BEEP! BEEP! IT'S ME.

"Begin at the beginning,and go on till you come to the end: then stop." (Lewis Carroll, 1832-1896)

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked."Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat."I don't know," Alice answered."Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

"So long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation. "Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

"All right," said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. "Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice; "but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!"

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Location: Australia

I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. Like Arthur Dent from "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", if you do not have a Babel Fish in your ear this blog will be completely unintelligible to you and will read something like this: "boggle, google, snoggle, slurp, slurp, dingleberry to the power of 10". Fortunately, those who have had the Babel Fish inserted in their ear, will understood this blog perfectly. If you are familiar with this technology, you will know that the Babel Fish lives on brainwave radiation. It excretes energy in the form of exactly the correct brainwaves needed by its host to understand what was just said; or in this case, what was read. The Babel Fish, thanks to scientific research, reverses the problem defined by its namesake in the Tower of Babel, where a deity was supposedly inspired to confuse the human race by making them unable to understand each other.

"DIFFICILE EST SATURAM NON SCRIBERE"

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Thursday, December 29, 2005

Cicero



"FLVMINA uerna cient obscuro lumine Pisces curriculumque Aries aequat noctisque diique, cornua quem condunt florum praenuntia Tauri; aridaque aestatis Gemini primordia pandunt, longaque iam minuit praeclarus lumina Cancer, languificosque Leo proflat ferus ore calores.
Post modium quatiens Virgo fugat orta uaporem: autumni reserat portas aequatque diurna tempora nocturnis dispenso sidere Libra: effetos ramos denudat flamma Nepai: pigra Sagittipotens iaculatur frigora terris: bruma gelu glaciat iubarem spirans Capricorni, quem sequitur nebulas rorans liquor altus Aquari.
Tanta supra circaque uigescunt lumina mundi; at dextra laeuaque ciet rota fulgida Solis mobile curriculum et Lunae simulacra feruntur."


Quintus Tullius Cicero (c.102 B.C.–43 B.C.)


Spring Streams flow with the dusky light of Pisces, and Aries makes equal the days and the nights.



Omens of Taurus bundle horns of flowers and the heat of Gemini's summer begin to spread out.


For Cancer divides the long glorious light, wild Leo breathes out hot lazy wind with his face.

After such, quivering, Virgo chases with storming vapors, Autumn unlocks doors and equals the daily routine.

The Constellation Libra weighs out the time of night, the Flamming scorpion strips the worn out limbs, while Sagitarrius ejaculates freeze on the Earth.


Winter breathing out the rays of Capricorn, which the high fluidity of Aquarius dews fogs.


How great they skip and go under and about, but meanwhile the wheel of the shining sun stirs to the right and left, the movable vehicle and that of the moon are supported.

(Kornelii Reissig. Sozviezdiia Predstavlennyia... 1829)

(It is interesting to see some of the christian symbology on these old astrological maps)

With thanks to Gilgamesh00 for providing a translation when I couldn't source one on the internet.

Storm In A Teacup




A 'storm in a teacup' is like: much cry and little wool, much ado about nothing, a sprat sent out to catch a whale, a butterfly broken on a wheel, a hen with its head cut off or a wild-goose chase.

Traditionally, the source is English and it is a popular saying meaning a lot of fuss about very little. It is a great disturbance or uproar over a matter of little or no importance. For example, All that because a handful of the thousand invited guests didn't show up? What a 'storm in a teacup'!

This expression has appeared in slightly different forms for more than 300 years. Similar early English sayings were 'storm in a wash basin', 'storm in a cream bowl', 'tempest in a glass of water' and 'tempest in a teacup'. Cicero, as far back as 400 B.C., referred to a contemporary who 'stirred up waves in a wine ladle,' and he indicated that even that expression was ancient.

The British and the Australians prefer the saying, a 'storm in a teacup' though it is found in many other languages. In German, it is 'Sturm in einer Teetasse' or 'ein Sturm im Wasserglas'.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Goldfish Bowl





Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

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Thursday, December 22, 2005

The Hunter




Her eyes prowl unknown jungles ~

Her tongue walks on untasted images ~

She exists feline;

a predatory, ethereal shape in long grass.

Her mind primevil ~

Her instincts intuitive ~

She mimics shadows;

a solitary, primordial dreamer

of shape-shifting memories.

(The lynx consellation was created by Johannes Hevelius around 1687. The Lynx is quite a large constellation that looks nothing at all like a lynx. Back in the seventeenth century, when astronomer Johannes Hevelius decided there needed to be a constellation between Ursa Major and Gemini, and began to study the area, he stated, "anyone who wants to study the stars here should have eyes like a lynx," and the name stuck.)

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I Am Cowboy In The Boat Of Ra

(I came across this poem in my net travels a few weeks ago and thought how wonderful it was. So, here is an excerpt from it. )

I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra.
Lord of the lash, the Loup Garou Kid.
Half breed son of Pisces andAquarius.
I hold the souls of men in my pot.
I do the dirty boogie with scorpions.
I make the bulls keep still
and was the first swinger to grape the taste.
*
*
(According to the Egyptian cult the soul entered the boat of the sun-god Ra, passing at night into the Mount of the West and partaking of fresh life with him each morning in the east. )
Link to the symbolism of "I am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra"

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Monday, December 19, 2005

The Watchers


Though you don't see us, we are watching -
Rotting seals on slimy foreshores
Bandit gulls stab exposed flesh.
*

Though you don't see us, we are watching -
Shattered giants in trampled jungles
Loggers loot splintered trunks.
*

Though you don't see us, we are watching -
Brittle shells in bleached nests
Chemicals raid genetic maps.
*

Though you don't see us, we are watching -
Bloated fish in putrid canals
Toxic metals spawn disease.
*

Though you don't see us, we are watching -
Exhausted soils in strangled wetlands
Caustic salts gnaw scorched twigs.
*

Our senses are concerned with your blindness -
Your senses blind you to our concerns
Short term gain, long term loss.
*

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Saturday, December 17, 2005

Brown Leaves Up - Gathered Like Sleeping Flowers

This painting is airbrushed on board with some penwork and gold paint. The motivation was the first few lines of "California Dreamin" by The Mamas and the Papas.

"California Dreamin"

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm

If I was in L.A.

California dreaming

California dreaming

On such a winter's day

The second circle image is a computer generated image using the original painting as the primary source.

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The Fault, Dear Human Is Not In Our Stars But In Ourselves

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." Shakespeare --From Julius Caesar


Cassius speaks this famous line to try and persuade Brutus that in the best interests of the public, Julius Caesar must be stopped from becoming monarch of Rome. He tries to remind Brutus that Caesar is just a man, not a god, and that they are equal men to Caesar. This phrase has also been interpreted to mean that FATE/DESTINY IS NOT WHAT DRIVES MEN TO THEIR DECISIONS AND ACTIONS, BUT RATHER THE HUMAN CONDITION. (Cassius is portrayed as the archetypal villian for even suggesting such a thing.)
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So what do "the stars" have to do with anything? Quite a lot it seems if human history has anything to do with it. At one time or another humankind has worshipped everything on the face of the earth, including himself. Humans have also worshipped about everything imaginable in the sky and beneath the surface of the earth. Primitive man feared all manifestations of power; he worshipped every natural phenomenon he could not comprehend. The inexplicable things of life are still termed "acts of God" and "mysterious dispensations of Providence."
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When early humans looked at the sky and tried to make sense of the bright, shiny objects they saw there, they imagined that they were mystical beings, other non-earthly powers which must be influencing the earth in some way. As humans tried to make sense of these objects, their composition, nature and intent, so began the human centric and geocentric processes of theriomorphism, zoomorphism, anthropomorphism and personification.
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Early humans interpreted the skies according to their needs, desires, wants, hopes and fears. That humans would personify and anthropomorphise the world through their personal or collective needs and wants is understandable and logical. Afterall, we cannot see the world through any interpretation except that of being a human, with all the limitations that that implies. So humans see the world through a process of "human centric tunnel vision".
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Human beings have evolved a set of processes or "intellectual artistic inventions" in an attempt to explain and understand the human centric world.
  • 1. ANIMISM: The process of believing that personalized supernatural beings (or souls) inhabit all objects in the natural world and govern their existence. (example > "everything is alive", "everything is conscious" or "everything has a soul")
  • 2. FETISHISM: The process of believing and subsequently worshipping inanimate objects which are claimed to be endowed with "magical or supernatural properties." (example > "crystal power" )
  • 3. TOTEMISM: The process of worshipping animate or inanimate objects in the natural world which are then revered as an ancestor, protector, guardian or tribal symbol. ( example > native american totem poles )
  • 4. THERIOMORPHISM: The process of attributing animal characteristics to human beings. (example > Shamanism where the shaman claims to not only communicate with animals or a specific animal, but takes on the qualities or power of that animal. )
  • 5. ZOOMORPHISM: The process of attributing animal characteristics or qualities to a god. (example > Ammut, the Egyptian goddess of punishment who had the head of a crocodile, the body of a leopard and the backside of a hippopotamus.)
  • 6. ANTHROPOMORPHISM: The process of attributing human motivation, characteristics, or behaviour to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. (example > It could be suggested that all the gods past and present have been subjected to this process as they appear to have human motivations, behaviours and characteristics.)
  • 7. PERSONIFICATION: The process of endowing inanimate objects or abstractions with human qualities or representing these things as possessing human form. (example > jesus)

(This is not intended to be an entirely precise nor prescriptive list, merely an example of some of the thought processes that human beings have employed and still employ, in order to attempt to understand and explain the world in which they live.)

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The two "heavenly bodies" first worhipped by early humans were the moon and the sun. (The Egyptian god Horus had a hawk-like head with two eyes which represented the sun and the moon.) Veneration of the moon was at its height during the hunting era. When humans progressed to an agrarian age, sun worship became the chief religious ceremony. As mankind further progressed with the observation of the skies, constellations were mapped and also attributed with powers which astrologers claimed influenced the lives of humankind. Observing the stars, the planets and the space in which these objects rested, (the heavens), was the realm of astrologers, necromancers, shamans, augurs, fortunetellers, druids, magi, seers, soothsayers and FINALLY ASTRONOMERS.

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The primary goal of astronomy is to understand the physics of the universe whereas the primary goal of astrology is to supposedly correlate celestial bodies and events with earthly events and human affairs. Astrology attempts to offer explanations through a supernatural lens. Astronomy attempts to offer explanations through a scientific lens. Astronomy owes some credit to astrology (especially prior to the 17th century) as astrologers constantly desired more accurate astronomical tables, so they instigated and even funded many important developments in astronomy.

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The science of modern astronomy is of relatively recent origin. This discipline became separated from astrology beginning around the time of the "Great Astronomers" (Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Brahe, etc.) This period is defined as the beginning of the scientific revolution, leading on into The Age of Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as The Age of Reason which occurred in the west around the 1700's. The modern astronomical interpretation of the Pisces Constellation, for example, is quite different to early astologers interpretations. (As you read through them, you may be able to see how this natural astronomical constellation has undergone some of the previously listed processes like anthropomorphism and personification.)

  • 1.The goddess Anunitu was a Babylonian associated with childbirth. She represented the north-eastern part of the constellation of Pisces. Another explanation concerns the birth of the goddess Istar. An egg fell from the moon and landed in the River Euphrates. Two fish pushed the egg to the riverbank where the goddess hatched. In gratitude the fish were rewarded with a place in the sky as the constellation Pisces.
  • 2.The Pisces star formation was also associated with the gods Oannes and Dagon. These were water deities in the form of fish. In this constellation the two fish goddesses, Anunitum and Simmah represent the leash. In Islamic astronomy/astology, this area of the sky was known as The Large Fish. Piscis Austrinus represented the Babylonian fish god Oannes, who came to Earth to teach humans how to become civilized. Pisces was also known by the Babylonians as Nunu, or fish, and symbolized the Syrian goddess Derke as well as Atargatis, who was important to other ancient nations and depicted as a huge fish with a woman's head.
  • 3.Into the Euphrates River an egg of wonderful size is said to have fallen, which the fish rolled to the bank. Doves sat on it, and when it was heated, it hatched out Venus who was later called the Syrian goddess (Ashtarte). Since she excelled the rest in justice and uprightness, by a favour granted by Jove (Zeus), the fish were put among the stars as the constellation Pisces.
  • 4.The Southern Fish in the constellation of Pisces was sacred to the Egyptians, who imagined the infamous Nile fish had swallowed the phallus of the dismembered god Osiris. In Egyptian mythology, Orion is the abode of Osiris, the pharoah-god who was slain by his jackal-headed brother, Set. Osiris conquered death and, once resurrected, came to reside in Orion. (the nearby constellation to Pisces)
  • 5.The Greek gods, Eros and Aphrodite, were turned into fishes when they leapt into water to escape the wrath of the storm god Typhon. The usual images of Pisces show the two fishes head to tail, like the oriental yin-yang symbol, to emphasise the male and female aspects. The goddess Minerva placed the image of the fishes in the heavens as Pisces so that the event would not be forgotten.
  • 6.The earthborn giant Typhoeus suddenly appeared one day, startling all the Roman gods into taking on different forms to flee. Jupiter transformed himself into a ram; Mercury became an ibis; Apollo took on the shape of a crow; Diana hid herself as a cat; and Bacchus disguised himself as a goat. Venus and her son Cupid were bathing on the banks of the Euphrates River that day, and took on the shapes of a pair of fish to escape danger. According to another version, together with Cetus (another constellation in the Zodiac sign of Pisces), this may have formed the basis of the myth of the capture of Cerberus, one of The Twelve Labours of Herucles.

The Babylonians, Greeks, Syrians, Persians, Egyptians and Romans considered this constellation to represent two fish. Signifying in modern times, the twelfth sign of the zodiac, the fish do not actually touch the ecliptic but are arranged on either side of the line. A ribbon connecting their tails brings this constellation to a position within the path of the planets.

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Is the Christian religion, like previous religions and mythology, based upon Astrology? Are the sun and the stars acting out the story of the Christian religion each year?

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The Earth's rotation axis is not fixed in space. Each one of the 12 signs of the zodiac takes about 2100 years for our solar system to pass through. Every 72 years we actually move backward 1 degree. After approximately 2100 years we move out of one age and into another. At the time of the claimed birth of Christ, humans were moving out of the Age of Aries which was the Roman Empire into the Age of Pisces. That happened around 60 BC. The early astrologers were aware of this and used as their symbol the two fishes going in opposite directions.

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Around the time of Christ, the Vernal or Spring Equinox Point lay between the constellations of Aries and Pisces, moving backwards out of Aries the Ram and into Pisces the Fish at the knot in the cord - Alrisha (Al Rischa). Hence Christ is associated with the closing of the Arian Age and the dawn of the Piscean Age.

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Around 6 BCE there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn "at the place of passage," meaning as close as possible to the location of the Vernal Equinox Point as it precesses into the next World Age constellation. This Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 6 B.C. also took place against the background of the constellation of Pisces.

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There seems to be a colleration between religion and the gods worshipped and the astological age in which the religion had dominance. In the Taurean Age, (according to de Santillana), the Bull was worshipped as the chief religious symbol. In the Arian, (2200 - 0 BCE) it was the Ram or Lamb, and, in the Piscean, (about 1 - 2200 CE) it is the Fishes.

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Jesus when viewed in this way is "the Son of the Sun." He is the personification of the sun in human form as the "son of the sun." As the sun moved out of the Age of Aries and into the Age of Pisces, a new deity was created to fit the astrological clock. The deities associated with the Age of Aries had also been sun-gods and their stories were also told in the stars as the stories of the Jesus deity would be told in the stars.

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Also, it is sometimes forgotten that the early Christians associated Jesus with the Sun. Among the church fathers, Cyprian speaks of Christ as Sol Verus, the "true sun," and Ambrose names him Sol Novus Noster, "our new sun". An interesting fact revealed in the old Roman calendars is that on the 25th of December each year they commemorated the new birth of Sol Invictus, the "unconquered sun."

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These early Christians used many hymns addressed to the Christ-Sun or to the Christos-Spirit, or to the Logos or Word. These terms were taken from the ancient Greek Mysteries; and the composition of these hymns, and the words could easily be construed as hymns to the sun -- which indeed was exactly what they were.

For example, the following verse from one such hymn:

Verusque Sol, illabere,

Micans nitore perpeti,

Jubarque Sancti Spiritus

Infunde nostris sensibus!(467)

That is to say:

O Thou, REAL Sun,

infill us,Shining with perpetual light!

Splendor of the holy (Cosmic) Spirit

Pervade our minds!

This is an early hymn to the Christ-Sun, used as late as the seventh century of the Christian Era and must have been in use for centuries.

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So due to the earth's precession, the Vernal Equinox gradually moved from Aries the Ram to Pisces the Fish sometime around 1 CE to 300 CE. (Some say a date of 6CE because that also complies with the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, although it is difficult to know a definitive date partly due to the major changes which have occurred with the calendars.) The end result is, however, that the symbol of a fish, representing Pisces, became the symbol of Christianity, because THE SUN (SON) WAS IN PISCES THE FISH, ON THE VERNAL EQUINOX.

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Monday, December 12, 2005

To Cast Pearls Before Swine Or To Let Slip The Dogs Of War? That Is The Question.


(or an anthropomorphic frolic through paltalk)

Welcome to my continuing fascination with mixed metaphors. "TO CAST PEARLS BEFORE SWINE" Such a descriptive phrase. The sacred, pure pearl thrown at the trotters of the unclean, dispised pig. The phrase comes from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It forms part of a chapter about judging others. "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
***

An interpretation of this excerpt from St. Matthew is: Save that which is good and holy for that which IS good and holy. This implies that some people, no matter what, are not worthy of our attentions. Dogs, carnivorous creatures with threatening canine teeth; and pigs, who wallow in mud, would neither understand nor appreciate a thing of such wondrous beauty as a pearl. It suggests, not too kindly, that the untamed ravenous ones, and the great uncleansed wash of humanity; have not the innate disposition to appreciate certain gifts. In fact, they may even be so ungrateful as to attack you; regardless of the supposed bounty bestowed upon them.
***

Pearls, through objects of beauty, are imbued with sadness. A pearl is, after all, the result of an irritation by a grain of sand which has lodged in the unprotected softness of an oyster. As it cannot be expelled, the oyster does the next best thing. It isolates the irritant by gradually coating it with layer after layer of nacre, making the object less dangerous and irritating to its soft tissues. And so, a thing of irritation becomes the wondrous gemstone, the pearl. Synonymously, as nacre forms the layers of a pearl; commonplace words can be imbued with multitudinous layers of meaning. Sententiously, we are liable as to whether we use this skill to create pearls or onions.
***

Swine or pigs are sometimes revered, and sometimes abhorred. In Buddhism the pig is integral to the image of the Dakini, with whom it is equated with wisdom. The Jews and Christians are forbidden from eating the flesh of the pig. "And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase." (Deuteronomy 14:8) Animals can 'cop a bad rap' in the Bible. Probably partly to do with the fact that the Bible 'gives us dominion over them'.
***
As we are their masters, and consequently, they are beneath us; if we wish to speak lowly of someone, we anthropomorphize them unfairly with the negative quailities which we, ourselves, possess and exhibit. These negative components of the human ego are so shameful to ourselves that we chose not to own them. Instead, we unkindly bestow them upon our fellow creatures. But then human beings are not known for their sense of respect for themselves nor to other living creatures.
***

The Qur’an also prohibts swine flesh in a couple of places (The Table & The Cattle): 005.003: "Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah." It is looked upon as an unclean animal whose flesh should not be eaten. What a strange and complex world of words and symbols we live in; where a single word can be imbued with so many layers of meaning.
***

This phrase "to cast pearls before swine" is often used in an arrogant, intimidatory and egotistical way to imply that the recipient is unworthy. So, whether "to cast pearls before swine" is simply asking whether one should share their knowledge or wisdom with others.
***

"OR LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR" Traditionally, the 'dogs of war' are the horrors of war; those of famine, sword, and fire as penned in "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare. Marc Anthony intones these words over Caesar's inviscerated body after Caesar was slain by the Senators of Rome in a coup d'ètat of despicable proportions.
***

"And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice Cry 'Havoc!' and LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial."
***

(Now, as an aside, Ate was the Greek Goddess of discord and destruction or the Goddess of vengeance and mischief. IT is claimed that she was driven out of heaven, and took refuge among the sons of men. The cry'Havoc!' was the signal to kill and pillage without mercy. It is a military cry to general massacre without quarter.) I have come across a few 'Ates' (pseudo-warrior queens) and 'Brutuses' (alpha-male wannabes) in chat, but to my eternal chagrin, I have not stumbled upon many 'Marc Anthonys'. By the way, Cassius has defintely been cloned in here so watch out for the sneaky bugger.
***

"THAT IS THE QUESTION" The question is the crux of the issue. The question referred to in the title is from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Act iii. Sc.1.
"To be, or not to be: THAT IS THE QUESTION: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?" (This is from Hamlet's famous speech where he ponders on whether it's worthwhile living mostly because people treat each other so stupidly and badly.)
***
Why DO human beings treat each other so abysmally? The ego is the common factor in play when one disparages another.
***
A popular forum for overflated egos is the online chat environment where people can be whomever they wish, however they wish and whenever they wish. A 'chat persona' allows the individual limitless freedom of anonymity. Sometimes this anonymity or surrealistic quality of chat, affords people the opportunity to berate each other with impunity. For how can any 'real' retribution be exacted in the wondrous and frightening abyss of electronic impulses? Perhaps they also feel less responsible for their actions? Although this calls into question their 'modus operandi' in the first place.
***

So we find everyday people becoming other than their natural disposition. They 'LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR' without cause or favour. "Havoc" may not have been heard as a war cry in the chat battlefield either, though I have heard, "Boot the mongrel!" on numerous occasions. Equate this snippet of Marc Anthony's speech to the chat medium and it is apparent that the 'pack mentality' rules.
***
It is anomalous that although people join online chat communities ostensibly to form friendships or to nurture relationships; that so much of the time is spent in negative activity. The medium of the net has been suffused with the lives of the many. It is up to us how we conduct ourselves. The rules of chat etiquette may be our individual creations; but the 'face' we choose to share with the world will be the 'face' that stares back at us. Ultimately, that becomes THE FACE WHICH WE ALL SHARE.
***

So, I would advise to "CAST YOUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE." That is, share the positive qualities of yourself ingenuously. If you, or they, misunderstand each other and "LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR" in the forms of retaliation and retribution; you denigrate yourself and also the recipient. Use not your words as weapons of war. Heed the oyster. Turn your irritations into pearls.
***

PS: (By the way, there are no swine or dogs in chat. Although, occasionally, with much delight and grattitude, I have stumbled upon a gleaming pearl...)
***

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Friday, December 02, 2005

Atheist, Get Thee To A Nunnery!


Isaac Asimov: "Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived."

William K Clifford: "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."

Richard Dawkins: “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”

Richard Dawkins: “Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myth, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants.”

Epicurus: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”

Ludwig Feuerbach: “It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image.”

Benjamin Franklin: "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

Delos B. McKown: "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike."

Bertrand Russell: “I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.”

Stephen F Roberts: “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”


More quotes can be found here
Atheist Quotes

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Dangerous Eggs

IF A HEN IS ONLY AN EGG'S WAY OF MAKING ANOTHER EGG, WHO OR WHAT LAID THE THUNDER EGG?





'A frond of fern full green and grown,
the strength of stars blink in stone,
from thunder egg comes tension stilled,
and the fern of peace grows good-willed'


This computer generated collage was made using a photograph of a palm leaf from my garden and with thunder eggs which I dug out from Mt Hay over 30 years ago. The poem which accompanies it was written by a friend.

A native american legend tells that thunder eggs were hurled from the volcano crater by the thunder Gods when the spirits of the mountains were angry. The thunder spirits who lived in the volcano craters, hurled the nodules, accompanied by thunder and lightning, hence the term "thunder egg".

Thunder eggs are geodes which is derived from the greek and means 'earthlike'. An anthropomorphic belief is that thunder eggs stimulate independent thinking and freedom of spirit.



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Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Puma


I see the bells around his ankles
barefooted he moves
the lizard tattoo dances on his foot in clouds of dust.
*

Sweat trickles down his chest
brown hands on the djembe beat his power song
it takes him to the edge.
*

He knows the strength of man
but keeps a woman's care
he is the gentle one, yet he is warrior.
*

He breathes the ancient wisdoms
but walks in this world
he is the learned one, yet he is child.
*

He speaks the language of feathers and stones
and shares his dreamings with them
the leaves write his name.
*

He flows as a river with the Tao
and knows the strength in weakness
the I Ging whispers his future.
*

He is father sun
as I am sister moon
Wakan Tanka watches us.
*

He is pirate brother
as I am pirate sister
Gaia laughs with us.
*

He pads softly around me
watching me sleep
his presence in the dark warms me.
*

He sends me the light in the eyes
as he strokes my hair token
I hear him call me.
*

He is bewildered, I do not answer
though I remember his touch
and his scent of honey and wild cedar.
*

He is the Puma, as I am,
to each other we taste like home
The Wheel of Time smiles on us.
*

Link

Parallel Footprints



Ancestral blood surges through veins
like rivers flowing on parched deserts.
(Galileo ponders stars, pirates pillage ships)
***

Hearts pound out primeval rhythms
like ritual chants in foreign lands.
(Lovers seek sanctuary, ghosts gambol on graves)
***

Muscles twitch ancient rites
like butterflies drying frail wings.
(Tigers crouch in jungles, hunters harness fire)
***

Minds reflect archaic wisdoms
like lucent mirrors blinking in sunshine.
(Plato muses meaning, bandits burgle libraries)
***

Feet weave in dust primordial myths
like autumn leaves rustled by breezes.
(Shamen step trances, clergy classify sin)
***

Eyes trace obscure perspectives
like raindrops veiled in calm clouds.
(Artists paint pictures, blindmen build prisons)
***

Mouths mimic forgotten languages
like birds perched in silent formations.
(Ventris deciphers greek, billboards broadcast pepsi)
***

Hands caress antique chronicles
like ripples lapping at smooth shells.
(Scholars meditate mystery, anarchists abolish books)
***

Our bodies express arcane origins
like grains of sand on a busy beach.
(Children shape sandcastles, parents ponder footprints)
***
Some say we have but one chance to walk through this life. Our greatest philosophers, pondering humanity's collective journey, have marveled at how the impressions, or “footprints”, that we leave behind often have the power to change civilizations and our world forever.
But footprints, like memories, fade slowly. Footprints like those coming before and after, rest patiently and pliantly beneath the sand, easing the path for those coming tomorrow.

Link