideia é traçar um círculo em torno da cama. Esse círculo dura do pôr-do-sol ao amanhecer. Para começar e concluir a prece é necessário fazer o sinal cabalístico da cruz. Este é um recurso extremamente eficiente, muito semelhante ao sinal-da-cruz do catolicismo.

Tocando a testa, diga: “Vosso, oh Deus (tocando o plexo solar), é o reino (tocando o ombro direito), o poder (tocando o ombro esquerdo) e a glória (juntando as mãos) pelos séculos dos séculos. Amém.”

Para selar sua aura usando o sinal-da-cruz, Dion Fortune, no mesmo livro, recomenda ficar bem ereto e fazer o sinal-da-cruz tocando a testa, o peito, o ombro direito e o esquerdo, dizendo: “Pelo poder do Cristo de Deus dentro em mim, a quem sirvo de todo o coração, alma, força e entendimento, envolvo-me agora com o círculo divino de Sua proteção, no qual nenhum erro mortal ousa entrar.”

Se quiser, você pode usar apenas o sinal-da-cruz. Mas se você deseja uma tripla proteção, pode usar o sinal do pentáculo, ou estrela de cinco pontas. Este é um meio bastante eficaz para proteger uma casa de espíritos intrometidos. A estrela pode ser criada no ar à sua frente; depois é só visualizá-la imediatamente em todas as janelas e portas da casa. Ela pode ser criada da seguinte forma:

Se você quer selar sua aura por estar ao lado de alguém que tenta sugar sua vitalidade, entrelace os dedos e coloque as mãos sobre o plexo solar. Ao mesmo tempo, encoste os cotovelos contra os lados do corpo e encoste um pé no outro. Fazendo assim, você transforma seu corpo físico num círculo fechado que não pode ser drenado.

As forças das trevas não conseguem entrar no seu campo se a sua frequência global é elevada até uma vibração suficientemente alta. Para elevar rapidamente sua vibração, diga a seguinte oração que criei para esse fim:

“Amado Deus, Cristo, Espírito Santo, poderosa Presença Eu Sou, Mahatma, minha Mônada, Vywamus, Sai Baba, Djwhal Khul, Mestre Jesus, Virgem Maria e a Grande Irmandade Branca:

Com esta prece invoco um pilar de Luz. Invoco o meu corpo de Luz glorificado. Invoco a completa infusão de energia do Mahatma. Invoco o décimo segundo raio dourado. Invoco a ascensão de uma coluna de Luz. Invoco a chama violeta de Saint Germain. Invoco a Luz de mil sóis, que desça agora no meu sistema de quatro corpos. Invoco o meu eu elevado da quinta dimensão, para que ele funda sua aura com a minha.

Invoco a chama da ascensão. Invoco o meu veículo vivo de Luz, meu Merkabah, e peço para ser colocado dentro dele. Invoco um alinhamento axiatonal. Invoco a completa ancoragem do meu décimo segundo chacra no chacra do alto da cabeça. Invoco a completa descida de minha alma e Mônada no meu sistema de quatro corpos. Invoco a elevação de minhas frequências vibracionais até a do próprio Cristo. Invoco a vibração do Aum.”

As Palestras “Eu Sou”, de Saint Germain, recomendam a seguinte oração para invocar a proteção do Tubo de Luz:

“Amada, poderosa e vitoriosa Presença de Deus Eu Sou em mim! Envolve-me na tua presença esplendorosa, na tua invencível proteção Crística cósmica do tubo de pura essência de Luz eletrônica. Garante, por mim, que essa proteção seja ativa e todo-poderosa, e eternamente sustentada.

Não deixes que nenhuma criatura humana desarmônica jamais consiga transpô-la para me atingir. Que esse tudo de essência luminosa me faça e mantenha invisível e invulnerável a toda miséria humana, constantemente elevando e conservando minha atenção na Tua onipresença em todos e tudo. Conscientemente, aceito agora mesmo essa dádiva, com pleno poder!”

Termino este capítulo com aquela que, acredito, é hoje a oração mais poderosa nesta Terra. É a oração da Grande Invocação do Senhor Maitreya, o Cristo Planetário, que garante a todos proteção.

Do ponto de Luz da Mente de Deus

Que a Luz flua às mentes dos homens.

Que a Luz desça à Terra.

Do ponto de Amor no coração de Deus

Que o amor flua aos corações dos homens.

Que o Cristo volte à Terra.

Do centro onde se conhece a Vontade de Deus

Que a determinação guie as minúsculas vontades dos homens –

A determinação que os mestres conhecem e favorecem.

Do centro que chamamos raça dos homens

Que evolua o Plano de Amor e Luz

E possa então selar a porta onde habita o mal.

Que a Luz, o Amor e o Poder restaurem o Plano na Terra.

(Do livro Psicologia da Alma – Chaves para a Ascensão – Joshua David Stone)

– DE CORAÇÃO A CORAÇÃO