#or more precise the land of all our respective ancestors and gods

[brick-van-dyke]

To be honest, I think one of the things that really piss me off about Israelis saying "it's about land back" (about their militarized ownership of land which isn't what land back means) and then saying other indigenous people are being "antisemetic" when we say "please don't use our term for practicing our culture and learning it to describe the miliary occupation of Palestine" is that I find overwhelmingly that Zionists are silent on the issues of indigenous people worldwide. And they only actually speak up about us when it's beneficial to their cause, when it can be used to justify their own militarization or they can make some vague comparison. When there are attacks on learning our history in our schools, or high incarceration rates for indigenous populations, or how high our mortality rates are, I don't see Israel as a so-called "successful land back nation" speaking up about it or doing anything to denounce the occupiers doing this.

In fact, they're allies with them and actively benefit off of the occupation of other indigenous people who they try to imitate. What's really insulting about this and the whole "well if you're indigenous why don't you support Israel?" bullshit is how Israel actively benefits off of indigenous suffering worldwide by allying themselves with the nations that mistreat their indigenous populations, remain silent on said population's social issues and don't act like the so-called "successful land back" nation they pretend to be. Instead, they actively take and appropriate our struggles for their own gain while showing literally no care factor for the abuse done to indigenous people worldwide and have no respect for anyone else in the land back movement. And yes, this includes Jews, because they're not being given free rights to pratice all sects of Judaism when Ultra Orthodox Jews are forced into conscription and call Jews who disagree with Zionism "self hating" (code for "weak" Jew since that's often the connotations associated with the term since 1945). That's literally the opposite of a nation that, theoretically, should let all native ethnic groups be allowed to pratice their faiths and live by their cultures. Which, yeah, would also include other groups and cultures besides Jews as well, especially Palestinians who, as a diaspora formed over literal centuries of on and off colonisation, resistances and migrations, include people from a variety of ethnic groups that stretch back from and before King David in Judea. It would include literally every minority within it, and every other ethic group that has an equal claim to be allowed to pratice their own culture; which is everyone.

That's the thing about land back that I think Israel likes to forget/ cut away from its central meaning; it was never about ownership and we, as indigenous people, have constantly stated this. It's about land care and freedom to pratice our language, culture and beliefs. It's about being allowed to teach it. It's about being allowed to exist simultaneously with every other tribe around us, even when we all have different cultures and languages. Because it's not "land back from only one of the hundreds of people from this land and everyone else has to conform or die", it's "we all deserve an equal place to live in peace without prejudice or erasure". And yeah, as someone who's had their language and culture taken away, that really pisses me off. Israel's occupation isn't "land back" when the methods it's using are literally just copied from western imperialism and militarization. If Israel was land back, they would be willing to decolonise their own systems, but they're not and they show over and over again that the struggles of other native people around the world mean jack shit.

They expect a statement from us condemning Hamas, the Intifadas and resistances against their militarization, but are dead silent when another kid from our mobs are killed in juvenile prisons for a crime they didn't even commit or when there are laws placed against or right to pratice our culture or even speak or learn our languages. That's okay somehow? But we're expected to support you despite that silence? Fuck off.

[atariince]

Hi! The same Anon here: yes, I'm in!!! And what can you say about Galadriel and Finrod, you mentioned that there are parallels between both, what did you mean? I know that Finrod wanted lands to rule the same as Galadriel...

Great! I’ll make a little announcement here about my Twitch channel when everything will be ready (probably within two weeks or so).

Now, concerning your request, I must warn you first, my answer, which takes the form of painstaking yet not exhaustive analysis, will be quite long, but (I hope!) not too tedious. 

[Finrod’s heraldry by J.R.R Tolkien, 1960, MS. Tolkien Drawings 91, fol. 29)

Felagund and Galadriel are alike in many ways, especially in their respective evolution, even though those two characters have quite different motives and temperaments. 

We’ve already talked a lot about Galadriel in my last post, so I won’t repeat it. As for Finrod, we know he was “like his father in his fair face and golden hair, and also noble and generous heart, though he has the high courage of the Noldor and in his youth their eagerness and unrest” (UT 2 Ch. IV). Both Galadriel and Finrod were proud, “as were all the descendants of Finwë save Finarfin”, “and like her brother Finrod, of all her kin the nearest to her heart, she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be her own to order as she would without tutelage” (UT2, Ch. IV). 

Yet, although, Finrod “had also from his Telerin mother a love of the sea and dreams of far lands that he had never seen”, he wasn’t so eager to leave Valinor during the Rebellion of the Noldor:

“But at the rear went Finarfin and Finrod, and many of the noblest and wisest of the Noldor; and often they looked behind them to see their fair city…” (The Silmarillion, Ch. 9)

Whereas Galadriel “was eager to be gone” for the reasons we have already seen. 

We can probably say they share this desire to rule over a kingdom of their own, even though it seems stronger in Galadriel, while her brother appears to be driven mostly by loyalty towards his cousins and his curiosity.

But beyond their temperament, there is a whole narrative arc that corresponds both to Finrod and Galadriel, and in order to try to keep it as clear as possible, we’ll go step by step…

Foresight : Fate and free-will

You have probably noticed that they both have the gift of foresight, which is mentioned, strangely enough, in two very different settings, and yet, the meaning of their words are quite similar. In The Silmarillion, (ch. 15), Galadriel asks her brother why he would not take a spouse, and

 “… a foresight came upon Felagund as she spoke, and he said : ‘an oath I too shall swear, and must be free to fulfil it, and go into darkness.’”

As for Galadriel, in The Fellowship of the Ring (ch. 7), after Sam had looked into the Mirror, she explains that 

“it shows many things, and not all have yet come to pass. Some never come to be true, unless those that behold the visions turn aside from their path to prevent them.”

As Tom Shippey explained in The Road to Middle-earth, here, “she articulates a theory of compromise between fate and free will”, and we find the exact same ambivalence with Finrod who should be “free to fulfil his oath” (although he can choose to not be free), while acknowledging his fate as something that is already written and from which he must not stray. In other words, it is his fate to take an oath that will drive him to his death, but he’s still free to ignore it, free to “turn aside from [the] path” that was appointed by Eru Iluvatar. That is where resides the tension of free-will. 

Leo Carruthers in Tolkien et la Religion explained how this notion of free-will is fundamental in Tolkien’s work: 

“If the heroes don’t have to make a choice because the path to take seems obvious… if criminals couldn’t repent, the story of the Lord of the Rings would be far less interesting” (Tolkien et la Religion) (my translation). 

According to him, we can understand the term “Free People of Middle-earth” as people who “can use their free-will to decide between good and evil”. It is, as Carruthers comments, to be understood through the Christian notion of salvation, because “if mankind couldn’t tell good from evil, they wouldn’t be able to choose one of the other.” (we’ll talk about salvation later). 

Coming back to Middle-earth, where fate has to do with the Tale of Arda as it was given in the Music. Finrod is free to follow the fate which appeared in his vision, or to refuse this role. 

And what is Finrod’s role in the Tale of Arda? To help in Beren’s quest for the Silmaril, a tragic quest, but which, in the end, enhanced the beauty of Arda through the marriage between a Maia-elf and a Man, through the Peredhil, including Eärendil and his settlement in the sky with the Silmaril on his brow. And remember that Eärendil is a figure of hope for both Elves and Man. 

Finrod knows the path of his fate will be a tragic one, but he also believes that there will be a happy ending; a happy ending which won’t happen if he decides to ignore his fate.

Estel and the eucatastrophe

And that’s what it’s all about : Estel, “a strong hope in Eru, which can’t be separated from trust”, says Carruthers, who then adds that it is obviously very similar to the Christian faith in God. 

Finrod accepts his fate because he has Estel, he has faith in Eru and in the Tale, and he acknowledges that his sacrifice will be part of something bigger, something beautiful in the end (the well-known “eucatastrophe”). Tom Shippey wrote :

”Tolkien of course, being a Christian, did in absolute fact believe that in the end all things would end up happily, in a sense they already had… the difference between Earth and Middle-earth, one might say, is that in the latter faith can, just sometimes, be perceived as facts.”( The Road to Middle-earth, Ch. 5). 

Estel means believing, it means having faith in the happening of a eucatastrophe, that is the “fairy-tale salvation” (T. Shippey, The Road to Middle-earth, Ch. 6).

I already talked a lot about Estel and Finrod in the past, and in an old post I wrote: “In the whole Beren-mess story I believe that Finrod saw himself as a sort of ‘martyr’, being convinced that he was accomplishing Eru’s will in helping Beren – Finrod clearly follows what I call the Estel-principle.” [I also already explained why I judged Estel to be an act of faith, so feel free to have a look at this other old post for more details.]

Remember his words in the “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth”: 

“If any marriage can be between our kindred and thine, it shall be for high purpose of Doom.”  (HoMe X, part IV)

As for Galadriel, just like Finrod with Beren and Lúthien, she becomes a tutelary figure for Aragorn and Arwen: not only they pledge their love in Lothlórien, but more importantly, Galadriel gives her blessing to Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring (Ch. 8), when she gives him the Elessar as a bridal gift. Celebrian being gone, it’s the grandmother’s role to offer it. But the stone is also a symbol of protection towards the couple, although Elrond has not yet completely agreed since Aragorn is not king yet :

“Arwen Undómiel shall not diminish her life’s grace for less cause. She shall not be the bride of any Man, less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor” (The Return of The King, Appendix A)

Galadriel accepts the marriage because she believes that it shall happen “for high purpose of Doom”, just like Finrod about Beren and Lúthien’s. And it’s no coincidence if Aragorn is called Estel: he is the hope of Mankind as the Fourth age draws closer. It can even be argued that, if Aragorn hadn’t had the blessing of Galadriel and the certainty the he would be able to marry Arwen once king, maybe he wouldn’t have accepted the crown with such eagerness. 

Anyway, I do believe that Galadriel’s protection over the lovers is considerably important, as important as Finrod’s sacrifice for Beren’s life. Both become some sort of guardian angels for those two couples, and they accept this role (no matter the sacrifice they’ll have to make on the way) precisely because they believe in a happy ending, because of Estel, which is, in the end, the belief in a just retribution: if they don’t go astray, they will end up wiser and stronger, if not happier, whether in this life or in the afterlife (see Annie Bricks in Dictionnaire Tolkien, entry ‘Retribution’). As I said earlier, one of the most poignant embodiments of Estel is Eärendil, it is thus no surprise if Galadriel offers the Phial of Eärendil to Frodo.  

Friendships with Men 

If Finrod had long before his meeting with Beren become a friend of Men, Galadriel, on the other hand, hardly had any contact with mankind before the Third Age. It is thus significant that she, “the last survivor of the princes and queens who had led the revolting Noldor to exile in Middle-earth” (The Road Goes ever On), acknowledges and gives her blessing to the marriage between a Man and an Elf. 

It is also significant that this blessing is symbolized by the exchange of gifts, for, as Eric Flieller explained in le Dictionnaire Tolkien (Vincent Ferré et All, entry “Don”), exchange between Men and Elves are “signs of alliance between the children of Eru”, just like weddings. 

Moreover, Sébastien

Maillet ( (in “L’Anneau de Barahir”, Tolkien les racines du légendaire, 2003), noticed

that « finrod had received the difficutl task to guide men in their

discovery of Middle-Earth, while Aragorn accept the tole to govern them after

the Elves have left.”

Furthermore, another gift is present in the story of Aragorn and Arwen : the Ring of Barahir, the token of the union between Elves and Men, which Aragorn gave to Arwen, granddaughter of Galadriel, herself sister of Finrod who probably received it from their father in Aman (Finarfin being probably the one who crafted it), and who gave the Ring to Barahir, father of Beren, himself an ancestor of Aragorn and Arwen. (ha!) We go round in circle, aren’t we?

This ring is, according to Elrond’s words to Aragorn a, token of “their kinship from afar” (The Return of the King, Appendix A), a kinship which has been able to evolve (if not to exist) thanks to the protection and tutelage of the House of Finarfin.

In both cases we have an elven lord/lady, who is engaged in exchanges (of gift, knowledge, or assistance) with Men, with the hope (Estel) that it would save Arda from perils, and eventually lead to the accomplishment of the Tale of Arda. And for that they’re both ready to fight and to make sacrifice, of different natures of course.

Sacrifices

Finrod sacrificed his life in the pit of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Galadriel sacrificed something much more complicated to define : she accepted the fact that the role of the Elves in Middle-earth was dwindling, she sacrificed her pride and her ambitions.

 “She also possesses humility and a willingness to sacrifice her own desires for the greater good, as evidenced by her resistance to the temptation to take the One Ring from Frodo, even though this would make her the most powerful being in Middle-earth.” (source). 

She also sacrificed her granddaughter when she accepted the marriage, since Arwen would never be able to follow her family in the West. Bur more than simple “martyrs”, Galadriel and Finrod are also fighters. 

Fights : victory through defeat

Finrod actually contends with Sauron, during the famous song-battle, and soon after he has a real physical fight with the wolf sent by Sauron, while Galadriel’s own life isn’t directly in peril, and there’s no real face to face. In her case, it is a sort of a remote battle against Sauron through the Ruling Ring, its temptation and illusions. 

We must also stress that she fights against herself, her own delusions and desires. Yet, in the end, her victory helped nonetheless in the defeat of Sauron.

It would be a shame to ignore the words of Sebastien Maillet (in “L’Anneau de Barahir”, Tolkien les racines du légendaire, 2003), who noted that, while Felagund didn’t succumb to the temptation to appear as a god to the mortals when he first met them (they thought he was a Vala, remember?), Galadriel almost yield to this tempting desire when the Ring came to her. Nevertheless, by freeing herself from her own illusions and pride and by defeating the temptation woven by Sauron, she avenged her brothers.

Nevertheless, Galadriel and Finrod are both winners and losers: Finrod was defeated by Sauron’s song and died as he killed the wolf. He wasn’t able to see the success of the quest of the Silmaril. Galadriel left Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, defeated like all the elves, by the growing power of Mankind.

In terms of fights, we can also mention the parallel between the way Galadriel cleansed Dol Guldur and the passage in which Lúthien cleansed Tol Sirion which was first and foremost Finrod’s dwelling. 

“Then Lúthien stood upon the bridge and declared her power: and the spell was loosed that bound stone to stone, and the gates were thrown down, and the walls opened, and the pits laid bare.” (The Silmarillion, Ch. 19).

“They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed.” (The Return of the King, Appendix B)

More than an echo, I like to see in this similitude a symbol of revenge of Galadriel in the name of her brother whom she couldn’t help in the First Age. The fact that both Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Dol Guldur had become Sauron’s fortresses is particularly poignant. 

Salvation

Beyond their half-defeat, they are still victorious in the end: Finrod’s sacrifice granted him salvation, just like the refusal to take the Ring in the case of Galadriel:

 “In reward for all that she had done to oppose him [Sauron], but above all for rejection of the Ring when it came within her power, the ban was lifted, and she returned over the Sea, as I told in the Lord of the Rings (The Road Goes Ever On).

We’ve already talked about that so let’s focus on Finrod:

“They buried the body of Felagund upon the hill-top of his own isle, and it was clean again; and the green grave of Finrod Finarfin son , fairest of all the prince of the Elves, remained inviolate, until the land was changed and broken, and foundered under destroying seas. But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” (The Silmarillion, Ch. 19).

He’s the only Elda whose ending is given in such terms. Even Fingolfin’s afterlife isn’t mention, and the cairn made for him by Turgon isn’t described with such positive terms, it’s only “high”, whereas Felagund’s grave is “green”, inviolated”, “clean”. As for the mention of his walking with his father in Valinor, it is clearly an image of redemption. 

He has won, because his sacrifice saved Beren, while his sister won, protecting Middle earth from herself, approving and protecting the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn. 

In a draft for a letter to Peter Hasting (letter 153), Tolkien himself explains that:

 “The entering into Men of the Elven-strain is indeed represented as part of a Divine Plan for ennoblement of the human Race, from the beginning designed to replace Elves”. 

And from Felagund’s help in Beren’s quest to Galadriel’s farewell to Middle-earth while giving her granddaughter to Aragorn, the whole plan is made plain. (Ah!)

We must also mention other (aborted) elf-human love stories which involve the House of Finarfin: that of Andreth and Aegnor, and that Finduilas and Turin…If those two tragic relationships never actually happened (because it wasn’t for “hight purpose of Doom”), we nonetheless notice that the alliance of Men and Elves is being mainly constructed around the children of Finarfin and his descendants.

The betterment of the Noldor

Finally, all the tragedies Galadriel and Finrod encountered (including the Rebellion) are at the core of their own evolution: they grew wiser and more powerful than they would have, had they remained in Aman. 

Indeed, if Finrod seems to have learned a lot in the contact of Men since his meeting with the People of Bëor, Galadriel seems to have had only a few connections with the Second-Born before the Third Age. And it’s only after her acknowledgement of Aragorn as the hope of Mankind and Middle-Earth that she can humble herself, accepting that her place is no longer in Middle earth. 

That’s the power of Estel, which, for those two Elves, is also present in the songs they both sing to chase away darkness.

Songs of hope and “prayers”

In the song-battle against Sauron, Finrod tries to take the mastery by singing about “the birds singing afar in Nargothrond, the sighing of the Sea beyond, on sands of pearls in Elvenland” (The Silmarillion, Ch. 19). He here mentions his hope to escape, his hope to see Eldamar again : Estel. 

As for Galadriel, in The Fellowship of the

Ring (Ch. 8), she sings Namarië, which ends with some hopeful final

lines: “Maybe thou shalt find Valimar. Maybe even though shalt find it.”

Tolkien explained that 

“The last lines of the chant express a wish (or hope) that though she could not go, Frodo might perhaps be allowed to do so.”

(UT 2 Ch. IV) 

Although

Even

if he then explains that the Quenya ‘Nai’ “expresses rather a wish than a hope,

and would be more closely rendered by ‘may it be that (though wilt find), than

by ‘maybe’” (The Road Goes ever on), hope is nonetheless present in this wish, if only for Frodo and for Middle-earth: if she asks for Frodo to be granted a ship to the West, it means she believes he will fulfill his quest and destroy the Ruling Ring. Her song reaches beyond the current, tragic situation, as if she was already expecting a happy ending, even if tainted with sorrow, just like in Finrod’s evocation of Eldamar during his fight with Sauron

in Tol Sirion.

Dreamlands and Craftsmanship

This powerful use of music is part of the powers of Finrod and Galadriel’s art, what the mortals call “magic”, that power of faëry (for more about this, see Tolkien’s essay “On fairy-Story”). 

We’re talking here of their capacity to create images, between dreams and illusions, as in Finrod’s song, again: 

“The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,

And all the magic and might he brought

Of Eveness into his words” (The Silmarillion ch.19)

or when he sings during the first meeting with the Men:

“Now men awoke and listened to Felagund as he harped and sang, and each thought that he was in some fair dream…” (The Silmarillion, Ch. 17)

Or when he changes the appearance of his companions when they approach Tol Sirion :

“Then Felagund a spell did sing

Of changing and shifting shape.” (”The Lay of Leithian”, canto VII, Home III)

In the case of Galadriel, this art of illusion is woven all around Lothlórien, also called “Dreamflower” by Treebeard, or “Dwirmordene”, that is ‘Phantom Vale’ in the tongue of the Rohirrim:

“Half in fear and half in hope to glimpse from afar the shimmer of the Dwimordene, the perilous land that in legends of their people was said to shine like gold in the springtime.” (UT 3, Ch. 2)

“…through the Dwimordene where dwells the White Lady and weaves nets that o mortal can pass”. (ibid.)

As Benjamin Babut explained in his article “Lothlórien la fleur des rêves” (in J.R.R Tolkien, l’Effigie des Elfes, la Feuille de la compagnie n°3, 2014), this word of Anglo-Saxon origin is to be related to “illusions, hallucinations”, which is to be connected to the name Lórien, originally the garden of Irmo, lord of dreams, to which Lothlórien is an echo. 

Lothlórien is a strange forest of gold and silver, the Valley of Gold apparently so different from the underground fortress of Finrod in Nargothrond. On the one hand: stones. Trees on the other. Do you see a pattern, here ? We’re not talking of opposite elements, but of two features that complete one another: Aulë and Yavanna. 

“And Galadriel, like others of the Noldor, had been a pupil of Aulë and Yavanna in Valinor (UT 2, Ch. IV),

A fact that makes her, and her brother, friends of Dwarves. For Galadriel “had a natural sympathy with their minds and passionate love of crafts of hand” (ibid.), and we know that Finrod worked hand in hand with them in the building of Nargothrond and employed them for the crafting of the Nauglamír:

“In that labour Finrod was aided by the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains; and they were rewarded well…And in that time was made the Nauglamír, the Necklace of the Dwarves.” (The Silmarillion, Ch.13)

Yet, and this is interesting, if Galadriel acknowledges their value and the need to unite all people of Middle-earth against Sauron, she “looked upon the Dwarves also with the eye of a commander, seeing in them the finest warriors to pit against the orcs (UT 2 Ch. IV). 

In any case, she is nonetheless a craftswoman as well, she weaves the cloaks she gives to the fellowship, like she weaves webs of illusion around her realm.

By the Way, S. Mallet in his article also talks of the Ring of Barahir as a symbol of the illusion of Faëry…I think we’ve come full circle!

And now that all this has been said, I cannot emphasize enough Tolkien’s “near obsession” with the rewriting of the character of Galadriel ; he reshaped the character a lot of times after the publication of The Lord of the Rings; some texts are simply incompatible, and it would be purely vain to try to give a fixed, definitive depiction of her. 

I’ll put a final period to this quote (source) :

”Whatever the reasons, the great importance that Galadriel had for Tolkien throughout the many iterations of his legendarium and in his reflections on his sub creation should lay to rest any criticism that he paid little attention to female characters in his work.”

[tanadrin]

CHRIS HAYES: We all understand that a country that stops its people from leaving, say North Korea, is just definitionally tyrannical. You can leave if you want to go, right? But then there's like, "Well, okay, well, if you leave you've got to go somewhere, right?" There's also embedded in that document the right to petition for political asylum. There isn't quite the right to go anywhere you want. Should it be the case that it is a universal human right to pick up and move to the country of your choice?

SUKETU MEHTA: But that's the question of open borders. Does the nation have the right to control who comes in, how many they let in? It's a very complex issue. I'd like to first point out that this whole question of borders and passports and visas is only about 100 years old. In the long history on the planet, we human beings have only started thinking about these questions about a century ago. Before that in the age of mass migration from the middle of the 19th century to around 1914, fully one quarter of Europe up and moved to the United States. What happened? The Republic did not collapse.

CHRIS HAYES: No, in fact the opposite. It was part of what converted it from sort of a colonial backwater into a super power.

SUKETU MEHTA: Exactly, the U.S. eclipsed Europe at the pinnacle of world wealth and power because of it had an open border policy.

CHRIS HAYES: Not only that. This is my favorite fact, and you write about this in the book. When people say, "Well, my ancestors came legally." It's like we had open borders. They came legally because literally there was one rule: no Chinese.

SUKETU MEHTA: Right.

CHRIS HAYES: It's called the Chinese Exclusion Act, and it had a quota on the Chinese and everyone else, it was like, "Come on down."

SUKETU MEHTA: Yeah.

CHRIS HAYES: That was the legal posture of American immigration policy for decades.

SUKETU MEHTA: So, in my book I also considered these arguments by serious philosophers, not just crackpots, who say that any kind of collective has the right to define rules for membership, or there's this lifeboat here. The United States is a lifeboat in an ocean, and there are lots of people swimming around. If too many people get on the lifeboat, then everyone sinks — both the newcomers on the lifeboat and people who've been there before. And so, I've considered these arguments, but I really can't find any evidence that, if tomorrow we were to suddenly open up our borders, and there's a lot of people who'd like to move to the United States.

Well, first of all, GDP would increase enormously. There's a statistic that if the world had open borders, then world GDP would increase by $78 trillion a year. When people move, everyone benefits. If the United States were to adopt a policy, let's say, short of open borders. For every one million people that we bring in, the GDP will increase by 1.15 percent. So, there's just no doubt that immigration benefits the countries that the immigrants moved to, particularly the rich countries because we're not making enough babies, and we need young motivated immigrants to work because the United States by the middle of the century is going to be a nation of geezers. As the baby boomers retire, there's not enough working age adults to pay for the pensions of the old people.

CHRIS HAYES: If you want to see the future of America, go to a big facility for seniors, particularly in a metro area like New York, assisted living where it is like old white folks being cared for by 30-year-old immigrants and people of color. That's it. That's it. That's the future of the country in many respects.

SUKETU MEHTA: That's it. Look, the replacement rate is 2.1 babies per woman. The United States' replacement rate stands at 1.7 babies per woman. You see this around the world, Japan. Under 4 percent of the Japanese population is foreign born. It's ridiculous.

CHRIS HAYES: It's one of the most closed off society to immigration of any, probably it is the most closed off to immigration of any First World country.

SUKETU MEHTA: Exactly, yeah, because they want to keep their culture pure. As a result, the economy has stagnated, and in the villages of the north, there's only old people left because all the young people have moved to the cities in the south. They've been invaded by wild boars from the mountains. So, it's a common sight to see these old men and women being chased by wild boars in the villages. The Washington Post had this fascinating article about this, where old Japanese people are being menaced by wild boars because there's not enough young people to chase off the wild boars.

Is this what we want for our country? Wild boars chasing our old people? Bring in the immigrants. Well, the Japanese also have realized that they need more immigrants because they need labor. So, they're actually very cautiously opening up their doors. They're trying to recruit high-skilled immigrants, but not enough people want to move there because they feel it's a hostile atmosphere for them.

CHRIS HAYES: But I have to say that the economic argument always leaves me a little cold, right? It just sort of feels like it's a hard thing to persuade people of. It always feels a little like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is trying to sell me on something when I hear this argument, which I think is backed up by the vast majority of economists and wonks with a small dissenting group of economists and wonks.

SUKETU MEHTA: Yeah, there's basically one man, George Borjas at Harvard.

CHRIS HAYES: George Borjas, who's the famous contrarian on precisely this. He's the guy that you will see cited in every bit of literature and pamphlets from this anti-immigration coalition. I guess what I'm trying to get back around to is the basic moral principle. There are times when I think to myself it seems possible to me there's two things I feel it's about, eating meat and immigration, where it seems possible to me that in 100 years people will look back on the current policies as like obviously barbaric.

That it just makes no sense that just the natural lottery of where you happen to be born essentially determined all your life outcomes, and like if you're born in a slum in Bangladesh, like, "Too bad. Got to stay there. Can't go to the United States, because you’re SOL buddy." At some level it's like that's morally indefensible. Why is that the case? It shouldn't be that way, and yet it's crazy and radical to say like, "No, they should be able to come here because then where we have a billion people who move to the U.S., right?" There's all these sorts of catastrophizing thoughts we have about what that would look like. But I don't know, maybe that's right. I don't know.

SUKETU MEHTA: The central point of my book is a moral argument that all these people, and you're right, the greatest inequality in the world today is the inequality of citizenship, a disadvantaged lottery. I can predict a person's life depending on the passport that he or she holds. But the question I ask is, "Why is it that Bangladesh is in the state it's in right now?" The nation that's caused Bangladesh's misery, the United Kingdom and Europe, and the United States because of climate change.

Why is it that these Bangladeshis have to endure what they're enduring, which is the possible extinction of their country by the end of the century because of climate change. It's not their fault. They are coming here because we were there. The British went into South Asia, stayed there for 200 years, and destroyed the economy. When the British arrived in India at the beginning of the 18th century, by India I mean all of South Asia, India's share of world GDP was 23 percent. By the time they left, 200 years later in 1947, India’s share was four percent of world GDP.

So, basically the colonial empire will run for the benefit of England and France, who together made the 40 percent of all the borders in the world. Bangladesh is in its current condition, because first, the British looted it, prevented it from building up its industries. Now, we're worried about four million Syrians going into Germany because of the law. What happens when Bangladesh get flooded, and 400 million Bangladeshis have to find dry land? Where are they going to go?

...

CHRIS HAYES: But the level of migration between developing countries and refugee populations at developing countries are constantly asked to take in, and the burden they bear from Jordan to Colombia to India to all across the developing world, for the First World to be like, "No, this is outrageous," it's crazy. It is crazy.

SUKETU MEHTA: Exactly. The vast majority of world migrants, 85 percent, moved from a poor to a slightly less poor.

CHRIS HAYES: That's right.

SUKETU MEHTA: We think that there's always the right wing — if you're to look at Fox News you'll think, "Oh, my God, we're so generous. We let in a million migrants.” We rank 23rd in the world in terms of how many immigrants we let in as a percentage of our population. If we tripled our intake, we won't even be in the top five. Even among developed countries, Australia, Canada, they take in far more immigrants than we do. Germany takes in far more immigrants than we do as a percentage of the population.

...

Look, New York City's exhibit A in showing that immigration works: New York City is now at historically unprecedented levels of number of immigrants it takes, even as a percentage of its population is approaching the highs of the early 20th century. Two out of three New Yorkers are immigrants. New York has never been richer. New York has never been safer.

There's no evidence that these alleged waves of immigrants are actually disturbing the peace, or else making people poorer.

(x)

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Normally I don't like to ask stuff but I feel distressed. My mom is arguing about a preaching that she heard where it says that the antichrist will be gay. She quotes the book of Daniel, particularly Daniel 11:37. Her argument is that Daniel is a prophecy book therefore it must be true. It just really hurts that she'd say this to me and keeps making remarks about my faith. That I'm not a good enough Christian for not believing like her. Is what Daniel say true or is the interpretation wrong?

Hey there. I’m sorry to hear you’re distressed, and especially that your mom keeps making remarks about your faith. It is not right for any of us to judge another person’s faith like that! 

This is gonna get long, so for a tl;dr, after studying Daniel 11 and its surrounding context I can say pretty confidently that your mom is indeed wrong about how to interpret 11:37. If you want to explore just why with me, read on!

______________

So to start with, I disagree with your mom that everything in the Book of Daniel, or in any “prophecy book” of the Bible, must necessarily be “true” – or “come true” as if it were fortune telling. Biblical prophecy is not fortune telling or future telling. As I say in this post, biblical prophets were actually much more concerned about the present, about how the past had shaped that present, and about how the present could be used to shape the future! This is just a fact of how ancient Israelites viewed prophecy, regardless of how one interprets scripture (whether more fundamentalist / literal as I imagine your mom probably is, or more historical/contextual, etc.). 

Christians who get really into all the biblical visions of “the end times” and the rapture and stuff don’t want to hear this, because they want it to be somehow directly relevant to them and their futures (and that’s understandable), so the following paragraph is just some information for you rather than anything that’s likely to convince your mom:

Most biblical scholars say that most of the biblical prophecies aren’t about “The End Times” the way we conceive of it. The Book of Daniel’s prophecies do include some talk of the actual end of the world, but – like the Book of Revelation in the New Testament – the majority of his prophecies actually refer to kingdoms and intrigue going on in Daniel’s own time (or not so long before or after his own time). 

I have not studied Daniel’s prophecies, like, at all besides reading through them, so I can say more about how the Book of Revelation is less about “the end of the world” and more about “the end of the Roman Empire;” but Daniel follows a similar trajectory of being more about the fall of the empires that have oppressed his people than about the end of the whole world. If you have a Bible that offers footnotes about the historical context going on in any given passage of scripture, it will tell you all about that – that Daniel’s prophecies discuss the sequence of Babylonian, Median, and Persian rulers that oppress his people and criticize those oppressive kings. 

Thus when you go to look at Daniel 11 (and 10), you see that Daniel isn’t talking about “The Antichrist” in this passage – indeed, that title “Antichrist” is not used at all in this Book, or in any book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) at all! – but rather he is talking about a Persian king who is going to arise and oppress his people. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible suggests in its footnotes for 11:37 that the specific king Daniel’s talking about is Antiochus, who “grew exceedingly arrogant: He abandoned his ancestral gods and imposed the worship of Zeus Olympus” – hence 11:37′s statement that he “shall pay no respect to the God’s of his ancestors.”

Now that we’ve reached the verse itself in our discussion, let’s have a closer look at Daniel 11:37. The New King James Version reads, 

“He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all.”

The part of this verse that is used by some to claim that “the antichrist” (if you interpret this passage as even being about the antichrist, despite the context pointing to it actually being about a Persian king) is gay is, of course, “nor the desire of women.” 

But along with that seeming like a very random tangent for the prophet to mention in a verse that otherwise is about this king abandoning all gods, the issue with biblical Hebrew is that sometimes getting a precise meaning out of it is hard. Thus “nor the desire of women” is not the only translation into English that one can make from the Hebrew. I’ll list some other translations that have been made (and you can see tons more here):

KJV: “nor the desire of women”

NASB: “or for the desire of women”

NIV: “or for the one desired by women”

ESV and NRSV: “or to the one beloved by women”

New Living Translation: “or for the god loved by women”

CEB: “and the god preferred by women”

Now, there are many conservative Christians who believe that the King James Bible is never wrong, and therefore they’ll insist that the translation to “nor the desire of women” is the one “correct” translation. But even if that is the case, what exactly does “the desire of women” mean in English? Does it mean: 

that this guy doesn’t desire / isn’t attracted to women, as your mom believes? 

could it also mean that he doesn’t care if women desire him? aka he might still desire them, and doesn’t give a damn about whether they like him back

or does it mean that he doesn’t care what women desire/want – i.e., that he won’t listen to them about what they want, perhaps in regards to what gods he respects, since that’s what the rest of the verse is about?

Moving to look at those translations that translate it “the god loved/preferred/beloved by women,” some suggest that this meaning: just as the guy has no regard for “the god of his ancestors,” likewise he has no regard for the god[s] of his wives/concubines. There are examples in the Hebrew Bible of women having different gods from their husbands – Jacob’s wife Rachel takes her household gods with her into his house; Solomon’s many foreign wives convince him to worship their gods with them. So if the Hebrew here, hemdath nashiym, is translated something about “the god loved by the women,” that’s what it could be about – this guy won’t be swayed to worship any god, whether his own family’s gods or his wives’ gods. 

That above reasoning makes much more sense within the context of the verse than it being like “So this guy won’t care about his ancestors’ god, oh also by the way he’s gay or whatever, and back to the god thing, he’s gonna exalt himself over all gods.” It would be such a random tangent! 

_______

So that’s all the language and history stuff. Now let’s get hypothetical: 

so…what if your mom is right? So what if the verse is saying “this guy isn’t attracted women”? (and for the purpose of this hypothetical, let’s say the verse is about the antichrist though as I discussed above I do not believe that it is.) 

First off, just because he doesn’t desire women doesn’t necessarily mean he does desire men. He could be asexual and/or aromantic. That wouldn’t be much better, of course, because we’d be moving from homophobia into aphobia. Asexual and aromantic folks get vilified enough with the stigma that “oh you can’t ~~love~~?? you monster!” So I definitely do not like the supposition that the antichrist is ace/aro; that’s just as icky as him being gay.

But again, we’re in hypothetical land: so let’s say the antichrist is gay, or is aroace. ……..So what??

Gay people, aroace people, aren’t all perfect and good people. We can be badguys too, ya know? If the antichrist were cishet, it wouldn’t mean that All Cishet People Are Therefore Like The Antichrist – so if the antichrist were gay, why would it therefore mean that all gay people are like the antichrist? 

He’s just one person. A big bad person – but his sexuality isn’t necessarily a part of that. He’s not evil because of whatever his sexuality is or isn’t. 

I will close by offering some counterbalances to a supposedly gay (or aroace, or otherwise LGBTQA+) antichrist: there are also LGBTQA+ heroes in the Bible.

Daniel himself may well be one of them!!

To start with, Daniel is most likely a eunuch: after all, he has a position in the Babylonian court, and as David Bayliss notes, “it was customary for Mesopotamian kings in the first millennium BC to surround themselves with eunuchs as servants.” The Bible itself attests to this fact, in places like Isaiah 39:7 that talks about youths being taken from Judah to serve Babylon’s king as eunuchs. Along with those two facts, Bayliss continues with more evidence that Daniel was a eunuch:

Third, the fact that Daniel and the other captured Israelite youths were entrusted to the “chief eunuch” suggests that they were to become young eunuchs themselves.

Fourth, boys to be made into eunuchs were usually selected for their beauty, which is mentioned at the top of the list of selecting criteria in Dan 1:4.

Fifth, there is no mention of Daniel or his companions ever marrying (or having children).

Sixth, Daniel showed no interest in returning to Jerusalem after Cyrus the Great came to the throne (who allowed exiles to return to their homelands), which may have to do with his physical humiliation and the Deut 23:1 ban.“

Now, why’s it matter if Daniel’s a eunuch?? What’s that got to do with being LGBTQA?? Many queer scholars, myself included, have argued that biblical eunuchs share many similarities to gay people, or trans people, etc. I talk about the connection between biblical eunuchs and contemporary trans people in the section of this webpage titled “ ‘Better than sons or daughters’: Isaiah 56″.

(For other resources on eunuchs’ link to LGBT folks, see here, here, here, here.)

On top of that, some scholars have suggested a romantic/sexual relationship between David and the head eunuch under which he served, Ashpenaz. According to Daniel 1:9, Daniel enjoyed “the favor and tender love” of Ashpenaz. This could be a totally platonic thing, or it could be physical; the Hebrew is ambiguous. 

You might not be able to stop your mom from making her awful comments, but maybe being able to respond in your head to her “the antichrist is gay!” with “no, Daniel was gay” will help you a little. 

Please keep safe, and do what you can to keep your mom’s crap from getting to you (I know that’s much harder said than done). You are beloved by the God who made you, friend. And scripture is much queerer than hateful Christians want to admit. 

[mathiaskillmaster]

Rebirth of the Dragon (After GOT / Daenerys Targaryen) Part 14

Essos, Volantis

Another week had passed. After swearing his oath to the Queen of Dragons, Cade had returned to the Golden Company's encampment to announce the news to his men. Daenerys came in person with him, accompanied by Yara, Grey Worm, and Shen-zoan. She had to be present in order to leave a choice to the former mercenaries: join her or not. She promised them that no harm would be done to them if they refused to join the Order of the Golden Dragons, but in return they should not become obstacles to her. Among the 500 men of Cade, 300 accepted the offer and joined Cade to form the new order of knights created by Daenerys. The 200 remaining men were able to leave, as she had promised, abandoning once and for all their status as mercenaries of the now extinct Golden Company.

With the allegiance of the captain Cade and his 300 men, Daenerys also obtained the 10 war elephants, magnificent and powerful creatures with their own combat armors, which, according to Cade, could only be ridden by the most experienced men of the Company. Fortunately, 10 of the men who had sworn allegiance to all the remaining ones proved to be able to control the elephants. With this heavy cavalry, Daenerys knew that the power of her new army was again increased tenfold, reinforcing her determination to march against the slave empire and free Slaver's Bay again.

Unfortunately, with all the hardships since her return, Daenerys was more and more stressed, almost unable to sleep on certain nights, and still had some nightmares. It was Shen-zoan who humbly offered a cure from his country, Yi Ti, and Daenerys accepted, trusting her friend.

For this, Daenerys was now in a quiet little room of the temple, away from the places of rites so that absolute silence reigns. Having taken off her clothes, wearing only a white towel around her breasts and another to hide her crotch, Daenerys sits on a small wooden table, while Shen-zoan, standing in front of a small desk, took care of open a box taken in his travel bag and containing very small and thin needles. Daenerys shuddered a little as he saw them, raising an eyebrow. Seeing her cautious in front of the needles, Shen-zoan smiled and reassured her.

_ "Do not worry, majesty, it does not hurt."

_ "How do you name this .... special medicine?" asked the young queen.

_ "Acupuncture if I remember, but I think they decided to change the name."

_ "And, what will that do to me?"

_ "Let's say ...." Shen explained, "by punctuating certain specific places of the body, it is possible to realign the energies that compose us, in order to bring back a semblance of balance and harmony in our body. After all you've been through, majesty, I think it can only do you good."

It seemed almost like a kind of mystical rite in Dany's ears, but once again she trusted Shen, who more than once had proved his worth and devotion to her. He never stopped to surprise her. She watched him sometimes wander about his business. Yara, too, talking to Daenerys, sometimes said that Shen spent a lot of time contemplating the landscapes around him, sitting for hours without talking or moving. He was fond of drawing, writing, playing a flute he had brought with him from his country and which formerly belonged to his late master, as well as smoking a grass with a strong but pleasant odor in a wooden pipe.

She had also seen him training a few times, practicing alone this particular and fascinating art of combat, fast movements and incredible precision. She also understood why he was nicknamed "Windwalker" because indeed, the air around him seemed to accompany him and dance around him in his combat movements.

As indicated by the man of Yi Ti, Daenerys lay on her stomach, her bare back lit by the orange glow of the candles lighting the room. Shen first stepped forward, smearing her hands with a lotion of sweet almond scent that nicely caressed Daenerys' nostrils.

_ "A special oil from my country, specially made to increase the efficiency of the circulation of energies in the body during the process ..... Can I, majesty?" he asked again, very humbly. She looked at him and nodded. From the flat of his palms, Shen began to apply the oil to the soft skin of the queen's back. The sudden freshness of the oil made her shudder, but not in an unpleasant way. She also felt the muscles in her back relax slowly. Daenerys, out of the corner of his eye, watched Shen. The man was very concentrated in his task, not allowing himself to be disturbed for a single second by the vision of the half-naked body of the queen. Daenerys admired that also from Shen. His restraint and respect towards women's bodies. She wondered sometimes if he did not prefer men? Or maybe he loved both men and women? Where, then, had his particular teaching in this art of meditation and combat raised him above all this? Did he no longer feel the need for the pleasure of the flesh? So many questions....

_ "Tell me, Shen ...." Daenerys suddenly asked "... now that I remember it, during our meeting, you didn't show any surprise when you saw Drogon."

Shen smiled as he continued to massage the queen's back with the oil and answered with great candor.

_ "If dragons are often described as ferocious and destructive beasts, where I come from, they are seen as spirits with great powers, guardians of nature, both benevolent and capricious. Some of them can bring the moon and the night, others good weather and sun, perpetuating the cycles of days and seasons.... "

_ "Are there any dragons in Yi Ti?" asked Daenerys, her irises shining of a nascent fascination.

_ "I can not say, majesty, I have never seen ..... but some say they heard their singings resound beyond the Mountains of the Morn, in the lands of the far east of Yi Ti. Some even say they have seen them .... tall, majestic, wingless but floating in the air ... their long, slender bodies like snakes dancing over the peaks in the twilight, their scales shining like jade and reflecting the light of the sun and the moon .... "

While listening to this most fascinating story, like a tale, Daenerys set eyes on the little throbbing flame of a candle sitting in front of her, seeing almost the dancing silhouettes of Yi Ti's dragons, hearing almost the distant echoes of their songs in their ears .... Daenerys felt nothing around her, seeing only the candle, the flame forming almost the peaks of the distant mountains of the lands of Yi Ti, the distant and graceful forms great spinning and dancing dragons under the midnight moon ....

Shen-zoan after properly applying the oil, then began to implant the first needle in the back of Daenerys, who does not even react, feeling no pain.

_ "Tell me about Yi Ti, Shen ....." Daenerys said, being all ears and eager to hear more about this legendary but little-known country from the rest of the world. Shen smiled to see the dragon queen's curiosity and was happy to tell her.

_ "A long long time ago, The Maiden Made of Light and the Lion of Night gave birth to an only son, the God-on-Earth, who founded the Great Empire of the Dawn and thus becoming the first god emperor. The empire stretched from the Bones Mountains to the Gray Waster, from the Jade Sea to the Shivering Sea, and the Emperor was traveling in a large palanquin, carved from a single pearl, and carried by one hundred women, the hundred queens of the god emperor."

One hundred queens for one sovereign? Daenerys was more than surprised.

_ "The emperor reigned thus for ten thousand years ...." continued Shen-zoan "... before going to join his ancestors among the stars, and thus leaving his place to his eldest son, the Pearl Emperor, who succeeded him as the new ruler of Yi Ti."

Daenerys listened without losing a word, more than fascinated by what she listened to as Shen continued to place the needles, one by one, with delicacy and precision. A sovereign revered as a god, described as the child of a couple of deities and having reigned supreme for several millennia ..... It seemed too mystical to be true, but after all that she had seen in her life, and having herself been plunged into fire without suffering the least injury, brought back to life by the will of a god of flames and light, the boundary between the world of mortals and that of the magic had become more and more thin ....

_  "I'd like to visit Yi Ti someday ..." Daenerys said softly, feeling the relaxing effects slowly invading his body. Shen understood the young woman's desire, but suddenly seemed less smiling, as if remembering much less happy things.

_ "I'm afraid it's impossible, majesty ..." he said, almost apologetically for having to say "... our country was once a powerful and prosperous empire, but that time is now over ... Today, Yi Ti is nothing more than a war-torn land, divided into several kingdoms, each emperor wanting to establish his dominion over the others, creating even more conflicts...."

Daenerys was sorry for Shen on hearing this. Seeing that the subject had plunged Shen into darker thoughts, she chose not to say anything anymore, not wanting to make him feel more uncomfortable and let him continue his medicinal treatment.

********** That night, in the temple of Volantis now plunged into the utmost silence, Daenerys found herself somewhere again, in a place that seemed to her both unknown and familiar.

Dressed in her elegant and light white silk night dress fluttering in the breeze, Daenerys walked in the midst of an infinite field of grass and wild flowers rocked by the wind, under a clear sky without any cloudy presence. She felt good, light, as if freed from a huge weight on her shoulders. Stroking the stems of the grass with her fingertips while walking and feeling the sweetness of the earth beneath her bare feet, the young queen looked around her, wondering where she could be this time, this dream still appearing very real to her this time.

She then noticed, in the middle of this field, an isolated brick dwelling, very well maintained and looking more than familiar. Step by step, Daenerys felt her heart leap when she recognized the house at the red door, where she spent part of her happy childhood. This house so dear to her heart that she wanted to see again at any cost. A pleasant smell came to greet the nostrils of the young woman .... a smell also familiar ..... lemon ...... Looking to his left, she saw there the little lemon tree of her childhood, standing just under one of the windows of the house, that of her room of yore. Daenerys remembered. Every morning she would wake up early to open the window and admire the rising of the new sun while inhaling with interest the sweet smell of lemons growing on the branches. She had always loved this smell, just as she loved lemon to taste. Viserys did not care about all this, only dreaming of one day being able to reconquer the throne of the family. Daenerys, as a child, had never known all that and aspired only to lead a peaceful life. Daenerys sighed, immersed in all these memories as her palm touched the dry trunk of the tree. As she thought about it, she almost wished she had remained the innocent and dreamy girl, to stay away from all the conflicts and power games that had brought her so much suffering and led her to death. She picks a lemon on one of the lower branches, probing her skin and sniffing her scent. She wanted to eat in, to remember a little more of her happy memories ....

_ "Daenērys Targārien ....."

Daenerys froze as the echo of that disembodied voice in Upper Valyrian crossed her, wringing a shiver through her body, dropping the lemon at her feet. The wild grasses also shivered in the violent squall that suddenly arose. Daenerys turned to see anxiously the red door of the house slowly open in a loud grinding.

_ "Māzigon isse ...."

The ghostly voice came from inside and invited him in. Daenerys recognized that voice. She had heard it many times, the first was during the ritual that brought her back to life. While she was still in the arms of death, that voice had called her, pulling her out of the clutches of death. As if attracted by this voice and not being able to resist, Daenerys advanced to the red door and entered the enclosure of the house, in a room of darkness as opaque as ink. Once in, the door slammed shut behind her, making her jump, blocking any possibility of going back.

The darkness vanished and Daenerys was now standing in the middle of a totally different place and this time, plunged her into memories far more painful ... Winterfell! She was in the middle of the courtyard of the Winterfell castle, very much recognizing the place and feeling the biting snow beneath her feet this time. The beating and breathing heart growing louder and louder, Daenerys looked around her without seeing a living soul.

Winterfell was a ruin, swept by the winds from the north making crack the wood of the foundations and the snow gradually covering the buildings with its thick white coat. The only sounds heard were those of crows roosting on the rooftops and jabbering incessantly. Daenerys wanted to take a step, and felt under her foot the texture of a fabric. Looking down, she saw a more than recognizable banner, the Stark Wolf, half buried in the snow but also slashed in half. Daenerys swallowed, contemplating this ghostly domain. What could have happened here? An icy wind enveloped her, forcing her to curl her arms around her body to protect herself, her silk dress not protecting her from the polar temperature that reigned. Quickly, she ran to take refuge inside the first building, before finishing frozen.

She came in, barring the door to keep the cold out. But turning around, she gasped in horror, paralyzed on the spot. In front of her was the great Hall of Winterfell, devastated, the tables and chairs upside down, the slabs of stone walls and soil impregnated with pool of blood .... but most of all, several bodies, nailed to the walls like butterflies in the window of a collector, and around them spirals made with bloody human limbs. Among the dead bodies, Daenerys recognized them all .... Jorah, Missandei, the head of Rhaegal, Grey Worm, Shen-zoan, Cade, Jon Snow ..... there they were, dead, disemboweled like animals, their blood having spread at their feet .....

_ "NOOOOOO! NOOOOO! NOOOOO!!" Daenerys fell on her knees before them, screaming, shedding tears and pounding the ground with her little fists. She was tired of these horror visions, of all that, she could not stand it anymore. When will the gods stop tormenting her? What an odious message did they want to tell her?

The big chimney in Winterfell's room suddenly glowed in incandescent flames, surprising Daenerys who stopped crying, staring at something in particular. In front of the fireplace, the back in front of Daenerys on a large seat, a dark figure was sitting, the fingers of his shady hands gently patting the wood of the chair. She seemed wrapped in a sort of very long coat of shadows, a raised hood hiding the head. Daenerys felt immediately crushed by that presence whose aura had suddenly invaded the room, plunging it into a great darkness and only the flames coming to bring light.

Very slowly, Daenerys went to her feet, tears drying on her cheeks and without looking away from the shadow sitting in the seat and at no time seemed to pay attention to her. Daenerys wanted to take a step towards her, but was restrained by an immense and invisible force, preventing him from approaching this person, or rather, that thing whose mere physical presence was enough to make her shudder.

_ "Konīr ao māstan naejot nyke, ñuha kivio mēre."

You have finally come to me, my chosen one. Daenerys understood what he was saying, but recognized again the voice that made her eardrums and skull shake, much closer than before and even making the walls tremble. When he spoke, the flames roared, intensifying for a few seconds. Daenerys swallowed, feeling the slightest part of her body tremble, but remained straight despite everything. She knew who he was ....

_ "You ..... you are ...... the one the red priests are calling ....." she began to say.

_ "R'hllor!!" suddenly shouted out the cavernous and inhuman voice, interrupting Daenerys, who, surprisingly, stepped back, as the flames roared like a monster trying to extricate itself from the chimney.

_ "Naenie brōzāt sia tepagon naejot nyke, yn iksan iēdrosa keskydoso, Konīr's mērī nyke ..... se ao, Mirre se ra glaestan jemagon ao naejot nyke."

Many names were given to me, but I remain the same. There is only me ..... and you. All the things that you have lived until now have led you to me.

_ "What ..... what do you want from me? Why did you choose me?" asked Daenerys, anxious to finally get an answer to this question, and who better than the master of light himself to provide this answer? But would he? Intermingling the long, thin fingers of her hands with each other, without turning away from the fire, the entity did not answer at once, seeming to evaporate in the air and reappear every second that passed.

_ "Mērī kostā keligon skoros kessa massigon Skoros ao ūndegon iksis skoros kessa sagon lo ao qringaomagon se vōljes lēda hāre kasta laesi iksis māzis, is mērī mīre qilōni kostagon iōragon is egros ázma hen perzys kostagon keligon zirȳla."

Only you can stop what will happen. What you saw there are the consequences of your failure ..... the raven with three blue eyes is coming, and only the one who can brandish the sword born of fire and ashes, can stop it.

The sword born of fire? Daenerys remembered that sword she recovered in the flames .... A vision as clear as water appeared to her like a flash before the eyes ..... she and Jon faced each other, both standing in the middle of a field of snow and ashes, and Jon staggered, his face haggard, while the blade of the sword of Daenerys had just pierced his heart, impregnating the silver blade of the weapon that was being covered by a growing, glowing flame ... Daenerys drove this vision out of her eyes and fell back, panting and trembling. The shadow and the flames in the chimney had vanished in the darkness, only the seat remained, empty, and again the heavy silence reigning as master.

Daenerys decided not to stay here for a second longer and hastened to open the door of the Great Hall, preferring to face the cold from the outside. But when she opened it, she found herself again in front of the house at the red door, under the heat and light of the great sun, among the grasses and the wild flowers. She also saw the lemon tree, unchanged, but this time, two people stood at the foot of the tree, and did not seem to notice the presence of the young woman. Daenerys, once again, remained frozen on the spot, unable to speak or even to think about what she saw.

It was she .... she saw herself there, at the foot of the lemon tree, a little older, and dressed very simply in a long azure dress and a violet fine silk shawl. And with her, sitting on her knees, a lovely little girl, with braided silver hair, and black eyes, that the second Daenerys hugged, both enjoying themselves and watching the lemons together. They were close to her, but their laughter seemed so distant, like echoes fading into the air.

Daenerys contemplated this scene seeming to come from another time or perhaps simply from her imagination. A tear flowed gently on her cheek.

The vision Daenerys then wore what was surely her daughter at arm's length, raising her to one of the branches so she could pick a ripe lemon, which she did. Around her wrist she wore a silver bracelet, shaped like a three-headed dragon. The little girl laughed, holding the fruit in her hand, but suddenly became more serious, slowly turning her attention to another direction.

The heart of the real Daenerys leapt into her chest. The little girl was staring at her. She wanted to reach out to that little girl, come and touch her ....

But Daenerys suddenly opened her eyes, pulled out of her sleep and found herself in her bed, in the middle of her room in the temple of Volantis. The night was still here. Daenerys sat under the sheets, a deep melancholy overwhelming her, her throat knotted, and felt the trace of the tear she had shed earlier on her cheek, touching her with fingertips. With her other hand, she gently touched her belly that continued slowly but surely to round. Outside, in the distance, she suddenly heard the howl of an animal to the full moon .... the howling of a wolf ....

[slavicafire]

I was just curious about your opinion on non Slavic people following Slavic pagan paths... like personally it makes me uncomfortable when random white Americans just latch into it because it's a rich culture w/ white people and not because they're actually invested in it

this matter does seem to come back time and time again - perhaps it is for the best, really.

now, slavic path as a religion is open - it is based heavily on our relationship with our land and our ancestors, but that does not disqualify those who do not yet have this connection.

many Americans turn to our path because of their heritage, slavic ancestry they've discovered and their desire to pursue their roots. some are just deeply fascinated by the path no matter their blood, their spirits feel called to the steppes and the mountains and the streams - and Old Ones, too.

but it'd be a lie to say I have never encountered an enraging case, ridiculous and frustrating approaches. I do know precisely what you mean: there are some who do not want to delve deeper, those who wade in shallow water and expect praise and amazement expressed at their journey. those who have no actual connection, who cherry pick the pantheon, who have no desire to learn, no desire to experience, no desire to sacrifice.

these are lost souls who have no other connection at all - their land is not theirs, their past is blurred, the dead resting in their meadows feel estranged and unfamiliar. those we can attempt to guide - educate - and we have every right to demand respect for our culture. if you are not willing to be a part of it, actively and purposefully, get out.

and I, a flawed mortal I am, do get mad more often than I should - at yet another wandering child smugly rummaging through Wikipedia and tumblr aesthetic innacurate moodboards and exclaiming, yes, these are my Gods, these are my spirits, this is my culture, this is my call.

but this stems less from jealousy over our Gods and the culture we so fight to preserve but more from frustration over the way West - mainly US - treats us. The ignorance and ridicule we're often met with, can, like heavy clouds, cover even the most rational and empathetic reaction and cast a dark looming shadow over how we see those even of the most pure intentions.

again, I invite everyone to learn about our culture and path, drink and break bread with us, become our siblings in song and in blood - but I will forever fight for my culture and path to be respected, to not be taken lightly, to not be a joke, to not be owned by someone who has no truth in their heart.

[ayittey1]

The African King

 Beyond villages and chiefdoms, indigenous people also organized themselves into kingdoms and empires. Kingdoms, ruled by a monarchs, may comprise of chiefdoms of people of the same ethnic stock. Several kingdoms are confederations of independent republics of chiefdoms – the Ashanti and Ga Kingdoms, for example. And kingdoms may have vassal states.

Although different tribal societies may have different conceptions of their kings, African natives accepted their king as a necessary evil. He was necessary for the preservation of the social order. But he was a potential danger; he could abuse his powers and be all intrusive, expending the independence and freedom of his people. To resolve this dilemma, many African ethnic groups created, with various degrees of success, a “person” hidden from public view but whose awe-inspiring authority could be invoked to maintain order and harmony. This is akin to the “tooth fairy” or “Santa Claus” in Western culture which awe Western children. The equivalent in traditional African political systems was the divine king. He was secluded and his every day life planned to the minutest detail and loaded with socially useful burdens.

 The outward signs of his sacredness were onerous personal taboos, which he had to keep in the interests of the polity. His sex life, symbolically fused with his fertility and vigor, might be severely restricted. His most elementary physical functions, such as crying, eating, drinking, or defecating, were ritually controlled. And his movements were hemmed in by taboos, such as those against touching the soil in fields or seeing a corpse. And sometimes he might not even be allowed to reach the frailty of old age or, when at the point of death, to expire naturally by himself. Taboos of this sort applied, it should be noted, not only to secluded and unmistakably “sacred” kings but to all African chiefs and kings (Kopytoff, 1989; p.66).

Most of these restrictions were designed to reduce the king to an executive nonentity, curtail the discretionary use of political power and confine him to his palace where he would be safely out of people’s private lives. They served primarily to take the gold out of royal glitter. The king was a remote, secluded, and utterly ritual figure, who could also serve as a convenient scapegoat if things went wrong. As long as the king was prepared to obey these restrictions, some ethnic groups in fact did not care who the king was or from where he came. To the Goba of Namainga (Central Africa), their “kings, qua rootless immigrants, were useful `slaves’” (Kopytoff, 1989; p.66). Along the Nile-Zaire divide, some small states requested the Alur people to furnish them with chiefs and kings. In Benin, “the Edo elders were said to have requested the One of Ife to send them a king” (Kopytoff, 1989; p.65).

 If he failed to perform, he was disposed of. Regicide was imbedded in divine kingship although it has been outlawed in most traditional societies since the beginning of the twentieth century.

In its classic form, divine kingship sanctioned killing the king when he became infirm or when things were going badly in the kingdom. The custom stems directly from the belief in the unity of the king and kingdom, in that the prosperity or failure of either may be regarded as that of both, and a king can thus be held responsible for conditions in the kingdom. Should he be ill or weak, the kingdom will be in danger; or should conditions in the kingdom be bad, there must also be something wrong with the king. Further, it follows that a change in the person of the king will change conditions in the kingdom (Vaughan, 1986; p.177).

An understanding of the role of the king necessitates a brief discourse on the traditional concept of the universe. Indigenes believed their universe is composed of three elements: the sky, the world and the earth. The sky is the domain of spirits of both the living and the yet to be born as well as powerful forces: lightning, thunder, rain, drought, etc. The earth is the domain of the dead ancestors, other dead tribesmen as well as the activities of the living: agriculture, fishing, hunting, etc. The world is peopled by the living – the ethnic group and other tribesmen as well and therefore the domain of war, peace, trade and relations with other tribes.

 In most traditional African societies, each of the three orders is represented by a god, which must be in perfect harmony with each other.  The king had precise function to play: Appease or propitiate the three gods in order to achieve harmony among them and thereby assure prosperity for his kingdom. If the sky god is “angry,” there would be thunder, heavy downpours and flooding. If the earth god is “angry,” there would be poor harvest, famine and barren women.  For comparative purposes, the kings of medieval Western Europe also had three fundamental duties: to ensure the spiritual welfare of their people by acts of piety and the protection given by the true faith; to defend their people against outside enemies; and at home, to safeguard justice and peace. “The forms of kingship might be different: the content in Africa and Europe was essentially the same” (Davidson, 1970; p.193).

To perform his functions, the king must be the only one with the greatest vital force in the whole kingdom. Only in this way can he serve as mediator with the superior universe, without creating any break, any catastrophic upheaval within the ontological forces. His powers are expected to be enhanced by those of the dead ancestors as well as his people because he sits on a sacred stool (throne), the repository of the powers of the kingdom.

The king thus has two roles to play: political, as head of the kingdom, and spiritual, as the link to the universe. The political role, however, is subservient. Most traditional constitutions require the king to delegate almost all of his political authority to other leaders and officials. For this reason, most kingdoms are characterized by decentralization of power and delegation of authority. Custom and tradition set limits to the authority of the king, his cabinet, and advisors. Thus, the king’s role in governance is small: he is the representative or symbol of the kingdom and may have some religious duties, but his participation in the political decision making process is insignificant. He hardly makes policy or spoke. He has a spokesperson, called a linguist, through whom he communicates. He rarely decides policy. His advisers and chiefs would determine policies and present them for royal accent. His role in legislation and execution of policy is nearly zero. [This role may be compared to that of the Queen of England.] His role is not political but to maintain cosmological, and therefore, social order. If the king were to die suddenly, there would be social upheaval, chaos and calamities. To drive home this point to the population, acts of vandalism (markets razed, traders beaten and homes sacked) are committed during an inter-regnum.

 More emphasis was laid on the spiritual function of the king. This emphasis on the spiritual means a separation of kingship and political leadership. In modern times, this tradition – the separation of the spiritual role from politics – has been maintained most European kingdoms in Norway, Netherlands and Britain.  The exceptions are two African kings: King Mohammed VI of Morocco and King Mswati III of Swaziland.

Ideally, the king should be strong, generous of mind, humble, bold in warfare and devout in everyday life. Descendancy from the founding ancestors is desirable. “He should epitomize a people at home with its moral order, at peace with itself, at every point in harmony with the ancestors "who brought us into our land and gave us life” (Davidson, 1970; p.193). His life is strictly regulated by custom to fit this role. He may be forbidden to leave the capital. The less public exposure of the king, the better. His primary function is to deal with the universe and ancestors. He is not expected to perform terrestrial functions, except the ceremonial. Most tribal societies locked up their kings in their palaces to keep their royal fingers out of people’s business.

 The Yoruba king (Oni) can only leave his palace under cover of darkness and he appears in public only once a year. Smart people, the Yoruba. His coronation and installation are performed with solemn and lengthy rites which set him apart. He lives a life thereafter of ordered ceremonial, secluded in his palace, subject to many ritual taboos and approached only with infinite respect and by designated persons of the Court.

 In some tribal systems, no one can see the king eat; he could not walk in cultivated fields, lest the fertility of the soil might be affected. He could not see a corpse nor cry over the dead. He must not be allowed to die a natural death, for that would affect the power of his sacred “medicines.” Among the Suku of Congo, it has been claimed: “When the king drank, those present had to cover their faces while one of the attendants recited proverbs and sayings recapitulating historic events, praising the king for his good deeds and also hinting at those where he had shown himself to be unjust” (Gibbs, 1965; p.460).

In many ethnic societies, however, the king is the physical symbol of his kingdom, a personification of sacred ancestry and the religious head of his ethnic group as well as the link to the universe. As such, the vital force of the king must never decline; nor must the king die, since he embodies the spiritual and therefore material well‑being of his people. The consequences would be calamitous: droughts would occur, women would no longer be able to bear children, epidemics would strike the people. Great care, therefore, must be taken to prevent a break in the line of transmitted power.

 Despite the puffed-up image of divinity, African kings, however, were really scapegoat kings. They had little or no political function or role; only spiritual – to maintain social order, protect his people from such calamities as droughts and famine, as well as ensure the prosperity of the kingdom.  If any of the three gods is “angry,” and there is famine, it means the king has not ruled well. He is also blamed for any other misfortune that befalls his people. He is a useful scapegoat to vent frustrations and anger at. Among the Kerebe of northwest Tanzania,

 Kings were expected to regulate rainfall and that the inability to conform to these expectations over an extended period of time was a major reason for deposing an omukama. Two kings are said to have been deposed in this manner at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Ruhinda, who was unable to prevent an excessive amount of rain from falling, and his successor, Ibanda, who fell victim to an extended period of drought (Packard, 1981; p.6).

The Junkun of Nigeria however believed “kings were supposed to be killed if they broke any of the royal taboos on personal behavior, fell seriously ill, or ruled in time of famine or severe drought: whenever they could no longer be regarded as fit guardians of the `right and natural’” (Davidson, 1970; p.201).[1]

 The king was also put to death when the level of his vital force was perceived to have declined. For example, among the Serer, “A Bur (king) who reached old age was subject to ritual murder because it was believed he could no longer guarantee that cattle and women would remain fertile” (Klein, 1968:13). Similarly, among the Shilluk of the Nilotic Sudan, a sick or old king was to be killed. In the Kingdom of Cayor, the king could not rule when he was wounded. In other societies, an old king was not killed but revitalized when old. He would symbolically die, be born again, regain the vigor of his youth and be fit once again to rule. This ritual was found among the Yoruba, Dagomba, Tchamba, Djukon, Igara, Songhai, Wuadai, Hausa of the Gobi, Katsena, and Daoura, the Shillucks, among the Mbum, in Uganda‑Rwanda, and in what was ancient Meroe (Diop, 1987; p.61). Although regicide has been abolished, the belief in the practice generally reflects the existence of an ideological relationship between political authority and the problem of ecological control (Packard, 1981; p.6).

 In other tribes, if the king failed to provide the vital link to the universe, he was dethroned. There were various procedures for divestiture. While the Serer ethnic group of Senegal adopted a distinctive drumbeat to signal the end of a king’s reign, the Yoruba of Nigeria demanded the king’s suicide “by a symbolic gift of parrot’s eggs” (Isichei, 1977; p.71).

 In the case of the Ga Kingdom, the king (mantse) traditionally had no political role; only military. In times of war, he was supposed to use his magical powers to help his people win. At the battlefield, he never took part in the hand-to-hand combat. He sat on his stool by the sidelines and watched the action. If his people were defeated, off went his head (beheaded).

Institutional Checks Against Tyranny

African kings played insignificant political role in government. Their traditional role was spiritual: To provide a vital link to the universe for his people by maintaining harmony or balance among the three cosmological forces: the sky, the world and the earth. Each was represented by a god and if the sky god was “angry,” there would be thunder, heavy downpour and flooding. That would mean the king failed to perform his function and the punishment could be regicide. To enable him to perform his function, he was secluded in his palace – to keep his royal fingers out of people‘s business.

Second, he was not only enclosed in his palace but also cocooned in web of taboos and injunction against the office of kingship. His daily life and conduct was planned to the minutest detail. For example, he could not eat before strangers; he could not speak directly to his people; or could not venture out of his palace except under the cover of darkness.

Third, most of his powers were delegated to subordinate chiefs under him. Even then, most of the political organizations which had a king surrounded him with councils and with courts. "Almost all have institutionalized means to keep him from abusing his power" (Bohannan, 1964; p.191).

 Though Africans delighted in telling foreigners how "powerful" their kings were to ward off foreign aggressive intentions, the kings were severely restrained in the exercise of those powers against their people. The Asante king appeared absolute. "Yet, he had to procure the consent of the chiefs, and the chiefs the consent of the elders, in order to bring about group action" (Carlston, 1968:127). "Akan kings had no right to make peace or war, make laws, or be directly involved in important negotiations such as treaties without the consent of their elders and/or elected representatives" (Boamah-Wiafe, 1993; p.169). Even in the rigidly-controlled Kingdom of Dahomey. Boahen and Webster (1970) found that,

 Although the king's word was the law of the land yet he was not above the law. Dahomeans like to recount how king Glele was fined for breaking the law. When gangs of men were working co‑operatively on state roads, it was a law that a passer‑by must offer a credible as to why he could not break his journey to assist in the work. Permission was always given, the law being largely designed to reinforce courtesy. King Glele's procession passed one such group without asking to be excused. He was stopped and fined many cases of rum and pieces of cloth for breaking the law...The fact that the kings of Dahomey (now Benin) were prepared to obey the laws they themselves created was the difference between arbitrary despotism and despotism which realized that its power and position rested ultimately, no matter how indirectly, upon the will of the people (p.108).

 Vaughan (1986) also noted:  “In many instances, the dependence upon the rule of law and a respect for law seems to have inhibited ambitious rulers. Nor should it be forgotten that regicide itself was an ultimate check upon the excesses of a king” (p.178).

 Regicide has been abolished, so kings are simply dethroned. Several Asantehene (Ashanti kings) were deposed in the course of history. Among them were Kofi Kakari, who was deposed in 1874, and Mensa Bonsu, removed in February 1883 for his avarice and refusal to raise an army and re-conquer Gyaman (Boahen and Webster, 1970; p.128). Itwika, the Gikuyu equivalent of the French revolution may also be recalled at this juncture. Today, kings are still being dethroned. Consider the case of Oba Samuel Aderiyi Adara of the Ode-Ekiti community of Ekiti State in Nigeria, who was dethroned for non-performance:

 The traditional ruler was accused of not contributing enough to the progress of the community and of frustrating the celebration of the yearly festival. He was invited to the community meeting where he was accused of failing in his duty of moving the town forward. But attempts by the monarch to extricate himself from the allegations failed. He was lambasted for not informing the state government of the pathetic socio-economic situation in his domain and asked to vacate the throne for a more progressive minded personality in the town.

While the meeting was still going on, some youths in the town invaded the venue, removed the dress of the traditional ruler, including his royal beads and crown, and chased him out of the town. Shortly after, traditional trees in strategic shrines were cut down, symbolizing the demise of the Oba.

The spokesman for the community said it was the collective decision of both the old and young to dethrone the monarch, saying his reign was "disastrous, woeful and sorrowful" (The Guardian, July 24, 2003; p.4).

 References

 Ayittey, George B N (2006). Indigenous African Institutions. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

 Boahen, A.A. and J.B. Webster (1970). History of West Africa. New York: Praeger.

Boamah-Wiafe, Daniel (1993). Africa: The Land, People, and Cultural

Institutions. Omaha, NB: Wisdom Publications.

Bohannan, Paul (1964). Africa and Africans. New York: The Natural History Press.

Carlston, Kenneth S. (1968). Social Theory and African Tribal Organization. Urbana: University of Chicago

             Press.

Davidson, Basil (1970). African Kingdoms. Chicago: Time/Life Books, Inc.

 Diop Cheikh Anta (1987). Pre‑colonial Black Africa. Westport: Lawrence Hill & Company.

 Gibbs, James L. Jr. ed. (1965). Peoples of Africa. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

 Isichei, Elizabeth (1977). History of West Africa Since 1800. New York: Africana Publishing Company.

 Kopytoff, Igor, ed. (1989). The African Frontier. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

 Martin, Phyllis M and Partrick O'Meara eds. (1986). Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Packard, Randall M. (1981). Chiefship and Cosmology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

 Vaughan, James H.  (1986). “Population and Social Organization,” in Martin and O'Meara (1986).

 [1] Wish they would bring back regicide! Modern despots never had it so easy. Even kings who had little political role were held accountable. Who said there was no accountability in the trial systems?

[paladin-andric]

Matters of Faith: Conflict and Acceptance

Two ways to view the world So similar at times Two ways to rule the world To justify their crimes

(Lyrics from Sabaton’s “A Lifetime of War”)

Deaco is a continent that lives in relative harmony...when it comes to faith, at least. Sure, armies do battle, bands of marauders attack travelers, and mighty dragons kill and subjugate, but these events are hardly ever religiously motivated. Wars, banditry and draconic tyranny are typically born from imperialist malevolence, selfishness, and draconic pride and greed respectively. One’s personal desires for land, power, wealth and status are hardly intertwined with faith.

This isn’t to say these types of clashes never happen however. With such strong influence on state and culture, religion inevitably gets caught up in arguments and debate. These are generally relegated to casual arguments between two common folk over the exact meaning of a passage or quote, but there is occasional, real conflict.

Disputes, Slights, and Offenses

Not everyone is perfectly content or accepting of everything and everyone. Occasionally differing ideas and thoughts will leave people feeling isolated, conflicted or dismissive. Someone who does not understand the similarities between a follower of The Order of God and The Shining Lord might see the other as an “outsider”, and feel a dislike for this strange, different faith and custom.

In this short list, we’ll go over a few things that cause strife, disunity and discord among followers of faith. These will be listed in order from least serious, something that might cause a misunderstanding or general confusion, to most serious, something that would cause fierce anger or hated between groups.

Following Another Faith

“My opponents would have you think the koutu are madmen that cross the border to kidnap children to sacrifice them to demons. It is precisely this outrageous, fundamental misunderstanding of the faith that I have spent these last years combating. I must reiterate this same point yet again; our dogmas are one. If you were to visit a church of the Shining Lord, the only difference you would be able to notice would be that of architecture.”

-Abbot Manuel’s address during the Third Summit Debate

Sometimes called heresy, there are those who still see followers of another faith as just that; an “other”.

The three main faiths following God are intrinsically tied closely to one another, as from what most theologians can work out, they all worship the same God. These would be The Order of God, followers of The Shining Lord, and adherents to God and His Prophet.

The Shining Lord is simply what the koutu call God, and their faith follows the humans’ Order closely. The chief difference however are their “saints”. The koutu had their own pantheon of gods before they adopted the humans’ faith. Instead of discarding their ancient gods and traditions, they decided to reconcile it with their new faith. After some debate, they decided their gods were not true gods, but champions chosen by God for ascension. Tales and lore were altered to mention God, and he was described as all-knowing, all-powerful, and enigmatic, even to the old gods, who were now more of a family of demi-gods given their powers by the Shining Lord.

There are occasional arguments over all of this, but the nature of spirited and open debate has made most of the people of Deaco aware that these differences are very slight. To some, they are one and the same, merely two churches of the same religion that evolved differently over time through difference in land and culture.

The saliks, the lizardfolk to the desert down south, are also a part of this trio of faith. Their religion appeared to be created entirely separately, with a slave who never had any knowledge of the humans’ God receiving revelations independent of outside influence. With that in mind, many do see this faith as its own.

After much time spent studying the words and teachings of the Prophet however, theologians were quick to note the extreme similarities in teachings, morals, and virtues of their God and the God of the humans and koutu. The dogma is eerily similar, just with a focus on combating slavery, something that was pandemic in the lands the Prophet originated from at the time.

With these similar writings and morals in mind, many see the Prophet as simply the latest in a line of prophets and saints of God, whose benevolent guidance has spread across all of Deaco. While more conservative thinkers of the Prophet reject this, many are open to the idea, using it to further strengthen the bonds of friendship between the humans and reptilians.

The pona do not have an organized faith. Many are irreligious or simply spiritual, though some follow animist teachings. They feel the spirits of the dead watch over them, their ancestors always offering a nudge in the right direction. The world itself is pulsing with life, and one could tell if only they focus. Because of this, meditation is widespread in the Federation, the turtles often taking time out of their day to find a secluded grove to try and obtain a deeper understanding of the world and themselves.

Their neighbors are content with this. Some are interested in foreign faiths, those that move to Geralthin often impressed by The Order’s charity. With their nature as a calm and peaceful people, they only tend to reciprocate anothers interest in their way of life, not pushing it on others.

The dacuni are a people of paganism, following different ancient gods of war and other specifics. Their harsh ways have left many dismissive of their faith, though it is very varied in both dogma and philosophy. Not many even know of or consider their faith, simply afraid or hostile to the wolfmen themselves.

The Cult of Spuini is infamous for its bizarre dedication to hedonism, which does little to win foreign faiths over, who almost universally see temperance, diligence and chastity as a virtue. This is only one of many cults however, as each god the wolfmen worship have their own dedicated cult. Those in the know would see the cults of Baba and Asvarnin share many morals with traditional faiths of the south, that of diligence, modesty and acting without malice or sin. All in all, most people regard the strange northern pantheon with bemused tolerance. They gawk at a distance, but do little to actively inspect or insult it. Some wolfmen runaways bring these cults to Geralthin and the Koutu Kingdom, while some adopt the faith of the lands. These foreign cults are generally very small and try their hardest not to cause a fuss, seeing as they’ve been graciously allowed to continue practicing their faith in lands not home to them.

Agnosticism

“The pona are a stubborn people, and their outlandish refusal at peaceful cooperation has left us to resort to this final measure.”

-Mayor Candice of Liberty Point, on the implementation of the Proselytizer’s Edict

There aren’t many who chose no god to follow. With clerics and priests using divine magic and gifts from the heavens themselves known to all, there are hardly any non-believers. There are those skeptical of churches and cults however, or those who simply have no desire to dedicate themselves to a god. With a strong undertone of faith in most places of society, these people aren’t viewed in an especially good light.

There are those who are simply cynical or have other things on their mind, which are generally accepted. Those who make a big deal however are viewed with some disdain. People do not appreciate having their faith insulted or mocked, and will shun these people in kind.

Sometimes the religious will attempt to sway these people into accepting the faith, though the results and approaches vary. From forced proselytizing, to a debate on the merits and truth of the scriptures, the choice is sometimes difficult, and the fallout from refusal differing in severity.

Occasionally these people will find themselves among the faithful, and with a general understanding of one another, things can become relaxed. As is known to the followers of God, all peoples are his creation, and are loved equally by him. Because of this, it’s generally considered rude to disrespect another based on custom, race or faith, and even those without a faith can find themselves welcomed by the faithful.

A common example is the yearly feast conducted by The Order of God. It is religious, though its motives are to bring happiness to all. Because of this, none are excluded. From the koutu adherents to the Shining Lord, to the wolfman cults, to the faithless, all are welcomed to partake in the free food and drink.

There may be arguments, debates, and misunderstandings, but at the end, when all is said and done, we are more alike than we are different.

Heretical Thought

“It is more important that we keep our own church stable, clean and united, rather than focus on pushing our faith outward, as this debacle brings our lands to ruin. The false shepherds must be kept from the flock, at any cost.”

-Patriarch Gregory, at the First Summit Debate

The churches of the different faiths have had little internal strife, but when these conflicts arise, it is met with resistance across the board. The different faiths know that their friendships and understandings are kept in a close-knit, but fragile balance from the truths of their teachings. Any differing thought could put their longstanding peaceful, tolerant approach to one another in jeopardy. Thus, they work together against breakaway sects to preserve their longstanding traditions of unity and friendship.

Heresies are few and far between, with the three monotheistic faiths vigilant in stomping out these new teachings.

The standard approach is theological debate, undermining the opponent’s legitimacy and new thought with evidence from the scriptures. This approach is very successful, with heretical preachers finding themselves without a listener base.

One such heresy was the Felen Idea, a breakaway from the Order of God. This heretical order made several distressing proclamations, such as their head, Bishop Felen, declaring God had told him that the other nations must be brought to heel and forced to follow their faith, by force if necessary. To them, the similar religions of the koutu and saliks weren’t enough. The counterargument from The Order, a truly massive treatise on the similarities of the three churches, and the consequences on warring against those who served the same God as them, was wildly successful in shutting this heresy down.

Another example was the Cult of Understanding, a group of the Shining Lord who proposed that the “missing wife” of Albic never existed. They proclaimed he had his three children with his sister Sila, using partially lost sources that mentioned them alone while the children were being raised as evidence that this was true. This was considered so damaging to the faith that the church labeled it heresy, something they had never done before. Eventually, an expedition found the lost texts of said sources, and found that the story mentioned the wife, and even included a passage where the wife and Sila had a conversion about Albic. This quickly shut down the heretical sect, and all ran smoothly since.

The saliks had a brief schism over whether their crusade against slavery applied to non-reptilians, but eventually decided that due to the context of God’s hatred of slavery being universal, that all would be free under their rule.

Religious Persecution

“It was not by the Great Dragon’s will that the Jungi Cult were slaughtered for their faith. Indeed, the Dragon warned us of the plot, and our priests were working alongside the guards in restoring order. They pulled the persecuted from the city, carried them to safety, and comforted the broken and terrified in those frightening moments. These dangerous extremists acted not in the benevolent one’s wishes, and he gave us the ability to intervene. Despite this, we could not save them all, and when he heard of the atrocities committed in his name, the Great Dragon wept.”

-Qin Preacher Tiangzin, on the Baolo Genocide

The most extreme of all offenses, disenfranchising, oppressing, or harming another for difference in faith is considered an atrocity in most respects. This happens rarely, but when it does, the entire continent is set aflame.

There are only a few instances of this ever happening, but they usually result in war of some kind. When Queen Abigail was executed by the wolfmen for refusing to renounce her faith, the Kingdom of Geralthin went into such a mad frenzy that the southern Dacush Tribes were depopulated for over a century after they rampaged through it.

In the early days of the revolution, the slaves who accepted the Prophet’s teachings began to be executed, to suppress the voices clamoring for liberty. This backfired however, showing how corrupt and oppressive the old regime was, and the reptilians emerged followers of the Prophet shortly afterwards.

The people of the far eastern lands, sharing characteristics of the strange, wingless dragons of their lands, follow the Great Dragon. Dragons are abundant in their lands, but the Great One is much larger, much wiser, and much more powerful than the rest of his kin. Even the other dragons seem to serve him faithfully, and so the small ones quickly followed. He sits curled around a massive mountain in the heart of the Qins’ homeland, silently observing. His church came into conflict with a heretical sect who didn’t see the Great Dragon of the Mountain as their lord. A sect of fierce devotees descended on one of their temples, slaughtering the people within. Other adherents to the Great Dragon were given visions of this event, and tried their hardest to put a stop to it. The Great Dragon himself was reportedly heartbroken at what had happened, having not enough time to warn the faithful, and being preoccupied with closing a portal to the underworld at the time.

Thankfully, history is rarely subjected to these atrocities. When they occur, they light a fire in the hearts of the people, those differing in land, race, faith and lifestyle coming together in these dark hours to work against the wrongdoing of others.

Thanks to a longstanding history of friendship, understanding, peace and solidarity, the wide array of species and faiths are relaxed, friendly, and even welcoming to one another. Faith is a sacred thing, and as this truth is known, the religious are careful to treat differing religions with respect, just as they would wish their own faith to be respected.

Tag list: @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad, @lady-redshield-writes, @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword, @sheralynnramsey, @the-true-shadowmaster, @tawnywrites, @writer-on-time, @oceanwriter, @zwergis-spilledink, @fluffpiggy, @elliewritesfantasy, @homesteadhorner,  @laurenwastestimewriting, @elaynab-writing, @the-ichor-of-ruination

[scrollofthoth]

Preview

Big announcement coming soon. Here’s a transcript of an interview I did for Welcome to Tarotdise that will be posted soon. Wanted to share it with my folks here first.

How long have you been a practicing magician?

I’ve had in interest in mythology and the occult for as long as I can remember. It didn’t seem unusual then, but the public library where I grew up as a kid had a copy of Crowley’s Magick in Theory and Practice. I checked it out several times before it got stolen. Didn’t understand a word of it then. I remember making a magick-square talisman when I was in middle-school and doing a candle-magick love spell. A friend of mine brought a copy of Anton LaVey’s, The Satanic Rituals to school once. We tried to summon a demon out a drain in the boy’s locker room and ask it for magical power. Stupid kid stuff, but who knows, maybe it actually worked.

I did some magick in my twenties when I explored neo-paganism. But I didn’t become a serious practicing magician until 2010. I came to it after an existential crisis with the realization that I wasn’t the person I thought I was. I learned the self was a construct and I could be anything I wanted, so why not a magician?

 What first interested you in magick/the occult?

Dungeons & Dragons was definitely the gateway drug for me. Looking back, it’s hysterical how we all tried to argue in the 80s that D&D had nothing to do with the occult. Mythology, demons from the goetia, the concept of planer travel, it’s all in there. Gygax did his research well. It’s also interesting to note that RPGs give you many skills useful to a magician. Invoking other personalities, understanding how to structure a story for group participation, all the reading involved. I’ve met many magicians that still play one RPG or another. I still play regularly.

How would you describe your practice?

I call what I do, Emergent Animism. The Emergent part, I just wrote an entire book on that, but I’ll try my best to sum it up here. In Emergent Magick, the magus builds their own paradigm based on the results of their magical work. It’s not quite shifting paradigms, like Chaos Magick, but continuously adding to your core beliefs through magical experimentation. You then share that paradigm with a group of magi and develop a group paradigm. The goal is to create “tribes” of magi who use magick as their bond. We seek a future where people once again create their own culture, instead of having it sold to us, and have a means to create more open and equal societies.

The Animism part refers to my personal paradigm, which involves ancestor veneration, communicating with spirits of place, such as spirits of the land or physical objects, and alien spirits, such as demons and gods.

 What would you say your current big magickal goal is?

The big goal, something I think a lot of magicians share, is to immanentize the eschaton. To bring about that change in human consciousness and create a world based on acceptance, love, and freedom. But that’s a long term goal. I don’t know if we can actually achieve that goal. Maybe the eschaton is something that is just constantly unfolding before us. It takes lifetimes.

My current magical motto is, “Ego Sum Legio.” Which means, “I am Legion.” It expresses my will to build what I call a “Spirit Court.” A group of spirit allies that I can trust and turn to when I need to get shit done. Also, on some level, bringing upon the eschaton will require making peace not only with ourselves but with the spirits.

 What do you feel is your strongest magickal skill?

Everything comes down to writing for me. Through the word I create. I consider all writing to be a magical act. The universe was created with the word. When we name things, we have power over them. To me, it’s the most human ability. Other animals dance, make music, you can even teach an elephant to paint. But writing, as far as we know, remains unique to us talking apes. It’s the power of our ideas that shape our world, which we express in words. Money, nation-states, religions, all these things have no objective reality. We just made them up with words.

 Your weakest?

I’ve never had innate psychic ability. I don’t feel energy or a magical presence without putting some effort into it. While I have always been magically inclined, magick never came easy to me. I had to work for it. Even now, when I do tarot, I can’t just slap some cards on a table and read them. It always requires ritual. I need to deliberately shift my consciousness first before I can perceive anything beyond the physical. I’m fine with that. I’m willing to do the work. In some ways, it makes my magick more precise. While I have had plenty of strong synchronicities and a few straight up paranormal experiences, they only come after doing magick.

 What do you consider to be your most effective working/s?

Writing the novel, My Babylon, opened a lot of doors for me. I’ve gone back and re-read it recently. It’s not a great book, but it’s not horrible. I had written a lot of short stories and other things before that, but it was the first novel I completed. It proved to me personally what I was capable of. It was the first story I wrote that was really about me digging up my own emotions and trying to deal with them. It’s also a personal devotion to the Red Goddess, and earned me quite a bit of attention from Her. That has been both wonderful and terrifying, but never boring.

 Your most powerful?

For the past two years I have been given the honor of co-writing the main ritual for the Babalon Rising Festival. This last year, I also played a major role in the ritual. If you’ve never done ritual with 250+ thelemic pagans out in the middle of the woods at night, I highly recommend it. Numbers do matter. Most magicians only do ritual for themselves or maybe for a small group of people. Doing it with that many people raises it to a whole other level. I consider myself blessed for having the opportunity and look forward to doing it again in the future. This is why my own magical philosophy focuses so much on group ritual. There’s really nothing else like it.

 What paradigm or philosophy do you most align yourself with?

You can probably tell by now that I operate firmly in the Spirit Model. I believe that people can change things directly through magick, but that requires brute force. Spirits innately do things that living humans cannot. Spirits have a perspective beyond space and linear time. That insight often brings about results that are closer to your True Will instead of just delivering what you think you want.

Of course, Emergent Magick is my overriding magical philosophy. As Blake said, “I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”

 Is there one that particularly interests you that you would like to learn more about?

Shintoism, being a currently operating major religion with strong animist roots and principles, holds great interest for me. Not that I want to become a practicing Shinto priest. I want to take what that tradition has learned and apply it to my own Western heritage.

 Where do you find inspiration and motivation for your practice?

Like a lot of people, I just want to make the world a better place. I want to see and experience less suffering. I express this in all of my magick and even in my day job.

Inspiration has never been an issue for me. The myriad expressions of human culture have always fascinated me. That well springs eternal. Some scientists try to convince us of our insignificance in the universe. Nothing could be further from the truth. We hairless apes built pyramids. The mere fact that we contemplate the nature of our universe makes us special in a lot of ways.

The nature of our species fascinates me as well. What are we made to do? What makes us truly happy? I read a lot on pre-history, anthropology, primatology, and related subjects to try and grasp what it truly means to be human.

 Where do you find inspiration and motivation for your artwork?

When my decisions and actions run contrary to what I believe, it forces me to reexamine those beliefs. I need to know why I do the things I do. The best way to do that for me is art. Art never turns out exactly how you intended it. It’s always a journey. Things you see as mistakes at first turn out to be the parts you appreciate the most. Oftentimes, the big point you were trying to make is subsumed by the process, and you learn that maybe that wasn’t the important part to begin with. Art is Will made manifest.

 What do you find is the biggest challenge to your creations?

Writing is a lonely process. It’s an exercise in delayed gratification. Performing artists have it easy in that respect, although they have to practice like anyone else and are constantly subject to the approval of others. Graphic artists put in their time, but it’s generally a much shorter process. Writing a book means putting yourself in a chair alone, for days, months, and sometimes years before you have anything that even looks like a finished product. It leaves lots of room for self-doubt. The process is sometimes so long you immediately go back and look at it and think to yourself, “I know better now.” You never write a beautiful sentence and get applause. It always comes later. Often much later.

 What is your favorite medium, and what draws you to work with it?

With writing you can show the process much better than other mediums. Just like it takes a long time to create, it takes a long time to consume. You get to explain why you did what you did. The reader gets to learn along with you.

Stephen King once called writing genuine telepathy. I think that’s true. I can put a thought in someone’s head across time and space. It’s an amazing ability. You can do anything with writing. You can put a picture in someone’s head, a sound, or even a smell. That feeling will never be exactly what you intended as a writer, but that’s the beauty of it. It always gets filtered through the reader’s perspective. They get to participate in the creation of the story long after the words have been put on a page.

 What do you feel like you could improve on?

Any writer that cares about the art form is always trying to improve on their use of the language. It’s the beauty of the language that inspires just as much as the content. There’s always a way to make language more dynamic and interesting. Strunk & White’s first rule in the Elements of Style is, “Omit needless words.” That’s the battle. Which words do I truly need? What best illustrates the thoughts and feelings I want to inspire? How do I make something personal and conversational, but also with precision? You have to make people feel something before they will listen to you.

 Which item that we're carrying are you most proud of?

I love doing the year-long tarot readings. I treasure the moments when the same themes keep popping up and each time provide more clarity. Everyone I have done it for has become a personal friend of mine. You don’t go through something like that without bonding. I’ve gotten to know some amazing people that way.

 Is there anything you would like to branch out into either magickally or artistically?

The problem is I have too many branches already! RPGs, magick, and cooking already take up a lot of time. Writing novels and writing books about magick are really two separate things with much different approaches. I would like to learn some basic musical skills. I’m almost completely talentless in that department. I know I’ll never be great, but I just want to know enough to make a pleasing noise every once in a while. I do occasionally practice drawing and other graphic arts, but they are not my forte.

 Is there any advice you would like to offer from your own personal experience?

Do the work.

Research. Do magick. Contemplate. Repeat. There is no other way. You have to be doing magick. I would be happy if all of my customers learn to do their own tarot. I occasionally get readings from other magicians because another perspective can be useful. But nothing replaces being able to do it for yourself. The most powerful magick is always the magick you do for yourself. Know your limitations. If you know you don’t have the skills to build a magical tool, don’t be afraid to buy it. But if you have any inkling that you can do the work yourself, do that first.

[jewishshadowhunters]

Judaism 101: Shabbat

The Sabbath (in Hebrew, Shabbat , pronounced shah-BAHT–or in some communities, Shabbos, “SHAH-bis”)  is one of the best known and least understood of all Jewish observances.

Shabbat is a weekly 25-hour observance, from just before sundown each Friday through the completion of nightfall on Saturday.

People who do not observe Shabbat think of it as a day filled with restrictions, or as a day of prayer like the Christian Sabbath. It is, in the contrary, a day of freedom from work, and rest, and family time and time spent happy.

In Jewish literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is described as a bride or queen, as in the popular Shabbat hymn Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah (come, my beloved, to meet the [Sabbath] bride). It is said "more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel."

Shabbat is the most important ritual observance in Judaism. It is the only ritual observance instituted in the Ten Commandments. It is also the most important special day, even more important than Yom Kippur.

The Rabbis spelled out their understanding of forbidden “labor” in a complex series of restrictions on productive activities of many sorts. They also prescribed festive meals and ceremonies for every part of the day. The varieties of Shabbat observances and customs over the ages and around the world illustrate the adaptation of Jews in many societies to new realities and modern ideas.

Although we do pray on Shabbat, and spend a substantial amount of time in synagogue praying, prayer is not what distinguishes Shabbat from the rest of the week.

The two aspects of Shabbat: Zakhor and Shamor:

Zakhor: To Remember

Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it (Hebrew: Zakhor et yom ha-Shabbat l'kad'sho) -Exodus 20:8

It means to remember the significance of Shabbat, both as a commemoration of creation and as a commemoration of our freedom from slavery in Egypt.

By resting on the seventh day and sanctifying it, we remember that G-d is the creator of heaven and earth and all living things.

We also copy the divine example, by refraining from work on the seventh day, as G-d did. If G-d's work can be set aside for a day of rest, how can we believe that our own work is too important to set aside temporarily?

In Deuteronomy 5:15, while Moses reiterates the Ten Commandments, he notes the second thing that we must remember on Shabbat: "remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-rd, your G-d brought you forth from there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore the L-rd your G-d commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."

What does the Exodus have to do with resting on the seventh day? It's all about freedom. As I said before, in ancient times, rest and leisure was allowed only to certain classes; slaves did not get days off.

As a result, by resting on Shabbat, we are reminded that we are free. But in a more general sense, Shabbat frees us from our weekday concerns, from our deadlines and schedules and commitments. During the week, we are slaves to our jobs; on Shabbat, we are freed from these concerns, much as our ancestors were freed from slavery in Egypt.

We remember these two meanings of Shabbat when we recite kiddush (the prayer over wine sanctifying Shabbat or a holiday). Friday night kiddush refers to Shabbat as both zikaron l'ma'aseih v'rei'shit (a memorial of the work in the beginning) and zeikher litzi'at Mitz'rayim (a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt).

Shamor: To Observe

This is another part that tends to be misunderstood: the list of things forbidden on Shabbat. This is the list usually presented by the most practicing people. Many more secular Jews tend not to follow all of the restrictions. Modern secular life, in countries where the culture is not Jewish, means you can rarely be able to respect every commandment.

Most Americans see the word "work" and think of it in the English sense of the word: physical labor and effort, or employment. Seen this way, turning on a light would be permitted, because it does not require effort, but a rabbi would not be permitted to lead Shabbat services, because leading services is his employment. Jewish law prohibits the former and permits the latter. Many Americans therefore conclude that Jewish law doesn't make any sense.

The problem lies in the definition that Americans are using. The Torah does not prohibit "work" in the 20th century English sense of the word. The Torah prohibits "melachah" (Mem-Lamed-Alef-Kaf-Hei), which is usually translated as "work," but does not mean precisely the same thing as the English word.

Melachah generally refers to the kind of work that is creative, or that exercises control or dominion over your environment. The word may be related to "melekh" (king; Mem-Lamed-Kaf). Melachah is, for example, the work of creating the universe, which G-d rested from on the seventh day. Note that G-d's work did not require a great physical effort: he spoke, and it was done.

From the Torah, the rabbis found 39 categories of forbidden acts:

Sowing

Plowing

Reaping

Binding sheaves

Threshing

Winnowing

Selecting

Grinding

Sifting

Kneading

Baking

Shearing wool

Washing wool

Beating wool

Dyeing wool

Spinning

Weaving

Making two loops

Weaving two threads

Separating two threads

Tying

Untying

Sewing two stitches

Tearing

Trapping

Slaughtering

Flaying

Salting meat

Curing hide

Scraping hide

Cutting hide up

Writing two letters

Erasing two letters

Building

Tearing a building down

Extinguishing a fire

Kindling a fire

Hitting with a hammer

Taking an object from the private domain to the public, or transporting an object in the public domain.

In addition, the rabbis have prohibited handling any object or tool that is intended to perform one of the above purposes  unless the tool is needed for a permitted purpose or needs to be moved to do something permitted, or in certain other limited circumstances. Objects that may not be handled on Shabbat are referred to as "muktzeh," which means, "that which is set aside," because you set it aside (and don't use it unnecessarily) on Shabbat.

The rabbis have also added travel, buying and selling, and other weekday tasks that would interfere with the spirit of Shabbat to the list. The use of electricity is prohibited because it serves the same function as fire or some of the other prohibitions, or because it is technically considered to be "fire."

The automobile is powered by an internal combustion engine, which operates by burning gasoline and oil, a clear violation of the Torah prohibition against kindling a fire. In addition, the movement of the car would constitute transporting an object in the public domain, another violation of a Torah prohibition, and in all likelihood the car would be used to travel a distance greater than that permitted by rabbinical prohibitions. For all these reasons, and many more, the use of an automobile on Shabbat is clearly not permitted.

As with almost all of the commandments, all of these Shabbat restrictions can be violated if necessary to save a life.

Celebrating Shabbat at Home

One constant theme in Shabbat observance across time and territory is the centrality of home life with family members and guests. Preparation for Shabbat begins as early as mid-week in some households, and its arrival is marked by the spiritual illumination of a candle-lighting ceremony. Rabbinic tradition mandates three Shabbat meals, two begun with a special kiddush (“sanctification”) recited over wine. Family meals are occasions for singing, studying, and celebrating together, as well as for consuming distinctive Shabbat foods.

Celebrating Shabbat at the Synagogue

Public Shabbat observance is focused on the synagogue, from the lively welcoming service, Kabbalat Shabbat, to the pensive farewell ceremony, Havdalah. Special melodies and liturgy are used, and the familiar prayers are supplemented with passages in prose and poetry extolling God for the divine gift of the Shabbat and its delights. At the major worship service on Saturday morning, a portion of the Torah is read aloud as part of a year-long cycle, supplemented by a passage from one of the prophetic books (called a haftarah).

Challah: Traditional Shabbat Food

A traditional Jewish meal begins with the breaking of bread. Challah is a special kind of bread used for Shabbat and holidays. It is a very sweet, golden, eggy bread. The loaf is usually braided, but on certain holidays it may be made in other shapes. For example, on Rosh Hashanah, it is traditional to serve round challah (the circle symbolizing the cycle of life, the cycle of the years)

The word "challah" refers to the portion of dough set aside for the kohein (priest); that is, a portion that is taken out of the dough before it is baked. You may have seen the notation "Challah has been taken" on boxes of Passover matzah, indicating that this rule has been followed, that the challah portion was taken from the dough before the matzah was made. There’s no real indication of why the traditional shabbat bread is also the name of the removed dough...

[pope-francis-quotes]

26th September >> (@zenitenglish) #PopeFrancis #Pope Issues Message to #China & Universal Church, Notes Provisional Agreement Can Contribute to Writing New Chapter of Catholic Church in Nation ‘It’s not question of appointing functionaries...but of finding authentic shepherds‘.

Provisional Agreement Can Contribute to Writing New Chapter of Catholic Church in China (Pope Issues Message to China & Universal Church)

‘It is not a question of appointing functionaries to deal with religious issues, but of finding authentic shepherds according to the heart of Jesus … Men who take seriously the Lord’s words.’

(Deborah Castellano Lubov @zenitenglish)

Pope Francis today, Sept. 26, 2018, issued a message to the Catholics of China and to the Universal Church.

The 11-point message touches on various issues, and touches on the provisional agreement published Sept. 22,

“The Provisional Agreement signed with the Chinese authorities, while limited to certain aspects of the Church’s life and necessarily capable of improvement,” it noted, “can contribute – for its part – to writing this new chapter of the Catholic Church in China.”

For the first time, it said, the Agreement sets out stable elements of cooperation between the state authorities and the Apostolic See, in the hope of providing the Catholic community with good shepherds.

“In this context, the Holy See intends fully to play its own part. Yet an important part also falls to you, the bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful: to join in seeking good candidates capable of taking up in the Church the demanding and important ministry of bishop.”

“It is not a question of appointing functionaries to deal with religious issues, but of finding authentic shepherds according to the heart of Jesus, men committed to working generously in the service of God’s people, especially the poor and the most vulnerable. Men who take seriously the Lord’s words: “Whoever would become great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44).”

In this regard,  it continued, “it seems clear that an Agreement is merely an instrument, and not of itself capable of resolving all existing problems. Indeed, it will prove ineffective and unproductive, unless it is accompanied by a deep commitment to renewing personal attitudes and ecclesial forms of conduct.”

Also in the message it said that on a pastoral level, “the Catholic community in China is called to be united, so as to overcome the divisions of the past that have caused, and continue to cause great suffering in the hearts of many pastors and faithful.

All Christians, none excluded, it underscored, must now offer gestures of reconciliation and communion.

Here is the full Vatican-provided text:

**

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Catholics of China and to the Universal Church

“Eternal is his merciful love; He is faithful from age to age” (Psalm 100:5)

Dear brother bishops, priests, consecrated men and women and all the faithful of the Catholic Church in China, let us thank the Lord, for “eternal is his merciful love! He made us, we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his flock” (Ps 100:3).

At this moment, my heart echoes the words of exhortation addressed to you by my venerable predecessor in his Letter of 27 May 2007: “Catholic Church in China, you are a small flock present and active within the vastness of an immense people journeying through history. How stirring and encouraging these words of Jesus are for you: ‘Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom’ (Lk 12:32)! … Therefore, ‘let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’ (Mt 5:16)” (BENEDICT XVI, Letter to Chinese Catholics, 27 May 2007, 5).

1. Of late, many conflicting reports have circulated about the present and, in particular, the future of the Catholic communities in China. I am aware that this flurry of thoughts and opinions may have caused a certain confusion and prompted different reactions in the hearts of many. Some feel doubt and perplexity, while others sense themselves somehow abandoned by the Holy See and anxiously question the value of their sufferings endured out of fidelity to the Successor of Peter. In many others, there prevail positive expectations and reflections inspired by the hope of a more serene future for a fruitful witness to the faith in China.

This situation has become more acute, particularly with regard to the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China, which, as you know, was signed in recent days in Beijing. At so significant a moment for the life of the Church, I want to assure you through this brief Message that you are daily present in my prayers, and to share with you my heartfelt feelings.

They are sentiments of thanksgiving to the Lord and of sincere admiration – which is the admiration of the entire Catholic Church – for the gift of your fidelity, your constancy amid trials, and your firm trust in God’s providence, even when certain situations proved particularly adverse and difficult.

These painful experiences are part of the spiritual treasury of the Church in China and of all God’s pilgrim people on earth. I assure you that the Lord, through the crucible of our trials, never fails to pour out his consolations upon us and to prepare us for an even greater joy. In the words of the Psalmist, we are more than certain that “those who are sowing in tears, will sing when they reap” (Ps 126[125]:5).

Let us continue to look, then, to the example of all those faithful laity and pastors who readily offered their “good witness” (cf. 1 Tim 6:13) to the Gospel, even to the sacrifice of their own lives. They showed themselves true friends of God!

2. For my part, I have always looked upon China as a land of great opportunities and the Chinese people as the creators and guardians of an inestimable patrimony of culture and wisdom, refined by resisting adversity and embracing diversity, and which, not by chance, entered into contact from early times with the Christian message. As Father Matteo Ricci, S.J., perceptively noted in challenging us to the virtue of trust, “before entering into friendship, one must observe; after becoming friends, one must trust” (De Amicitia, 7).

I too am convinced that encounter can be authentic and fruitful only if it occurs through the practice of dialogue, which involves coming to know one another, to respect one another and to “walk together” for the sake of building a common future of sublime harmony.

This is the context in which to view the Provisional Agreement, which is the result of a lengthy and complex institutional dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities initiated by Saint John Paul II and continued by Pope Benedict XVI. Through this process, the Holy See has desired – and continues to desire – only to attain the Church’s specific spiritual and pastoral aims, namely, to support and advance the preaching of the Gospel, and to reestablish and preserve the full and visible unity of the Catholic community in China.

With regard to the importance of this Agreement and its aims, I would like to share with you a few reflections and provide you with some input of a spiritual pastoral nature for the journey we are called to undertake in this new phase.

It is a journey that, as in its earlier stages, “requires time and presupposes the good will of both parties” (BENEDICT XVI, Letter to Chinese Catholics, 27 May 2007, 4). But for the Church, within and outside of China, this involves more than simply respecting human values. It is also a spiritual calling: to go out from herself to embrace “the joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially those who are poor or afflicted” (SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1) and the challenges of the present that God entrusts to us. It is thus an ecclesial summons to become pilgrims along the paths of history, trusting before all else in God and in his promises, as did Abraham and our fathers in the faith.

Called by God, Abraham obeyed by setting out for an unknown land that he was to receive as an inheritance, without knowing the path that lay ahead. Had Abraham demanded ideal social and political conditions before leaving his land, perhaps he would never have set out. Instead, he trusted in God and in response to God’s word he left his home and its safety. It was not historical changes that made him put his trust in God; rather, it was his pure faith that brought about a change in history. For faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received [God’s] approval” (Heb 11:1-2).

3. As the Successor of Peter, I want to confirm you in this faith (cf. Lk 22:32) – in the faith of Abraham, in the faith of the Virgin Mary, in the faith you have received –and to ask you to place your trust ever more firmly in the Lord of history and in the Church’s discernment of his will. May all of us implore the gift of the Spirit to illumine our minds, warm our hearts and help us to understand where he would lead us, in order to overcome inevitable moments of bewilderment, and to find the strength to set out resolutely on the road ahead.

Precisely for the sake of supporting and promoting the preaching of the Gospel in China and reestablishing full and visible unity in the Church, it was essential, before all else, to deal with the issue of the appointment of bishops. Regrettably, as we know, the recent history of the Catholic Church in China has been marked by deep and painful tensions, hurts and divisions, centred especially on the figure of the bishop as the guardian of the authenticity of the faith and as guarantor of ecclesial communion.

When, in the past, it was presumed to determine the internal life of the Catholic communities, imposing direct control above and beyond the legitimate competence of the state, the phenomenon of clandestinity arose in the Church in China. This experience – it must be emphasized – is not a normal part of the life of the Church and “history shows that pastors and faithful have recourse to it only amid suffering, in the desire to maintain the integrity of their faith” (BENEDICT XVI, Letter to Chinese Catholics, 27 May 2007, 8).

I would have you know that, from the time I was entrusted with the Petrine ministry, I have experienced great consolation in knowing the heartfelt desire of Chinese Catholics to live their faith in full communion with the universal Church and with the Successor of Peter, who is “the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful” (SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 23). In these years, I have received numerous concrete signs and testimonies of that desire, including from bishops who have damaged communion in the Church as a result of weakness and errors, but also, and not infrequently, due to powerful and undue pressure from without.

Consequently, after carefully examining every individual personal situation, and listening to different points of view, I have devoted much time to reflection and prayer, seeking the true good of the Church in China. In the end, before the Lord and with serenity of judgment, in continuity with the direction set by my immediate predecessors, I have determined to grant reconciliation to the remaining seven “official” bishops ordained without papal mandate and, having lifted every relevant canonical sanction, to readmit them to full ecclesial communion. At the same time, I ask them to express with concrete and visible gestures their restored unity with the Apostolic See and with the Churches spread throughout the world, and to remain faithful despite any difficulties.

4. In the sixth year of my Pontificate, which I have placed from the beginning under the banner of God’s merciful love, I now invite all Chinese Catholics to work towards reconciliation. May all be mindful, with renewed apostolic zeal, of the words of Saint Paul: “God… has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18).

Indeed, as I wrote at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, “no law or precept can prevent God from once more embracing the son who returns to him admitting that he has done wrong but intending to start his life anew. Remaining only at the level of the law is equivalent to thwarting faith and divine mercy… Even in the most complex cases, where there is a temptation to apply a justice derived from rules alone, we must believe in the power flowing from divine grace” (Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera, 20 November 2016, 11).

In this spirit, and in line with the decisions that have been made, we can initiate an unprecedented process that we hope will help to heal the wounds of the past, restore full communion among all Chinese Catholics, and lead to a phase of greater fraternal cooperation, in order to renew our commitment to the mission of proclaiming the Gospel. For the Church exists for the sake of bearing witness to Jesus Christ and to the forgiving and saving love of the Father.

5. The Provisional Agreement signed with the Chinese authorities, while limited to certain aspects of the Church’s life and necessarily capable of improvement, can contribute – for its part – to writing this new chapter of the Catholic Church in China. For the first time, the Agreement sets out stable elements of cooperation between the state authorities and the Apostolic See, in the hope of providing the Catholic community with good shepherds.

In this context, the Holy See intends fully to play its own part. Yet an important part also falls to you, the bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful: to join in seeking good candidates capable of taking up in the Church the demanding and important ministry of bishop. It is not a question of appointing functionaries to deal with religious issues, but of finding authentic shepherds according to the heart of Jesus, men committed to working generously in the service of God’s people, especially the poor and the most vulnerable. Men who take seriously the Lord’s words: “Whoever would become great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44).

In this regard, it seems clear that an Agreement is merely an instrument, and not of itself capable of resolving all existing problems. Indeed, it will prove ineffective and unproductive, unless it is accompanied by a deep commitment to renewing personal attitudes and ecclesial forms of conduct.

6. On the pastoral level, the Catholic community in China is called to be united, so as to overcome the divisions of the past that have caused, and continue to cause great suffering in the hearts of many pastors and faithful. All Christians, none excluded, must now offer gestures of reconciliation and communion. In this regard, let us keep in mind the admonition of Saint John of the Cross: “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love” (Dichos, 64).

On the civil and political level, Chinese Catholics must be good citizens, loving their homeland and serving their country with diligence and honesty, to the best of their ability. On the ethical level, they should be aware that many of their fellow citizens expect from them a greater commitment to the service of the common good and the harmonious growth of society as a whole. In particular, Catholics ought to make a prophetic and constructive contribution born of their faith in the kingdom of God. At times, this may also require of them the effort to offer a word of criticism, not out of sterile opposition, but for the sake of building a society that is more just, humane and respectful of the dignity of each person.

7. I now turn to you, my brother bishops, priests and consecrated persons who “serve the Lord with gladness” (Ps 100:2). Let us recognize one another as followers of Christ in the service of God’s people. Let us make pastoral charity the compass for our ministry. Let us leave behind past conflicts and attempts to pursue our own interests, and care for the faithful, making our own their joys and their sufferings. Let us work humbly for reconciliation and unity. With energy and enthusiasm, let us take up the path of evangelization indicated by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.

To everyone, I say once more with great affection: “Let us be inspired to act by the example of all those priests, religious, and laity who devote themselves to proclamation and to serving others with great fidelity, often at the risk of their lives and certainly at the cost of their comfort. Their testimony reminds us that, more than bureaucrats and functionaries, the Church needs passionate missionaries, enthusiastic about sharing true life. The saints surprise us; they confound us, because by their lives they urge us to abandon a dull and dreary mediocrity” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, 19 March 2018, 138).

I ask you wholeheartedly to beg for the grace not to hesitate when the Spirit calls us to take a step forward: “Let us ask for the apostolic courage to share the Gospel with others and to stop trying to make our Christian life a museum of memories. In every situation, may the Holy Spirit cause us to contemplate history in the light of the risen Jesus. In this way, the Church will not stand still, but constantly welcome the Lord’s surprises” (ibid., 139).

8. In this year, when the entire Church celebrates the Synod on Young People, I would like to say a special word to you, young Chinese Catholics, who enter the gates of the house of the Lord “giving thanks [and] with songs of praise” (Ps 100:4). I ask you to cooperate in building the future of your country with the talents and gifts that you have received, and with the youthfulness of your faith. I encourage you to bring, by your enthusiasm, the joy of the Gospel to everyone you meet.

Be ready to accept the sure guidance of the Holy Spirit, who shows today’s world the path to reconciliation and peace. Let yourselves be surprised by the renewing power of grace, even when it may seem that the Lord is asking more of you than you think you can give. Do not be afraid to listen to his voice as he calls you to fraternity, encounter, capacity for dialogue and forgiveness, and a spirit of service, regardless of the painful experiences of the recent past and wounds not yet healed.

Open your hearts and minds to discern the merciful plan of God, who asks us to rise above personal prejudices and conflicts between groups and communities, in order to undertake a courageous fraternal journey in the light of an authentic culture of encounter.

Nowadays there is no lack of temptations: the pride born of worldly success, narrow-mindedness and absorption in material things, as if God did not exist. Go against the flow and stand firm in the Lord: “for he is good; eternal is his merciful love; he is faithful from age to age” (Ps 100:5).

9. Dear brothers and sisters of the universal Church, all of us are called to recognize as one of the signs of our times everything that is happening today in the life of the Church in China. We have an important duty: to accompany our brothers and sisters in China with fervent prayer and fraternal friendship. Indeed, they need to feel that in the journey that now lies ahead, they are not alone. They need to be accepted and supported as a vital part of the Church. “How good and pleasant it is, when brothers dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133:1).

Each local Catholic community in every part of the world should make an effort to appreciate and integrate the spiritual and cultural treasures proper to Chinese Catholics. The time has come to taste together the genuine fruits of the Gospel sown in the ancient “Middle Kingdom” and to raise to the Lord Jesus Christ a hymn of faith and thanksgiving, enriched by authentically Chinese notes.

10. I now turn with respect to the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and renew my invitation to continue, with trust, courage and farsightedness, the dialogue begun some time ago. I wish to assure them that the Holy See will continue to work sincerely for the growth of genuine friendship with the Chinese people.

The present contacts between the Holy See and the Chinese government are proving useful for overcoming past differences, even those of the more recent past, and for opening a new chapter of more serene and practical cooperation, in the shared conviction that “incomprehension [serves] the interests of neither the Chinese people nor the Catholic Church in China” (BENEDICT XVI, Letter to Chinese Catholics, 27 May 2007, 4).

In this way, China and the Apostolic See, called by history to an arduous yet exciting task, will be able to act more positively for the orderly and harmonious growth of the Catholic community in China. They will make efforts to promote the integral development of society by ensuring greater respect for the human person, also in the religious sphere, and will work concretely to protect the environment in which we live and to build a future of peace and fraternity between peoples.

In China, it is essential that, also on the local level, relations between the leaders of ecclesial communities and the civil authorities become more productive through frank dialogue and impartial listening, so as to overcome antagonism on both sides. A new style of straightforward daily cooperation needs to develop between local authorities and ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, priests and community elders – in order to ensure that pastoral activities take place in an orderly manner, in harmony with the legitimate expectations of the faithful and the decisions of competent authorities.

This will help make it clear that the Church in China is not oblivious to Chinese history, nor does she seek any privilege. Her aim in the dialogue with civil authorities is that of “building a relationship based on mutual respect and deeper understanding” (ibid.).

11. In the name of the whole Church, I beg the Lord for the gift of peace, and I invite all to join me in invoking the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary:

Mother of Heaven, hear the plea of your children as we humbly call upon your name!

Virgin of Hope, we entrust to you the journey of the faithful in the noble land of China. We ask you to present to the Lord of history the trials and tribulations, the petitions and the hopes of all those who pray to you, O Queen of Heaven!

Mother of the Church, we consecrate to you the present and the future of our families and our communities. Protect and sustain them in fraternal reconciliation and in service to the poor who bless your name, O Queen of Heaven!

Consolation of the Afflicted, we turn to you, for you are the refuge of all who weep amid their trials. Watch over your sons and daughters who praise your name; make them one in bringing the proclamation of the Gospel. Accompany their efforts to build a more fraternal world. Grant that they may bring the joy of forgiveness to all whom they meet, O Queen of Heaven!

Mary, Help of Christians, for China we implore days of blessing and of peace. Amen!

From the Vatican, 26 September 2018

FRANCIS

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 13:48

POLITICS

[dfroza]

Today’s reading from the ancient book of Proverbs and book of Psalms

for August 2 of 2021 with Proverbs 2 and Psalm 2, accompanied by Psalm 44 for the 44th day of Summer and Psalm 64 for day 214 of the year (now with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

[Proverbs 2]

My son, if you accept what I am telling you

and store my counsel and directives deep within you,

If you listen for Lady Wisdom, attune your ears to her,

and engage your mind to understand what she is telling you,

If you cry out to her for insight

and beg for understanding,

If you sift through the clamor of everything around you

to seek her like some precious prize,

to search for her like buried treasure;

Then you will grasp what it means to truly respect the Eternal,

and you will have discovered the knowledge of the one True God.

The Eternal is ready to share His wisdom with us,

for His words bring true knowledge and insight;

He has stored up the essentials of sound wisdom for those who do right;

He acts as a shield for those who value integrity.

God protects the paths of those who pursue justice,

watching over the lives of those who keep faith with Him.

With this wisdom you will be able to choose the right road,

seek justice, and decide what is good and fair

Because wisdom will penetrate deep within

and knowledge will become a good friend to your soul.

Sound judgment will stand guard over you,

and understanding will watch over you as the Lord promised.

Wisdom will keep you from following the way of evildoers,

of those who twist words to pervert the truth,

Of those who reject the right road

for a darker, more sinister way of life,

Of those who enjoy evil

and pursue perverse pleasures,

Of those who journey down a crooked path,

constantly figuring out new ways to trick and deceive others.

Wisdom will pluck you from the trap of a seductive woman,

from the enticing propositions of the adulteress

Who chose to leave the husband of her youth,

to forget her sacred promises to her God;

For her house is on the road that leads to death,

and her path goes down to the shadowy pit.

Those who go to her will never return;

they will never again find their way back to true life.

As for you, you should walk like those who are good

and keep to the paths of those who love justice,

For those who live right will remain in the land

and those with integrity will endure here.

But not the wicked; they will be forced out and banned from this promised land,

and those who deal in deceit will be plucked up like weeds.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 2 (The Voice)

[Psalm 2]

You are wondering: What has provoked the nations to embrace anger and chaos?

Why are the people making plans to pursue their own vacant and empty greatness?

Leaders of nations stand united;

rulers put their heads together,

plotting against the Eternal One and His Anointed King, trying to figure out

How they can throw off the gentle reign of God’s love,

step out from under the restrictions of His claims to advance their own schemes.

At first, the Power of heaven laughs at their silliness.

The Eternal mocks their ignorant selfishness.

But His laughter turns to rage, and He rebukes them.

As God displays His righteous anger, they begin to know the meaning of fear. He says,

“I am the One who appointed My king who reigns from Zion, My mount of holiness.

He is the one in charge.”

I am telling all of you the truth. I have heard the Eternal’s decree.

He said clearly to me, “You are My son.

Today I have become your Father.

The nations shall be yours for the asking,

and the entire earth will belong to you.

They are yours to crush with an iron scepter,

yours to shatter like fragile, clay pots.”

So leaders, kings, and judges,

be wise, and be warned.

There is only one God, the Eternal;

worship Him with respect and awe;

take delight in Him and tremble.

Bow down before God’s son.

If you don’t, you will face His anger and retribution,

And you won’t stand a chance.

For it doesn’t take long to kindle royal wrath,

But blessings await all who trust in Him.

They will find God a gentle refuge.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 2 (The Voice)

[Psalm 44]

For the worship leader. A contemplative song of the sons of Korah.

With our own ears, O God, we have heard the stories

our ancestors recited of Your deeds in their days, days long past—

how You saved the day.

With a powerful hand, You drove the nations from this land,

but then You planted our parents here.

You fought for us against people of this land;

You set our parents free to enjoy its goodness.

They did not win the land with their swords.

It wasn’t their strength that won them victory.

It was Your strength—Your right hand, Your arm,

and the light of Your presence that gave them success,

for You loved them.

You are my King, my God!

You ordained victories for Jacob and his people!

You are our victory, pushing back the enemy;

at the sound of Your name, we crush the opposition.

I don’t trust in my weapons

or in my strength to win me victory.

But You rescue us from our foes;

You shame our enemies.

We shout Your name all day long;

we will praise Your name forever!

[pause]

But wait, God, where have You gone? Why have You shamed us?

Why do our armies stand alone?

Without Your help we must retreat from our enemy,

and the very ones who despise us pillage us.

You have offered us up to our enemies,

like sheep to the slaughter, meat for their feast,

and You have dispersed us among the nations.

You sold Your people for mere pennies,

and You gained nothing from the deal.

You have made us a joke to our friends and neighbors,

mocked and ridiculed by all those around us.

You have brought us infamy among the nations

and made us an object of scorn and laughter to our neighbors.

Disgrace follows me everywhere I go; I am constantly embarrassed.

Shame is written across my face

Because of the taunting and berating of those who are against me,

because the enemy seeks revenge against me.

All this has happened to us,

yet we have never forgotten You;

we have not broken Your covenant with us.

Our hearts stayed true to You;

we have never left Your path;

we follow on.

Yet You have tested us, left us defeated in a land of jackals,

and shrouded us with the veil of death.

Even if we had forgotten the name of our God

or offered praise to another god,

Would not the True God have known it?

For He can see the hidden places of our hearts.

On Your behalf, our lives are endangered constantly;

we are like sheep awaiting slaughter.

Wake up, Lord! Why do You slumber?

Get up! Do not reject us any longer!

Why are You still hiding from us?

Why are You still ignoring our suffering and trouble?

Look and You will see our souls now dwell in the dust;

our bodies hug the earth.

Rise up and help us;

restore us for the sake of Your boundless love.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 44 (The Voice)

[Psalm 64]

Victory over Evildoers

For the Pure and Shining One

King David’s song

Lord, can’t you hear my cry, my bitter complaint?

Keep me safe from this band of criminals and

from the conspiracy of these wicked men.

They gather in their secret counsel to destroy me.

Can’t you hear their slander, their lies?

Their words are like poison-tipped arrows

shot from the shadows.

They are unafraid and have no fear of consequences.

They persist with their evil plans

and plot together to hide their traps.

They boast, “No one can see us or stop us!”

They search out opportunities to pervert justice

as they plan the “perfect crime.”

How unsearchable is their endless evil!

They try desperately to hide the deep darkness of their hearts.

But all the while God has his own fire-tipped arrows!

Suddenly, without warning,

they will be pierced and struck down.

Staggering backward, they will be destroyed

by the very ones they spoke against.

All who see this will view them with scorn.

Then all will stand awestruck over what God has done,

seeing how he vindicated the victims of these crimes.

The lovers of God will be glad, rejoicing in the Lord.

They will be found in his glorious wraparound presence,

singing songs of praise to God!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 64 (The Passion Translation)

and the same point of victory mirrored in The Voice:

[Psalm 64]

For the worship leader. A song of David.

O True God, hear my voice! Listen to my complaint!

Guard my life; keep me safe from my enemy’s threats.

Hide me from the sinful circle that conspires against me,

from the band of rebels out to make trouble,

Who sharpen their tongues into swords,

who take aim with poisonous words like arrows.

They hide in the shadows and shoot at the innocent;

they shoot at them without warning and without any fear.

They persist in their evil purpose

and plan in secret to lay their traps.

And they say, “Who will see them?”

They plot their offense with precision and say,

“Now we have the perfect crime.”

The human heart and mind are deep and complex.

But without hesitation the True God will shoot at them;

His arrow will surely wound them.

He will use their very own words to bring them to destruction;

all who see will be appalled at what happens to them.

Then everyone will fear the True God;

they will proclaim His deeds

and will reflect upon all He has done.

The righteous will delight in the Eternal

and will take shelter in Him.

All those with an honest heart will glorify Him!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 64 (The Voice)

[love-heretic]

Pesach-- Egypt, lambs, rams, and goats

Pesach--- Passover--- is almost here. I had thought I remembered hearing that each plague on Egypt was an assault on one of their “gods.” While looking for that, I found some other information about Egypt and lambs. (They considered lambs,  rams, and goats to be virtually the same.) Egypt had many gods who were very much like lambs.  Am-un and Kh-num were both gods with the body of a man and the head of a ram. Banebd-jedet and Herysh-ef  were additional  Egyptian ram / lamb gods. Hor-us was not a lamb, but he was called the “lamb of god.” An-on was a “sun god,” and the lamb was sacred to him. The constellation that the Greeks called Aries-- and the Egyptians also associated with a lamb-- was associated with An-on. According to Rambam, the Egyptians worshiped the constellation we know as Ari-es. According to Herodotus, a Greek historian from about 500 B.C.E., “. . . some of the Egyptians abstain from sacrificing goats, either male or female. The reason is the following:- These Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, consider Pa-n to be one of the eight gods who existed before the twelve, and Pan is represented in Egypt by the painters and the sculptors, just as he is in Greece, with the face and legs of a goat. They do not, however, believe this to be his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike the other gods; but they represent him thus for a reason which I prefer not to relate. The Mendesians hold all goats in veneration, but the male more than the female, giving the goatherds of the males especial honour. One is venerated more highly than all the rest, and when he dies there is a great mourning throughout all the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian, the goat and P-an are both called Mend-es.” (Herodotus, Euterpe) So we know that the Egyptians worshiped sheep. And remember that Joseph told his brothers to tell the Egyptians that they were shepherds so that they would be given land in Goshen--- all near one another, and away from the Egyptians, so that they would retain their own cultural heritage and identity. “ When Pharaoh calls you, and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our ancestors’—in order that you may settle in the land of Goshen, because all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians.” (Gen. 46:33-34) And when Pharoah told Moses to have the Hebrews worship their G-d in the land, Moses replied, “'What we will sacrifice to HaShem our L-rd is sacred to the Egyptians. Could we sacrifice the sacred animal of the Egyptians before their very eyes and not have them stone us?’ [Gen. 8:22]

“To the Egyptians someone eating lamb was an abomination -- akin to us being cannibals. Read this from the OU website:’ “‘It would not be proper because the Egyptians regard our sacrifices to the L-RD as abominations. Could we break an Egyptian taboo (TOAVAT MITZRAYIM) before their very eyes without their stoning us?’ 

“We may recall that because the Egyptians held the eaters of the flesh of sheep in the lowest regard, Joseph's brothers were fed separately from the other Egyptians (Bereishit 43:32). Joseph also encouraged his brothers to list their occupations as shepherds in order to keep them isolated from the rest of Egypt (46:34). Both of these references feature the word ‘abomination’ . . . ‘

“A. Sheep were chosen precisely because they were taboo to the Egyptians and any attempt to slaughter them would be resisted, forcefully.’ “B. The astrological symbol of the month of Nisan is Aries, the ram, and the 15th day is the apex of a lunar month. The ram-god of the Egyptians was to be slaughtered on the evening of the full-moon of its very own month (ostensibly, the height of its powers), and the Egyptians would be powerless to prevent it!’ “C. By selecting the sheep or ram (cf. Shemot 12:5 which treats them identically) four days in advance of the actual sacrifice, the Jews were flaunting their intentions in the faces of their Egyptian neighbors, as though daring them to interfere.’ “D. Similarly, the smearing of its blood on the door posts and lintel was intended to force the Egyptians to suffer the further indignity of seeing the lifeblood of the animal, the essence of many pagan rituals, ‘profaned.’” Can you imagine the courage it would have taken to take the animal and keep it in your house for four days? . . .  Surely after all that had gone on, the Egyptians would realize that the Hebrews had something in mind for those sheep-- they had something in mind for those animals that Egyptians considered sacred.  And then . . . after four days, the courage it would take these people who had been subjugated for nearly 400 years and as is common of battered people, they barely thought of themselves as human and able to make decisions for themselves....the courage to not only slaughter the animal, but eat it, and smear it’s blood all over their door so the Egyptians KNEW what they had done!?! But from wherever they pulled up that courage. . .  it is what set them free. In what area of YOUR life do you need to find the courage that will set you free?

[7r0773r]

The Hundred Brothers by Donald Antrim

Elsewhere people came and went, played card games and chess, tended to one another’s injuries, chased the bats. These men’s lives seemed, for the moment, untouched by fear. But I did not envy them. I felt the way humans must have felt in earlier times, at the dawn of our history, when the world was alive with primitive dangers and life depended for its preservation on the graces and fancies of hateful gods. 

“Go ahead, kill me,” I commanded the dog. He held on to his bone. What was he thinking? There was no way of knowing. He was just a dog. 

Winds blew and the music played. Snow piled up. People talked but I was not paying attention to their conversations. I felt the cold air. Gunner’s eyes shimmered and I held my book close to me. It was easy, looking into the dog’s mouth, at those white teeth and black gums, to imagine the power and authority our ancestors must have felt with companions like Gunner at their sides. 

What an animal. What was he doing with an alcoholic like Chuck for a master? “You understand about death, don’t you?” I said to him. He growled quietly then readjusted the bone, expertly, in his teeth. Snap snap. I regarded this as an answer of sorts. I confided to the Doberman, “Once upon a time men celebrated the seasons of death and rebirth with sacrifices and burnt offerings. The world was cold and forbidding, and if you didn’t watch out, your enemies would come up behind you and kill you with a spear or a club. A single night’s foul weather could destroy your crops, and then you might starve. Each day brought terror. Angry spirits unleashed thunder and lightning, diseases and pestilences, every species of ferocious beast. Men developed language to communicate their terror to one another. People were in pain all the time. They believed they would be rewarded for their pain. This is what is known as the human condition.”

 It seemed to me that the dog was paying attention. What a fierce nose Gunner had. Perhaps he knew, from my serious tone of voice, that I was speaking on weighty matters. I told him, “Over the years mankind has devised many ways to alleviate the pain of living, and much of human history can be understood as a death march toward this goal. Although suffering in life can sometimes be postponed, it can never be avoided. This is the central lesson of the world’s religions. Please don’t drool on the book. All right, Gunner? Good boy. This is the central lesson of the world’s religions. Where was I? The pain of existence is ours to bear. In order to bear it we must make sacrifices. We must offer ourselves up before God and our fellow man. That is the function of the Corn King.” 

The dog really did appear to be listening. It was as if he knew—was letting me know that he knew—what I was talking about. Of course I realize it would be going too far to suggest that animals comprehend the symbolic realm. But I gave Gunner the benefit of the doubt. “The Corn King is an archetypal harvest spirit. His story is as old as recorded time. In rude societies, before the dawn of civilization, when it was believed that spirits resided in all things, in the mountains and lakes, trees and grasses, cats and dogs” —I gave Gunner a smile; his ears pricked up and I went on —”no spirit was regarded with greater awe than the spirit of the corn. From corn came food and grain alcohol. Life depended on the harvest, and so human beings were routinely sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the crop. These were martyrs. While alive—and death was painful, very painful, Gunner—the Corn King’s human representatives were worshiped as gods. It was their blood that enriched the earth, their tears that brought the rains, their flesh that fatted the land. They died so that others might live. Today, mimicry of this ancient practice is common in many popular religions.” At this point the dog began to lose interest. He made a yawning sound and fiddled with the bone in his mouth. I quickly said, “In some instances, the Corn King’s still-beating heart was cut out and devoured!"

I felt nervous telling Gunner this. That blood on my shirtfront was a perfect target. We’ve all heard the frightening stories of domesticated animals regressing into feral states and tearing their owners limb from limb. Gunner had made short work of that pork chop. The dog’s nose twitched. Perhaps he had eaten enough. I explained to him that modern men had lost touch with ancient rhythms of death and regeneration, but that it was possible—if you took intoxicants and wore the right mask and costume—to regain connection with the primeval aspects of the Self, and to enact, in ritualized form, the important celebrations of sacrifice and abasement; that this was, in some respects, what family get-togethers were all about. I wrapped up, “You see, Gunner, the Corn King is my gift to my brothers. Every year I have a few drinks, then get in costume, and they try to catch me. Luckily, most of those guys are out of shape. Ultimately, the Corn King must die. In this way the family of man can prosper and thrive.” 

This ended my talk with the dog. But Gunner did not back off right away. First he allowed me to pet his head. What a pleasant creature. He only wanted what we all want from time to time, to submit and feel love. “Gunner, how would you like to be my dog?” 

My fear of him was gone. In fear’s place was a new self-possession; I understood why people keep animals. I rose from my chair—carefully holding A Complete Guide to Heraldry in front of my body, just to be safe—and I didn’t even bother pretending to have a hurt foot. So what if Lester said something? It was late and the time had come at last to go over to the African masks, choose a colorful headdress from the wall, put it on my head, then run around and shout the kinds of obscenities that get people mad. 

“Come on, Gunner.” (pp. 166-70)

***

There is nothing quite like the primitive ecstasy of pissing somewhere besides the bathroom. I rate the act very highly. Pissing in nature or in some dark corner, as I was, captures and brings into consciousness certain archaic versions of a man’s most secret Self—those aspects of character and identity that remain, in civilized daily life, veiled, disguised, sealed away: the messy, narcissistic, bodily Self of infancy; the wild, magnificent, feral Self of mankind’s prehistoric beginnings; that communal, loving Self expressed in each man’s deep bond with his fellow men; and of course the sovereign, assertive, fiercely territorial Self that announces, Get out of my way! I’m taking a leak! 

Feeling such emotions, it was impossible not to elevate the stream and hose down, as they say, a few literary masterpieces. 

I may as well point out that I was able to hit titles all the way up on the third and fourth shelves. When you get into your middle years, as I have, these things matter. 

I shook and put it away. Since I’m being frank, I ought to say that I went through the mature man’s generic process of shaking: several rapid shakes followed by a brief rest followed by more jiggling, and the whole ordeal repeated until everything feels comfortably dry and secure. As I grow longer in the tooth, I find myself shaking off for greater and greater stretches of time, and I always use this time to fret morosely about my health in general, and about the likelihood that a grave illness, conceivably located in the bladder region, will overtake me in the future, maybe imminently. In this way a pleasurable, natural act becomes the catalyst for somber reflections and an unnatural, incipient depression. So much of life follows this pattern exactly, I think. We begin to lose ourselves in a joyful or gratifying act—it can be a creature comfort or something complicatedly emotional like stimulating conversation or the solitary immersion in a poem, a beautiful landscape, or a work of art—and we forget, in the moment of serenity, all the pain and trouble of life. Until, quite suddenly and, as a rule, shockingly, this very forgetfulness, our fleeting holiday from care, becomes nothing more than another occasion to remember how truly infrequently happiness comes to us, and how likely we are to die in some horrible way. Then, disgusted with ourselves over our inability to enjoy life, we halt the pleasurable activity and move on, as speedily as we can, to other business. It was precisely this kind of dispirited self-loathing that led me to give myself only a few cursory shakes, so that when I replaced myself in my trousers, I felt urine dribbling down my leg. As always when this happens, I became enraged. I became angry and irrational. The night was cold, and I struggled against despair. 

The struggle, however, was unavailing. 

I wept. 

At first I wept for myself—for my incontinence, obviously—and then for my entire, ridiculous existence, and for the loneliness I felt, not only there in the literature section in the late hours on that snowy night, but all the time, constantly, ever since I could remember feeling anything at all. As I wept, I felt lonelier and lonelier and lonelier. I envisioned, one after another, my brothers, the bloated, red faces of my brothers, all my beloved brothers but in particular Hiram and Virgil and Maxwell. These three I loved best. And also George. Would we ever see George again? After a while I was weeping for the rose garden and the former grandeur of our trees and lawns, those green fields where we played as children. We had always hurt one another in our games; hurting was the object of our games; and this made me cry more, and I held the blue pillow to my breast. I wrapped my arms around the blue pillow, hugged it to me, and let the tears come. I was standing in water up to my ankles, and this for some reason became another pressing sadness. I suppose it was because the water was rising that I felt so affected. Before long I was crying for, it seemed, everything. Everything in the red library was deserving of tears. Those eyeless, emaciated, deaf and dead animals on their barren squares of wall always reminded me of past Dougs, the Dougs who perished as youths; and, as I wept, they reminded me, the animals, of myself and of what would surely become of me one day, maybe soon. I was nothing but another Doug. Hiram was the oldest. Father I know really, only from his occasional, shadowy appearances above the lights, his intermittent manifestations as a damp stain. Actually, this is not, strictly speaking, the whole truth. It is true in the sense that it describes the way I have felt for as long as I have known my feelings. I remember, I think, our father's face and his voice. I remember his mustache. I remember our father in his underwear at night. I remember the hair on his legs. I remember the smell in the bathroom after he left it. I remember his unhappiness and his dread of our happiness, and I remember him saying, “How's my Doug?” I remember his body’s smells, his smells of tobacco, of course, and of alcohol and cologne, a cologne like lavender you never smell anymore. I remember the pleasure of seeing him enter the room. I remember certain stories and jokes. Actually, I forget the stories and the jokes, though I remember that these existed. I remember his conviction that he was hated, and I remember the thunder his footsteps made crossing the floor. Time after time my brothers and I have joined together to eat, drink, and bury that man. All we ever did was eat, drink, and injure each other. The sadness of our cruelty was more than I could bear. Tears rose in waves that washed up from the center of my body. The muscles in my sides felt as if they would tear from the strain of that sobbing. The water around my feet was steadily rising. I knew it was prideful to overinterpret broken pipes and a leaking roof, but on the other hand it did seem that I was not completely alone in my crying, that the red library was dripping and pouring out its own tears, its own remorse. 

I thought these things because I had failed to shake off after urinating. What a degenerate I was. What sadness, to come to such a point in life, this point at which the simplest acts, acts that promise pleasure, give access only to terrors and an overriding impression of loss. (pp. 183-87)

***

There is an impression, held true in our society, that the father is surpassed, overtaken, outlived, and in these and other respects, killed by the son.

But this is, I think, actually not the case. In truth, I think, it is always the son who is killed by the father. Couldn’t it be argued that each man dies the death made for him by his father? (p. 205)

[fuckyeahilike]

The Twilight novels have at least two important anti-war messages, arguably three if you count Victoria's army, an army that she built by turning innocent boys and girls into monsters when they had lives and a future and they were all killed for nothing.

But the two most important messages come from two main characters, that we become familiarized with and are taught to respect, and those are Edward and Jasper.

Edward says that as a teen, more than anything else he wanted to become an adult so he could join the war - that's World War 1. And every night his mother would pray out loud for the war to end before he came of age, precisely so that her son’s life would be spared. Then Edward dies of the Spanish influenza and is revived by Carlisle. As an adult, Edward now sees the folly of war and how it's a manipulation and he is glad he never did become a soldier. His regrets all gravitate around human lives that he took while he had, as he puts it, a God complex and believed he had the right to decide on who lived and died. This is a running theme in the novels: never take a human life unless it's in self-defense or in the defense of the innocent.

As for Jasper he fell prey to the exact same government and societal manipulations that have since time immemorial seduced teenagers - i.e. children - into joining the army ASAP, following dreams of glory and valor that are extremely compelling to kids. And Stephenie writes him as a typical victim of PTSD, a man who after years of fighting in foolish and immoral wars, first as a Confederate soldier and then as a general in vampire armies, becomes a man who has forgotten what he is fighting for, empathizes with his victims and is profoundly existentially depressed... until he is rescued by the Cullens who show him that there is a pacifist way of life that doesn't involve killing or living in fear of dyeing.

Stephenie Meyer's defamers would have you believe that instead Twilight is a pro-war manifesto heavily tinged with pro-racist, pro-Confederacy hues. You know... a narrative that famously positions an entire nation of Native-Americans as heroes genetically superior to white people is totally totally racist. A narrative so famous that it was literally adapted to the movies and became the most successful franchise of the period. 

Stephenie Meyer’s defamers have such an absence of self-respect that they count on you not even remembering that the Cullens are pacifist vegetarians that defend human life and work side by side with the heroic Quileute against serial killing vampires.

Anyone who takes these liars at their word and doesn’t think it’s important to actually read a book before forming an opinion about it, deserves them and deserves being lied to.

PS: BTW, thanks to Twilight’s huge success the Quileute gained back their borders. Stephenie has been nothing but a positive force for good, which is why evil people are so threatened by her.

How 'Twilight' Stardom Helped the Quileute Tribe Regain Land

"It's brought us a lot of national attention and...

You know, there's still people that are just so amazed when they come out here to visit us, 'Wow, they're really here!', you know, 'There are really Quileute people!'

It's opened the way for our tribe economically, and then the media... because a lot of people, when they did come here and visit - you know, you got all these Facebook pages, and then of course you've got the media coming out and doing coverage of us and they got to see that little glimpse of our reservation...

It helped us, it helped us a lot! To push Congress and, you know, the House and when that bill was signed it wasn't...

You know, our Ancestors and our past council members have been fighting for over fifty years for our Northern boundary dispute; and to actually have that day and have president Obama sign a document saying that 'This land is yours' it was like... Wow!"

so i was skimming a little when i got to the later shit in twilight, but someone recently pointed out that stephenie meyer, for no reason, wrote in her books that the only reason the confederacy lost the civil war is because a bunch of mexican vampires ate their generals, and im thinking back and im like. oh good lord i think she did write that.

what the FUCK, meyer

[tipsycad147]

Who Are the Gods? ­ Part 2 – The Gods and Goddesses of Wicca

by Christopher Penczak | Aug 1, 2013

(Originally appearing in The Second Road)

Last issue we discussed monotheism, polytheism and the concept of archetypes. To the pagan, the archetypes are beings of power existing on the planes of consciousness. They may express themselves as different deities to different cultures and time periods, but they contain a similar theme, purpose and energy. It is in these common threads a modern witch can begin to weave his or her own tapestry of personal experience.

As modern people we are usually a psychological term, archetype, to describe a spiritual being, it is important to realise the energy and experience of the goddesses and gods are very real. It is said that all goddesses lead to the Goddess, and all gods lead to the God. The meaning, with all our religious conflicts, can be less clear. To the witch, everything is divine. Everything is spiritual. In mystical philosophy, this is sometimes called the Divine Mind. But to connect with and process and experience of everything at once, of the complete Divine Mind, can be quite an awesome tasks. The individual deities, each with a specific scope of power, can give us a more tangible connection to the divine. They act as bridges from our limited perspective, to the unlimited perspective of the Divine Mind. By looking at the Divine Mind as having many faces, we have many paths to make a personal connection. All deities and paths ultimately lead to the same divine spirit.

These paths branch out from the divine first as the archetypes, primal beings of power embodying aspects of nature and consciousness. Archetypes encompass the powers of the Earth, Moon, Sun and such concepts as wisdom, justice, war and love. As the archetypes become closer to human consciousness and understand, they take on forms and shapes that act as masks. They assume characters, names and stories that best relate them to a culture, time or individual. One archetypal being can wear many different masks, and each one will have a different energy and flair. The great Sun being can be expressed through the Sun god Ra of Egypt, of Apollo and Helios of the Greeks, as Balder to the Norse and Lugh to the Celts. As the archetypal beings are beyond defined form and shape, and beyond separation, several archetypal energies can combine and wear a particular godform mask. The goddess Ishtar combines the qualities of earth, heaven, love, war, the Moon and the planet Venus. The more all encompassing a deity is, the closer they are to the Divine Mind, and yet the harder they are to make a personal connection.

As we look at the archetypes, we are really looking at individual aspects of the Divine Mind. As a practitioner of a nature based religion, I like to look at many of the basic archetypes revealed in the changing seasons and cycles. Modern witches call this the Wheel of the Year, celebrating eight festivals, but the Wheel is the story of the Goddess and God told through the seasons, and if you listen and look closely, you can see the Goddess and God in their many faces.

The God is seen in the Sun, sky, vegetation and animals. Ultimately the God is seen as duel, a god of light and a god of darkness. The Goddess is represented by the Earth itself, as well as the Moon and oceans. The Goddess is seen as triple, as maiden, mother and crone. Like the Moon, the Earth waxes and wanes, and as it shifts, the Goddess and God change their faces. At the winter solstice, the light begins to grow. Cultures around the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the birth of the child of light, usually as a Sun god. As the light waxes and grows, he grows to maturity. In the spring, the Goddess arises from her slumber in the underworld, and with her rising, the plants begin to rise from the ground. The God becomes her lover, helping the fertility of the land, and ultimately becomes her husband and king. She becomes the Mother of the land. At the summer solstice, his power wanes, and he relinquishes his power to his shadow, the god of the dark and waning year, portrayed as an underworld god or animal lord. In some traditions, he is slain with the harvest, and sent to the underworld. The Goddess mourns his loss, and the land begins to wither. She too, heads for the underworld, to prepare for the birth of the new king and then takes on her crone aspect, resting and regenerating in the winter month. With the light’s return, the wheel turns again.

When we study the archetypes, we start to see the cross cultural truths. Many cultures tell the story of the wheel of the year, though each can use different details, names, dates and celebrations. The overall story is the important part. To the modern practitioner, individual mythologies can be confusing until you see the significance in the larger worldview. For better or worse, due to modern communication we are children of the world. We are not raised in a single culture with a single body of myths. We must sift through the stories of the world to find the path that leads to our own empowerment.

Although many people involved in Wicca favour Celtic mythology, it is a difficult place to start with. Like a Celtic knot, Celtic myth can be very twisted, with several different versions and spellings of any one deity or hero. The gods and goddesses express a number of archetypes woven together, since Celtic culture favored well rounded skill and knowledge. The gods exemplified this cultural trait. The mythologies demonstrate piercing the veil between worlds, as mortals often become more godlike, and gods often become more mortal. Lastly, much of our written Celtic myth was recorded by Christian scholars who did not embrace these beings as divine. They subsequently changed many stories to fit their own Christian sensibilities. For a deeper study of myth, I suggest starting with the Greeks. The ancient Greek culture was very precise and logical, even in its myths. Most deities embodied one central archetype, and their stories clearly demonstrated it. Much of Western culture is built upon the foundations of Greco-Roman thought, and is generally better known that other mythologies. With a greater understanding of myth and archetype, you can see the intricate patterns of other world mythologies more clearly.

Let’s look as some of the archetypes, and the deities expressing them.

Earth Goddess – From our Stone Age ancestors, the Earth Goddess image is the most prevalent. The Earth was naturally seen as a mother figure, all across the world. The most ancient mythologies often start with the creation of the Earth mother goddess, and through her own creation comes the other deities. In Greek mythology, she is Gaia. Gaia created herself from the cosmic seas and then created her son and husband, Uranus, the sky. Modron is a Celtic Earth Mother, as is the great goddess Danu. Freya is the fertility goddess of the Norse, also embodying magic and love. Sif and Frigga are two other motherly goddesses of the Norse. Other primordial mothers, who embody not only the planet, but all life everywhere, Queens of Heaven as well as Earth, were often incorporated into other roles as mythologies changed, such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Isis and even Aphrodite. Some goddesses focuses solely on grain and sustenance, like the Greek Demeter or Native American corn goddess Seluth.

Sky God ­ The sky gods represent the intellect, clarity and precision of the culture, as we turned from Earth to sky, as well as the potential for cloudiness, stormy conflict and idealism. To humanity, the sky god is often painted with some fallibility. Uranus, Gaia’s consort, is castrated by his own son because of his harsh rule. His grandson, Jupiter, a god of storm and lightning, is alternately portrayed in myths as loving and wise, and chauvinistically unfair. Our perception of the divine changes as our culture changes. The gods themselves are simply reflecting our own consciousness back at us, as part of the path to connect with the divine. Other sky and storm gods include the Norse Thor and Celtic Tarranis.

Moon Goddess ­ The Moon evokes the feminine presence in many cultures, stimulating psychic ability, emotion and reflection. The Moon Goddesses often take form as a triplicy, expressing maiden, mother and crone through the cycle of the Moon. In Greek culture, the maiden is the huntress Artemis, known as Diana to the Greeks. She is the archer with silver arrows, maiden of the wild beast and patron to mothers and children. Selene represents the full Moon, pulling her chariot of the Moon across the sky and causing the darkness of the Moon when she visits her sleeping lover Endymion. Hecate, a triple goddess in her own right, represents the dark of the Moon and the crone. She is the mother of witches, and the guide of the crossroads in life. In Roman myth, they are Diana, Luna and Hecate respectively. Many goddesses across the world have moon associations, including Isis, Bast, Frigga, the Morgan, Arianrhod and Cerridwen.

Sun God ­ As the Moon evokes the feminine, the Sun usually evokes masculine deities of light, beauty and youth. Sun gods often give the gifts of healing, knowledge and inspiration. Apollo, brother of Artemis, is the Greek Sun god, pulling his chariot hitched to the Sun across the sky. Apollo may have been borrowed from the Celtic Bel, and originally have been a god of fire and light. Lugh, another Celtic god, embodies the Sun, grain and was many skilled, having talents and abilities in every area imaginable. Taliesin, son of Cerridwen, is a solar figure of illumination and patron of bards. Balder is the sacrificed god of light in Norse mythology, slain by an arrow of mistletoe. To the Egyptians, where the Sun is all encompassing, the Sun god Ra was credited by his followers as the sole creator of the world, and was the first ruler of the gods, later abdicated to his children. Animal God ­ The Animal God is usually portrayed as the popular horned god of the witches, upon witch the image of the Devil was created by Christian institutions in an effort to discourage non-Christian worship. To the Greeks, the horned god is goat god Pan, god of music, sexuality and wildness. To the Celts, the stag god Cernunnos, or Herne, is the horned father, protector and hunter. In the wheel of the year story, the horned god often rules the year from Summer to Winter solstice. Grain God – The Grain God is associated with the waxing year and the Sun, and is often called the sacrificed god, as the many stories tell us of sacrificed kings and consorts. His sacrifice is symbolic, to ensure the fertility of the land and harvest, demonstrating with all cycles of life, there is death. Godfroms of the sacrificed god archetype include Tammuz, Dumuzi, Adonis, Dionysus, Bacchus, Osiris, Lugh and Balder. Even the form of Jesus Christ, celebrated in modern mythology, is a form of the sacrificed and resurrected god.

Underworld Deity ­ The Underworld Deity can be male, female or partnered as king and queen. Some cultures focused on one sex or the other as the deity of death. For the Greeks, Hades rules the lower world, but he eventually took a queen in the form of the maiden Kore, later named Persephone. Their Roman names are Pluto and Proserpine. Hecate, though a goddess of the underworld, was not considered the ruler. The Egyptian Osiris, after his second murder by his brother Set, was resurrected as lord of the underworld. The Norse focus on Hel, the goddess of Hel, decaying below the waist as a sign of her rulership over life and death. In ancient Sumer, the fearsome leach haired Ereskigal ruled the underworld while her sister Inanna ruled the Earth and heavens. The Celts have many gods and goddess of the underworld and death, including Pywll, Arawn, Dis Pater, Cernunnos, Morgan, Cerridwen and Rhiannon. In Celtic myth, it can be difficult to distinguish the otherworlds from the “real” world, so not all underworlds were lands of the dead.

Messenger/Magician ­ Deities that do not fall into the broad categories of light and dark, or as many aspects of the Goddess, are often androgynous in nature, and acts as intermediaries between the world. They are messengers gods, often associated with the archetype of Mercury, or Hermes. Not only do they travel where they want, but they are often inventors, patrons of humanities evolution, scribes and skilled magicians and healers. Hermes, Mercury, the Egyptian Thoth and Anubis, the Norse Wotan/Odin and Loki and Celtic wizard such as Math, Gwydion and the most famous Merlin.

As we see the common themes and functions expressed by many different cultures, we begin to grasp the scope of the Goddess and God. Using the godforms of traditional myth, and our own personal experience, we build our own bridge to the divine, realising that it existed within us the entire time. Mystics often call the spiritual planes the “inner planes” for they exist inside us all. Hermetic philosophers say “as above, so below” meaning patterns repeat themselves on multiple levels. We all reflect divinity in the diamond-like brilliance of the Great Spirit.

In Part III, we will explore how to make an intimate and personal connection to the gods and goddesses, using ritual, meditation and shamanic journeying.

https://christopherpenczak.com/2013/08/01/who-are-the-gods-%c2%ad-part-2-the-gods-and-goddesses-of-wicca/