#the calamity is more recent than my old church

[duckbunny]

the European dissonance between Matthew Mercer's "These things are very old, they are pre-Calamity," and Matthew Mercer's "The Calamity was about eight hundred years ago."

I've been to pubs that were older than that.

[subjects-of-the-king]

A New Theory on the Saxon Settlement of England

An original essay of Lucas Del Rio

Note: My previous recent essay had focused on the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and to some extent it was a more general historiography. Continuing with a historiographical theme, I had initially intended to follow it with an essay comparing primary accounts of conflict and warfare between Brythonic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the early Middle Ages. During my research, I developed a personal theory that I propose below.

Little is known for sure of the years that immediately follow the withdrawal of the Roman army from Britain sometime around 410. The Latin works that were characteristic of the Roman era almost completely vanish except for a few texts penned by a handful of monks. Literature in Old English does not appear for centuries and is long limited to hymns and poetry, as is virtually everything written in Welsh. Histories written on Britain that discuss this era are mostly from much later in the Middle Ages. The first manuscript of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical text on England commissioned by King Alfred the Great, does not appear until 891. It is sometimes difficult for modern historians to determine when their medieval counterparts recorded the truth versus when they jotted down contemporary legends, especially when they were often writing centuries after the alleged events occurred. Meanwhile, conclusions from archaeological evidence are largely guesswork. 

Several names have been coined for this era, including “Sub-Roman Britain,” “Dark Age Britain,” and “Britain in the Age of Arthur.” Developments that historians do know of are reflected in these terms. Roman Britannia now ceased to exist, and the provinces there which had for centuries been under the central control of Rome had fragmented. The Britons had regained their former autonomy, with the Romans that stayed behind now dwelling in the decaying remains of once prosperous towns. Petty tribal kingdoms reappeared and resumed their old quarrels with one another. Decentralization of national authority meant that there were numerous tiny armies led by local chiefs rather than a massive imperial force that could crush insurgencies. With no organized administration beyond competing warlords, society no longer functioned the way that it had before. Roads ceased to be maintained, aqueducts fell into disuse, bandits opportunistically plundered the countryside, Irish and Norse pirates raided the coasts for loot and slaves, and a barter economy took the place of the discontinued system of Roman coinage.

Not all historians agree that everything about Britain after the Romans left represented a “Dark Age,” however. French writer Jean Markale goes as far as to call the era a “Celtic renaissance.” It is true that the end of Roman administration allowed the Celtic Britons to govern themselves once again, and not always in small chiefdoms. The medieval Welsh clergyman Geoffrey of Monmouth writes of a new Brythonic dynasty emerging in the wake of Roman withdrawal. While Geoffrey of Monmouth is very frequently criticized by scholars, modern historians do recognize that Britain did indeed have some very powerful Celtic kings such as Urien ruling over vast realms like Rheged at the start of the Middle Ages. Some of the wars between these kingdoms were said by contemporary Britons such as the bard Taliesen to have seen massive battles, descriptions of which can still be found in Welsh poetry. Local economies, infrastructure, and security all collapsed, but Celtic culture clung on through these calamities. Christianity fused with traditional pagan elements to form the British Church, which held certain unique beliefs from Rome despite occasional accusations of heresy by popes. Through the efforts of members of this church, especially St. Patrick, the other Celtic nation of Ireland also saw most of her population converted to Christianity. 

Sub-Roman Britain has thus sometimes been romanticized by the Celts of later eras, who do not hold the view that this was truly the Dark Ages. The most immortal hero of the Celtic Britons symbolizes this phenomenon to a greater extent than anyone or anything else that can be said about the period, hence why the term “Age of Arthur” has been used by some scholars and enthusiasts. On one hand, Arthur can be viewed as representing the glory of the Celtic Britons, although he can also be said to be a personification of their downfall as told by their descendants in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. By the late Middle Ages, there had been a number of popular “Arthurian romances,” and these novels tended to focus on classic tales such as the sword and the stone, the knights of the round table, and the quest for the holy grail. While some aspects of these stories had roots in Celtic lore, the King Arthur that authors were writing about in the 1400s was far removed from Celtic society. Descriptions of Camelot and his court were actually more representative of that time than the Brythonic era. To the old Britons, however, Arthur was a king intent on preserving the traditional Celtic ways. His earliest appearances in two early medieval chronicles, the 833 work The History of the Britons and the 1136 work The History of the Kings of Britain, portray him as a heroic leader who battled the invading Saxons.

More modern archaeological finds do not indicate there being a sole “King of the Britons,” as Arthur is often called, anytime after the Romans withdrew their armies. Perhaps the Celtic Britons had a system where a single figurehead took charge of the different regional kings during a time of crisis, just as Cassivelaunus had done centuries earlier when the Britons resisted Julius Caesar. Maybe the knights of the round table were an echo of elite Brythonic warriors in the battles that Arthur led. The historicity of Arthur is irrelevant, however. What is more important is that the greatest significance of the most iconic figure of British lore is his involvement in an epic struggle between two peoples laying claim to the land that would become England. Such a narrative dominates much of English historiography. Gildas, the Venerable Bede, Nennius, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntington, and many other early chroniclers highlighted a Saxon invasion that pitted them against the Britons in the southern half of the island. It created England, thus transforming the island of Britain forever. Since medieval times, historians have continued to tell this story.

Like all intellectual disciplines, of course, the study of history evolves. Recent evidence has caused some scholars to challenge the notion that there was a grand war between Britons and Germanic peoples such as the Saxons. They say that the old idea that the Britons were systematically killed off and England was conquered is not supported by the new science of genetics, as the English today still share similar genes with the inhabitants of the region millenia prior to the alleged invasion. The remains found in 1995 of a prehistoric individual in Cheddar Gorge, despite being nine thousand years old, were discovered to be quite genetically related to the locals. A much larger genetic study stretching from 1994 to 2015 concluded that as little as twenty percent of modern English DNA is Germanic. Both of these findings are examples of why these scholars say that the earlier inhabitants of England were never exterminated by the Saxon newcomers and that they merely blended with the indigenous population. D. F. Dale, in his book The History of the Scots, Picts, and Britons: A study of the origins of the Scots, Picts, Britons (and Anglo-Saxons) in Dark Age Britain based on their own legends, tales, and testimonials, even suggests that there may have been a Germanic population in some parts of England even prior to the Roman conquest. Nor can the Britons be considered a homogeneous people, they say, for the same study that was completed in 2015 found great genetic variation between the modern Welsh, Scottish, and Cornish populations. 

All of this new evidence from a rapidly growing scientific field has prompted certain researchers to deny that there was a Saxon invasion at all. Instead, they say, there was a process of gradual settlement. Such a notion completely contradicts primary accounts, however. While medieval chroniclers can certainly be unreliable, they did genuinely understand aspects of their era that we undeniably cannot, and the fact that all of them agreed that there was a Saxon invasion makes it difficult to deny that it happened in some shape or form. Another finding from the aforementioned study could potentially show some degree of ethnic cleansing, for example. People living in Wales today show substantial genetic differences from all other regions of Britain, with the Welsh being more related than everybody else to the original British hunter-gatherers. Wales is a predominantly Celtic region and is notable for the fact that many of the locals still speak Welsh, a Celtic language, unlike Cornwall and Scotland where Cornish and Gaelic, respectively, are spoken only by a small minority of the populace. The Celts, then, can be shown genetically to be either the indigenous population of Britain or at least one who eventually mixed with an older group, and there was likely a great deal of violence in England to cause fewer of their descendants to live there than in Wales.

Considering, however, that all parts of Britain show far greater diversity than mere Germanic descent, it can be concluded that simply more Celtic Britons survived in Wales than in England. This does not mean that there was a genocide against the Britons per se, but rather that ethnic identity in early medieval Britain was closely linked to politics and war. Celts, Saxons, Scandinavians, and the Irish lived in every region, but certain areas were increasingly dominated by clusters of kings from one group or another. The Celts, once the unchallenged masters of the entire island, would go on to rule Wales and Cornwall. Meanwhile, England became the domain of the Saxons, and the Scottish emerged from earlier Celtic, Pictish, Irish, and Scandinavian inhabitants of the north of Britain. English, Welsh, and Scottish kings all had their own armies, of course, each composed primarily yet not not exclusively of their respective nationalities. These armies periodically clashed, and the fact that the kings and nobles belonged to certain ethnicities meant that civilians of other groups were more likely to be victims of violence during wars, even when a kingdom may have been very diverse. Within the various kingdoms in the different regions, one group may have had the privilege of controlling the nobility while another was forced to be under the yoke of serfdom. To put it simply, kings throughout the island had an array of subjects, although the hierarchy of society was still dependent on ethnicity, and the importance of this during wars led to regional stratification. 

To support these arguments, consider the writings of medieval chroniclers. Their stories share both many similarities and differences. All seem to agree that the island had once been the exclusive domain of the Britons, with the Picts and Scots arriving sometime before or during the Roman era. According to the English monk the Venerable Bede, in his 731 work Ecclesiastical History of the English People, states “some Picts from Scythia put to sea in a few longships, and were driven by storms around the coasts of Britain.” Later, “the Picts crossed into Britain, and began to settle in the north of the island.” In describing the origins of the Scots, the Venerable Bede writes “they migrated from Ireland under their chieftain Reuda and by a combination of force and treaty, obtained from the Picts the settlements that they still hold.” He tells both of these stories prior to his description of the arrival of the Romans. Welsh clergyman Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his 1136 book The History of the Kings of Britain, differs in this respect, instead writing of the Picts and Scots appearing at the time of Roman imperial control. Geoffrey of Monmouth writes that “a certain King of the Picts called Sodric came from Scythia with a large fleet and landed in the northern part of Britain which is called Albany.” Next, “Marius thereupon collected his men together and marched to meet Sodric” and “once Sodric was killed and the people who had come with him were beaten, Marius gave them the part of Albany called Caithness to live in.” Regarding the Picts and the Scots, he says that the latter “trace their descent from them, and from the Irish, too.”

These events occurred before the dawn of the Middle Ages and the subsequent coming of the Saxons to Britain, but they demonstrate a similar historical trend of wars based on ethnic control yet not ethnic cleansing. It was a middleground of sorts between genocide and mere settlement because there was indeed violence, although it was to assert political control rather than carry out a campaign of complete extermination. King Sodric of the Picts had the ambition of violently wrestling from the Romans territory that they controlled in Britain, with the Romans then tolerating a local Pictish presence once this hostile foreign king was removed as a threat. Reuda of the Irish would conquer territory that had formerly belonged to the Picts. They must have subjugated the Picts rather than killing them off, however, for the two peoples later mixed to form the Scots. Geoffrey of Monmouth writes that the “five races of people” in Britain were “the Norman-French, the Britons, the Saxons, the Picts, and the Scots.” When he wrote his chronicle, the Normans had conquered England relatively recently, and this shows that they made know attempt to wipe out the Saxons despite stripping them of their power. In his book History of the English, the last edition of which was completed in 1154, Henry of Huntington asserts that the Picts “have entirely disappeared, and their language is extinct.” The Picts thus eventually did die out. Since they survived for as long as they did and the evidence for their decimation was the fact that their language was no longer spoken, it can be concluded that the Picts were gradually assimilated after a long period of Scottish domination.

The appearance of the Picts and Scots in Britain was long before that of the Saxons and the coming of the Normans long after. Medieval accounts show that the newly arrived Saxons were initially quite aggressive towards the local Brythonic inhabitants. At the time that the Saxons emerged on British soil, there were already ongoing political struggles between kings of different ethnic groups. In the most contemporary account, the 540 text On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, the Romano-British monk Gildas describes how the Britons were to be ruined and conquered while “inviting in among them like wolves into the sheepfold, the fierce and impious Saxons, a race hateful both to God and men, to repel the invasions of the northern nations.” These “northern nations” were presumably the Picts, for the Venerable Bede writes that the Britons “for many years this region suffered attacks from to savage extraneous races, Irish from the northwest, and Picts from the north.” They were vulnerable to attack because the Romans “informed the Britons that they could no longer undertake such troublesome expeditions for their defense.” According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, “about this time there landed in certain parts of Kent three vessels of the type which we call longships” which were “full of armed warriors and there were two brothers named Hengist and Horsa in command of them.”

Apparently, according to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles commissioned by King Alfred the Great of Wessex centuries later, the reason that the 443 plea for aid was refused was because the Romans were struggling to fight Attila and his horde. With the Britons desperate for any form of help, Hengist and Horsa are said to have earned their trust and then stabbed them in the back. Historians today have no direct evidence for the legitimate existence of Hengist and Horsa other than chronicles written long after the Saxons had established a foothold on the island, yet the story nonetheless reflects a genuine historical timeline. Gildas, for example, claims that the Saxons arrived with full permission from “that proud tyrant Vortigern, the British king.” In The History of the Britons, a work of disputed authorship which may have been penned by the monk Nennius, the Saxon brothers are said to have become friends of Vortigern after their exile from Germany. The Venerable Bede says the result was that the Saxons commanded by Hengist and Horsa fought the Picts on his behalf and “received from the Britons grants of land where they could settle among them on condition that they maintained the peace and security of the island against all enemies in return for regular pay.” These events are early evidence that Britain in this era may have been divided into kingdoms with rulers of particular ethnic groups, but their subjects were a different story. Vortigern was a Britons who presumably was in a power struggle with one or more Pictish kings, although he was willing to both incorporate Saxons into his army and grant them fiefs. Furthermore, his kingdom was structured in a way where society was built around its ethnic makeup. Saxon warriors employed by Vortigern sound as if they earned actual wages, an extremely rare practice in the Middle Ages and even more so in the earliest centuries of the medieval era.

Hengist and Horsa were two Saxons who had the ambitions of being kings of their own. The Venerable Bede writes that “a larger fleet quickly came over with a great body of warriors, which, when joined to the original forces, constituted an invincible army.” It was then that they chose to rise up against the Brythonic leadership, and the fighting did not strictly pit all groups against each other, for he also says “the Angles made an alliance with the Picts.” In these wars, it was the power of a king and not the power of the ethnicity he belonged to that mattered, and he would fight or partner with whoever he had to. Unfortunately for the Britons, they appeared to be cornered on all sides by the newer inhabitants of the island regardless of who fought alongside who at a given time. Gildas records the final and unsuccessful Romano-British plea for help from the imperial forces as including the haunting phrases “the barbarians drive us to the sea” and “thus two modes of death await us.” However, local leadership may still have been deliberately misrepresenting as genocidal persecution of what really just threats to their own power from Picts, Scots, and Saxons. 

Chroniclers in the centuries that followed demonstrate in their writings that the local rulers went many years without letting battlefield setbacks break their resolve. While both Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth tell of Vortigern fleeing to a remote hideout and eventually being killed, several of the historians note the victories won by a Romano-British general, or perhaps even king, named Ambrosius Aurelianus or Aurelius Ambrosius. According to the Venerable Bede, he was the last remaining leader in Britain from the Roman era and in 493 led the Britons to win a battle against the Angles for the first time. In one battle that Ambrosius apparently led, Henry of Huntington says that Horsa finally met his death. Geoffrey of Monmouth claims that Ambrosius and his brother Uther Pendragon both were poisoned by Saxon assassins, but the latter was the father of Arthur. Nennius writes of Arthur being chosen by the different Brythonic kingdoms to lead their warriors in twelve victorious battles against the Saxons. He states, however, that this did not cause Saxon leaders in Germany to cease continuing to provide support to those fighting in Britain.

All of these details suggest divisions in Britain between native kings and the Saxons, but none of them demonstrate anything beyond that. Vortigern must have been a highly influential king over large parts of Britain, or else he would not have had the power to have incorporated enough Saxon vassals into his domain for them to gradually muster such enormous military strength. If Vortigern was a king who exercised significant hegemony, it was strategically important for ambitious Saxon war leaders to drive him out of power, but nothing suggests a full-scale deliberate attempt to exterminate the native Britons of his kingdom. The chroniclers all record widespread violence against civilians, but this would have been a tactic of forcing the majority of them into submission. Gildas writes that the Britons “constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves forever to their foes.” Class divisions based on ethnicity, often very severe, were emerging in the new kingdoms that were ethnically diverse despite the ethnic divisions in the area of kingship. Mutual oppression unquestionably would have created major animosity and was certainly used by war leaders, such as Ambrosius and Arthur on the side of the Britons, to rally support. Saxons undoubtedly did the same.

In the centuries that followed the arrival of the Saxons, their kings assumed control of more and more of the island. Kingdoms led by Britons persisted in the southwestern regions of Wales and Cornwall, while in the north the Scots settled down and absorbed the Picts. Just as the Britons had historically quarreled, so, too, did the Saxons, who began to be called the “Anglo-Saxons” as they mixed with the Angles. Some of their kings, including Edwin and Oswiu of Northumbria, started to become quite powerful. The Anglo-Saxons found a sense of national unity when they faced a foreign invader of their own, the Vikings, in the 800s, with strong leaders such as Alfred the Great taking charge. During the 900s, the Kingdom of Wessex established the Kingdom of England after uniting all of the Anglo-Saxons and securing a dominant position over Wales and Scotland. A Welsh poem from that century called “Armes Prydein” prophesied that the greatest of the Brythonic leaders from the 500s and 600s would be reincarnated and unite Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Scotland, and Ireland against the English, yet this has long proven to be wishful thinking on the part of whichever wandering bard wrote its words. Many centuries later, however, the Anglo-Saxons have never fully replaced the indigenous Celts of Britain or her neighbors. Wales still has the Welsh, England still has the Cornish, France still has the Bretons, Scotland still has the Scots, and the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland still have the Irish, even though all but two of these six countries are now a part of the United Kingdom. Britain was diverse then and is diverse now despite the tensions still caused by differences in national identity.

[pinoy-culture]

Tagalog Gods (Part 2/10)

✦ Diyan Masalanta – Goddess of love, childbirth, and…destruction?

“They had another idol called Dian masalanta, who was the patron of lovers and of generation.”

– Juan de Plasencia’s Relation of the Worship of the Tagalogs, Their Gods, and Their Burials and Superstition (1589)

Original article posted on my blog The Pinay Writer

So there was a question on the Anito: The Precolonial Beliefs, Polytheistic Beliefs, and Practices of the Philippines group I run on FB about the goddess Dayang Masalanta, aka Dian/Diyan Masalanta. The question was, “Does her name really mean “to be destroyed there”? That’s quite the ominous name for a goddess of lovers.”

At first glance, it does seem so. Why would the name of a goddess of love and childbirth be called “to be destroyed there? To be destroyed?” It does seem a bit odd. However, you have to dig deeper into the Tagalog psyche and beliefs to get a grasp of why this possibly is. Now, let me first be clear that this is my own opinion and there is no written record stating the meaning behind the name of this goddess, nor is there anything else mentioned about her besides the small reference in Juan de Plasencia’s Relation of the Worship of the Tagalogs, Their Gods, and Their Burials and Superstition (1589).  Sadly this is the case and she isn’t mentioned anywhere else. It could be perhaps, from my guess, that she was a particular anito prayed to by a certain group of Tagalog, but she was not one well known to the entire Tagalog region compared to let’s say Lakapati who is very often mentioned in various historical sources. We will get more into this in a minute.

Now, Dian is Diyang, which means “lady”. Masalanta or Magsalanta is a Tagalog word that means “to be destroyed or devastated“. It comes from the root word, salanta, which in the Noceda and Sanlucar Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala (1754) and the San Buenaventura dictionary (1613) lists the meaning as poor, needy, crippled, and blind.

Generally, masalanta/magsalanta and nasalanta, which means “is destroyed/devastated“, is used when there is a calamity, such as a typhoon and flood. It can also be translated as victimized, damaged, and crippled and basically means someone who has misfortune or will have misfortune.

So, again, why would the goddess of love and childbirth be called Dayang Masalanta, or “Lady of destruction/devastation?”

The word salanta in the Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Noceda and Sanlucar the 1860 edition

Being the goddess of lovers and childbirth, it is quite possible that Dayang Masalanta was prayed to by couples who were not able to conceive a child. This was and still is, considered devastating and could be thought to be caused by angered anito. They may have prayed to her for a child, or a woman may have prayed to her for a safe delivery and a healthy baby. It can also be that she was prayed and honored to prevent bad weather such as a typhoon, along with being the goddess of love and childbirth.

Weather? Where does this come from you may ask? Besides the indication of her name, let’s take a look to the present at a ritual that is said to have survived despite colonization and the church. This ritual that I am talking about is the Obando Fertility Rite in Obando, Bulacan, which was celebrated just recently.

The Obando Fertility Rite is said to predate the arrival of the Spaniards. It is a 3 day festival from May 17-19 that is celebrated every year by hundreds of people and attended by couples coming from throughout the Philippines looking to be blessed with a child and for lovers to find love. It is believed that the ritual was once dedicated to the anito and was replaced by the saints. While the saints and Catholicism have taken over the ritual, there are elements of the older practices still there.

Newspaper clipping from Philippine Daily Inquirer on May 19, 2005

There are 3 saints prayed to and honored during this 3 day festival. May 17 is celebrated to San Pascual Baylon, the patron saint of good fortune. May 18 is dedicated to Santa Clara, the patron saint of the childless and of good weather. May 19 is in celebration of Our Lady of Salambao, the patron saint of farmers and fisherman for a good harvest. Together they are prayed to for fertility, whether it’s of a childless couple hoping for a child, a woman praying for a safe pregnancy, for those who are single to find a lover, and of fisherman and farmers wishing for an abundance of harvest of crops and fish.

One Saint in particular that is prayed to is Santa Clara, or Saint Clare of Assissi. She was a nun from Italy during the 13th century that established the Order of Poor Ladies, officially known as the Order of Saint Clare. In the Obando festival, she is the oldest patron saint and is considered the patron saint of those who are childless and want a child. To her they danced, sang, and offered eggs as symbols of fertility. This fertility dance is said to be the Kasilonawan, an old fertility dance among barren women. Kasilonawan is actually mentioned in the N&S dictionary (1754) as an ancient ceremony, however it doesn’t get into more detail.

The kasilonawan ritual mentioned in the Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Noceda and Sanlucar the 1754 edition as casilonawan in the old Spanish spelling where f is exchanged with s, and v, with w

Now many Pilipinos, especially soon to be wed couples, offer eggs to Santa Clara. They do this not only as offerings of fertility, but also to ask for good weather. It is said she is the the patron saint for good weather because of her name, Clara, which means “clear”. Clara is also the word referring to the white part of the egg. This is mentioned in the entries for the words liwanag and puti in both the SB and N&S dictionaries.

From the Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Noceda and Sanlucar the 1860 edition

“Niyong ako’y magmula sa Kastila y itlog ka pa man din sa tiyan nang ina mo.” = When I arrived from Spain, you were still an egg in your mother’s belly. – (SB 1613)

This idea of eggs representing a fetus and of fertility is why eggs are offered to Santa Clara as a symbolic gesture from women who are having a hard time conceiving in the hopes they will have a child. Together with the ritual dance and chants, they hope to overcome this and be blessed with pregnancy.

Let’s now get back to Dayang Masalanta. We know from Plasencia that she was the goddess of lovers and childbirth. From her name, we have Masalanta referring to destruction/devastation in terms of a natural calamity like a flood. Now, is it possible that one of the anito that the people of Obando once worshiped and prayed to in these fertility rites was none other than Dayang Masalanta? That due to the arrival of Catholicism, the shift from the anito to the saints made the locals refer Dayang Masalanta as Santa Clara?

Both represent childbirth and both have a connection with the weather. Santa Clara being prayed to for clear skies and good weather, while Dayang Masalanta in her name represents a word that foretells misfortune from bad weather and we know she was the goddess of lovers and childbirth. This association of good weather and blessing couples with a child with Santa Clara isn’t practiced anywhere else in the world. In fact the only associations with Santa Clara, aka St. Clare of Assissi, is that she is the patron saint of eye disease, goldsmiths, laundry, and television according to the Catholic Church. So why would the Tagalog associate her with praying for good weather, fertility, and a blessing of a child among childless couples? I explained that they associate the weather because of her name, Clara, but again eggs? What does eggs have to do with praying for good weather? Fertility yes, but I still don’t see the connection between eggs and good weather unless this was because of a something else in the old Tagalog mindset and belief.

There is also the prayer of finding a loving partner if you attend the Obando Fertility Festival. Maybe, just possibly, Dayang Masalanta was once prayed to for love, conception, fortune, and good weather and that she was once the focus of the Obando Fertility Rite among other anito? The other anito which I suspect are Linga, a phallic god, who is often mentioned today to be associated with the rites, and Lakan Pati a fertility deity who was once prayed to for a fertile harvest and also to provide for water for crops. They were also prayed to for an abundance of fish when fishing at sea, according to the Boxer Codex, which again goes along with the Obando Fertility rites of praying for fertility and an abundance harvest of crops and fish.

For me, this is quite the possibility. However, again I must clearly state and emphasize that there is no historical written evidence to connect Dayang Masalanta with the Obando Fertility Rites, Santa Clara, or even her being worshiped for clear, fair weather. One can only assume based on her name, what we know of her from Plasencia, and what we know today of the fertility rites in Obando.

What do you think? Do you think Santa Clara was once Dayang Masalanta? Why else do you think her name is Masalanta when she is the goddess of lovers and childbirth? Let me know, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Illustration Credits from Photoset:

First Illustration (2nd photo): By Kian @morenangmariaclara. 

Second Illustration (3rd photo): By Abby @abbydraws

[adasttrawrites]

A Year in the Countryside

Chapter 1: Alone At Last

Full story on ao3.

Hermione Granger has had enough of Rita Skeeter and the rest of Wizarding London watching her every move. The Wizarding world's sweetheart packs up her things and relocates to a tiny town in the Cotswolds in order to escape prying eyes. She's ready to embrace a year living a quiet life of reading her favourite books, making friends with her neighbours, and most importantly, not running into anyone she knows.

She is only two days into her new, quiet, very normal life when she finds herself face to face with the very last person she ever thought she'd see at a farmer's market: Draco Malfoy.

Chaos, calamity and general hilarity ensue!

“Here’s the key, dear. Now, remember that you have to turn the lock twice to deadbolt the door. Make sure you do. It’s a safe town but you’re a young girl. Better to be safe.”

Hermione accepted the key to her new apartment, smiling at the landlady. She was going to perform several security spells as soon as she was alone but thought that assuaging the old lady’s concerns was a small price to pay for such a beautiful home.

“Thank you, Mrs Llewellyn, I'll be very careful.”

“I’ve left a lemon cake on the kitchen bench for you, dear, and there’s bread, a pint of milk and some eggs in the fridge. I didn’t know if you would have the energy to go shopping this evening, so I thought it would be best to keep some things for you.”

“Oh, you really didn’t have to, ma’am, I wo—,”

“Nonsense. It’s my pleasure. I’ve got to go now, my husband’s waiting for me at the town hall for bingo.”

“Thank you for everything. I really appreciate it.” Hermione walked Mrs Llewellyn to the door and waved as she went down the stairs. Shutting the door and dead-bolting the lock, she turned and sighed with relief. Even though she hadn’t yet removed her furniture from her purse, the small apartment was hers. Her home. A one-bedroom home, with a living and kitchen area, and best of all, a window seat looking out over the road.

Hermione got to work setting up the furniture she needed. Up until recently, the apartment had been a storage space for the bakery downstairs. When the baker’s wife, Mrs Llewellyn, had finally thrown out all of their unnecessary junk, she cleaned up the rooms nicely and advertised it on the local bulletin board a week prior. Hermione, who had been hopping around the little towns in the area, had snatched up the offer and eagerly contacted the Llewellyns to let them know she was a responsible adult who didn’t smoke.

At the time, Hermione didn’t know why she was so keen on renting an apartment in a village in the Cotswolds, but now, she breathed a sigh of relief. Churchbury was a sleepy town, with beautiful flowers and its namesake church sitting in the middle of the town centre. Everyone knew everyone and no-one was magical, as far as she could tell. At the end of the day, she wasn’t in Wizarding London, thankfully. In the months following the war, she had been swamped by adoring fans and crazed reporters, trying to get the scoop on her life. It turned out that, while Ron and Harry were also fair game, no-one really cared about what her two best friends were wearing, or what restaurants they went to. It was “Hermione Granger this” and “Hermione Granger that” and it was maddening. She had had enough by the time winter had rolled by and spring offered her the chance to travel the world. She told Rita Skeeter, in an effort to satisfy her, that her travels would be to get to know different cultures more intimately. However, she had lied. As soon as Skeeter had published an extremely exaggerated article stating that Hermione would spend the next six months with her secret Veela fiancé in Paris, Hermione Apparated to the English countryside to clear her head. No-one would know her there, and when she saw the advertisement for the apartment while walking past the town hall, she knew this would be a good hideout.

Hermione’s parents, now back in London and with fully restored memories, were happy that their daughter was going somewhere they deemed safe, especially after fighting in a bloody war. Her father had insisted that he teach his daughter some basic tips, like using a screwdriver and how to kill spiders. She didn’t have the heart to explain that her wand served as her tool for all such tasks, and let him spend an afternoon showing her how to hammer a nail and find the stud in a wall. Her mother was excited to visit and Hermione promised they could come and stay when she was settled. Harry and Ron had both expressed their confusion at her wanting to leave London for an extended time, but after she had assured them of her safety and gotten Ministry permission to have a Floo connection in her new home, they seemed okay with the idea.

“Promise us that you’ll visit for dinner often.” Harry said as he hugged her goodbye. He gave her a framed photograph of him, her and Ron smiling at the camera. It was the only Muggle photograph they had ever taken together. Ron handed her a large cake, most definitely from his mother, and kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll miss you, Hermione, but at least it’s only a year. Don’t forget to owl whenever you can.” Thankfully he hadn’t tried to kiss her on the mouth. She had gently told him that she wasn’t interested in being more than friends after the war, and he had begrudgingly accepted that it was for the best.

Ginny had been the most excited about Hermione’s decision. She thought it would be a good way for Hermione to meet men. Tourists, she had reasoned, would pass through the area frequently. Male tourists, Ginny had said, winking.

“Be safe! Come back home whenever you’d like. We’ll be here, waiting for you.” She pushed a little figurine into Hermione’s hands. It was a wooden carving of two little girls, standing hand in hand.

“What is it for?” Hermione had asked.

“If you shake it, the matching one on my bedside table will light up and I’ll come straight through the Floo, in case you need some girl time. Even to chat.”

“Oh, Gin. It’s great, thank you.”

She was engulfed in a hug by Harry, Ron and Ginny, before Disapparating away to just outside her new village.

By the evening, Hermione had moved in most of her furniture and warded the apartment. It was really unnecessary in such a safe town, but she was a creature of habit and after spending a year on the run, protection spells were muscle memory. The bed she had bought was big. She was tired of sleeping on the tiny cot in which she had spent most nights of the last year. It was time for a large bed, where she could starfish out and not hit a wall or fall off. She placed the photograph on her bedside table along with Ginny’s gift. Walking into the living area, she surveyed her work. A big, soft sofa sat opposite a television set. She had set up several bookcases against the walls and laid cushions out on the window seat. Every tea she owned was now neatly stacked up in the cupboard above the kettle and a frittata was cooking in the oven. Her mother had secretly called ahead to the local grocer’s, and Hermione was surprised to find a parcel full of groceries show up with the delivery boy on his way home that evening.

“All done, eh, Crookshanks?” She had let him out of his carrier after she finished enlarging all the furniture from her bag. He was now sitting with his face pushed up to the window. He turned for a second back to give Hermione an admonishing glare, before returning to his earlier gaze.

As she sat back onto the sofa and waited for her dinner to be ready, Hermione was suddenly overcome by the feeling of acute loneliness. She knew it would be this way, being alone in a new town, but it was still an odd feeling. She ate dinner in silence and fell asleep at 9 pm.

— — —

Hermione walked down the path to the local farmers market. It was Saturday and she had spent the previous day moping and getting drunk on a bottle of wine that she had found in her mother’s grocery package. This morning, she had woken up feeling sorry for herself and decided, after a brief Floo call with Ginny and a Pepper-Up potion, to get out of the apartment and explore her new village. Armed with Muggle money and an assortment of cloth bags, she braved the market to meet her neighbours and buy some fruit.

“Miss Granger!” Mr Llewellyn waved from the bread stand. She smiled and walked over.

“Good morning, sir. How are you?”

“Well, thank you. Take a loaf for yourself, they’re nice and warm.”

She tried to pay but he insisted that she keep her money for other things. She tucked the seeded loaf into a bag and thanked him, making her way down the line of stalls. At the fruit seller’s, she picked up apples and oranges, as well as a bottle of cherry juice. At the cheesemonger’s table, she tried several local cheeses and bought a square of sharp cheddar for the pasta she planned to make tonight.

After her bags were heavy enough that she couldn’t walk much further, Hermione decided to turn back, until she caught sight of a stall at the very end of the market. A bookstall. Narrowing her gaze and marching over, she gasped. It was old books. Her favourite.

“Miss? Is there anything you’re looking for?” An old woman was sitting on a stool behind the table, a pair of thick spectacles perched on her nose. She had several layers of clothing on, regardless of the fact that it was a warm, sunny day. Hermione touched the spine of a novel and smiled at the lady.

“Just browsing, thank you. You have a lovely collection here, ma’am.”

The old lady looked very pleased and sat up.

“I own the secondhand bookstore over there,” she jabbed a thumb across the river at the row of shops opposite them. It was a tiny shop, wedged in between a tea shop and a florist. It reminded Hermione of 12 Grimmauld Place.

“Oh, it’s lovely.” She looked down at the books, gently letting her bags slide off her shoulders and onto the ground. Selecting a beautifully bound version of Pride and Prejudice, she opened it and sighed at the familiar words.

“Do you like Jane Austen, dearie?”

“Very much, Miss, uh—,”

“Owens. Mrs Dorothy Owens. What about you? What is your name?”

“Hermione.” It wasn’t Hermione who spoke, and she spun to her left to see the unexpected, grim and terribly handsome face of Draco Malfoy looking down at her.

“Oh my—,”

“Her name,” Malfoy turned to Mrs Owens and smiled his charming, reserved-for-strangers-only smile, “is Hermione Granger.”

[theaquataoist]

Why is lying so bad? I didn't really think about this much until my recent encounters with cluster b weirdos and what I realized amidst all this chaos dealing with these types was that they are more often than not, pathological liars.

This got me thinking about why is lying so bad? Then I read the article below about Biden. Granted he is old and failing mental health, but when your mental health is failing, it becomes even more important to be truthful...here's why.

Truth creates our view of reality. Could be my truth, your truth, the governments truth, whatever. We assimilate many truths and try to create a reality out of that. But which truth is right, which takes precedence, which has priority and how does that affect your reality?

Good questions. To that all I can say is this...if there is a God, and the Almighty's truths are published in all the books (canonical and non-canonical), then I'd start with that as the core truth to build everything else off of.

I mean, if the Almighty created us, wouldn't the manufacturer know how to best operate these avatars we are encased in?

That being said, when one follows sound principles on how to lead a harmonious life found in the Bible, one now has a clear core of principles and standards to build off of right? Murder bad, gets u in jail, God says don't murder, then you dont have to deal with the psychological ramifications of killing another human being and voila...happy life right?

Back to truth.

Using the Bible as a gold standard (not saying you have to be Christian or anything nor part of any religious doctrine), you can take other truths and measure them against your core. Take what serves you leave the rest. Now you have a functioning pattern on how to maneuver thru this matrix.

As the chaos and complexity of this matrix escalates, your core truth keeps you stable and focused like a keel on a boat. Hope I said the right boat part lol. Your core truth creates your reality. You see things for what they are and avoid things that may compromise the health and safety of your avatar. No matter how crazy this world gets your core keeps you grounded and stable. You have a firm grasp on reality and are capable of seeing calamity from a mile away and avoiding it right!?

Why?

Because your truth is based on sound principles as published by the manufacturer.

So back to lying...why is it so bad? Lies propagate like catholic rabbits in a warm house in a snow storm. That being said, one has to have an infallible memory in order to remember all the deets of the lies and any ancillary lies that spring up from the one...cuz you know they will. So at the very least, you are setting yourself up for failure and anxiety.

But wait, there's more! Think about an Alzheimer patient or someone with dementia. Have you ever noticed that they have to have things a certain way, do things on a certain schedule and maintain absolute control. Why? Because they cannot maintain a grasp on reality! They are trying to control their environment so they can artificially maintain their reality the way they see it. Like a cluster B! How ironic is that!?

That got me thinking...and thinking...and thinking some more...mostly cuz I got my heart destroyed by cluster b a-holes. But in my thoughts, what I realized is that these cluster b pathological liars have created an extremely false sense of reality! Their reality is so skewed due to their obsessive lying and desire for power and control that they have artificially induced a sort of "dementia" in themselves!

And therein lies the reason why lying is so bad...given enough lying, one can create an artificially induced dementia in themselves which distorts their reality and consequently, if one measurement in your foundation is way off, EVERYTHING else is gonna be way off!

Ironically enough, the Bible says this about truth..."the truth will set you free". In thinking about that in this context, the profound wisdom in that small statement becomes blatantly obvious! Truth does set you free. You don't have to remember lies after lies. You just say the truth, how you saw things and let the other party respond. Simple right!?

So in summary, lying is bad because God knew how it would affect our psyche. In the loads of translations and interpretations of the Bible and the sources the Bible came from, these "truths" have been lost. As a consequences we hear in churches that lying is bad because God says so. But now we see why God says so! I mean, if you're driving a fancy Beamer around and putting good old chump regular gas, I bet you're gonna notice a decrease in performance. Over time you may notice knocking and sluggish acceleration and over more time, you may even blow a gasket somewhere...why?

Because you didnt follow the f* manufacturers operating instructions which clearly state, "Premium unless only"! So stop using f* regular unleaded! Start using premium as often as possible...be truthful, state the facts of events, but most of all, be truthful to yourself. The person we lie to most is our own selves.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-claim-shot-at-overseas

Tristan - © 02-2021

[purplesurveys]

811

What do you like to drink in the morning? I’m not really a drinks person and I’m fine having all my meals with just water. I like coffee, but I usually drink it in the afternoon or at night. What color is your favorite hoodie? Don’t have one. My favorite sweater is gray though. Do you have a string of lights in your room? No. I remember wanting those as a teenager but I figured it was such a waste of electricity just to make my room look a little cuter, so that turned me off from the idea lol. Do you know what you are going to do today? Yeah, well today I was going to finally register for a social security number online, but given that I’m from the Philippines and the government only gives their 15% in everything they do, the website is absolute garbage and I can’t get past the first step of the process. Not surprising anymore. Other than that, I don’t have anything else to do. Does your heart hurt? My heart is missing so many people at the moment, but it’s not really hurting.

Who is not in your life that you wish was? I wish that my late maternal grandfather was still alive, if he counts. Who hurt you last? Probably Gabie. She doesn’t have a good hold of her emotions when she’s mad and tends to spit out hurtful things without thinking if it would affect me. I plan to have a talk with her about it once we can see each other again because it’s beginning to suck. Can you see the moon out your window right now? Continuing this survey four hours later, except now I’m tipsy as fuck haaaaaa. I dunno, I probably won’t be able to. It’s been raining all day and evening so I might only see clouds if I look out.

What makes you feel inspired? Seeing other people with insanely good work ethic. Are you mad at a friend right now? Nope, no reason to be. Do you have a friend who hurt you and doesn't care? I mean I’m pretty sensitive, so yeah I’ve had some friends say stuff to me that they probably didn’t think anything of, but hurt me in actuality. Is your room clean? Sure, it’s not too cluttered at the moment or anything like that. Can you see the sunrise from your window? No, it doesn’t happen on my side of the house. If you were a writer, would you have a pen name or use your real name? I’d use my real name. Idk, I’ve always found pen names to be a tad bit confusing. Did you go to Goodwill yesterday? I didn’t, and I don’t, because we don’t have whatever that is here. What is your friend's cat's name? I don’t have friends who have cats.  Do you celebrate your pet's birthdays? Continuing this survey 15 hours later because I was too dizzy to continue typing, lmao. I typically buy him a dog-friendly cupcake from the pet supply store at the mall near my school, and I serve him more food than usual for lunch and dinner. March is a busy month for me with school and stuff, so I haven’t gotten the chance to throw him a party. :( As a kid, did you celebrate your dolls' birthdays? (if you're a girl) I never liked playing with dolls. But no, I didn’t celebrate the ‘birthdays’ of my other toys. None of them lasted that long with me anyway haha. Are you wearing a hoodie right now? Nope. It’s chilly right now, but it’s not wear-a-hoodie cold. Did you ignore the last facebook post that bothered you, or did you comment? I had to ignore it because it was from my grand-aunt, and old people like to throw fits when you call them out so it was going to be a waste of my time if I commented. Do you need to go to the pharmacy today? No, no need for meds anymore yaaaaaay. Are you realizing that one of your friends isn't a real friend? Not at the moment. I’m happy with the circle I currently have. What was the name of one of your stuffed animals as a kid? I didn’t like stuffed animals either. This is more of my sister’s turf. Do you have a car? If so, did you give it a name? I do have a car but I’ve never given it a name. With my dad having plans to sell it soon, I’d rather it stay nameless for the remaining time it has with me so that I don’t get any more attached to it. If you were a famous singer, what would you want your hit song to be about? I’d want it to have an important message so I’ll probably write something about the bullshit that the government keeps pulling on us.

Did you skip church last week? No, unfortunately my mom makes us watch YouTube recordings of masses from a certain church. I usually hold up one of our couch pillows so that I don’t have to see the TV screen, but nevertheless I’m part of the audience and 30-45 minutes of my time are always wasted every Sunday. Do you have any big regrets? Just one big one. If you had to re-design an alien, instead of making them green with slanty-eyes and an egg-shaped head, what would you make it look like? I’m not creative enough for this question, so pass Do you have anyone who loves you, besides God? Do you have anyone who cares about you, besides God? Do you have anyone who you can go to for support? Yes, there’s a number of people I can think of. Do you normally write in cursive or print? Print, I write faster that way. Does your heart ache for something? Right now I’m kinda wanting pizza actually lol. Do you fit the millennial stereotype? I’m not even a millennial, dude. Would you want your first child to be a boy or a girl? Girl. I don’t want sons. If you were to write an article for a magazine, what would it be about? I’m in the mood to write an opinion piece about, again, the government. Do you have a blog? I have this Tumblr but it’s really more of a journal than anything else, so no, I wouldn’t say that I have an active blog. I did have several classes where our projects required us to make blogs and I never deleted those, so those blogs are still up albeit untouched for years now. If you were to start a blog, what would your first post be about? I can see myself starting a food review blog where I journal all the restaurants I dine in. Do you think you are good at writing poetry? I absolutely suck at it and hate when I’m required to make poems. Have you ever tried a science experiment that didn't work? I don’t think so. Have you ever had a teacher who looked like an alien? I dunno what an alien is supposed to look like but I also haven’t had a teacher who I thought looked weird. Do you take gummy vitamins? Not since I was 14 or 15. Are your feet wide? No. At least I don’t think they are lol. If you could do research right now for an essay, what topic would you choose to right about? Welp today is our Independence Day, so keeping in line with the timing it’d be nice to do a paper on something about Philippine history. What are your strongest attribute? Personally, I like the fact that I’m detail-oriented. That trait has been responsible for presentable Powerpoints, has saved otherwise careless co-workers, and has made sure that all research, written articles, etc. are free from critical errors, be it in data or grammar. Have you ever been tempted to commit a crime? Of course. I think we’ve all been tempted to do something like that at least once. Have you ever started writing a suicide letter? I’ve written a couple ones throughout the years. ...and then realized you wanted to live? No. Do you know anyone who had to evacuate for the latest hurricane? Not the last typhoon, no. But my friends in Marikina have had to evacuate for past calamities many times because they live right beside a river, and one that easily overflows at that. Do you write letters to friends? Only for special occasions, like for Christmas, retreats, if they were graduating, etc. Do you like to write letters? I do but it can get so tiring, especially because I prefer handwriting my letters. I used to write 40+ handwritten letters, one for each of my classmates, every year when we would go on retreat. The practice was super tiring though so now I typically just write letters for Gab. As a kid, did you find diagramming sentences fun? The what sentences??? I’ve no clue what you’re talking about. Whatever those are, I’m positive we never did that in school. What is your dream? Money. Where would you travel if you could? I’d go absolutely everywhere, but I’d start by finishing off Asia first. When it comes to traveling, I’ve always imagined myself taking my sweet time going local first before venturing out to farther countries. That being said, I’d love to go to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Brunei. Do you feel all alone in the world? No. Do you own a piece of jewelry with an owl on it? Haaaaaaaaa, no. That’s such a Tumblr-in-2010 trademark. I did have owl stuff before, though. If you have a class ring, what color is the stone? Not a thing here. Does looking at the starry sky make you feel peaceful? It does. But if I’m really hellbent on feeling peaceful, I’d rather look at either a skyline at night OR into the sea during the day. Do you have a pen pal? If not, would you ever want to have one? No and no. Like I said, I’m pretty much retired from handwritten letters after writing 40+ of them every single year for around a decade lol. Do you drink hot chocolate? Only La Creperie’s San Gines hot chocolate. Sometimes I’ll drink hot chocolate at hotels too. Do you like apple cider hot or cold? I don’t drink that. Are you hurt by something a friend did to you recently? No, none of them have done or said something hurtful to me lately. Are you under 30? Yeup. Have you made a "30 Things to Do Before I'm 30" list? No. I don’t like keeping myself under a deadline. Do you paint rocks and hide them in your town? I’ve never done that before. Do you have a secret crush? Nope, am very vocal about my crush heh. What was the name of your first crush? Andi. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? Yes, groan. Do you like parodies? Not always. Some of them can be a little too cheesy for my liking. Are you a Taylor Swift fan? Not a chance. Have you ever kissed a picture? I probably have. Do you use window clings (stickers for your window)? No. Do you decorate for fall? We don’t have fall. What do you want to be for Halloween this year? Not really sure yet...I don’t even know if we’re getting Halloween this year. Has suicide crossed your mind a lot lately? [trigger warning] Not these days, and I’m really thankful for that. I’ve self-harmed twice during the course of the quarantine and while that’s disappointing at least I haven’t thought about being dead, and that’s what matters to me. Do you have supernatural abilities? ............No. Do you get enough hugs? Definitely not these days. I haven’t been hugged since March. I think I might cry when I get my first one. What labels do people try to put on you? I don’t know. You’d have to ask others because this isn’t the sort of thing people say to your face lol. Who do YOU (or rather, who does God) say you are? Are you happy? I’m not happy with the Jesus questions on here lmao but kidding aside, I wouldn’t say that I 100% am. I just feel like I’ve only been floating or existing recently, but not fully happy. Have you asked yourself recently, Why am I here? I hate questions like that, so no. What family member did you get your hair color from? Everyone of them. Filipinos have the same features. Have you ever found a secret compartment? No. If you designed a house, would you give it a secret room? I’ve seen some interesting ones on the internet that make me want a secret room of my own, but I think it’ll stay as a fantasy. Do you read horror stories? When I come across them, sure. I don’t actively look for them though. Do you ever comfort eat? Yeah, I did it a lot before quarantine. Yabu’s a great example of me comfort eating haha. Does stretching feel good? Yesssss. Do you have your wedding planned in your head already? I have scenarios that play in my head but I don’t have the specifics – color scheme, flowers, centerpieces, location, etc – mapped out yet. Would you ever adopt a child? Not my first choice. Are you ok today? I’d say so, yeah. It’s not hot today so that’s already good enough of a day for me lmao. Was the last book you read good? It was okay. It holds a great life story with okay writing. Wrestlers write autobiographies ALL THE TIME which means that not all of them will be a home run, and AJ’s was neither earth-shattering nor bad. I definitely didn’t appreciate the unintended-but-casual sexism/misogyny in it or the extreme hyperboles, but it’s AJ and I love her work nonetheless.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Moon founded “The World’s Greediest Church”

The cash that built the Moon organization’s “foundation.”

▲ Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han of the Unification Church, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, with one of the marble pagodas that were sold to the Japanese for eye-watering sums. Moon and Han reportedly denied knowledge of the scam.

_________________________________________

by Ben Hills Sydney Morning Herald  May 7, 1993

The Unification Church of Japan stated: “We do not participate in profit-making activities.”

“I don’t feel embarrassment … deep remorse is a better word,” confesses Kiyoharu Takahashi, blinking furiously behind his black-rimmed eyeglasses.

For 400 years, a small plot of land on the urban fringe of Tokyo had been in the family, once retainers of the local daimyo (lord of the manor). Five years ago, Mr Takahashi, then a university student, aged 26, persuaded his family to take out mortgages over the property. Although there is less than a hectare of land, it contains the family home, a turf farm, a rented house and two blocks of flats.

Even so, it still amazes Kiyoharu how much the banks were prepared to lend on it. By the time the credit dried up, he had received $67.5 million, repayments had fallen behind and the banks were threatening to foreclose. Four centuries of family history were about to go down the drain.

What caused this calamity ?

Every cent of the money – plus another $500,000 or so in savings that the Takahashis had put aside over the years – was handed over to an organisation Japanese are starting to call the greediest church in the world, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, known to the less devout as the Moonie church – the Unification Church (and now The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification).

Its founder and Pope is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a 73-year-old, thrice-married father of [more than] 13 who now lives in the United States, where he has done time in prison for [document fraud and] tax evasion.

Although he is better known for his mass marriage spectaculars – last year he hired the Olympic stadium in Seoul to celebrate the wedding of 30,000 followers, most of whom had never met each other before – Moon has spent the last 40 years building up a formidable religious multinational.

And Japan is the place where Moon Industries Inc, a conglomerate that trades under more than 100 corporate identities, has made its most spectacular, and some would say ungodly, gains.

Young Mr Takahashi is only one of 8,350 people who have come forward, claiming they have been ripped off by the Moonies, since a national legal network was set up to help them get their money back six years ago. The total amount they claim to have been cheated out of is a staggering $568 million. Cases are listed in more than a dozen courts.

Many of them, like Mr Takahashi, say they have been blackmailed into borrowing beyond their means, then handing the money over. In his case, barely credibly, he was told that his father’s Parkinson’s Disease was due to an ancient curse which could only be lifted from the family by prayer … and enormous amounts of money.

Another reformed Moonie – “Tomiko” is a 34-year-old English teacher from Tokyo – was told her lack of luck in love was because of the “dirty” money which she had saved. She took her life savings, $5,000, to a flat where the Moonies sprinkled salt in the four corners of the room, said prayers, and made it all disappear.

“Unfortunately, Japanese seem more susceptible to this sort of thing than people in other countries,” says Hiroshi Yamaguchi, a member of the lawyers’ network, who is handling cases for 25 former Moonies, including Takahashi, Tomiko, and a woman in Australia who was swindled out of $12,000.

People are being enticed into a range of activities which have no overt connection with the Moonies.

There are about 100 Moonie-owned “video centres” around Tokyo where people are invited in and then recruited.

Another favourite ploy is to organise conferences by front organisations, such as the World Peace Professors’ Academy, the Society of Field Flowers, the Japan-Korea Tunnel Task Force and even the Women’s Federation for World Peace, which last year held a meeting at Sydney’s Ritz Carlton Hotel.

No-one knows how many followers the Reverend Moon has attracted since he went international in the mid-1960s. He claims five million followers in 160 countries (including Australia) but a more realistic assessment by former members of the cult is around one-tenth that number [possibly at the zenith – now many fewer].

Even so, Japan – where there are thought to be around 20,000 hard-core Moonies – is beyond doubt one of the most profitable parts of his empire. Or was, until the recent deluge of bad publicity.

Tokyo’s tabloids have been agog for a month over the disappearance of Hiroko Yamasaki, a 33-year-old former Olympic gymnast, who has provided the church with acres of publicity since her marriage at the mass-wedding in Korea last year to a groom selected for her by the Rev Moon. 

She reappeared, renouncing the church and claiming it had all been a terrible mistake.

▲ Hiroko Yamasaki facing nearly 200 journalists in April 1993.

After being indoctrinated the converts are put out on the streets of Tokyo to bring in other recruits, and to make money selling products door-to-door.

Mr Takahashi displays some of the products he was obliged to sell. There is a 300-gram jar of extract from Korean ginseng (a parsnip-like root which tastes a bit like tobacco and is reputed to be medicinal) – this sold for $1,000, when the over-the-counter price in Korea is about $150. The Reverend Moon’s Il Hwa factory near Seoul is South Korea’s largest ginseng processor.

A set of three name-seals, worth about $125, is sold for up to $15,000. All Moonies dream of selling the jewelled pagoda – a model studded with what look like bits of glass that goes for $67,500.

After her conversion, Tomiko became a real cash cow. Even though she had no property to put up as collateral, she borrowed more than $50,000 from eight different banks and handed it over. She sold her family a garage full of Moonie products – her mother paid $20,000 for a kimono, her father $8,000 for a sauna, among other things. “I became a saleswoman … they said it was the way to achieve heaven on earth.“

Gullible? Perhaps. But 8,349 more like her? Sadao Asami, professor of theology at Tohoku University, believes that there is something about the Japanese that makes them more susceptible to Moon’s brand of religion.

Professor Asami has earned a nickname, “the Devil’s priest”, from the Moonies because of the help he has given hundreds of families, “rescuing” their children from the Moonies. He has worked with 500 to 600 former followers. He says that Japanese remain dependent on their parents much longer than people in the West, and that they are thus more immature. As well, the Japanese culture entertains a variety of religious and superstitious beliefs.

They also, says Mr Yamaguchi, have a lot of money.

Until recently, the Tokyo Moonies have been trying to quietly settle most of the claims out of court. However, in January, Michio Fujii, the head of the church in Japan, wrote to Mr Yamaguchi apologising for the “mismanagement of subordinates of the Unification Church” – but saying that repayment of money would be “temporarily stopped.”

This means that Mr Takahashi is in trouble. The church had repaid most of the money and had taken over repayments on the loans. But $3 million is outstanding. The Moonies’ headquarters is in the fashionable suburb of Shibuya, a three-storey building that occupies most of a city block.

Unfortunately, neither Mr Fujii, nor anyone else, was willing to put the church’s point of view on these serious allegations. They later sent an anonymous fax, denying everything and claiming bare-facedly: “We do not participate in profit-making activities.”

The Unification Church’s own publications boast of a global business empire valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The core is the Sae-il engineering company, which began making air-rifles, and now manufactures machine-tools in Korea, Germany and Africa. Then there is the Il Hwa company which produces more than 40 different pharmaceutical products, ginseng and soft-drinks; in Alabama, there is International Oceanic Enterprises which catches and packs seafood; in Alaska, the Master Marine company makes fibreglass fishing trawlers; the Moonies own the Paragon House publishing firm, the Washington Times newspaper and a four-storey complex in Barrytown, New York, where they run a theological seminary.

Although his worries are not over, Mr Takahashi – along with several thousand other former converts – is thankful to be out of it. And not to have to go through with the “marriage” he had in 1988 … along with 6,499 other couples. In a hall at a Seoul soft-drink factory, he saw his bride for the first time. “I had built up expectations of how beautiful she was going to be,” he says “When I saw her I got vertigo.”

Two of his fellow Moonies committed suicide. One, a middle-aged woman who was being pressured into handing over some land, jumped off a building. Another, a man who was married at a mass wedding, jumped in front of a car.

“At the time I believed in it,” says Mr Takahashi, “Now I know it was only blackmail and lies aimed at getting their money.”

▲ In 2006, the Moons were brought 240 gold crowns (120 for each ot them) in a procession at their $1billion palace in the mountains near Cheongpyeong.

___________________________________________

Hiroko Yamasaki (former Olympic athlete in rhythmic gymnastics) joined and left UC

“Moon betrayed his followers and distorted the church’s lofty goals by turning his movement into a huge money-making machine.”

“Japan. Wow! My eyes were opened.” A huge UC scam in Japan is revealed.

Video of Unification Church ABUSE in Japan shown in court

Moon personally extracted $500 MILLION from Japanese sisters in the fall of 1993. He demanded that 50,000 sisters attend HIS workshops on Cheju Island and each had to pay a fee of $10,000.

Japan High Court judge upholds “UC used members for profit, not religious purposes”. This has serious ramifications.

Religious Freedom for Japanese Members! (The FFWPU established a slave caste.)

Sun Myung Moon – Emperor of the Universe

[theevilfoodeaterconchita]

Gloom of Held; Part 1

Evil Food Eater Conchita, bonus story

"The Forest of Held", the southern region of Elphegort.

The sorceress Elluka Clockworker had come to the forest for the first time in a long while to meet with an old friend.

There were no paved roads in the forest of Held. There was no way for people to move through aside from difficult animal paths, and if anyone who wasn't accustomed to them wandered in they would instantly become lost.

As Elluka had come to these woods many times before, it wasn't very difficult at all for her to reach her destination. All she needed to pay caution to was to make sure the robe she was wearing didn't catch and tear on any tree branches.

Shortly thereafter she came out into a clearing. In the middle of it stood an enormous tree.

The moment Elluka arrived, the tree's trunk began to roil and swell, and eventually took on a shape like a face.

The large tree had grown a face. A low voice emanated from its mouth.

"If it isn't Elluka. Does your being here mean that there has been some great calamity outside the forest? Or are you here regarding the 'Vessels of Deadly Sin'?"

Even if someone other than Elluka were there, they wouldn't be able to pick up his voice. Only those with great magical power could talk to this great tree--the earth god, Held.

"--I see. The 'Twin Swords of Levianta' that had been in the great Levin church in Lucifenia were fakes, hm?" Held murmured regretfully.

"Good grief…it's always like this. I finally find a clue on a 'Vessel of Deadly Sin', and after all I had to go through in the end it was all for nothing. It's been three hundred years already and I still haven't managed to get my hands on a single one!"

Elluka slammed her fist on Held's face before her.

"You won't get anywhere by hitting me. My body is a tree, after all, so even if I'm struck it won't hurt me."

"I know that. That's why I do it."

"Well, the world is vast. What's more, it seems they are always being passed around from person to person. I guess all you can do is be patient."

"You make it sound like it's someone else's problem. Weren't those 'Vessels of Deadly Sin' originally born here in your forest? I've only been searching for them because you told me to! That is to say, I'm just a volunteer! A VOL-UN-TEER!"

"But don't forget, you are part of the reason those 'Vessels of Deadly Sin' were created, Elluka. You released the 'Demons of Deadly Sin' that dwell in those vessels--"

"Augh--That's enough talk. Very well, I see how it is. It's my fault for blowing up the Magic Kingdom with the 'Clockworker's Secret Art'."

Elluka stuck out her tongue and punched Held again.

"Did I not just say that you can't hurt me? By the by, I've heard that the Magic Kingdom has been newly rebuilt."

"'Holy Levianta', huh? That's something else entirely, it just has the same name. Seems as though they haven't even taken over any of the legacy of their past, so there's no need for concern."

"Still, that place isn't good. If they were ever to do anything that would dig up the relics of our era that lay dormant in that land--"

"…I think you're worrying over nothing, but I'll watch out for now."

As Elluka and Held continued their conversation, a green-feathered robin stopped on one of Held's branches and began to talk to Elluka. "Ah, it's Elluka! Long time no see!"

Elluka looked to the robin and grinned.

"Michaela, so sorry. I'm talking to Held about something important for a little bit. I'll play with you later, so could you excuse us for a minute?"

"…Tch."

After the robin named Michaela's head dropped in disappointment, they left once more.

"Still an energetic spirit as ever.  How many others are there, again? Spirits that serve you, I mean."

"Not sure. I don't remember well."

"What an irresponsible god you are."

"Well then, let's return to the topic at hand. It was about Holy Levianta, wasn't it?"

"I think we're done talking about that. I came here because I had an area of interest other than my report on the 'Twin Swords of Levianta'."

"Ho…"

The wind blew, and Held's leaves and branches faintly swayed.

"Recently I've hired a maid. An unpaid one."

"How unusual for you to hang around with another person. Does she have any magical talent?"

"She is stupendous--stupendously untalented. I tried to teach her two or three simple spells as a test, but she failed each one."

"Then why do you have this person working with you?"

"Mikulia Greeonio…I spoke with you about her, before."

"One of the mistresses of Duke Venomania…and the one who resembled the 'Original Sinner', right?" Held's tree bark eyes faintly narrowed as though trying to remember.

"The maid that I've got employed is apparently a descendant of that Mikulia. And she also--"

"Has the same face of the 'Original Sinner', I'm guessing."

"The 'Original Sinner' shouldn't have any descendants. I'd heard that the first Project 'Ma' was a failure. So then why are there so many people showing up who look like her?!"

Held closed his eyes and seemed to think about Elluka's question for a moment, and then finally opened them again and replied, "I don't think you need to concern yourself with it much. I think it's quite common in this world for people with the same face to show up through the ages, regardless of blood relation. Things like that happened in our era as well, but it seems more striking in this world. Though of course, if they are blood descendants then the likelihood of it is much higher."

"Why in the world does that happen, you think?"

"Ask 'LeviaBehemo'. After all, it was them who constructed the humans of this world, not I."

LeviaBehemo was the name of the divine dragon worshipped by many of the people who lived in Evillious. But, unfortunately, Elluka had never met them.

"Then where should I go to meet this 'LeviaBehemo', hm?"

"…"

"Why are you quiet on that?"

"Anyhow, you didn't sense any demons inside Mikulia Greeonio, did you?"

"Yeah. And I don't sense any of that at all in my maid."

"Then you needn't worry. It's just an accidental resemblance between strangers. --Did you not bring this person here today?"

"She seemed like if I brought her here she'd cause mayhem with the spirits. I put a capture spell on her and left her locked up in my house."

"Such cruel things you do…"

"It couldn't be helped. The second I take my eyes off her she tries to run off, that girl."

"Did you at least leave her anything to eat?"

Elluka looked taken aback, and put a hand to her mouth.

"Ah…I forgot. I'd feel just terrible if she starved to death, I should head back before too long. --I'll see you later, Held."

So saying, she jogged away from Held.

A robin flew through the air at breakneck speed after Elluka

"Hold on, Elluka~ Are you going back already~?! Didn't you say we'd play together~!?"

directory------next>>

[doomedandstoned]

South Africa’s Mad God Face Off With Devils In Bruising New Doomer

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

MAD GOD is a hell of a name for a band. It's brash, frightening and, if there is a God, probably true. Literature is replete with tales of madness, from throne room to darkest cavern. After all, what could be more frightening than insanity? Worse still, what if God were bonkers, too? It's an idea pregnant with possibilities and this week, the Johannesburg trio of Tim Harbour (guitar, vox), Evert Snyman (bass), and Patrick Stephansen (drums) gives birth to another album of vignettes from our mad, mad world.

'Grotesque and Inexorable' (2018), besides being a vocabulary expanding mouthful, will have fans of H.P. Lovecraft whipping out their magnifying glasses, looking for signs his influence throughout. What's behind those glowing eyes? Is that perhaps a ritual knife? And what of that ghastly cephalopodic tail? It all beckons us to venture closer, to stroll deeper into the bush. Only here in nature's primitive darkness can we see clearly.

This is not an interpretive dance through Lovecraft's greatest hits, however. What Mad God have assembled is essentially a horror anthology, each of its six chapters bearing witness to some monstrosity -- real or imagined. All of them are unimaginably terrifying.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." (H.P. Lovecraft)

The parade of deplorables kicks off in the cemetery, where apparently if there is no rest for the wicked, then neither will there be respite the just. "Haunting the Graves of the Unhallowed" is like a nod Unhallowed Graves and perhaps The Reluctant Dead by the pioneering author of African horror, Nuzo Onoh. Mad God bring a Goyaesque gravity to the song, with the witchy metallic grit of early Yob or the bitter-sweet ire of Trouble -- all caged with the expansive song structure made a staple of the genre by the godfathers of doom, Black Sabbath. That's for those of you reaching for a point of reference in this slow-burning, bubbling cauldron of toxic stew. It won't take long for you to acclimate to the flavor, and with repeated spins you'll be easily picking up on the Mad God distinctives.

If the first track draws upon the supernatural, "The DeZalze Horror" is grounded in grizzly physical reality. In January of 2015, the papers greeted South Africans with the strange story of a millionaire and his family massacred at the DeZalze Golf Estate golf resort outside of Cape Town. Henri van Breda, was the apparent lone survivor and claimed amnesia about the whole event. He evaded justice for a year-and-a-half, until all evidence in the investigation confirmed that the 20-year old Henri had indeed wielded an axe against his father, mother, brother, and sister (the latter being the sole survivor).

Mad God's mean, sludgy swagger makes this track a fitting bedfellow with Church of Misery's bevy of serial killers. Tim's guitar chugs along like someone pacing hallways, Evert and Patrick's rhythm section makes me think the bump and drag of the axe's head along the floor, while Henri laments the shocking outcome of his brutal rage. A bluesy, fuzzy interlude brings us the 911 call, and the drums pound like sunken heartbeat, resigned to the awfulness and permanence of one's decision.

Last month, the band chose "I Created God" as the album's first single. "This song was written after watching a Charles Manson documentary, following his death in 2017," Tim Harbour explains. Though Manson remains the perennial muse of songwriters, he hastens to add: "This song does not condone the actions of the cult leader, but rather delves into the psyche and motives of both him and his followers around the time of the murders that took place in 1969." As one might expect, the lyrics aren't pretty, underlying the band's thesis that despite the beauty and good in the world, the ugliness of evil is never far behind and is often three steps ahead. Unlike the notorious fascination of Uncle Acid & the deadbeats for Charlie, Mad God's musical characterization of Manson and his Helter Skelter scenario is somber, with his mad ramblings echoing through the song's final stretch.

"The Crawling Chaos" follows, a reference to the short story written by Lovecraft, but based upon a dream of a companion, poet Winifred V. Jackson. A hazy, Alice in Wonderland ambience opens this opium fever dream, in which an accidental overdose leads to a misshapen landscape mired by 50 foot waves, outsized flora, and bizarre trip beyond the Milky Way. The song is perhaps emblematic of the horrors lying dormant within each of our mind, not to mention the subtext of addiction.

"No Prayers, No Fires" is my favorite of the lot, for it led me down another fascinating rabbit trail. This one took me all the way to one Herbert George Wells -- yes, the self-same H.G. -- who wrote a non-fiction book speculating about the future of society. Central to his book, 'The Future in America: A Search After Realities' (1906), a travelogue of impressions from his first visit to the States, was the Oneida Community of New York. Once hailed as a triumph of human cooperation and communal living, there were now "no prayers, no fires upon the deserted altars of Oneida any more forever..." Their leader, a cultic figure by the name of John Humphrey Noyes, wanted to bring about Christ's fabled millennial kingdom (which was all but an obsession of 19th century religionists), but the enterprise fell upon scandal and financial ruin. The evil groove of this song is key to its success and the band is in fine form for the duration.

At last comes "Wild Hunt," which returns us to the spirit realm for a romp through the underworld, with faintly human apparitions fastened upon their ghostly steeds in pursuit some unknown prey. Legend has it that those among us unfortunate enough to see a vision of the Wild Hunt will be met with sure calamity. It's not a fast song, as we've become conditioned to by bands that tend to go nuts with the "wild" part. Mad God's take is, in fact a sad one -- more in the spirit of Reagers-era Saint Vitus or more recently, Pallbearer. These departed spirits are "bound by eternity" to chase after desires they could never be satisfied in their former lives, nor in this pale existence. It's a tasteful conclusion to the album, though it does leave one with a feeling of melancholy.

Mad God's Grotesque and Inexorable drops this weekend and can be pre-ordered here. Of all the surprises we've been treated to in 2018, this is perhaps the grimmest and most tantalizing -- not unlike a Lovecraftian monster.

Give ear...

Grotesque and Inexorable by Mad God

Some Buzz

'Grotesque and Inexorable' (2018) is the 2nd full length release by Johannesburg doom metal band, Mad God. Mad God was formed in 2014 by Tim Harbour, Tim Harrison and Patrick Stephansen with the intention of bringing doom metal to South Africa, as it is one of the most underrepresented metal genres in the country. 2015 saw Mad God release their first split, 'Unholy Rituals' alongside Johannesburg stoner act Goat Throne. The following years were good for doom metal, the Temple of Doom shows put on in Joburg became a regular event for stoner, psychedelic and doom metal music showcasing some of South Africa’s best talent such as Ruff Majik, STRAGE, Corax, Pollinator, The Makeovers and many more.

In 2017, bassist Tim Harrison left the band and was replaced by Jarred Beaton and in July that year, Mad God released their first full length album titled 'Tales of a Sightless City,' which gained a fair amount of traction among online stoner and doom circles such as Stoned Meadow of Doom and MrDoom666 on YouTube as well as receiving favourable reviews from popular review sites such as Angry Metal Guy and Doombringer. That same year, Mad God did their first tour to Cape Town and staged a show with The League of Doom (Cape Town’s very own doom and stoner event organisers) as well as played at Krank’d Up Festival alongside acts such as Vulvodinya, OHGOD, Intervals, and Memphis May Fire. Shortly after, the tour the band took a hiatus to focus on writing new material and bassist Jarred Beaton was replaced by Pollinators lead singer and guitarist, Evert Snyman.

'Grotesque and Inexorable' is an exploration into new musical territory for Mad God. After the release of 'Tales of a Sightless City,' Mad God have been aiming to evolve their sound to something darker and more unique.

This album draws on much gloomier themes and the lyrics reflect this turn. The music itself is both dirtier and more progressive and as a band we tried to introduce a wider variety of influences including death and black metal as well as more traditional and heavy metal sounds, even including some '70s progressive rock.

The album title also reflects this change in sound. In other words, "disgusting and cannot be stopped." The band adds, "As Lovecraftian fan boys we had to throw the word grotesque in somewhere!"

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

[omodudu]

.Barracoon: wider lens, bigger picture.

i read Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracon yesterday. the book, as we are informed by its subtitle, tells “the story of the last black cargo.” cargo. and yet we’re not referring to microwaves or drinking glasses or worn clothesor some such lifeless object being shipped into africa. neither are we talking about timber or oil or any kind of natural resource being siphoned, by water, out of the continent. cargo. for that is how the enslavers regarded the enslaved human beings — as goods.

two months prior to the books publication, i read the forward on the blog of the writer that wrote it, Alice Walker. “I’m not sure,” she writes in her foreword, “there was ever a harder read than this.” and when i read that in march, i was daunted., considering who was saying that. and then there were the one, two comments i read from readers, after the book came out, about the story being, essentially, a harrowing, tear-jerking one.

these remarks engendered expectations and ideas in me, of Barracoon: another story about slavery and enslavement; but from the lion’s own mouth this time around; with more violence and gore; so heart-shattering it would make me cry and cry till some of my tears become phlegm and flow through my nostrils. i shouldn’t have allowed myself to do that. what’s more, i shouldn’t have taken those notions with me when i went reading Barracoon. but i did. and that was how come that halfway through the book, i was most probably thinking, in the manner and language of a recently famous twitter meme, appropriated from the black panther movie: IS THIS YOUR MOST HARROWING, MOST TEAR-JERKING STORY?

not to be mistaken, Barracoon is, to a significant extent, all that (and more): a narrative of slavery like i’d never read before (a direct account, given by someone who actually lived it, relayed in his own vernacular, about his own experiences pre, during, and post slavery…); there is violence and gore too, here; & as for the tear-jerking stuff…i’ll be honest and say that i was wide-eyed in disbelief at some of the gruesomeness, my tear ducts were totally try till, like, the last third of the book. then the protagonist Oluale Kossola (Cudjo Lewis) was a free man — after close to six years of working as a white man’s slave.

rewind to the violence and gore in the book: much of it happens in Oluale’s homeland of takkoi, on the continent of africa. intra-ethnically. cross-ethnically. the insidious patriarchy. classic ruling class callousness. capital punishment — head-chopping as an acknowledged part of the social order. and still, when the white man comes into the picture, there are africans — the kings, the chiefs, their courtiers…

if you are one of those africans who is bothered by the news of african involvement in the still unbelievable calamity known rather benignly as the slave trade, then Barracoon is not your bottle of sobolo. like, listen to Oluale, talking about the king of dahomey: “he got very rich ketching slaves. he keep his army all the time making raids to grabee people to sell…”

the dahomean army Oluale refers to here, consists of the mino, now more popularly known by the name given to them by white people, the dahimey amazons. of them, Oluale says: “no man kin be so strong lak de woman soldiers from dahomey…” (it is advisable here to hold our feminist horses yet.) it just so happens that it was a dahomean raid on the takkoi community that landed |Oluale in the barracoons of dahomey, and finally on a white man’s plantation in america.

the dahomean slave raiders included the mino who were actively capturing people to be enslaved, and according to the narrative, chopping of the heads of children, women, men. i have a question: do these women pass, testing with an intersectional feminist lens, as models of african feminism?

Barracoon’s epigraph is quoted from Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road. the quotation was arrived upon while she unpacked her “three months of association” with Oluale Kossola: “but the inescapable fact that stuck in my crow, was: my people had sold me and the white people had bought me…it impressed upon me the universal nature of greed and glory.” perhaps a tad simplistic, but in essence, it it what it is. the quote provides, as epigraphs typically do, a frame for the Barracoon picture. which leads to my curiosities: how much was this picture edited to fit into this frame? what cropping was done, what filter was applied to get this desired image?

to put it simply: it felt to me that when it came to the circumstances in the so-called new world, Oluale, according to this picture given us, merely waffled; as compared to his detailing of the goriness that he related of ‘Afficka’ where he came from. and therefore this “universal picture…” that Zora Neale Hurston (and the editor) aimed to capture was rather skewed.

if i were ending this here, i would end like this: if there is only one picture you or your child should see about slavery, it is adviceable to not let it be this one. it is a good picture alright, but not the best. and there’s better.

but. i am not ending here. and thankfully so. there’s another but. but. how erroneous and limiting my thinking to have read, in the subtitle, “the story of…..”, and reduced the narrative to that of slavery. (as though any human beings story can be solely about one thing, enslavement no less.)

in my favourite third of the book, the last, Oluale is a free man, a church sexton, a tender, caring old man, eloquent in speech, who was also a loving husband and (grand) parent. who suffers heartbreak after heartbreak after heartbreak: insults instead of reparations from a former slave-owner, duped out of insurance money, losing child after child, and then, wife. so painful the experience, so gnawing his longing and loneliness, he made a parable of it:

“den i axed dem, “how many limbs God give de body so it kin be active?” “Dey say six; two arms two feet two eyes” “I say dey cut off de feet, he got hands to ‘fend hisself. Dey cut off de hands he wiggle out de way when he see danger come. But when he lose de eye, den he can’t see nothin’ come upon him. He finish. My boys is my feet. My daughter is my hands. My wife she my eye. She left,Cudjo finish”

and yet Oluale Kossola gesticulates with animation, and laughs with heart, as he tells stories to Zora. and yet still, he has so much soul and life left to love gardening, to tend to his plants.

how amazing!, and how dare me reduce “the story of Oluale Kossola,” a whole life, to one of slavery.

[lids-flutter-open]

a thing i wrote for the rabbi in preparation for finishing my conversion

1. How did you get to be sitting here today - tell me your story, how you learned to love Judaism, why you aren't x-tan anymore

I grew up in Olympia, Washington. My mother was "spiritual" but not specifically religious, and took us to a Unitarian Universalist church. I think this was a good experience for me, because it connected time in church ("church") to time talking about social justice concerns, and to caring about other people in a concentrated way. The UU church fed people at a shelter and raised money for environmental causes. I think it informed my principles as a person, even though my mother stopped taking us after a while. My father, whose mother was fairly fervently Methodist, didn't like religion. As a child, I associated religion proper--the kind of Christianity that other people did, for instance--with being asked to believe in something that was impossible, and the moral logic of religion, and especially Christianity as my grandmother knew it, didn't make a lot of sense to me. I was without any kind of religion throughout high school. I often felt depressed and anxious; I was gay and trans, and even after my parents began supporting me, many of my friends faced bullying, homelessness, mental health crises, and abuse. As I learned more about war, iniquity, and imperialism, I often felt like the world as it existed was beyond help, and that too many people suffered for the world to have any order. During that time, as I participated in LGBT groups around my town, I met some friends who were Jewish and coming into what that meant to them. I had really interesting conversations around Jewish ideas of God and morality with my friend Levi, who had grown up in a very racist town in Nevada and who embraced the idea of an all-knowing God who at the same time was mysteriously and frustratingly absent and who one had to both believe in and be angry at. In college, I took a class on European Jewish literature since the 1800s and read a lot of literature (from Gluckel von Hameln to Irene Nemirovsky and Stefan Zweig and Marx and Freud) accompanied by the analysis of a very gay older professor who tried very hard to keep his analysis secular while giving us religious concepts to provide context for the significance of writers' desperation, alienation, and struggle. A central idea that stuck with me from that class was the paradox of a God who has issued laws which everyone must follow for the salvation of the world even though nobody is sure exactly how to follow them. It combined the comforting and somewhat idealistic certainty that there was a plan with the sensible conclusion that, based on the chaos and horror extant in the world today, nobody was enforcing that plan and for practical purposes humanity was on its own to solve its problems. I also was fascinated that the ideas of Marx, and the ideas of many of the people who tried to formulate socialist states from the ruins of monarchies in the early 20th century, were influenced by the Jewish messianic tradition and were part of the idea that people themselves could bring on the dawn of the ultimate, perfect era of life on Earth if we only worked together and worked hard enough. It's romantic, but I pictured Jewish socialists motorcycling across the Russian steppe (as indeed they did, when carrying news during the 1918 crisis), imagining that their work might fix what everyone else had gotten wrong. I like Judaism because it recognizes humanity's messiness and mistakes, including prophets. It notes the arguments people have had, the different views people take, the times people have seriously messed up and faced consequences for it, the times people have seriously messed up and faced no consequences. It is concerned with bodies and matter and daily practice more than with immortal souls, but also speaks about souls and love and hope. It remembers, and it watches, and it hopes for the day where the word of G-D becomes something real--something explicitly material--, and tries to work for it, but admits that there may or may not be a clear path to get there. At the same time, it motivates me to do work in the world directed outwards, toward helping people. 2. Tell me about God / spirituality / prayer. What does that all mean to you?

I like thinking of God as the connection that exists between people, and anything good, but also as something boundless, beyond good and evil, and utterly incomprehensible to human identity, morality, etc. God is in the wonder of a wave crashing down on the sand. God is the potential for good things to happen because God is the potential for anything to happen, and when someone is a human, the best potential is that humans can come together and fix something, or figure out a way to care for each other better. Prayer is also being glad to be alive, to see candles or smell smoke or feel one's arms working in the morning. I pray because I believe there's some way to tap into that sort of divine similarity I have with all other beings and all other matter and make something happen that's good. I also think there is a lot to be said for the way Jewish prayer emphasizes sensual pleasure and simple appreciation of one's material body and material existence. I think God is a way for me to understand all bodies as good, for all experiences of bodies to be divine, even if they are painful. 

3. What are some meaningful Jewish rituals / practices that you do and why are they important to you?

I observe Shabbat by avoiding grocery shopping, laundry, and travel on that day, and by trying to spend time with friends. I attend services on Friday nights and some Saturday mornings at CBE. In the last year, I have also observed the Jewish holidays of Shavuot, Tisha b'Av, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hannukah, Purim and Pesach. On Rosh Hashanah, I made food for my friends, including two new friends from my synagogue, even though my apartment is pretty small, and tried to incorporate foods traditional to the new year like apples and honey, round challah, and other foods. I observed Tisha b'Av and Yom Kippur by fasting, and throughout the month of Elul I thought a lot about the things in my life I wanted to change and about calamities I wanted to do something to prevent or to help people recover from. I read a book recommended by Rabbi Katz (This is Real and You're Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew) in order to better approach the holiday from a mindset of introspection and reconciliation with the parts of myself I wanted to leave behind. I also took a new appreciation of the themes of Elul and Yom Kippur with me as I rewatched Angels in America, which deals a lot in Jewish reconciliation, forgiveness, and death. On Hannukah I went to friends' houses in order to eat latkes and other oily foods and also engaged in conversations about the dubious victory of the Maccabees/when a revolution becomes a repressive regime. On Purim I went to party and attended services, and thought about what it means to survive something terrible and what it means to ask for revenge or to make up a story where you get revenge, and what the difference is. On Passover I was with friends in 2017 and 2018, talking about freedom, human trafficking, refugees, motherhood and reproductive freedom, and a list of other issues that seem more relevant every year. In 2018 I also learned songs, both traditional and more recent.   In terms of everyday rituals: I try to give to people who ask for things. I try to care for people in my life who I value. I try to think critically and to better myself and to improve the world. I try to criticize tyrants. I try to be thankful for my body. I try to forgive people, and also to think carefully about when someone deserves forgiveness. I try to rigorously evaluate my standards for living a decent life and see if they are good enough. I try to remember history. I think about how the lessons of Torah relate to my life and what wisdom that text contains that I can apply to my life and sometimes make Spotify playlists related to books of the Torah. I try to read the weekly parsha and think about it critically. I read feminist books about Judaism and read fiction by Jewish authors. 4. What do you still want to learn / read about when you are Jewish?

I want to learn Hebrew so I can comfortably read in services in either language. I want to learn more about the history of Jewish people in the United States and around the world, because even as I learn more there is still a lot I have missed out on. 

5. What Hebrew name are you thinking of having? And Why? Zev as a biblical name originates from a reference to Benjamin, who is called "a wolf that raveneth". The text refers to Benjamin-as-wolf killing prey in the morning and dividing spoils in evening. But there isn't much reference to whether Benjamin actually ever does any killing, though he gave rise to the line that included Ehud, Saul and, supposedly, Mordecai. Some consider the term "ravenous Wolf" not to refer to war at all but to refer to Temple sacrifices. Benjamin is known in rabbinic tradition as being a uniquely upstanding, sin-free person, and is also notable for being the youngest son of Rachel, and the last child of Jacob. When I was considering names for myself as a fifteen-year-old after coming out as trans, I considered Benjamin (on the advice of my therapist!) because of Rachel trying to name Benjamin Benoni after her pain and death, but failing. The name represented a triumph above origin while also presenting a puzzle because the actual etymology of the name is contested--it means son of days, son of the south, etc etc. But I didn't choose Benjamin as a name then, and I don't want to choose it now, because it's too full of a story and too precise. I like Zev because, though it's technically an allusion to this character, it also just means Wolf. I like that there are aspects of Benjamin's life I could step into, but don't want to draw parallels between myself and a biblical character every time I say my name. I like wolves, and have since I was a child, because they are both powerful and dangerous but also care for one another. Researchers studying wolves have found that in the wild they are far more communal and less aggressive toward each other than they are in captivity or under stress. I think that the protective powers of the wolf, and also the familial bonds between wolves, is something I want to emulate. I want to step into a different aspect of the name than Zev Jabotinsky, whose militancy and ferocity I think are antithetical to building an enduring, peaceful, prosperous future for humanity and other species on this planet.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

China’s ‘hostage diplomacy’ standoff with Canada is over. But how much damage was done? (Washington Post) After more than 1,000 days spent languishing in separate Chinese prisons—largely cut off from the outside world, the sun and their families—the two Canadians detained in what was widely condemned as a brazen act of “hostage diplomacy” arrived in Canada on Saturday. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in China in December 2018 on vague espionage charges, several days after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver, at the request of U.S. officials seeking her extradition on bank and wire fraud charges. The Global Times, a state-run tabloid in China, quoted an expert in an article on Saturday who said China’s release of the Canadians “unlocks the bottleneck in China-Canada ties.” But Lynette Ong, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said an immediate thaw in bilateral relations was unlikely and that sour feelings would remain. “Going forward, I don’t think Canada-China relations will be the same as they were 1,000 days ago,” she said. “It’s fundamentally at a different point. … I think China has underestimated the cost of playing this game of hostage diplomacy. Its reputation has been tarnished tremendously.” Asked what the release of the two Michaels would mean for Canada’s relationship with China, Trudeau said on Friday that there would be time for “reflections and analysis” in the coming weeks.

America's Need to Pay Its Bills Has Spawned a Political Game (NYT) For nearly two decades, lawmakers in Washington have waged an escalating display of brinkmanship over the federal government’s ability to borrow money to pay its bills. They have forced administrations of both parties to take evasive actions, pushing the nation dangerously close to economic calamity. But they have never actually tipped the United States into default. The dance is repeating this fall, but this time the dynamics are different—and the threat of default is greater than ever. Republicans in Congress have refused to help raise the nation’s debt limit, even though the need to borrow stems from the bipartisan practice of running large budget deficits. Republicans agree the United States must pay its bills, but on Monday they are expected to block a measure in the Senate that would enable the government to do so. Democrats, insistent that Republicans help pay for past decisions to boost spending and cut taxes, have so far refused to use a special process to raise the limit on their own. Observers inside and outside Washington are worried neither side will budge in time, roiling financial markets and capsizing the economy’s nascent recovery from the pandemic downturn. If the limit is not raised or suspended, officials at the Treasury Department warn, the government will soon exhaust its ability to borrow money, forcing officials to choose between missing payments on military salaries, Social Security benefits and the interest it owes to investors who have financed America’s spending spree.

As Americans spend, credit card debt is ticking back up (Reuters) Early in the pandemic, there were encouraging and surprising signs about the decline of credit card debt. Now, that trendline seems to be changing. Many Americans stayed at home at the start of COVID-19 and did not spend like they usually do. They also received several rounds of emergency cash assistance, helping to chop away at those credit-card bills, at least temporarily. Spending is ticking back up—and the results are starting to show up on our monthly statements. In fact, 42% of those with credit card debt, or 59 million Americans, say they have added to their balances since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a new study by personal finance site Bankrate.com. This trend reversal is reflected in the most recent numbers of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit found that credit-card bills rose by $17 billion in 2021’s second quarter, to $790 billion nationally.

Chile to lift state of emergency as vaccines beat back COVID infections (Reuters) Chilean authorities announced on Monday the end of a state of emergency in force since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a sign of life returning to normal following a sharp decrease in cases in the South American nation. The state of emergency, an extraordinary administrative measure approved by Congress early in 2020, had allowed the government to impose night-time curfews and forced quarantines on hard-hit districts amid the worst of the outbreak. The government said it would also relax restrictions on movement, liberalize limits on capacity at events and public spaces and earlier this month re-opened its borders to tourists. Neighboring Argentina last week also unveiled plans to ease coronavirus pandemic restrictions, including loosening strict border controls, allowing more commercial activities and getting rid of the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors.

Why Haitians are fleeing Chile for the U.S. border (Washington Post) Along empty streets lined with shuttered businesses, there’s little sign of the bustle that just a few a years ago earned the neighborhood of Quilicura [in Santiago, Chile] the nickname “Little Haiti.” Increasingly restrictive migration policies here, and a belief that the United States has grown more welcoming to immigrants under President Biden, have led a wave of Haitians to abandon the country they once saw as a land of opportunity. “There’s hardly anyone left here now,” said 24-year-old Wilbert Pierre, pointing across the dusty road into the Tawtaw barbershop, where he is training to be a hairdresser. “Of all the people I’ve known in my four years in Chile, more than 100 have gone to the U.S. since March alone.” Tens of thousands of Haitians came to Chile, Brazil and other South American nations after the 2010 earthquake near Port-au-Prince that killed more than 220,000 people. Now feeling growing pressure here, thousands in recent months have traveled north. Many Haitians in Chile say they have faced discrimination and racism that have made it difficult to stay in Chile. One said, “We found that although Chileans themselves are good people, the system is racist, classist and elitist.”

Panic buying leaves up to 90% of fuel pumps dry in major British cities (Reuters) Up to 90% of British fuel stations ran dry across major English cities on Monday after panic buying deepened a supply chain crisis triggered by a shortage of truckers that retailers are warning could batter the world’s fifth-largest economy. A dire post-Brexit shortage of lorry drivers emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic has sown chaos through British supply chains in everything from food to fuel, raising the spectre of disruptions and price rises in the run up to Christmas. Hauliers, gas stations and retailers warned that there were no quick fixes, however, as the shortfall of truck drivers—estimated to be around 100,000—was so acute, and because transporting fuel demands additional training and licensing. Edwin Atema, the head of research and enforcement at the Netherlands-based FNV union, told the BBC that EU drivers were unlikely to flock to Britain given the conditions on offer. “The EU workers we speak to will not go to the UK for a short-term visa to help UK out of the [mess] they created themselves,” Atema said.

What’s in a name? Phil McCann lightens the nation’s mood (Guardian) A BBC reporter called Phil McCann delighted social media users on Saturday after he was sent to cover the UK’s petrol shortage. Reporting from a BP petrol station in Stockport, which had run out of petrol, people were quick to point out that he was clearly the best man for the job, since his name sounds like “fill my can”. Phil McCann soon began trending on Twitter, with one social media user pointing out that McCann was now part of a special club—alongside the BBC weather presenter Sara Blizzard and PC Rob Banks from Avon and Somerset police.

Strong quake hits Greece’s biggest island of Crete, one person killed (Reuters) A strong earthquake measuring 5.8 shook Greece’s largest island Crete on Monday and one person was killed when a church dome collapsed, authorities said. The quake, which sent people out of their homes and public buildings and caused considerable damage, was described by a Greek seismologist, Efthymios Lekkas, as a “thunderbolt” with strong aftershocks. A man died when the dome of a church in the town of Arkalochori caved in during renovation works, a police official said. Civil protection authorities said nine people were injured in the quake, which damaged many buildings. The tremor prompted many people in Crete’s main city Heraklion to rush outdoors. Schoolchildren were told to leave their classrooms, gathering in schoolyards and town squares.

Serbia-Kosovo tensions (Foreign Policy) Serbian fighter jets flew close to the border with Kosovo on Sunday in the latest escalation of tensions between the two governments in recent days. The most recent round of unrest has been sparked by Kosovo’s ban on Serbian vehicle license plates in its territory, a move that Serbia has enforced on Kosovar plates (the vehicles are allowed, but drivers must use temporary plates when driving across the border). Offices belonging to Kosovo’s Interior Ministry were set alight in the north of the country over the weekend, while grenades were thrown into another government building. Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has accused Serbia of inciting ethnic Serbs living in the area to carry out the attacks. “Serbia is using Kosovo citizens to provoke a serious international conflict,” Kurti said on Saturday.

India’s farmers renew protests, challenging Modi government (AP) Thousands of Indian farmers blocked traffic on major roads and railway tracks outside of the nation’s capital on Monday, marking one year of demonstrations against government-backed laws that they say will shatter their livelihoods. The farmers have renewed their protests with calls for a nationwide strike on the anniversary of the legislation’s passage. The drawn-out demonstrations have posed one of the biggest political challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept the polls for the second time in 2019. The government has defended the legislation, saying it is necessary to modernize agriculture and that the laws will boost production through private investment. But the farmers say the new legislation will devastate their earnings by ending guaranteed pricing and force them to sell their crops to corporations at cheaper prices. In neighboring Punjab and Haryana states—which are the country’s the two biggest agricultural producers—thousands of demonstrators also blocked highways, bringing traffic to a halt in some areas.

Concerned United Nations can only sidestep Myanmar crisis (AP) In his speech last week to open the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres bracketed Myanmar with Afghanistan and Ethiopia as nations where “peace and stability remain a distant dream.” He declared unwavering support for the people of the turbulent, military-ruled Southeast Asia state “in their pursuit of democracy, peace, human rights and the rule of law.” But the situation in Myanmar after the army’s seizure of power eight months ago has become an extended bloody conflict with ever-escalating violence. Yet the U.N. is unlikely to take any meaningful action against Myanmar’s new rulers because they have the support of China and Russia. China and Russia are among the top arms suppliers to Myanmar, as well as ideologically sympathetic to its ruling military. Both are members of the Security Council, and would almost certainly veto any effort by the U.N. to impose a coordinated arms embargo, or anything beyond an anodyne call for peace.

Afghanistan’s Taliban Warn Foot Soldiers: Behave, and Stop Taking Selfies (WSJ) A senior Taliban commander has warned the group’s military rank-and-file fighters to clean up their act as the group’s foot soldiers celebrate in newly captured Kabul, the Wall Street Journal reports. New Defense Minister Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob, chastised his recruits in a recent audio message, warning that their exploits, which have ranged from sightseeing to speeding, “are damaging our status,” and were too close to the behavior of the “warlords and gangsters of the puppet regime.” Yaqoob was particularly incensed by the fighters’ selfie obsession, which he said presented a security risk—particularly if sensitive locations or senior leadership were included in the shot.

Shadow contracts, corruption keep the lights out in Iraq (AP) In the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, glossy election campaign posters are plastered alongside jungles of sagging electrical wires lining the alleyway to Abu Ammar’s home. But his mind is far from Iraq’s Oct. 10 federal election. The 56-year-old retired soldier’s social welfare payments barely cover the cost of food and medicine, let alone electricity. Despite chronic outages from the national grid, Abu Ammar can’t afford a generator. When the lights go off, he has no choice but to steal power from a neighbor’s line. He doesn’t have the right political connections to get electricity otherwise, he says, a frail figure seated in a spartan living room. In this country, if you don’t have these contacts, “your situation will be like ours,” Abu Ammar says. In Iraq, electricity is a potent symbol of endemic corruption, rooted in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system that allows political elites to use patronage networks to consolidate power. It’s perpetuated after each election cycle: Once results are tallied, politicians jockey for appointments in a flurry of negotiations based on the number of seats won. Ministry portfolios and state institutions are divided between them into spheres of control. In the Electricity Ministry, this system has enabled under-the-table payments to political elites who siphon state funds from companies contracted to improve the delivery of services.

[lovecatalog]

CULTIVATE D-6

PROVERBS 22 (New International Version) 1 A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. 2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all. 3 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. 4 Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life. 5 In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls, but those who would preserve their life stay far from them. 6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. 7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. 8 Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken. 9 The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor. 10 Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended. 11 One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend. 12 The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge, but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful. 13 The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!” 14 The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it. 15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away. 16 One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty. Thirty Sayings of the Wise Saying 1 17 Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, 18 for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. 19 So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you. 20 Have I not written thirty sayings for you, sayings of counsel and knowledge, 21 teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you bring back truthful reports to those you serve? Saying 2 22 Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, 23 for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life. Saying 3 24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. Saying 4 26 Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; 27 if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you. Saying 5 28 Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors. Saying 6 29 Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.

Reflect on how you work (or don’t work) to build a good reputation – in school, at work, at home, amongst your family, in-laws or extended family and friends.

I work!!! To build a good reputation, in school, at work, with my friends and recently in my family because I want to show the good examples of a Christian. I mostly work very practically by doing things and to me doing things in the different areas of my life - family, friends and church, shows the effort and how much i care for each one. While i often start out with the right purpose, i often find myself losing sight of it in the midst of it. Many times, i may find myself feeling unappreciated and i become aware that i have lost sight and have subconsciously replaced it with the temporary purpose in the things i do, in my service and not in God.

Ask God to reveal to you the areas of your character that you need to change in. What are some practical steps you could take to spend more time with God (reading the Bible, in prayer and worship) and His church to build your character?

This awareness helps me to realise that at times i may be doing things to satisfy my need of being involved, included and needed. Practical steps for me is to be aware and take action - praying to align my heart with God’s heart as the day goes and as i carry out my tasks or do His work in the church so that at the end of the day, i can say with a pure heart that all glory is to God (“:

[applegelstore]

My adventures with my sister in Tales of Darker and Edgier continue.

Cut for spoilers! …and very rude language, I guess.

My favourite recent highlight:

My sister (usually super excited for the Katz chests, feeling like me in a mobile game when she doesn’t have enough souls to open one of them): Should I open this one…?

Me (usually unimpressed): You’re only 15 souls short. Go ahead, collect some souls, and then come back and open the chest?

My sister: Sounds like a lot of work.

Me: Much less so than coming back to this area later and paving your way through the entire area again. (we were in the marshes on our way to kick Oscar’s and Teresa’s incestuous butts very hard)

My sister: What if it’s empty… Or just another Normin suit for Velvet. Rokurou, Magilou and Eleanor still don’t have Normin suits, but Velvet has two.

Me: Well, what if there are angel wings for Phi inside?

My sister: …Okay, okay, I’m gonna open it.

*opens chest* Obtained: [Angel Wings]

My sister: …

Me: 8DDDDDDDDD

Other news that happened at some point along the way: -in an old school Tales game, “Grand Poobah of Calamity” would surely have been a title for Velvet and I would have given it to her without second thought -I like that prince NPC dude. He’s got his priorities right. Fuck my kingdom, I just want my beloved pet to be happy -why isn’t anyone making fun of Eizen’s eye-liner? -I am honestly impressed that there’s an NPC with even bigger knockers than Velvet -body horror is strong in this game, anyway, but fusing with a succubus? OMG, Teresa. I mean okay, you can fuse with malakhim because they’re basically made of energy, anyway, but… hellions? And not even dragon kind hellions (which would be the only malak/seraph based hellions if I understand correctly), but that succubus thing? Rose, Sorey, please don’t try this at home, it sounds unnerving -Rose, you are the only wind armatus for me, everyone else go home, you rock that Sailor Moon miniskirt -also I love how it’s confirmed that even the wind armatus can’t fly. Memo to Ufotable -clearly Oscar’s armatus is imperfect because he can’t walk and dodge and fight on heels like a certain someone else. Loser -on that note, it’s okay, Velvet. It was an accident. You were simply defending yourself. And I for one am not gonna miss the Lannisters. Borgias. Whatever. I am only sorry for the poor nameless wind malak who was sacrificed for nothing but probs the hardest non-optional boss fight so far. Well, still not Zestiria boss fight hard level, but anyway. -you are supposed to treat your malakhim with reverence, you assholes. Fucking them is optional. But showing some respect isn’t. Bummers. -i LovEd talIESiN, it’s so pretty there, and there were lotsa cats in the dream version -I dearly miss the enemy book party banter, but at least some of the comments on the pirate treasures are pretty cute -the more you see of this game, the more you learn to treasure Sorey, as if he wasn’t precious enough without any asshole shepherds to compare him to; he deserves better role models to look up than this club of pests that calls itself the Abbey -also apparently most of them can’t even read Ancient Avarost because that’s so difficult that only an old Normin lady can decipher it. Clearly Dark Ages -whoever cut Zesty and Berseria into two separate games with 1000 years in between them clearly missed an opportunity to combine both plotlines into one and create the sappiest, most cliche gay romance ever in existence; with that one super talented exorcist who just wants the whole rest of the church to realise that malakhim are people and eventually ends up excommunicated and cooperating with a bunch of demons and their demon pets when his uhm “close” relationship to his childhood friend water malak whom he stubbornly refuses to tether although they have a pact comes to light. It’d be Purple Prose AU level bad.

Still a better romance than the starcrossed Borgias reloaded.

Anyway fuck the Abbey

[birthdaystranger]

Birthday Stranger #9 (2020)

“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”

                                               — Pi Patel in Life of Pi by Yann Martel

First, thank you A.M. for taking time out of your life to meet with a complete stranger. Our conversation enriched my life. I wish you all the best.

There are three types of fencing: foil, épée & sabre - each a little different. A.M. had an early interest in fencing & got into it later in life. As I listened to her talk about fencing, it became obvious to me why sabre is her preferred discipline.

Though fencing may seem to have little in common with her current job in Human Resources, there’s a thread that runs through both & stitches her life together in a brilliant way. This thread consists of being proactive & utilizing all available resources.

A.M. spent her childhood outside of Peoria, Illinois with her parents & two younger sisters. She mentioned having varying degrees of relationships with them. As we talked about her childhood she mentioned how her family changed over the years after her parents’ divorce. A.M. cited her mother’s shift to a more progressive viewpoint as one outcome. From the interest & sincerity A.M. exhibited in our conversation it’s clear that A.M.’s mom raised her daughters to be ambitious mature women. “She's an amazing individual & sacrificed a lot for us,” is how A.M. describes her.

She & I had a wonderful discussion about the changes that growing up entails. A.M. told me that, now that she has moved closer to her mom again, she has received a number of boxes from her filled with personal items & old school projects. A.M. said some of the positions held in a few of those early school projects are completely cringe-worthy. She laughed when I quoted an unknown source; “You know you are growing as a person if you continue to look back & cringe at some of your decisions.” A few of her childhood dreams have remained the same though.

One example of A.M.’s ambition is from around age nine. She recalls an article from an airline magazine about the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta held in New  Mexico. The countless forms & colors of the balloons stuck with her over the years and is still a life goal of hers to experience. That location is actually marked on a map that she & her husband keep of places they would like to visit together.

Another example of her good upbringing is her mother’s urging her daughters to grow outside of their comfort zone. Each daughter studied abroad to this end. A.M. herself did this in Italy.

Her journey came with an unexpected turn. This is where her proactive nature ripened.

A.M. traveled to Italy & stayed with a host family for her study abroad program at the age of 17. Within the first month she accompanied the family on a trip to their own relatives in Croatia.

She commented that tensions within the host family grew shortly after departure & added: “I didn’t think anything of the arguing.”

These arguments gave rise to a full-blown family dispute upon return to Italy. The next morning A.M. woke to find herself in a nearly empty house. A family schism had formed overnight & everyone but the grandmother had moved out with their belongings.

Understandably upset, A.M. walked into town to access the internet & contact her mom to tell her what was going on. A.M. highlighted the time difference as her major obstacle. Her family would be sleeping between 3 & 4 AM central time.

She contacted a friend who happened to be up during those wee hours. This friend in turn phoned A.M.’s mother who finally connected with her daughter.

She managed to turn an unsettling situation into a positive & memorable experience thanks her being proactive & using the resources at hand; she traveled to Hungary to visit extended family then to England to spend some time with a friend of her mother’s before finally returning home. What she called, “not a full year but a good story,” is an understatement. Honestly, if this had happened to me at seventeen I’d probably have freaked the hell out.

“I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.”

                                               — Pi Patel in Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Her return to the states was a return to academia. A.M. majored in religious studies.

She said, “I’ve always [been] interested in people’s views on religion.” A.M. attributes these studies as what ‘broke’ her, as she put it, of Christianity. I find it interesting that she occasionally likes attending church to “see the [current] interpretation of what is read, what the pastor thinks is a good sermon & what the [believers] focus on.”

A.M.’s college also put her in contact with her now long-term interest of fencing. It is not an affordable sport, she explained. Though she could afford to join the college fencing club, enrollment had recently closed. Eager to hold a sword & ready to undertake any measure to make it happen she followed the coach’s advice of attending a weekend clinic held by the club. A.M. not only attended the entire two-day clinic but outlasted every other beginner. She made it in the club that day.

Though she combats irregularly, A.M. has coached & refereed sabre fencing for a handful of years. Her favorite age group to work with is 8 to 12 year olds. She says this is because they “understand what you want them to do & generally want to do what you tell them to do.” Her work in the sport reaches beyond overseeing individual fencers & bouts, however; as A.M. put it, “I see a need & just want to fill that need.”

Unhappy with increasing harassment in the sport, A.M. performed studies on sexual harassment & assault in fencing & has published her findings online.

A.M. did not consider marriage for most of her life. She said she had little interest in the type of relationship that eventually divided her parents. Consequently she lived a mostly autonomous life attending schools in different states. One longstanding male friend of hers, though, made a point to visit her in many of these places. This deepening friendship lead A.M. to ask herself if marriage was on the table.

Before that question could be answered their relationship had one more hurdle; while her partner lived in St. Louis, A.M. had just been accepted to grad school in New York. A.M. & her boyfriend managed not only to make the long distance thing work for two & a half years but also planned their life.

After earning her degree she moved to St. Louis. It was A.M.’s belief that moving in with her fiancée who already had a job & a house “made more sense.” This practical outlook is another example of her proactive nature.

Her grad school studies lead to her current position in human resources. A.M. credits a few “happy accidents” to the exact position she had at the time we met. She since has been promoted with expanded responsibilities. (Congratulations, A.M.!) She also may go back to school, citing: “the people who have the jobs I want in my department all have higher education than I do.”

Expanded responsibilities may sound daunting but she noted that she is usually a bearer of good news. I imagine working with the dynamics between an institution & a large number of employees utilizes similar skills as in sabre fencing: being proactive & taking advantage of available resources.

This is the thread I mentioned earlier. A.M. take on fencing also speaks to her approach to life: “What I like about sabre is its very proactive compared to épée & foil. You have to make the decision before the referee says fence...” Not to mention that sabre is different from the other disciplines in that strikes with the edge of the blade count in addition to strikes with the tip... that is, there is more to utilize during a bout.

This is a clear parallel to the way A.M. lives her life. Here’s another example: A.M. began crocheting recently to deal with increasing acute physical restlessness. She initially learned it from her mom’s mom, “Oma”. She found that keeping her hands busy helps her relax & allows her sit still for longer periods of time. Repetitive motion is quite meditative not to mention productive in this case - she’s got more sweaters & scarves now.

We also talked favorite movies. A.M. enthusiastically identified Life of Pi as hers. (Hence the quotes that fit in nicely with her life story.) Her religious studies introduced her to this movie - one she described as having “captured the essence of the book perfectly.” Elaborating she said, “I loved how it [is] blend of religions. The thing that [is] important to me [is that] it's not about whether or not the guy is right or wrong, [it’s] all about the faith of [the viewer] to determine whether or not they have faith in what he's saying - which is just a play on religion overall.” I found deep appreciation of that sentiment.

Never has it been so clear to me that a person’s favorite movie echoes their own way of living. {NO SPOILERS} In the movie Pi is nothing less than fully proactive facing uncertainty. He uses everything at hand as well; there is not one item he takes for granted floating aimlessly in the ocean.

A.M. has these qualities. Without giving anything away, I want to point out that Pi’s narration of the calamity he endures proved a foundation for his own faith in humanity as well as the viewer’s. I can’t help but feel those who know A.M. likewise benefit from her friendship. This is especially true during the outbreak we are all facing right now {note: this write-up was done mid-March 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic).

The pandemic highlights exactly how the actions of one person can ripple across the planet. As powerless as we feel I see so many people taking innovative & fresh action to make it better. We all have something to offer. The sooner we see that the better. We don’t all have to drown during this difficult time.

A mouthful of water will not harm you, but panic will.                                          — Mamaji to Pi in Life of Pi by Yann Martel

And to A.M., I will alter a quote from the movie to fit my feelings about your sharing your life with me: “How bitterly glad I am to have met you. You brought joy & pain in equal measure. Joy because you shared yourself with me, but pain because it wasn't for long.”

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Unification Church Tied To Sales-fraud Scheme In Japan

By Frank Greve, Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau

POSTED: December 20, 1987

WASHINGTON — A 53-year-old Japanese widow with two daughters paid about $66,000 for a miniature marble pagoda worth $3,000.

The pagoda would ward off the family curse that had caused her husband to die young, the salespeople told her. If she did not buy, they told her during the four-hour session in their closed room, a relative soon would die in a traffic accident.

Later, the salespeople came back for more, according to a scathing 41-page report by a Japanese bar association committee on a sales-fraud scheme sweeping Japan. "Your family's karma is very heavy. Your husband is still suffering," the salespeople told the widow.

A daily cup of ginseng tea would appease the angry spirits, the salespeople said, charging the widow $50,000 for enough ginseng concentrate to do the trick.

The widow has lots of company. Since 1980, the Japanese sales-fraud scheme has claimed at least 14,579 victims and $165 million, according to the report issued in July by the Japanese bar association's consumer problems section.

The pagodas, urns, rosaries, seals and ginseng sold all were produced in South Korea and sold in Japan by companies owned or controlled by what the bar panel tactfully termed "a certain religion."

That "certain religion" is the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, acknowledged John Biermans, spokesman for the church in the United States.

The scheme helped Japanese followers of Moon contribute as much as $800 million to subsidize Moon's U.S. enterprises, according to Yoshikazu Soejima, a Japanese journalist who split from Moon in 1984.

Biermans blamed "communists" in the Japanese press and bar for distorting what he described as "part of the valid spiritual experience of the Unification Church in Japan." He said investigators ignored "hundreds of thousands" of satisfied customers, including some who "experienced miracles."

Japanese followers of Moon may have subsidized U.S. church investments, he added, but "we do it as independent people, not as part of our religious activity."

The bar's consumer lawyers rejected a similar argument, finding that Unification Church leaders were the manufacturers, exporters, importers, wholesalers and retailers of talismans and ginseng sold in Japan.

In addition, the salespeople – 3,000 of them, by Soejima's estimate – live in church-owned group homes, use identical sales forms and employ a common distribution system, the report said.

The bar's panel, after studying the complaints, found salespeople generally used the same tactics learned from a common sales manual, "Your Honey Talk."

"Your Honey Talk"

A chapter called "Finding Your Customer's Weak Point" instructs salespeople to first, without admitting they are selling anything, find an anxiety in the prospect.

Many victims, for example, said salespeople used free palm readings to introduce questions such as, "Do you have a terminal illness?" or "Is your family not in harmony?" Some victims were simply told, "You will become seriously ill when you are about 40. It will probably be cancer."

Responsive prospects, mostly older women, were escorted by the salesman to a church "spiritual center" to discuss their aroused anxieties with "a great teacher."

The teacher, his eminence plain from the salespeople's showy deference, generally ascribed the misfortune to restless ancestors, according to the report. "Your eldest son will die because the spirits of your ancestors are not at rest," is one reported example.

Next, the teacher is said to have told customers, "In order to break the bad karma and save your family, you must become a monk or a nun to appease the spirits, or you must give up your property."

Inevitably, the last option was to "buy this product." It might be a personal seal, rosary, funeral urn or pagoda made by the Unification Church's Il Shin Building Stone Corp. in South Korea. Or it might be ginseng from the church's Il Wha Corp. in South Korea, according to the report.

To resistant customers, sales teams often showed "videotapes of the calamities which befell people who didn't buy," according to the consumer lawyers' panel.

Normally the pitch lasted three hours. Many were longer. As one victim put it, "Continuous persuasion from four in the afternoon until midnight broke my resolve, and I agreed to buy a funerary urn."

Once a customer yielded, salespeople moved fast, according to the bar's report, escorting her to her bank, overseeing the withdrawal, and sealing the deal. To subvert cooling-off periods provided under Japanese law, buyers were told that the charms they bought would fail unless kept secret.

Despite strong Unification Church efforts to dissuade victims from suing, recorded consumer complaints add up to more than $165 million in what the bar panel terms "a well-organized nationwide campaign of fraud and trickery."

That is but a small fraction of the take, the report concludes, because ''insecurity and fear have kept the vast majority of victims from coming forward."

Claims against the FFWPU / UC in Japan have now passed $1billion

see also Washington Post story:

Widow Pays Church to End Husband’s ‘Suffering in Hell’

By Kevin Sullivan
  Washington Post Foreign Service 


Sunday, August 4, 1996; Page A30

Atsuko Nakajima was about 40 when her husband died of heart disease in February 1988, leaving her with a young daughter to raise. During her grieving, a neighbor stopped by to offer her condolences.

According to her lawyers and court documents, this is what followed:

The neighbor was a member of the Unification Church, but did not mention that at the time. She suggested going to an art show to take Nakajima’s mind off her tragedy. At the show, she persuaded the widow to pay about $2,200 for a painting. It later turned out the painting was purchased from a company owned by Unification Church members.

Two months later, the church member told Nakajima that a “very famous teacher” would be speaking nearby and invited her to come hear him. When the widow met the teacher, he began crying and trembling. “Your husband is descending. I can see your husband’s body suffering in hell. I cannot stop myself from shaking. Your husband is saying he wants you to donate” $50,000. When Nakajima resisted, the teacher told her, “If you delay your answer, your husband’s body suffering in hell will appear to you in your dreams. You had better decide soon.” Nakajima paid the money. For the full story, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/unification/widow.htm

Moon’s Japanese Profits Bolster Efforts in U.S.

By John Burgess and Michael Isikoff

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, September 16, 1984; Page A01

The Japanese branch of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church has transferred at least $800 million over the past nine years into the United States to finance the church’s political activities and business operations, including The Washington Times newspaper, according to two former high-ranking church officials.

This money is generated in Japan, primarily through a Tokyo-based business operation that uses church members to sell marble vases, miniature treasure pagodas and other religious icons that are represented as having supernatural powers, the former officials said.

The sale of these items has been the principal source of capital for an international network of Unification Church operations, said the former officials, Yoshikazu Soejima and Hiroaki Inoue.

“Our view is that the Unification Church has nothing to do with sales activities,” said Hiroshi Sakazume, the Japanese church’s director general of public relations. “We don’t know what each church member is doing. But as a church, we don’t do any sales … .  Happy World is a different company, a totally separate organization.”

… That would mean the church earned about $122 million in 1982, of which 90 percent was shipped abroad, according to Soejima.

He said these transactions were usually made through international bank tranfers, but large amounts of cash were carried into the United States by church members because “sometimes Moon wants money right away. Getting permission to send it by bank transfer takes time,” Soejima said.

When Moon conducted a “mass wedding” of 2,075 couples in Madison Square Garden in 1982, 400 Japanese men and women were flown over for the event. “Each person took, I think, about $2,000,” Soejima said.

According to Soejima, a confidential financial statement would be distributed to 10 to 12 top Japanese church officials each month. These statements would show roughly $2.5 million earmarked for The Washington Times.

Each month figures on actual spending would show the previous month’s target had been met. Senior officials would then deliver pep talks on “the respected father’s” needs for a better showing next time, he said.

“Always, it ended with a statement that this is where we stand now, so go out and fight harder,” Soejima said.

According to his account, the ability of the church to generate these funds is based on its control of Happy World Inc., a company that is headquartered in a utilitarian fifth-floor office in a Tokyo business district and whose president, Motoo Furuta, is chief of the Japanese church’s financial bureau, according to Soejima. Church spokesman Sakazume said Furuta is not a church official.

In a recent interview, executive manager Sanji Nakada described Happy World as a diversified company that, among other activities, distributes computer equipment and runs a canning factory on Hokkaido Island and a health-drink factory near Tokyo. Nakada said Happy World is not a church organization but that some employes may be church members.

Happy World’s main activity is importing of consumer goods, such as marble vases, miniature treasure pagodas and ginseng teas from church-owned companies in South Korea, including Il Shin Stoneworks, Tong Il Co. Ltd. and Il Hwa Co. Ltd., according to Nakada and the company’s sales brochures.

The vases, pagodas, ginseng and other consumer items are distributed to about 10 wholesale and retail outlets throughout Japan that, according to Soejima and Inoue, are controlled by the church and use church members as door-to-door salesmen.

More than 2,600 complaints about the sale of marble vases, ivory seals and minature pagodas of the kind that are often sold by church members were lodged with the Japan Consumer Information Center between 1976 and 1982, according to a report made by the goverment-funded agency.

Hundreds of these complaints involved reported cases of intimidation, threats or misrepresentations in which salesmen preyed on the “religious anxieties” of consumers, according to the center’s report. The small objects often were portrayed as having mystical powers that could save unhappy marriages, cure illnesses or purge the evil spirits of samurai ancestors, the report said.

The center has published pamphlets to warn consumers about the sales of these items. In one case cited in a center pamphlet, a woman whose husband had just died in an auto accident was being sold one of the objects. The salesman told her the evil spirit of a samurai ancestor who had killed with his sword was tormenting the family. The sale would solve that. “If you don’t buy it, the same evil spirit will continue with your children and they will meet the same fate,” the salesmen said, according to the pamphlet.

Consumer Center officials cannot directly link such incidents with the church’s operations here. The salesmen, Soejima and Inoue said, are instructed never to identify themselves as being with the Unification Church or Happy World.

“We had orders that, when engaging in economic activity, never say you are a member of the church,” Inoue said.

Nevertheless, Consumer Center officials say they have sometimes been contacted by low-level distribution companies – which Soejima says are church fronts – and told to refer consumer complaints about the items to them. “We can presume that behind the scenes these sales groups have a systematic link,” according to the Consumer Center report.

According to Soejima and others, the profits from sales of these items can be enormous. In an extreme case, he said, a vase that cost about $21 was sold for $8,300. A quantity of ginseng worth about $42 sold for eight times that amount. One salesmen can raise about $4,000 per month, he said.

The salesmen’s expenses are minimal. During his years in the church, Soejima said, he often visited church members at grimy group houses where they slept half a dozen to a room. The members receive no salary from the church and immediately hand over all their sales proceeds to the house “leader.” Once a month, Soejima said, a church official comes to the house and “they collect it in cash and bring it to Tokyo.”

In a two-hour interview in Tokyo, four former church members told of being assigned to sales soon after joining. Church officials conducted sales-training lectures using films and stressed the need for money to finance “the restoration” under way in the United States.

All four members, who asked not to be identified, said they were told of Happy World’s role soon after joining. “I was told it was the economic department of the Unification Church,” said a 24-year-old woman who had sold ivory seals door-to-door.

For the full story, see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/unification/profit.htm

“Japan. Wow! My eyes were opened.” A huge UC scam in Japan is revealed.

Japan looted for the benefit of the Moons. Complaints reach over $1billion